something that as we reported at the time was contradicted by other insiders. democrats pressing sondland on potential perjury for those very claims. perjury to congress is no joke. today roger stone is starting his own criminal trial for the same thing, for lying to congress. so how does a diplomat change his story under these conditions? by suddenly remembering and recalling things. in this new testimony out for the first time today, sondland says some version of i now recall eight different times, in order to change the story about the core of this impeachment case. saying he now recalls bribery, and he now recalls the plotting and the scheming and the detailed financial pressure put on ukraine in the bribery plot. so that s the context. now to a simple highlights for you, brand new. sondland testifying he told ukraine they would get no u.s. aid without the investigations that trump wanted. okay, right there, that is
trump s point person confirming the way trump sought this bribe. he wanted something from ukraine, the biden probe. he wasn t giving them that u.s. aid unless they bribed trump with the fro they wanted this whole investigative storm they were tookicooking up to hit joen and box him in. sondland now telling congress trump, quote, he wanted it public. okay. two more simple things. when asked what he thought about asking ukraine to investigate the bidens, this whole bribery plot that sondland was working on, he now testifies he thought it was, quote, improper and he assumed it was illegal. that is not good. that is all new tonight. now, sondland also revealed now details of a key call that he
probe by someone who as of tonight still works for president trump. i turn now to former federal prosecutor joyce vance and john flannery as well as emily bazlan from the new york times magazine. john, this sounds like very damning testimony yes. from maybe one of the worst people with the closest hands and action on the bribery plot for the trump white house. right, it does. it s an important piece of corroboration for the others that seem to come forward unblemished and talk in full voice about what happened. i have the feeling from this that reading his statement that he s still a reluctant declarant, if you will. in his statement he says he had his recollection refreshed and so forth. but he comes to the table and
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sondland, he is a trump donor who has been defending donald trump and echoing trump s denials even after the impeachment probe launched. now sondland rattling trump world, striking at the heart of trump s impeachment defense and that s not all. this is a very simple and damning development for trump tonight. i m about to show you a few simple highlights from the new testimony. but before we even do that, here is the incriminating context, and this is something anybody can understand, even somebody with an open mind about whether or not trump did a bribery plot. mr. sondland is not just pointing a finger at the white house right now, he s doing so in the guiltiest possible way, by walking back and revising his past testimony that was initially more friendly to trump. democratic investigators already saying this shows a consciousness of a cover-up because sondland is changing or reversing the past testimony that was defending trump. where he played down why the crucial money for ukraine