According to Sondland, “Everyone was in the loop. It was no secret. Everyone was informed view email on July 19, days before the Presidential call. As I communicated to the team, I told President Zelensky in advance that assurances to ‘run a fully transparent investigation’ and ‘turn over every stone’ were necessary in his call with President Trump.”
Sondland explained that they were following Trump’s orders through his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. He said, “Simply put, we played the hand we were dealt. We all understood that if we refused to work with Mr. Giuliani, we would lose an important opportunity to cement relations between the United States and Ukraine. So we followed the president’s orders.”
Sondland is a long-time Republican donor and a Trump loyalist. His testimony is damaging as he contradicted the President’s claim that there was no quid pro quo.
