What Went Down During Gordon Sondland’s Testimony

Sondland isn’t quite copping to it, but admitting that he asked for investigations at the July 10 meeting with Ukrainian officials is a significant shift from his previous testimony, where he said he didn’t recall asking for investigations. Makes his claim that Vindman and Hill are wrong about the meeting harder to believe.

Meanwhile …

In this opening statement, Sondland doesn’t talk about a key conversation he had with Trump in early September, just before the hold on the security assistance was lifted. In his closed-door testimony, he said he called Trump because “there were a lot of rumors swirling around as to why the aid had been held up.” According to Sondland, Trump said, “I want no quid pro quo,” but added, “I want Zelensky to do the right thing.” And then Trump basically hung up on him. I’m guessing Sondland is going to get some questions about that conversation this morning.