Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) openly speculated on Wednesday night that U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland recently changed his impeachment testimony because he was now partnered up with “Democratic operatives” and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA).
Graham, who has been one of the president’s fiercest defenders amid the Ukraine scandal, appeared on Fox News’ The Story with Martha MacCallum to address Sondland suddenly recalling that he did tell Ukrainian officials that they needed to make a “public anti-corruption statement that we had been discussing for many weeks” to receive U.S. military aid. One of the main targets of the “anti-corruption” investigations was Burisma, the company on whose board Hunter Biden served.
“Not one person has talked to President Trump about whether or not he wanted a quid pro quo,” Graham insisted. “[State Department diplomat Bill] Taylor is saying he assumed there was a quid pro quo based on what Sondland told him, the EU ambassador. He said previously there was not, now his memory has been refreshed.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Host Martha MacCallum asked Graham about Schiff’s claim after the release of testimony transcripts that “most important facts are largely not contested” and that Trump enlisted the government to “in the illicit aim of trying to get Ukraine to dig up dirt on a political opponent as well as further conspiracy theory about the 2016 election.”
“That statement is full of crap,” the South Carolina lawmaker groused before offering conspiracies about Sondland, who donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund.
“Why did Sondland change his testimony?” Graham wondered aloud. “Was there a connection between Sondland and Democratic operatives on the committee? Did he talk to Schiff? Did he talk to Schiff’s staffers?”
“I’ve been a lawyer for a very long time,” he continued. “When someone remembers something they didn’t know before it makes me incredibly suspicious. Why did Sondland change his mind? What prompted him to change his mind about maybe there was a quid pro quo when I said there wasn’t?”
Graham’s speculation about a Trump donor suddenly shifting course and helping the Deep State take down the president comes on the heels of another interesting defense of Trump the senator tried out on Wednesday.
“What I can tell you about the Trump policy toward Ukraine: It was incoherent, it depends on who you talk to, they seem to be incapable of forming a quid pro quo,” he told reporters. “So no, I find the whole process to be a sham and I’m not going to legitimize it.”
