The former GOP donor is emerging as Trump’s top point of contact with Ukranian officials as the President pushed for an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden, a possible 2020 rival.
Other witnesses have testified that Sondland had a direct line to the President and as saying that the only thing Trump cared about in relations with Ukraine was his own political advantage.
That leaves Sondland facing a dilemma — does he seek to protect the President when he testifies under oath or can he mitigate his own exposure? He may not be able to do both.
But Sondland is not the only witness with the capacity to damage the President’s case this week. At least eight current and former officials are expected to testify in a dramatic week of televised hearings that are likely to infuriate Trump and may tie him more directly to the scheme to go around official US foreign policy channels to heap pressure on Ukraine.
Trump blasted Williams in a tweet as part of a band of “Never Trumpers, who I don’t know & mostly never even heard of.” Pence’s office pointedly declined to defend Williams — with a spokeswoman apparently seeking to downplay her importance to the vice president by saying she was a staffer on assignment from the State Department.
‘This is not OK’
“The President of the United States shouldn’t even in the original phone call be on the phone with the president of another country and raise his political opponent.”
Still, Turner argued that there was no “quid pro quo” or smoking gun that should lead to the President being removed from office. His comments reflect the uncomfortable spot Republicans find themselves facing as more and more evidence contradicts the White House claim that nothing underhand took place.
Trump has already warned his party not to adopt a face-saving approach in which lawmakers could criticize his behavior but argue that it does not meet the constitutional standard for impeachment.
There is so far no sign of Trump’s Republican firewall crumbling in the Democratic-led House — which is expected to vote to impeach before the end of the year, or the Senate where a two-thirds majority would be needed to convict him and oust him from office after an impeachment trial.
But the political price that Republicans may pay for saving the President — especially among vulnerable GOP senators up for reelection next year appears to be rising.
Trump’s defense was further undermined by the latest witness testimony released over the weekend that appeared to show him more closely tied to the center of the scheme to pressure Ukraine.
This followed a grim week in which several State Department veterans painted a picture of a rogue operation that trashed longtime US national interests to serve Trump’s political goals.
Just ‘Never Trumpers’?
An emerging line of defense for the President is that anyone critical of his conduct is simply a disaffected bureaucrat who never accepted him as President.
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise suggested on “Fox News Sunday” that people criticizing the President were witnesses chosen by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff to make Trump look bad.
“There are a lot of people who worked in the Trump administration who have very countering views to that and they’ve not been allowed to come forward,” Scalise said.
And Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson said the investigative process threatens executive privilege in the future, arguing on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday that a public examination of the President’s actions is damaging to the country.
“Having this all come out into public … has exposed things that didn’t need to be exposed,” Johnson said.
But while the White House is targeting foreign service and current and former National Security Council staff who have testified, Trump has not allowed senior political staff — including acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney — to testify.
Democrats want to question Mulvaney over why the military aid to Ukraine was delayed at a point when Trump was leaning on the country’s new government to investigate Biden.
Democrats on Sunday sought to turn up the heat on the President by arguing that he could clear up any questions and complaints about the process by appearing on Capitol Hill himself.
As they grasped for anything that could improve their case, Republicans highlighted reported comments from Ukraine’s foreign minister that the administration did not tell Kiev that there was a link between nearly $400 million in delayed US aid and the need to open an investigation into Biden.
But Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut told CNN that the Ukrainians — locked in a desperate battle with Russian-backed separatists — had an incentive to play down US pressure.
“They won’t accuse the President of extortion. They are presently reliant on the goodwill of Trump in order to keep their country safe.”
Morrison said he witnessed a conversation between Sondland and senior Ukrainian official Andriy Yermak in Poland.
He said the US envoy to the European Union told him that he suggested to the Ukrainians that military aid could be freed up if the Ukrainian prosecutor general went to a microphone and announced an investigation into Burisma, the energy giant on which Biden’s son Hunter served as a board member. There is no evidence of wrongdoing by the Bidens.
This and other revelations help explain why the appearance by Sondland will be so crucial.