CNN: The huge Gordon Sondland revelation almost everyone missed

[spanone]

(CNN)Gordon Sondland made a LOT of news in his opening statement to the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday. There was a quid pro quo between the Americans and the Ukrainains. Everybody in the White House knew about it. And the Ukrainians knew too.

But there was one piece of Sondland's testimony that didn't get as much attention as it should have. Under questioning from Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff (D-California) about the specific nature of the quid pro quo between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Sondland said this:

"He had to announce the investigations. He didn't actually have to do them, as I understood it."

Which, to be clear, means that in order for Zelensky to get the White House meeting he so coveted, he needed to simply announce that Ukraine was looking into Joe and Hunter Biden -- despite there being no evidence of wrongdoing by either of them -- as well as the whereabouts of the hacked Democratic National Committee server.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/21/politics/gordon-sondland-testimony/index.html

[H2O Man]

1. Recommended.

I think that this has been reported on several times in the past week. It is very significant.

[lagomorph777]

25. That totally blows up the "anti-corruption" fiction.

[H2O Man]

28. Definitely!

[BKDem]

56. Just as he doesn't give a shit about Ukraine

he doesn’t give a shit about corruption.

[mucifer]

2. I am not the brightest bulb and I totally caught that one in real time

They knew they wouldn't find anything if they did actually investigate so the announcement is what they wanted

[malaise]

4. Same here because it's all reality TV to the criminal CON

[coti]

50. Right, it's a show nt

[Maribelle]

7. I did as well.

My initial thoughts were to create talking points for the campaign, which Trump could repeat ad nauseam.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

19. Yep...

... it is called "ratphuking".

[klook]

33. Yeah, not that subtle...

I’m guessing most DUers caught that. Where do we submit our Pundit applications?

[mainstreetonce]

3. I heard,someone on MSNBC

point this out last night.

It says a lot.

[jberryhill]

5. What amazes me about Republicans

Is that they are completely blind to the fact that this is the same type of bullshit stunt that Rudy managed to orchestrate in the 2016 election with the "Hillary is under investigation" nonsense in the last week, along with obtaining the cooperation of a foreign government in various dirty tricks.

The notion of Donald Trump as the great Ukraine corruption investigator, when his own campaign manager sits in jail as a consequence of dirty dealings with the pro-Russian Ukraine faction, is the most amazing exercise in self-delusion I have ever seen.

If you want to find corruption in Ukraine, set Manafort loose and follow him. You'll hit paydirt promptly.

[spanone]

6. ⇧ ⇧ ⇧ ⇧ ⇧ ⇧ ⇧ ⇧⇧ ⇧ 👍🏼

[panader0]

10. "amazing exercise in self-delusion" indeed.

[aggiesal]

21. ...to find corruption in Ukraine, set Manafort loose and follow him. You'll hit paydirt promptly...

[mr_lebowski]

39. It really is amazing isn't it? (nt)

[Martin Eden]

8. Totally destroys Trump's cover story about corruption

Trump is a perpetrator of corruption, not the other way around.

[Nitram]

9. I've been pointing this out from the beginning. It has always been obvious that it

was the public announcement that would accomplish Trump's political objective of eating shade on the Bidens and the Democratic Party. Remember when Comey did the same thing to Hilary?

[yaesu]

11. there is no doubt that Trump is working with & for Russian President Putin to undermine US & NATO nt

[MartyTheGreek]

12. It also means someone wrote a draft conspiracy...

Was it Rudy's job including Huey and Duey the two well funded rusky assets, to come up with the cooked-up new kompromat?

Someone has a thumb drive out there? A draft of this criminal story made-up about the Bidens? Please! This would be icing on the cake! They were going to go on CNN for christ's sake and say there's a fake investigation all the while the president of Ukraine's country is in a shooting war going on at his homeland's border!

We are witnessing history folks! Some of us remember, Nixon, Clinton and now this! Unreal!

[Hermit-The-Prog]

13. well, it's been kinda obvious around DU for a while. CNN should catch up

[Laura PourMeADrink]

24. Yes. And haven't heard much comment on the reason

Trump was trying to pin election interference on Ukraine. It's either to please Russia and/or because Trump's ego was hurt because the country didn't support him as much as he thought they should in 2016.

