NOT GOING DOWN ALONE:

In Sondland's supplemental testimony, where he had admitted that he told Andriy Yermak on September 1 that Ukraine would not receive the security assistance frozen by President Trump without announcing the investigations, Sondland said he had only "presumed" that the suspension of the aid "had become linked to the proposed anti-corruption statement," but that he did not have any explicit direction from the president.

Sondland stuck to this claim in his public testimony this week, but added some important details. Under questioning from minority council Steve Castor, Sondland said that he had made this presumption because the aid had been withheld by the president, it hadn't been released by this point, and they were not "getting anywhere with the Ukrainians."

This explanation by Sondland is convincing. By late August, the White House had withheld a vital White House meeting for Zelensky to demand the investigations, and then the president had also withheld security assistance. The conclusion that the security assistance had been withheld for the same purpose was by then inescapable; Trump sought his investigations, had conditioned a White House meeting on them, and now was withholding the assistance, too.

At this week's public hearing, House Intelligence Committee Republicans strained to question Sondland's judgment on this point. They said he based his "presumption" on no evidence. However, Sondland bolstered his position: He said he sent an email to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on August 22 asking if they should schedule a meeting in Warsaw for Trump and Zelensky, in which Zelensky would discuss moving "forward publicly and with confidence on those issues of importance to POTUS and the U.S. Hopefully, that will break the logjam." Sondland testified that the "issues of importance to POTUS" were the investigations (the only things Trump asked of Zelensky on his infamous July 25 call), and the "logjam" included the withheld security assistance. Pompeo's reply? "Yes."

Furthermore, Sondland testified that on September 1 he had told Vice President Mike Pence that he "had concerns that the delay in aid had become tied to the issue of investigations." Pence nodded, Sondland said, "like, you know, he heard what I said."

Sondland is establishing, then, that two of the most senior officials in the Trump administration knew of his belief that the security assistance had become linked to the investigations, just as the White House meeting had been, and neither Pompeo nor Pence pushed back. Neither of them asked him what Sondland was talking about. Neither of them said, That's crazy, and it's false. They responded as if they were well aware.

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