here s just part of what is in this opening statement that he will read before the committee in moments. sondland will say, and i m quoting now, i know that members of this committee have frequently framed these complicated issues in the form of a simple question. was there a quid pro quo? as i testified previously with regard to the requested white house call and white house meeting, the answer is yes. the ambassador will then go on to say and once again i m quoting, everyone was in the loop. it was no secret. everyone was informed via email on july 19th, days before the presidential call. and as i communicated to the team, i told president zelensky in advance that assurances to run a fully transparent investigation and turn over every stone were necessary in his call with president trump. let s go to our senior congressional correspondent manu raju up on capitol hill.
the emerging narratives, rudy giuliani was out here freelancing, rudy giuliani was the guy causing trouble in ukraine on his own. not so says sondland. sondland said it was the president of the united states who directed everyone else to work through rudy giuliani. that is the connective tissue here, if you will, that democrats have been looking for as they try to place that one phone call, the phone call that started all of this, into broader context about the way democrats believe the president of the united states was using his personal attorney to get political benefit out of what should have been the work of the state department, nsc, the ambassadors around the world, all of whom sondland will say, a trump appointed ambassador to the european union will say we were sidelined in favorite of the president s personal attorney on work that he will claim ignorance about to some degree, but which we now know involves asking for investigations into his political opponents. kristen, to
when both have to do with the same basic principle of undue foreign influence and allowing other powers to control our politics and dictate our national security. when it comes to impeach, jill is right. this isji a question of time an how many articles. i ve talked to democratic leadership who believe they also have the goods with the transcript, sondland will say, reportedlyy, later this week th it was a quid pro quo, but just not a corrupt quid pro quo. there s more that s going to come out. these witnesses, unlike with the mueller investigation, are actually cooperating. they are coming on their own of their own volition. if the white house tries to block them, then they re responding tore subpoenas. so the question now is how formal aform al does speaker pelosi want to force this?