Trump’s ambassador to the European Union is testifying about what he knew about the president’s alleged attempt to shake down Ukraine for Biden dirt and when he knew it. Over the past few weeks, Ambassador Gordon Sondland seemed like he was toeing the Trump administration’s line, calling the president “crystal clear” about Trump giving Ukraine “no quid pro quos of any kind” and obeying the White House’s instruction
Now, Sondland has disregarded the Trump administration’s instructions to stiff-arm Congress and his open statement hints at some cracks in the otherwise united front among Trump’s Ukraine point men. So who is Gordon Sondland and how did an otherwise middle-of-the-road Republican take a plush job in Europe and turn it into a starring role as hatchet man for a scheme that threatens to unravel the Trump presidency?
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Blame Rudy: After a lengthy silence and plenty of damaging reports about his role in an apparent attempt to pressure Ukraine into manufacturing dirt on the Bidens, one Trump’s “three amigos” on Ukraine policy has finally spoken. In his opening statement before Congress on Thursday, Sondland appeared to point the finger of blame at the president’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and paint himself and his colleagues as reluctant and naive participants in Giuliani’s shadow diplomacy.
Sondland claims that he, former Special Envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker, and Energy Secretary Rick Perry were “disappointed” that Trump instructed the three during a May 23 meeting to work with Giuliani on Ukraine. Why didn’t they just say no? Sondland’s explanation is that the three men were hesitant to step outside normal diplomatic channels and work with Trump’s lawyer but felt that a refusal could jeopardize the U.S.-Ukraine relationship at a critical period.
In a particularly damning statement, Sondland also allows for the possibility that Giuliani could have been trying to force the Ukrainian to gin up dirt on Trump’s would-be 2020 presidential rival. “I did not understand, until much later, that Mr. Giuliani’s agenda might have also included an effort to prompt the Ukrainians to investigate Vice President Biden or his son or to involve Ukrainians, directly or indirectly, in the President’s 2020 reelection campaign,” he wrote.
More cracks: Sondland also raised the subject of the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch. His statement says that he “found her to be an excellent diplomat with a deep command of Ukrainian internal dynamics" and "a delight to work with" and that he "regretted her departure."
The fact that one ambassador has nice things to say about a colleague would seem otherwise innocuous but in this case it’s another sign that Sondland may be breaking with Giuliani—and the president.
In April and May, Giuliani embarked on a public and private whisper campaign against Ambassador Yovanovitch. In May, the president’s lawyer called Yovanovitch “heavily in finding dirty information and creating it on people in the Trump campaign” and made baseless accusations that she was working with liberal financier and activist George Soros.
It also hints at some daylight between Sondland and the president. Trump appears to have bought into Giuliani’s campaign against Yovanovitch. In his July phone call with President Zelensky, Trump said “The former ambassador from the United States, the woman, was bad news and the people she was dealing with in the Ukraine were bad news so I just want to let you know that.”
Meet me in the basement: While Sondland tries to paint himself as a reluctant and unwitting participant in Trump’s Ukraine shadow diplomacy, other members of the administration have pushed back on the notion that the EU ambassador was clueless about what Giuliani and Trump were seeking from the Ukrainian government.
Fiona Hill, Trump’s former top Russia staffer on the National Security Council, told Congress this week that her former boss, fired National Security Adviser John Bolton, blew up at Sondland when he suggested during a July 10 White House meeting with Ukrainian officials that newly elected President Zelensky could get a meeting with Trump if Kyiv began investigating the Biden family. Hill said Bolton later told her to inform White House lawyers that “I am not part of whatever drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up.”
NBC News later reported that Sondland was undeterred by the upbraiding from Bolton and pulled the visiting Ukrainain officials into a private meeting in the White House basement, where he was overheard discussing Burisma Holdings, where former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter had served on the board.
The Donald’s favor: Sondland makes for something of an unlikely Trump hatchet man on Ukraine. During his nomination hearing, the word “Ukraine” never even came up. He testified about the importance of “trade, security, the migrant crisis, Brexit, and the disposition of the [Iran nuclear deal]” as the foremost challenges facing the EU, fielded a few questions on Russia and trade, and sailed through to nomination with bipartisan support.
Once confirmed as U.S. ambassador, Sondland appeared to concern himself primarily with his EU portfolio on paper. He toed the administration’s line on withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, threatened the EU with tariffs, and talked smack on the French.
Curious: So why did the U.S. ambassador to the EU suddenly become so involved in a country that’s not a member? According to a July interview with Sondland, it was at the request of Trump himself. Sondland told Ukrainian state news that Trump put him on Ukraine in order “to emphasize the importance of the relationship”—an implicit acknowledgement of the unusual nature of Trump’s handling of Ukraine policy. Sondland, along with Energy Secretary Rick Perry and (now former) Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker, formed what he said were the “three amigos” of Ukraine policy who, along with embassy officials, had “been tasked with overseeing the Ukraine relationship.”
