HIS OWN TRANSCRIPT HAD ALREADY DESTROYED IT...:

It was less than a week ago when Republicans were telegraphing an audacious new defense of President Trump's Ukraine extortion scheme. The whole caper, they were prepared to argue, had actually been masterminded by Gordon Sondland. The hotelier and foreign-policy novice, handed a plush ambassadorship to the European Union as a reward for a donation, had somehow gone out of his lane and taken over Ukraine policy from a cadre of experienced professionals -- all without Trump's knowledge or permission.

Sondland "made a presumption," Ohio representative Jim Jordan told the media. "There is no direct linkage to the president of the United States," added North Carolina representative Mark Meadows.

The sole advantage behind this fantastical explanation was Trump's well-established, mob-like aversion to note-taking. The president would literally scream at anybody who took notes in his presence, leaving him plausible deniability when his subordinates carried out his frequently unethical or illegal orders.

Yesterday, however, William Taylor testified that a member of his staff heard Sondland, in Kiev on a cell phone, speaking with President Trump, and that Trump asked about Ukraine opening "investigations." After the call, Sondland told the staffer, David Holmes, that Trump's highest priority in Ukraine was securing an investigation of the Bidens. Today, the Associated Press reports a second staffer, Suriya Jayanti, also heard the call.

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