OPINION
Gordon Sondland’s testimony frees Team Trump to adopt the best defense: the truth
By Andrew McCarthy
November 20, 2019 | 2:07pm | Updated
Gordon Sondland
EPA
Wednesday’s impeachment testimony by US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland underscored the folly of the main defense strategy adopted by President Trump and his supporters against Democratic allegations that he traded military aid for dirt on the Bidens.
That strategy has been to categorically deny any quid pro quo. Yet contrary to other witnesses’ versions of events, Sondland clearly and explicitly acknowledges that there was a quid pro quo.
Specifically, Sondland testified that he knows Trump was stalling on a promised White House visit for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Sondland came to realize Trump was also withholding $400 million in defense aid. That was the quid.
The quo sought by the president was Kiev’s announcement that it would conduct investigations of Ukraine’s meddling in the 2016 election and of Burisma — a Ukrainian energy company that was lavishly compensating Joe Biden’s son Hunter. While serving as Team Obama’s point man on Ukraine policy, then-veep Joe Biden forced the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating Burisma.
Since the Ukraine controversy burst onto the scene with the “whistleblower” complaint in September, I have urged that the president’s defenders should not fight the notion that there was a quid pro quo.
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READ MORE: https://nypost.com/2019/11/20/gordon-sondlands-testimony-frees-team-trump-to-adopt-the-best-defense-the-truth/
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Finally, the president didn’t have corrupt intent. Contrary to Rep. Adam Schiff’s “parody” version of the July Trump-Zelensky call, he wasn’t asking Ukraine to “make up dirt about my opponent.” There was significant reason to believe the Bidens were involved in self-dealing. There is abundant evidence that Ukrainian officials colluded with Democrats in the 2016 campaign. The president’s supporters say he was not so much seeking to help his 2020 campaign as to press for full accountability regarding Ukraine-Democrat collusion in the 2016 campaign and potential corruption in Obama administration dealings with Kiev.
Sondland’s testimony showed the president and Republicans need to rethink their defense. Fortunately for them, they not only have a case, it’s the case they should have been making all along.
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