The Ukraine Quid Pro Quo Case Is Getting Close to Mike Pence and He's Not Happy

[babylonsister]

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/vice-president-pence-denies-involvement-impeachment-915225/


November 20, 2019 12:54PM ET
The Ukraine Quid Pro Quo Case Is Getting Close to Mike Pence and He’s Not Happy

Pence insists that a conversation about arms-for-investigations, detailed in sworn testimony by ambassador Gordon Sondland, “never happened”
By Tim Dickinson


Mike Pence would very much like to be excluded from the Ukraine narrative.

The Vice President is contradicting sworn impeachment testimony from European Union ambassador Gordon Sondland, who on Wednesday claimed he had raised concerns with Pence in September that U.S. military aid for Ukraine was being withheld, pending political investigations demanded by President Donald Trump. On a late July phone call, Trump had personally demanded a “favor” of president Volodymyr Zelensky: That Ukraine investigate the Crowdstrike conspiracy theory, alleging Ukrainian involvement in the 2016 election, as well as vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company, Burisma.

The disputed conversation with the Vice President is one of many bombshells included in Sondland’s testimony on the Ukraine quid-pro-quo, conditioning both a White House meeting with Zelensky and the release of $400 million in military aide to Ukraine on committing publicly to the investigations. The ambassador claims the scheme was directed by Trump, through his attorney Rudy Giuliani, with the knowledge of many top ranking officials in the administration, including Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney. “Everyone was in the loop,” Sondland testified. “It was no secret.”

Referring specifically to the vice president’s knowledge of the quid pro quo, Sondland testified under oath about a September 1st meeting with new Ukrainian president Zelensky that Pence attended on Trump’s behalf. Sondland recalled: “I mentioned to Vice President Pence before the meetings with the Ukrainians that I had concerns that the delay in aid had become tied to the issue of investigations.” This sidebar conversation with the Vice President preceded Zelensky bringing up the topic officially: “During the actual meeting, President Zelensky raised the issue of security assistance directly with Vice President Pence,” Sondland testified. “The Vice President said he would speak to President Trump about it.”

Responding to Sondland’s allegation, Pence is strenuously disputing the sworn account. Pence chief of staff, Marc Short, released a statement insisting that the conversation between Pence and Sondland “never happened.”

snip//

The questions about what Pence knew and when did he know it were already ripe. The Vice President has portrayed himself as being as being at arms length from the quid quo pro scheme former National Security Adviser John Bolton derided as a “drug deal.” Sondland’s disputed testimony casts doubt on Pence’s claims to be in the dark, and increases the chances that the man first-in-line to succeed Trump may have to worry about his own political fate in a Senate impeachment trial.

[RockRaven]

1. Womp womp Mother fucker.

If you want to contradict Sondland's testimony, go over to the House and give testimony under oath. Until you do that, your claims to journalists he is saying untrue things about you will be met with a "go pound sand!"

[2naSalit]

3. He has got to go too. ...nt

[KentuckyWoman]

5. Pence might go down. MIGHT

He is in it up to his hairline but mostly because he is too stupid to think for himself. If mother told him it is ok then it must be.

Yeah I am probably wrong but my opinion of Pence is faiy low. He is an expendable.

[Corgigal]

6. Manafort pick,

Manafort cell.

[keithbvadu2]

7. If he does not remember whether or not other events/conversations happened, how can anyone believe t

If he does not remember whether or not other events/conversations happened, how can anyone believe that this one did not occur?

[crickets]

8. K&R for visibility