HERE'S THE DEAL
IMPEACHMENT EDITION

Democrats called it a “seminal” day, seeing damning evidence against the president play out in public hearings.  Republicans insisted that it “exonerated” their president. 

After nearly 12 hours of testimony yesterday, there is a great deal to unpack. Watch our longer-than-usual video summary of the day. Or keep reading.

Gordon Sondland testifies

• Background: Sondland is the U.S. ambassador to the European Union. He is also a businessman and was a top donor to the Trump inaugural.

• Sondland testified that President Trump “directed” him and that he followed the president’s “orders” to work with his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani on Ukraine. He told lawmakers that it was apparent to him that Giuliani spoke for the president. 

• Quid pro quo? Sondland said there was one. He testified that for Ukrainians to get a White House meeting, Giuliani made it clear they needed to announce investigations into the Bidens and the 2016 election. He also said there “appeared” to be another quid pro quo in which Ukraine had to announce the investigations in order to release a hold on $391 million in military aid money.

• It was the “announcement,” not an investigation per se that mattered. Sondland told lawmakers that what Giuliani and, from his understanding, the president, wanted was an “announcement” that the Bidens were being investigated. The start of an investigation was not the goal. Democrats argued that this shows the president was not concerned about corruption in Ukraine, just in harming a political opponent.

• Who knew? Sondland said “everyone was looped in” and he communicated with at least three cabinet-level Trump officials about the quid pro quo: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and Vice President Mike Pence.  (They dispute this, see below.)

• But Sondland also said the president never directly spoke of this. The ambassador testified repeatedly that he “presumed” that the military aid would not be resumed until Ukrainians announced investigations, but that he never heard that from the president. 

The White House, Trump administration deny Sondland charges

• Marc Short, who is chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, issued a statement firmly denying Sondland’s recollection that he told the V.P. that Ukraine aid was conditioned on Ukrainian investigations. “The alleged discussion… never happened,” Short wrote.

• The Department of Energy disputed Sondland’s testimony that Secretary Rick Perry worked with Giuliani and was aware of a presidential push to investigate the company connected to the Bidens.  An agency spokesperson wrote that Sondland, “misrepresented both Secretary Perry's interaction with Rudy Giuliani and direction the secretary received from President Trump.”

Laura Cooper

• Background: Cooper is the deputy assistant Secretary of Defense, whose job includes overseeing Ukraine assistance.

• Cooper added new testimony yesterday, telling lawmakers her staffers found emails indicating that Ukrainians were asking about their military aide on July 25, the same day as Ukrainiain President Zelensky’s phone call with President Trump.

• This potentially changes the timeline and raises new doubts about a key Republican argument: That Zelensky did not know the $391 million in aid money had been frozen when he spoke with Trump, and therefore could not have felt Trump was placing a condition on getting that money.

• She also testified that she’d been told the aid money was frozen because of concerns over corruption in Ukraine.

David Hale

• Background: Hale is the number three official at the State Department, and the highest-ranking career officer at the agency.

• He confirmed other witness testimony that the Office of Management and Budget said President Trump had ordered that Ukrainian aid money be frozen.

House Democrats reject Republican witnesses, subpoenas

• Late last night, Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee voted to table Republican requests for witnesses and subpoenas. Those included requests for testimony from Hunter Biden, son of the former vice president, and the anonymous whistleblower who first raised concerns about the Trump-Zelensky call.

• Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff said those witnesses were not relevant to the impeachment inquiry and the requests were politically motivated.

• Republicans complained that the votes were not announced, that they had no chance to debate their ideas and that some of their members had already left the committee room when the votes happened.