U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland dislikes President Trump’s impeachment defense strategy because the administration refuses to release relevant documents while both parties buttress their case with his testimony, a source close to Sondland said.
“He made clear that there is plenty of frustration to go around,” a source with direct knowledge of Sondland’s thinking told the Washington Examiner. “He made clear he’s frustrated that State and the White House haven’t given him access to records.”
The inaccessible records played an important role in Sondland’s public testimony on Wednesday, as he described the impeachment investigation as an unfair process — in part due to State Department policies. The investigation also has revealed a rift between Sondland and allies of former White House national security adviser John Bolton, whose aides have portrayed Sondland as a central figure in Rudy Giuliani’s effort to press Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to accuse former Vice President Joe Biden of corruption.
“He made clear he resents Rudy’s involvement,” the source said of Sondland. “He’s also rightly frustrated that career bureaucrats have so blatantly misrepresented his role and his actions as somehow irregular.”
Sondland defended his coordination with Giuliani by testifying that Trump instructed him to do so and that other members of the administration neglected to tell him of their misgivings about Giuliani. He protested that he never was given “a detailed readout” of Trump’s July 25 call with Zelensky that would have alerted him to “the Biden references.” It was a thinly veiled shot at Bolton’s allies, who have denounced the conversation.
“No one shared any concerns about the call with me at the time when it would have been very helpful to know,” Sondland said.
Fiona Hill, a former NSC official and key impeachment witness, contradicted Sondland’s testimony Thursday when she told lawmakers that she had multiple “testy” exchanges with Sondland — including one confrontation at the White House in July.
“He was being involved in a domestic political errand. We were involved in national security foreign policy,” she said. “I was irritated with him and angry that he wasn’t fully coordinating. And I did say to him, ‘Ambassador Sondland — Gordon — I think this is all going to blow up.’ And here we are.”
The contradictory testimony given by Sondland and Bolton aides such as Hill gave rise to Democratic allegations that Sondland perjured himself in his Oct. 17 deposition, when the hotel magnate-turned-diplomat testified that “nothing was ever raised to me about any concerns regarding our Ukraine policy.”
But Sondland faulted the administration when explaining how he could have forgotten important details during his original testimony. “In the absence of these materials, my memory has not been perfect,” he said. “I have no doubt that a more fair, open, and orderly process of allowing me to read the State Department records would have made this process more transparent.”
The EU ambassador’s family has seethed with anger at other members of the Trump administration during the GOP megadonor’s star turn as one of the putative villains of the impeachment controversy. “He’ll sit down and listen to anyone, take his time, go to bat for them, give his money,” Katherine Durant, Sondland’s wife, said last month. “But this environment is so sad and vicious that there is no one who will stick up for him. I find it really pathetic.”
Sondland’s testimony thrilled Trump and his Democratic opponents alike because he testified that Giuliani was orchestrating a quid pro quo to push Zelensky to launch politically charged investigations. But Republicans seized on the fact that he said he never heard directly from Trump about the matter to argue that his testimony vindicated the president.
“He’s not interested in advancing the theory or the narrative of any camp, and as a result, both sides are defaulting to cherry-pick what they want from his testimony,” said the source with direct knowledge of Sondland’s thinking.
