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am_Unition  ·  1592 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Open Thread: Impeachment Hearings

Here's a taste of what's to come: Gordon Sondland Stepped In ‘and Things Went Really Off the Rails’

    It’s been widely noted in testimonies by multiple House impeachment witnesses that Sondland interrupted the conversation between Bolton and the Ukrainians when he suggested that the Kyiv officials open investigations into Hunter Biden and the gas company he worked for if they wanted President Volodymyr Zelensky to land a White House meeting with Donald Trump.

    Bolton immediately cut the get-together short, witnesses said, in an attempt to save what had until then been a normal meeting. But what’s been less clear—until now—is what happened moments later, when Sondland guided the Ukrainians into the White House’s Ward Room. Three individuals familiar with the conversation described what happened next.

    Sondland continued to not just relay, but demanded ferociously, that the Ukrainians open the Biden investigations, saying it was the only chance for Washington and Kyiv to develop any further meaningful relationship, two individuals with knowledge of Sondland’s overtures said.

    Sondland raised his voice several times in his attempt to persuade the Ukrainian officials sitting across from him, including Andriy Yermak, a close aide to Zelensky, and Zelensky’s then-national security adviser Oleksandr Danylyuk. One individual told The Daily Beast that Sondland “got very emotional,” adding that “there was lots of yelling.” Another individual called the meeting “erratic” and said the Ukrainians began to ignore Sondland and instead turned to Fiona Hill, who ran the National Security Council’s Russia desk at the time, for clarification on Washington’s messaging.

The same Fiona Hill exposed to a smear campaign likely because of her lack of perceived loyalty to Trump.

Sondland's testimony on Wednesday is probably regarded as the most important, for both sides. Sondland is probably in hell right now, still contemplating whether to perjure himself or not. Hopefully he realizes that he's already implicated in the largest criminal scheme in modern U.S. presidential history, and although stonewalling or perjury will breathe some desperately needed life into the GOP, there is an onslaught of other witnesses connecting the dots for the rest of us, such that Sondland's performance will only affect public opinion. It's just unfortunate so much public opinion is rooted in GOP congressional reps. continuing to provide fodder for conservative media while derelict in their duty of oversight of the executive.