Sondland Blames Giuliani For Quid Pro Quo Scheme: ‘We Followed the President’s Orders’ Working With Him

U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland gave an explosive opening statement in his testimony before the House impeachment inquiry of Donald Trump, part of which he used to directly connect Rudy Giuliani to the campaign to pressure Ukraine.

Page 4 of Sondland’s remarks show him saying he, Rick Perry and Kurt Volker worked with Giuliani on Ukraine matters “at the express direction of the President of the United States.”

“We did not want to work with Mr. Giuliani. 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 went on to say that while he didn’t think Giuliani’s role was “improper at the time…If I had known of all of Mr. Giuliani’s dealings or of his associations with individuals now under criminal indictment, I would not have acquiesced to his participation. Still, given what we knew at the time, what we were asked to do did not appear to be wrong.”

He also said Giuliani’s requests “were a quid pro quo for arranging a White House visit for President Zelensky.”

Mr. Giuliani demanded that Ukraine make a public statement announcing investigations of the 2016 election/DNC server and Burisma. Mr. Giuliani was expressing the desires of the President of the United States, and we knew that these investigations were important to the President.

This story is developing and we shall update accordingly.

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