In his opening statement before testifying Thursday, Sondland seemed to acknowledge how unusual his involvement on Ukraine issues appears. He explained his work on a non-EU country as similar to his work on other countries tangent to his European responsibilities, like Iran, Venezuela, and Georgia. “While a small part of my overall portfolio,” Sondland said, Ukraine “was nevertheless central to my ambassadorial responsibilities."
The scheme begins: It’s unclear when, exactly, Sondland first got involved in the push to get the Ukrainian government to investigate Hunter Biden’s business dealings in the country, but he appeared along with the other two “amigos,” Perry and Volker, at the inauguration of President Vladimir Zelensky in May 2019. The event reportedly served as an early play in the Trump administration’s attempts to squeeze Zelensky. Vice President Mike Pence had been scheduled to attend the event but canceled at the last minute, reportedly at the behest of Trump himself.
As The Daily Beast first reported, Giuliani claimed to have briefed Sondland and Volker on conference calls about his Hunter Biden corruption dirt hunt after he met with Andriy Yermak, a close adviser to Zelensky.
If Giuliani’s recollection is correct, at least some of those calls would have taken place around mid-July. Text messages from Sondland and Volker released by the House Foreign Affairs Committee show that Volker referenced a meeting he had with Giuliani on July 19 and an introduction he made to Yermak.
Giuliani claimed not to have specifically sought out Sondland in his conference call briefings but the ambassador appears to have wasted no time in joining Giuliani’s quest in pressuring Ukrainian officials for Biden dirt. On July 19, he texted Volker that he “spike [sic] directly to Zelensky and gave him a full briefing. He’s got it.”
Sondland later told reporters that he had spoken to both Zelensky and Trump before and after the infamous phone call in which Trump pressured Zelensky to investigate Hunter Biden—including an hour-long session with Zelensky the day after in case he hadn’t quite “got it” still.
A month later, Sondland was still helping Volker put the screws to the Ukrainians. “Do we still want [Zelensky] to give us an unequivocal draft with 2016 and Borsema [sic]?” Sondland texted Volker in mid August. The text appeared to show the two asking Ukraine’s president for a statement affirming two key deliverables Giuliani had been seeking: support for Giuliani’s conspiracy theory that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election by revealing corrupt payments made by its former pro-Russian president to Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager, and an investigation into Burisma Holdings, an energy company where Hunter Biden once served on the board of directors.
It’s good to be the king: As if his Ukraine controversies weren’t enough, Sondland is also facing criticism for dropping a million dollars on an upgrade of his official residence in Brussels. The Washington Post reported that Sondland’s upgrades include $400,000 in kitchen remodeling, a $95,000 outdoor patio, and $30,000 on a sound system. State Department officials told the Post the upgrades were part of a normal refresh to the residence but critics claimed they were driven by the millionaire hotel mogul’s expensive tastes.
An unlikely point man: Sondland made for an odd choice to take the lead in a Ukraine caper that could get Trump impeached. The ambassador to the EU is the kind of cushy posting known more for rewarding high-dollar donors than teeing up a power broker to work on an explosive gambit.
Sondland, himself, also seems out of sorts with the president. While both Trump and Sondland made their fortune in the hotel business and dabbled in Republican politics, the similarities end there. Sondland comes off as a conventional Republican who shares more in common, politically, with Trump’s conservative adversaries than those with MAGA bona fides. In contrast to the more divisive donors in the inner rungs of Trump’s orbit, Sondland’s donations extend to a few Democratic politicians as well as a handful of cultural and philanthropic causes.
His political contribution history shows donations to mainstream Republican candidates who are among Trump’s biggest political adversaries in the GOP. Sondland contributed to occasional Trump target Mitt Romney during his 2012 presidential campaign. In 2015, he donated to “low energy” Trump primary rival Jeb Bush and the Right to Rise Super PAC set up to support him.
Sondland also explicitly criticized Trump during the 2016 campaign after the then-candidate criticized Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the parents of an American-Muslim soldier killed in Iraq in 2004. Sondland claimed he had backed out of a Seattle, Washington, fundraiser for Trump “in light of Mr. Trump’s treatment of the Khan family.”
Like many Republicans, Sondland eventually bent the knee and offered his support to Trump. Going public as a Trump supporter wasn’t easy, at least initially. Sondland used four limited liability corporations to donate a million dollars to the Trump inaugural committee after the election. The cryptically named companies like “BV-2 LLC” kept Sondland’s donor status quiet for a while until The Intercept discovered that they all used Sondland’s own home address in their registration paperwork.
Being an ambassador in Europe, even for a president he’d said didn’t share his values, was more important, though. As one Sondland associate told The Seattle Times, “This is what he wanted and long sought.”
