PERJURY
When the text of Bill Taylor’s opening statement to the House impeachment inquiry surfaced this evening, we pointed out that Taylor’s testimony appeared to nail Gordon Sondland for perjury. If so, this would be a big deal, because a felony perjury referral could ensure that Sondland goes to prison after the Trump era is over. Now it turns out House Democrats are thinking precisely along those lines.
Olivia Gazis of CBS News posted this tweet this evening: “One Democrat lawmaker says Amb. Sondland may indeed be facing a criminal referral for perjury.” It’s not so much about whether or not Gordon Sondland goes to prison; if Donald Trump is brought to justice, few will remember or care whether or not a pawn like Sondland did time. What matters here is the leverage involved.
If House Democrats make a perjury referral against Gordon Sondland and it’s a provable case, it’ll mean that Sondland is earmarked for indictment and prison the minute Donald Trump and Bill Barr no longer control the DOJ. Sondland is a successful businessman who’s in way over his head in the political arena. He’s also the kind of middleman who’s not getting a Trump pardon.
Gordon Sondland’s only shot at keeping himself out of prison will be go to back to the House impeachment inquiry, fess up about his lies, come clean about his true role in Donald Trump’s Ukraine scandal, and hope that his cooperation ends up being enough to keep him from getting indicted once this is over. Short of that, Sondland might as well start trying on his prison stripes, because he’ll need them eventually.
