By all reasonable standards, U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland’s opening testimony in Wednesday’s impeachment hearing should be the final evidence necessary to impeach and remove President Trump from office.
Specifically and repeatedly, Sondland asserted that Trump demanded two quids pro quo from Ukraine involving Trump’s personal, political interests. One of them involved an absurd conspiracy theory that was not specifically part of any investigation by U.S. authorities, and the other involved nothing even subject to the pretense of any U.S. law enforcement action. Trump used the power of his office, in one sense directly counter to U.S. law, for no broader public interest but only to hurt his domestic political adversaries.
