WTF Just Happened Today

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

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1/ The U.S. ambassador to the European Union testified that he and senior administration officials "followed the president's orders" to work with Rudy Giuliani to pressure Ukraine into announcing investigations into Joe Biden and the discredited conspiracy theory that the country helped Democrats in the 2016 election. Gordon Sondland testified that he, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, and special envoy Kurt Volker coordinated with Giuliani at the "at the express direction of the president of the United States" to pressure Ukraine into launching the investigations. Sondland also said he directly communicated the "quid pro quo" arrangement to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Additionally, Sondland provided House impeachment investigators with emails and texts showing that acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Perry, and others were all aware that Trump conditioned a White House meeting for Zelensky on his willingness to launch the investigations. "They knew what we were doing and why," Sondland said. "Everyone was in the loop. It was no secret." (New York Times / Washington Post / Politico / Wall Street Journal / NBC News / Bloomberg / CNN

• ???? Quotables: Gordon Sondland.

• "Again, everyone was in the loop."

• "Was there a quid pro quo? … YES."

• "… we knew these investigations were important to the president."

• "… we followed the president's orders."

• "I followed the directions of the president."

• ANALYSIS: 4 things we learned from Gordon Sondland

• ANALYSIS: 5 takeaways from Gordon Sondland's testimony

• READ: Gordon Sondland's opening statement

• Live blogs: New York Times / Washington Post / Wall Street Journal / Bloomberg / NBC News / CNN...

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