November 21, 2019
Don’t believe the headlines in the mainstream news. Although day four of the partisan impeachment show starring Ambassador Gordon Sondland at first appeared troublesome for President Trump, it did not end that way.
Quid Pro Quo?
The takeaway by most of the mainstream media from yesterday’s proceeding is that the United States Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland stated what Democrats have been longing to hear, that there was a “quid pro quo”. At first glance this appears to bolster the Democrats’ case, especially since Sondland is the only witness who had direct contact with President Trump.
Upon questioning however, Sondland’s assertion of a quid pro quo was revealed to be far from the game- changer hoped for by Democrats and their complicit media. Sondland explained that what he believed to be a quid pro quo was a directive by Rudy Giuliani to have Ukraine make a public statement regarding Ukrainian investigations into Burisma and the Bidens. In exchange President Zelensky would be invited to the White House.
Sondland admitted that President Trump never told him that a White House invitation to President Zelensky was contingent on Ukrainian investigations. Further, when Sondland was asked if the president sometimes speaks in code, he responded “Every conversation I had with the president he has been fairly direct and straight forward”.
Link Between Aid and Investigations
In contrast to Sondland’s closed-door testimony, Sondland now claims that he believes that security aid to Ukraine was conditioned on Ukrainian investigations. How did he come to the conclusion that aid and investigations were linked? Not from President Trump. In fact, not only did President Trump never tell him that aid was conditioned on investigations, Sondland stated that “Trump never spoke to me about any aid assistance-ever.” His belief that there was a link between U.S. aid to Ukraine and Ukrainian investigations was based solely on his “personal presumption”.
Republican lawmaker Mike Turner, hammered the message home. “Is that your testimony today … that you have evidence that Donald Trump tied the investigation to aid?” Turner said. “Because I don’t think you’re saying that.”
“I’ve said repeatedly, congressman, I was presuming,” Sondland said.
“So, no one told you,” Turner said. “Not just the president. Giuliani didn’t tell you, Mulvaney didn’t tell you, nobody — Pompeo didn’t tell you, nobody else on this planet told you that Donald Trump was tying aid to these investigations, is that correct … No one on this planet told you that President Trump was tying aid to investigations. Yes or no?”
“Yes,” said Sondland.
“So, you really have no testimony today that ties President Trump to a scheme to withhold aid from Ukraine in exchange for these investigations?”
“Other than my own presumption,” said Sondland.
Watch the testimony here
Further contradicting Sondland’s “presumption” is a phone call he recounted. On September ninth Sondland recalls calling President Trump and asking him what he wanted from Ukraine. According to Sondland Trump replied – “I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo. I want Zelensky to do the right thing.”
Sondland also claimed that he informed Vice President Mike Pence, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, that he had concerns that the aid to Ukraine was being conditioned on investigations. All three men quickly released statements denying ever taking part in such a conversation.
When asked about President Trump’s feelings about U.S. foreign aid in general, Sondland agreed that Trump doesn’t like foreign aid, and that he believes NATO and the European Union do not pay their fair share. In relation to Ukraine Sondland stated that “Trump has deep-rooted reservations about corruption in Ukraine.”
In a May 23 meeting Sondland specifically recalled Trump complaining about the corruption in Ukraine, and that “Ukraine tried to take him down”.
Ukrainian Meddling in the 2016 Election
Contrary to the mainstream media and most Democrats, Ukrainian meddling in the 2016 election in favor of Hillary Clinton is not a conspiracy theory. President Trump is justified to believe that Ukrainian officials worked to undermine his presidential election.
In Rep. Devin Nunes opening statement he gave a run down of the instances of Ukrainian attempts to harm Trump’s candidacy during the 2016 presidential campaign. Nunes cited a 2017 Politico article, which details the coordinated efforts between the Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Valeriy Chaly, and DNC operative Alexandra Chalupa, to harm Trump’s presidential campaign.
Chaly also wrote a critical op-ed about Trump in the Hill during the 2016 presidential election. Further, during the 2016 presidential election the Ukrainian Internal Affairs Minister disparaged Trump on Twitter and Facebook.
It’s not a right-wing conspiracy that two Ukrainian officials were found guilty in a Ukrainian court for meddling in the U.S. 2016 presidential election. A Ukrainian parliamentarian Sergei Leschenko, and Director of the Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine Artem Sytnyk have both been convicted of taking active measures to harm Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Leschenko was also a source for Fusion GPS, the firm which commissioned Christopher Steele to write the infamous now debunked Russian dossier for the DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign
Zelensky Never Mentioned Link Between aid and Investigations
Sondland agreed that President Zelensky never expressed the belief that military aid to Ukraine was contingent on the investigations requested by Trump in the infamous July 25th phone call between the two heads of state. In fact Sondland met with Zelensky the day after the call on July 26, and not only did Zelensky not suggest that he felt pressured, according to Sondland, “All I heard about the call was that it was a good call.” Moreover, Sondland stated that the claim in the Whistle Blower’s complaint that he provided “advice to the Ukrainian leadership about how to ‘navigate’ the demands that the President had made of Zelensky”, was false- no such conversation ever occurred.
Bottom Line
Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials had numerous interactions with U.S. government officials after the July 25th phone call, and not once did anyone from Ukraine mention that they believed that U.S. aid and Ukrainian investigations were linked.
Gordon Sondland, the only witness who had direct contact with President Trump, was never informed by the president that Ukraine needed to conduct investigations into the Bidens and Burisma before they received military aid, or a meeting with President Trump.
Two days before the aid was released President Trump was quoted by Sondland as saying that he wanted “nothing” from Ukraine, and that he wanted “No Quid Pro Quo,” he only wanted “Zelensky to do the right thing.”
In the words of Rep. Jim Jordan “ they got the call, they got the meeting, they got the money ”.
