United States Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland was accused of sexual misconduct and retaliation by three women. The allegations, which predate his time as an ambassador, were revealed publicly on Wednesday.
Sondland, who is at the center of the impeachment proceedings into President Trump, was accused by three women of unwanted advances. The allegations were first reported by ProPublica and the Portland Monthly.
In one case, Nicole Vogel alleged that she met Sondland in 2003 as she tried to obtain funding for a new magazine she wanted to launch — she now owns and runs Portland Monthly. While he initially liked her idea and agreed to put in at least $25,000, that offer was changed after she turned down his advances. Vogel claims that after their first meeting about the potential business venture, Sondland invited her to one of the hotels he runs and he tried kissing her.
“I remember seeing my hand drop from the door handle,” she said. “I turned around, and he’s standing right behind me, and he says, ‘Can I just have a hug first?’” She added, “As I pulled back, he grabs my face and goes to kiss me.”
She claims that during a second meeting weeks later, he kept his hand on her thigh for 10 minutes while they drove to a restaurant that was out of the way. He allegedly then changed the terms of her agreement, saying that he would donate $10,000 instead and would only do that if she raised an additional $100,000.
Sondland’s lawyer’s pushed back on Vogel’s claims, saying, “She and her publication stand to benefit directly from publishing these allegations … Indeed, we understand that Portland Monthly is under significant financial pressure and MS. Volgel’s efforts seem designed to salvage it.”
Jana Solis, who was a hospitality safety engineer for Marsh & McLennan, met Sondland at the behest of a colleague in 2008. However, she initially recalled the year incorrectly. The first inappropriate interaction occurred at their first meeting, she said, when he “slap[ped] me on the ass” as they left the restaurant and after he hired her. She said she later toured Sondland’s house at his request and he exposed his genitalia to her. Solis, who went by Janice Schnabel at the time, also alleged that during a third interaction, he kissed her without her consent.
“The next thing I know, he’s all over me,” she said. “He’s on top of me. He’s kissing me, shoving his tongue down my throat. And I’m trying to wiggle out from under him, and the next thing you know, I’m sort of rising up to get away from him, and I fall over the back of the couch.”
Solis’s former husband, Kevin Schnabel, backed her story, saying, “One of the things that always stuck in my head is her comment that he literally had his tongue down [her] throat, [and as she was] trying to get away from him, she had fallen over the back of the couch.”
After the third instance of Solis declining Sondland’s alleged advances, he called her at her work desk and screamed at her performance. However, she said, “he was pissed. He didn’t get his way [with me], and was making it about work.”
“Ambassador Sondland also denies exposing himself to her or forcibly kissing her,” Sondland’s lawyers wrote. “We have been able to review Provenance’s records interacting with Ms. Solis’s company, and at no time did she or her employer convey any concern about Ambassador Sondland, his comportment, or the nature of any business dealings he had with them or their personnel.”
The third woman, Natalie Sept, met Sondland in 2010 while sharing a meal with Portland City Councilman Nick Fish. She ran Fish’s reelection campaign. After she cut a subsequent dinner with Sondland short, he walked her to her car before “push[ing] himself into me and tr[ying] to kiss me.”
Sondland’s lawyers acknowledged that they discussed “Ms. Sept’s job prospects” but added that he “denies any unwanted touching.”
