Gordon Sondland impeachment testimony- zero interest in taking a fall for a crime boss

Echo opinion syndicated column by Dick Polman*. 

Do you remember the climax in the Agatha Christie novel, "Murder On The Orient Express?". 

 It turned out, all the murder suspects were guilty.

And, as Donald Trump's hand picked ambassador, Gordon Sondland, publicly declared during the House impeachment hearing, that all the suspects in the illegal scheme to squeeze Ukraine for fake Biden dirt are guilty. Starting at the very top, with Trump. (IMO, evidence to support this illegal scheme is evident.)

And, Sondland is certainly a credible guy, right? After all, Trump recently praised him as, "a really good man and great American."

https://www.thenation.com/article/gordon-sondland-dean-impeachment/
Gordon Sondland

Here's what the good man and great American Sondland told Congerss: "Everyone was in the loop." In fact, the whole mission was about how to "make the boss happy." And, if it made the boss happy to hold back taxpayer-financed military aid from an ally fighting Russian aggression, until the ally agreed to launch bogus investigations of the Bidens, then fine. In Sondland's explosive words, "Was there a quid pro pro? The answer is yes....We followed the president's orders."

Translation: I paid a million bucks to get myself an abassadorship, and never imagined I'd get sucked into something like this. There's no way I'm gonna take the fall. If that happens, I'm gonna take everyone down with me- starting with Trump.

Sondland's sworn testimony is more delicious than a chocolate sundae. Historians will look back on the day when Sondland testified as being conclusive proof that Donald Trump blatantly abused his office, pursuing his own personal inerests and solicited collusions with a foreign government, all at the expense of our national security. And, as Sondland testified, "everyone was in the loop" on the impeachable act.

Moreover, Sondland fingured Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, ex-national security advisor John Bolton, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and of course he fingered Rudy Giuliani. In short, "everyone knew what we were doing and why."
Am I overracting? I'll yield the floor to Ken Starr, the conservative Clinton-hunting special prosecutor. On Fox News, Wednesday, he said, "Articles of impeachment are being drawn up if they haven't alreay been drawn up....This obvioiusly has been one of those bombshell days."

Sondland also blew up two desperate Republican defenses. The mantra of "no quid prop quo" is dead. The notion that Rudy and a handful of confederates, "went rogue," and that Trump had no role in the scheme for fake Biden dirt, is buried.

Now, here is the fun part. Sonland was quizzed about his cellphone conversation with Trump on July 26. Sondland was at a Kiev eatery when a foreigh service official, David Holmes, has already sated in a sworn deposition that he was with Sondland at the time, that he overherard Trump's end of the conversation (because Trump was speaking so loudly), and that Trump specifically asked Sondland for an assurance that Ukraine would indeed launch a Biden dirt investigation.

Sondland today: "I have no reason to doubt that the conversation included the subject of investigation." And, "I have no reason to doubt" Holmes' recollection about the cellphone call.

As a matter of fact, Holmes, in his deposition, said that Sondland assured Trump that Ukraine's president was ready to play ball- and, that, in fact, "he loves your ass".

Sondland was asked whether he really said that. His response: "It sounds like something I would say." He and Trump talked frequently, and liked to engage "in Trumpspeak," which featured "a lot of four-letter words"- or, in the cse of ass, "a three letter word."

(So, they spoke a lot? But, didn't Trump say that "I hardly know the gentleman"?)

Looking back, Sondland now laments: "I really regret that the Ukrainians were placed in that predicament."  It's nice that he feels compelled to voice remores. And, it's amazing how his memory keeps getting better as the noose keeps tightening.  Luckily for us, Sondland as zero interest in taking the fall for a crime boss.

Indeed, Trump knows how that game works.  Last year he told Fox News: I know all about flipping. For 30, 40 years, I've been watching flippers."  

In Trumpspeak, Wednesday's flipper is beautiful.  

*Dick Polman, is a veteran national political columnist based in Philadelphia and a Writer in Residence at the Univeristy of Pennsylvania.