Radio Recap – Impeachment Inquiry: He Said, She Said

The public impeachment hearings continue. There’s a lot of “he said, she said” going on. The only thing that is pretty clear is what President Trump DIDN’T say.

On today’s Jay Sekulow Live, we discussed the continuation of the impeachment hearings.

For the House Majority it was probably the most key day for them. Ambassador Gordon Sondland testified.

While there’s been some confusion about the opening of his testimony, Ambassador Sondland made it abundantly clear that the President never, ever ordered him to do a quid pro quo. It was never tied to any aide.

He admitted that he interpreted certain things this way but when he was asked about what the President ever said in the following exchange with Stephen R. Castor, the House Intelligence Committee Counsel for the Minority

CASTOR: Did the President ever tell you personally about any preconditions for anything?
SONDLAND:No
CASTOR: Ok so the President never told you about any preconditions for the aid to be released.
SONDLAND: No
CASTOR: The President never told you about any preconditions for a White House meeting?
SONDLAND: Personally? No.

He said NO.

As of now, this was supposedly their best witness. There may be some other witnesses but as of right now, this was their chance to convince the country that the President directly ordered something that was inappropriate.

Instead, Ambassador Sondland testified that the President did not.

 Castor asked Ambassador Sondland the following during the hearing:

You know, we have all this back and forth, but you know, as we get to the end here, you don’t have records, you don’t have your notes because you didn’t take notes, you don’t have a lot of recollections, I mean, this is the trifecta of unreliability. Isn’t that true?

Ambassador Sondland had made it a point to mention that he didn’t take notes.

ACLJ Senior Counsel and Director of Policy Harry Hutchison made the following point on the show:

Look at a couple of questions. Did President Trump, according to Ambassador Sondland, condition military aid on launching an investigation of the 2016 campaign? No.

Was the President primarily interested in understanding the role, if any, that Ukraine played in launching the investigation into the Trump campaign? Yes, but there is no conditions tied to any of these meetings.

No quid pro quo is the takeaway from my analysis.

And I agree with Professor Hutchison. No quid pro quo.

We also discussed yesterday’s testimony, where Ambassador Volker and Timothy Morrison were questioned by Congresswoman Elise Stefanik:

STEFANIK: Did Ukraine open an investigation into the Bidens, Mr. Morrison?
MORRISON: Not to my knowledge ma’am.
STEFANIK: Ambassador Volker?
VOLKER: Not to my knowledge, either.
STEFANIK: Did either of you ever have any evidence of ‘quid pro quo?’ Mr. Morrison? Ambassador Volker?
MORRISON: No ma'am.
VOLKER: I did not.
STEFANIK: Any evidence of bribery?
MORRISON: No ma’am.
VOLKER: No ma’am.
STEFANIK: Any evidence of treason?
MORRISON: No ma’am.
VOLKER: No evidence of treason.
STEFANIK: With that, I yield back.

None of the witnesses have testified that President Trump told them to do anything improper. This is simply more sham impeachment from Adam Schiff.

You can listen to the entire episode here.