It always points back to some kind of ego slight.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

36. little mobsters always want to please their bosses and become a boss

The Dumbest Don wants money, adulation, and power. The presidency has been frustrating to him because it's not a dictator's throne.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

43. That is so true! Watching these hearings you can

Just feel all the underlying human dynamics. You have to empathize.. career people vs inexperienced newbies vs. unorthodox president, vs Rudy and his thugs. Bet their "let's go out for a drink after work" sessions were amazingly interesting.

[MartyTheGreek]

46. One theory is that if Trump can disprove or even create

narrative that it was Hillary and Ukraine and DNC server, then his big roll of the dice is he can spring Manafort from jail under this fiction. Manafort's name was found on a ledger with money owed or paid from an oligarch when they chased away the former rusky supported Ukraine leader. He could say Manafort was framed by the Bad Ukrainians.

If he could create this grand conspiracy, if would erase the dark cloud of russia helping him win. Takes care of the illegitimacy presidency question, he could then say, see Mueller didn't find anything, so I'm lifting the sanctions on Russia and the oligarchs, Putin and I can retire with my dreams of Trump Tower Moscow!

[Laura PourMeADrink]

48. Thanks. So much to learn and understand. It's almost

Like you need to limit yourself to the synopsis of what happened each day - the shiny object thrown into the air - and spend the time studying each past shiny object in more depth.

On this topic, I know Gulliani and now we learn Nunes have been traveling and working on this 2016 piece for awhile. Bet there's a treasure trove to discover. Just like all the regulations he's overturned behind our back.

[world wide wally]

14. This is a tactic Trump used in his cut throat business practices.

We finally got the "businessman" elected.
Never again!

[The_Counsel]

15. Isn't This EXACTLY What James Comey Had to Do to Hillary Clinton in 2016?

I'm shocked I didn't make that connection/comparison until now...

[jberryhill]

16. Yup

...plus the "cooperation of a foreign government" angle.

[The_Counsel]

20. I Also Remember the Very Public Trump/Comey Breakup....

...and Comey's dismissal. I always thought there was something fishy about that. Why would Comey suddenly become so partisan at just the right time and then suddenly want to go by the book when the FBI caught wind of what Putin/Trump was doing? The timing was just so perfect as to help Trump.

We're going to find that ALL of this ties together, and a SHITLOAD of people are going to be implicated. That includes McConnell, Graham, Nunes...

...and even Paul Ryan better duck down. Just because he tapdanced out of Congress years ago doesn't mean he won't get it in the ass too.

[jberryhill]

22. Because Rudy's minions were going to do an end-run around Comey

I don't believe Comey thinks he was being partisan.

[The_Counsel]

32. I Figured It Out! Rudy is David Kleinfeld!

Have you seen "Carlito's Way?" Great movie, BTW.

Anyway, Carlito is a gangster who is sent to prison, but is released something like 25 years early, thanks to his attorney: David Kleinfeld. Kleinfeld himself turns bad and built fame/fortune in the mob underworld himself.

That's Rudy Guilliani. Believe it or not, he was a damned good prosecutor in his day and had brought down many a mobster. Now it seems he's using some of those same mobster tactics to help Trump. You see how Trump "won" the Presidency by appealing to the lowest common denominator among voters? That's how Guilliani became NYC mayor. The two are peas in a pod who go way back...

[luvallpeeps]

52. Exactly!n/t

[Me.]

17. Yes...Because The Traitor Could Then Say Biden Was Being Investigated

Thus casting shade on Biden and putting his campaign in disrepute

[KPN]

18. Meaning he had absolutely no concern about Ukrainian corruption. He cared only about, explicitly

wanted and was requiring Ukraine to interfere in our elections to his personal benefit in exchange for releasing the US tax payer funded aid. The concern for Ukrainian corruption was non-existent.

Couldn't get much more counter to the Oath of Office he swore "to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the US" -- all of it.

[Lock him up.]

26. He doesn't know the Constitution.

Maybe a couple of lines. That's it.

If he was ever able to read it, he wouldn't comprehend the meaning of what he reads.

[KPN]

34. I'm sure you're right. Most everything he thinks and says, he gets either from Putin or Hannity.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

58. Somebody would have to write it in a fat

Sharpie block letters for trump for him to read it in small bits,like sentence a day.

[gratuitous]

23. I've heard this point bruited about

But it's good that CNN has caught onto it now, as well. There didn't have to be any investigation, just the Ukraine government's announcement of an investigation. That's all they needed or wanted, because there's no way to fight it: "Hey, it's the Ukrainians investigating those crooked Bidens! You got a problem with it, take it up with Ukraine."

