This is not what we expected to hear from this phone call!
OK, to catch everyone up who hasn’t been following the impeachment inquiry…
Donald Trump is accused of withholding federal aid to the Ukraine in exchange for personal political favors from their president.
- The US had already agreed to send nearly $400 million in anti-tank missiles and other weaponry to help them defend themselves from Russian attacks, but Trump STOPPED that with no explanation to our government as to why — and asked Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky for “a favor.”
- He wanted them to start an investigation into Hunter Biden‘s former company, which would make it look like Joe Biden had used his position as VP to cover it up.
- He also wanted them to investigate a Russian conspiracy theory which said it was actually the Democrats colluding with the Ukraine who interfered in the 2016 elections and NOT Russia. Despite all our intelligence agencies AND the Mueller investigation concluding it was Russia helping Trump.
Believe it or not, none of that is even in dispute! But even still, it’s gotten worse…
Related: New Book Calls Trump’s Mental Health Into Question
Over the past few days, we’ve heard from multiple US officials who’ve testified there was a whole team running a shadow foreign policy, spearheaded by Rudy Giuliani. That team allegedly communicated the quid pro quo (you know, the tit-for-tat, the “you scratch my back…”, the art of the deal as it were) to the Ukrainian government: make a public announcement of investigations into Trump’s political rivals and you get a White House visit, the aid, everything.
Ukraine Ambassador Bill Taylor dropped a bombshell on Wednesday, saying someone on his team had actually heard one of those team members, EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland, on the phone with Trump communicating exactly that. Not only that, he said Sondland told him Trump doesn’t care about Ukraine at all — just the investigations.
That flies in the face of Trump’s only real defense of any of this, that he was just worried about general corruption in Ukraine (though he only specifically mentioned the investigations which helped him politically).
On Friday that team member, diplomat David Holmes, testified in a closed door session — but CNN got hold of a copy of his opening statement, and it is WIIIIIILD!
Holmes says he was in a restaurant next to Sondland, who was on the phone holding for the POTUS — he then heard Trump’s voice loudly on the other end.
According to his opening statement:
“While Ambassador Sondland’s phone was not on speakerphone, I could hear the President’s voice through the earpiece of the phone. The President’s voice was very loud and recognizable, and Ambassador Sondland held the phone away from his ear for a period of time, presumably because of the loud volume.”
We love the idea that Trump thinks the Ukraine is this den of corruption — but is totally chill with having a loud af conversation about sensitive US diplomatic matters on an unsecured cell phone line calling from the terrace of a crowded restaurant.
Here’s how he says the convo went:
“Sondland told Trump that Zelensky ‘loves your ass.’ I then heard President Trump ask, ‘So, he’s gonna do the investigation?’ Ambassador Sondland replied that ‘he’s gonna do it,’ adding that President Zelensky will do ‘anything you ask him to.’
These guys sound like such frat boys when they aren’t on camera!
Innerestingly, they weren’t talking about “corruption” or the health of Ukraine or its people — they were talking specifically about “the investigations.”
Even after Trump was told he was going to get what he wanted, he didn’t spend a moment discussing the Ukrainians whose lives were on the line as the aid was withheld — instead he started talking about a more familiar subject…
“The conversation then shifted to Ambassador Sondland’s efforts, on behalf of the President, to assist a rapper who was jailed in Sweden…”
Yep! He immediately started talking about the A$AP Rocky case!
To be fair to Sondland, this is actually what he should have been talking about to Trump — considering the Ukraine isn’t even in the freakin’ European Union and therefore was out of his jurisdiction. (Like we said, shadow foreign policy.)
We didn’t expect to hear any inside dirt on how Trump really handled that one during this inquiry, but we’re all ears!
Holmes says he could only hear Sondland’s side of the conversation by that point but it’s enough to get the picture:
“Ambassador Sondland told the President that the rapper was ‘kind of f**ked there’ and ‘should have pled guilty.’ He recommended that the President ‘wait until after the sentencing or it will make it worse,’ adding that the President should ‘let him get sentenced, play the racism card, give him a ticker-tape parade when he comes home.'”
Man, it doesn’t sound like Trump tried very hard OR very hands on, does it??
Funny enough it wasn’t A$AP who Trump cared about either. Per Holmes’ statement:
“Ambassador Sondland further told the President that Sweden “should have released him on your word,” but that “you can tell the Kardashians you tried.”
OMG! Trump feels beholden to the Kardashians!
Moreover, he apparently cares more about that than about the Ukraine. Holmes continues:
“I then took the opportunity to as Ambassador Sondland for his candid impression of the President’s views on Ukraine. In particular, I asked Ambassador Sondland if it was true that the President did not ‘give a s**t about Ukraine.’
Ambassador Sondland agreed that the President did not ‘give a s**t about Ukraine.’ I asked why not, and Ambassador Sondland stated that the President only cares about ‘big stuff.'”
OMG, he was just talking about the Kardashians, WTF!
“I noted that there was ‘big stuff’ going on in Ukraine, like a war with Russia, and Ambassador Sondland replied that he meant ‘big stuff’ that benefits the President, like the ‘Biden investigation’ that Mr. Giuliani was pushing.”
Man, it’s like the smoking telephone call!
Sondland himself is scheduled to testify on Wednesday, November 20. The Ambassador — a hotel magnate who got his high-ranking post after donating $1 million to the Trump inauguration — has already adjusted his testimony once after having his memory refreshed. We wonder what he’ll say about this call…
[Image via WENN/Avalon.]
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