House Democrats appear to hint that Gordon Sondland is completely screwed
Back when John Bolton’s version of Donald Trump’s Ukraine scandal first leaked to the media, we wrote that U.S. Ambassador Gordon Sondland faced a tough choice. He could either fess up to his full role in the scandal, or he could make the risky move of lying under oath. He appeared to choose the latter, and subsequent testimony from Fiona Hill and Bill Taylor has prompted some House Democrats to talk openly of referring Sondland for perjury. Now it’s gotten worse.
House Democrats are now telling the Daily Beast that certain House impeachment inquiry witnesses tried to coordinate their stories before testifying, with the implication being that they conspired to come up with a version of events that wasn’t true. No names are being named by the Democrats. But considering that the Democrats have already openly accused Sondland of perjury, while not having publicly complained about any other witnesses by name, it’s not too difficult to figure out that Sondland is one of the people they’re accusing of having conspired to tell a false story.
Still, it takes at least two to tango, and at least one other witness would need to have been conspiring with Sondland. Daily Beast is pointing out that Kurt Volker is the only other witness who’s testified thus far who appears to have cooperated with Donald Trump’s Ukraine scheme at any point, and would thus be the only other person to have any motivation for coming up with a cover story. But the Democrats haven’t publicly done any complaining about Volker’s testimony, so that isn’t necessarily a fit.
If witnesses are conspiring with each other, it’s never a good thing for democracy, so to speak. But there are two key upsides here for the House Democrats. First, if two of the witnesses are tainted, it means the Democrats can simply leave those witnesses out of the mix once the televised impeachment testimony begins, and simply stick to the witnesses who are solid. Second, if they really do have one or more witnesses nailed for perjury, they can use the threat of future post-Trump prosecution to try to pressure them into coming clean and fully cooperating with the impeachment process.