It's also instructive that in several consecutive world hotspots where an embattled country or populace is struggling against an oppressive despot (e.g., the Korean peninsula, the Kurds in northern Syria, the Ukrainians against the Russians), the Trump administration has sided with the despots against our long-time allies.

[mr_lebowski]

44. Very true, well said (nt)

[wiggs]

27. This angle and the entire Ukraine inquiry, especially the 2016 election portion, is the wedge

needed to pry open the Mueller report and the ongoing counter-intelligence investigations and appropriately connect all of this to Putin and related oligarchs. And to SA, Qatar, Turkey.

Schiff may not want to go there, but the avenue is open.

[FraDon]

38. Exactly. Me thinks this more about getting the vicegrips off the testicles of

Vlad and his Broz. Can't we just be an empire again?!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnitsky_Act

[Pepsidog]

29. I think they an find the server up Nunes's ass. Bunch of stooges.

[SunSeeker]

30. K & R

[getagrip_already]

31. Wait until barr's "report" on 12/9... you ain't seen nothing yet

That will be all smoke and no substance, with no grand jury indictments. It only matters that he issues the report and claims the grand jury is investigating.. just like he did previously.

[KPN]

37. The House should initiate his impeachment now as well.

[Grasswire2]

35. Exactly why urging Dems to finish this inquiry by Xmas is absurd!!

There's a great sinkhole of filthy GOP corruption and treason just about to end America as we know it.

Only light and the diligent, unsparing application of the law will save us.

Courage. Courage, citizen.

[KPN]

42. I agree. The whole bunch of them should be left to dangle for at least 4 or 5 more months

beyond Christmas in my opinion -- in order to reveal the maximum truth in the most powerful way and inflict the maximum damage on each and every one of these fuckers politically. I actually think it would be a good idea to look into impeachment of Barr for his activities NOW.

Everything they do is meant to smear and influence/stifle the Democratic vote. We should be returning the favor in spades. The truth is on our side as is the Constitution.

[Pacifist Patriot]

40. I not only caught it in real time, I exclaimed "finally someone says it!"

There have been a number of people here on DU who have repeatedly made this point. It was never about an investigation, it was always about the perception of one.

[Brainfodder]

41. A standard FLOAT....

Propose a negative narrative and let others spend time and effort on it.

Same old tactics....

Rinse, repeat, and see what sticks.

[PatSeg]

45. Actually

That came as no surprise to me, as I'd assumed that was what Trump wanted. He mostly cared about the perception of corruption and needed it repeated in the news a lot, until people believed it must be true. Much like Hillary's emails.

[randr]

47. I've been waving that flag all along

With Trump it is all about the optics. It only has to "look" like an investigation, just like it only had to "look" like Hillary's emails were an issue. My guess is that is what caused the Ukrainians to hesitate, they knew it was only to be a smoke screen.

[Garrett78]

49. That was a given. There was nothing to investigate. It's all about narrative.

[Turbineguy]

51. Trump did not want the actual investigation

since there would be no evidence. Also, he could not control the investigation. He could hardly send Barr over to cook up some evidence. Although Putin's boys could probably cook something up. But maybe Putin didn't see much point to it. Putin doesn't need dirt on Biden to fix the election for trump. He's had 3 years to infiltrate the republican party since the last fix. It sounds like this was a trump operation. Incompetent and unnecessary. I'm guessing Putin told him to not pass out the 400 million, or at least put an indefinite hold on it. A dim bulb went on in trumps head how he could turn this to his advantage.

The irony is that trump believed these right-wing cranks and their crazy conspiracies. He behaved accordingly and is now getting impeached for it.

Putin picked a guy to be US president who doesn't follow instructions because he thinks he's smart.

[patphil]

53. That's one of the most significant take-away's of Sondland's testamony.

It wasn't about rooting out corruption as respect to the Biden's, it was only about the public illusion that that was what Ukraine was doing.
An illusion that Trump could sell to the American people to destroy Joe Biden's chances of opposing him in the 2020 election.

[AtheistCrusader]

54. It was going to be the 'but her e-mails' drumbeat in the next election.

They were just planting shit, hoping to use it later.

[zentrum]

55. Everyone heard it actually.

Been on NPR all day.

It was not subtle.

[McCamy Taylor]

57. Not looking for corruption, just looking for a phony news story about Biden