WHEN THE SHAKENDOWN SHAKE BACK:

Gordon Sondland, a genial hotelier whose million-dollar contribution to Trump's Inauguration committee bought him the ambassadorship to the European Union, did not hold back when he appeared before the House Intelligence Committee's impeachment inquiry. The Ukraine scandal was Donald Trump's, from start to finish, Sondland told the panel, and his top advisers were all aware of it, enablers and facilitators of his scheme to pressure the new Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, to launch investigations that would help Trump politically. Sondland said he worked with Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to try to force Zelensky into probing former Vice-President Joe Biden and the Ukrainian role in the 2016 U.S. election, because the President told him to. "Everybody knew what we were doing and why," Sondland said. "Everyone was in the loop." Vice-President Mike Pence knew. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo knew. The chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, knew. The national-security adviser, John Bolton, knew. But, in the end, this was Trump's show, and the price of their service in his Administration was complicity, willing or otherwise, in his scheme.

"We followed the President's orders," Sondland said.

"Mr. Giuliani was expressing the desires of the President of the United States, and we knew that these investigations were important to the President," Sondland said.

"Was there a 'quid pro quo'? . . . The answer is yes," Sondland said.

"As a Presidential appointee, I followed the directions of the President," Sondland said.

The Ambassador seemed to relish his unlikely role at the center of the impeachment affair. He had real stage presence as he slowly and expressively read his statement. He had timing. He seemed unburdened, unruffled, adamant. He made clear his distaste for Giuliani, and for the very concept of pressuring Ukraine by withholding nearly four hundred million dollars in military aid and a White House meeting. If he was an agent of Trump's plot, he portrayed himself as a reluctant one. "We chose the latter course not because we liked it but because it was the only constructive path open to us," Sondland said.

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