Trump Cherry-Picks Sondland Testimony

President Donald Trump said he “turned off the television” after Ambassador Gordon Sondland testified that the president told him in a phone call, “I want nothing [from Ukraine]. I want no quid pro quo.” But Sondland had a lot more to say than that.

Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, described how Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, directed U.S. efforts to get Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to make a public announcement of investigations into a debunked theory about Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election and Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company. Hunter Biden had served on Burisma’s board when his father, Joe Biden, was the vice president.

“[A]s I testified previously, Mr. Giuliani’s requests were a quid pro quo for arranging a White House visit for President Zelensky,” Sondland told the House intelligence committee. “Mr. Giuliani demanded that Ukraine make a public statement