{UAH} Why did Sondland refuse to abide by Trump and now will speak to the House impeachment? Is Trump losing his ability to bully?
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12:24 PM |
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Gordon Sondland is a real estate investor, primarily hotels, from Portland, Oregon. He has no experience in foreign affairs, foreign policy or knowledge of State Department rules, ethics or procedure. He was given the mainly ceremonial role of Ambassador to the EU as a reward for donating a huge amount of money to Trump's inauguration.
Evidence has now been presented that career diplomats within the State Department, career intelligence and foreign policy experts in the White House, and even some appointees, like John Bolton, vigorously opposed Trump linking military aid to his solicitation for assistance in his political endeavors trying to get publicity from a Ukrainian investigation into the Bidens. They became extremely concerned when Giuliani started working with individuals associated with the Russian mafia (who have now been arrested) in trying to get Ukraine to bend to Trump's demands.
Giuliani convinced Trump and the State Department at the highest levels, including Pompeo, to recall the Ambassador to Ukraine because she opposed the quid pro quo nature of the pressure being put on Ukraine, knowing it was an abuse of power and probably illegal. That left a vacuum in diplomatic efforts, with no State Department employee or appointee to be the figurehead and smokescreen while Giuliani continued his pressure campaign there.
Until Sondland testifies, we will not know his motives in doing so. He has recently consulted with Giuliani, Giuliani's lawyers, Trump's personal lawyers and others. It has not been revealed if he has engaged his own personal lawyers.
There are two main possibilities. The first is that he is still caught up in the desire to please Trump and become part of the Trump power elite, possibly hoping to enlarge his own financial and property holdings through such an association. He might have learned of the strategy Trump and his lawyers will be using and he may feel he will be unscathed and his support of Trump will be rewarded. In this scenario, he will refuse to answer, obfuscate and try to continue the propaganda attack that the impeachment inquiry is illegitimate.
The other scenario is that he realizes that he has been used because of his naivete and ignorance of laws involving diplomatic dealings and is on a path to become one of the fall guys that Trump plans to blame. In this case, he will testify honestly about what Giuliani told him, what he knows about the ouster of the US ambassador and what his orders were when interacting with Ukrainian officials.
Edit update 10/13/2019: According to media reports, Sondland will take a modified stance mainly in line with my first scenario, but including elements of my second. Sondland will say that he believed Trump when he discussed this issue directly with him when Trump told him that he was doing nothing wrong in asking for Ukraine's assistance to investigate the Bidens. This was in response after the Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor had texted concerns to Sondland about what the President was doing. Sondland will say that he relied on the President's assurances that there was no quid pro quo and that asking for assistance from a foreign government is reasonable for a President to do. He will testify that he does not know personally and has no independent knowledge of why the military aid was held up.
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