violate appropriation laws to his higher up, michael duffy. duffy, a political appointee took the lead on approving omb funds for foreign aid, a process typically overseen by career officials. sandy testified it was not until around september the 9th days before the money was released he was told the reason for the initial halt was because of president trump s desire to see other countries contribute more aid to ukraine. sandy added two career officials in the omb office resigned over their frustrations surrounding the unknown reason for the aid holdup. this is more testimony, this is more evidence that adam schiff has to work with. we didn t know about this specifically, that mr. sandy said officials were resigning in protest of this unexplained holdup for a long time of aid to ukraine. i think we were talking about this a little bit before the show. i think everything that comes out is of a piece. there are very few facts that contradict other facts.
no quid pro quo. ambassador sondland testified that took place in a phone call from the president to ambassador sondland on september the 9th. what is your reaction to that and your response to that that that is somehow exculpatory? it s nonsense and you ve covered that pretty well. we know that they knew about the whistle-blower report at that point. i asked sondland what he wanted and unprompted the president said no quid pro quo as if that s an expression that people use when people ask you what you want. it s almost as if somebody had told him there s a whistle-blower saying you re pressuring a foreign leader, you re soliciting a bribe, so you better deny the key legal element which is quid pro quo and he did so. but as joe pointed out, you know, pretty colorfully, you don t get a lot of credit for that when you re already busted. absolutely. the testimony, to be specific, this is from ambassador
then there was a telephone call to you on september the 9th. had he ever talked to you prior to that telephone call? let me just tell you, i hardly know the gentleman. he has done that before. i heard that before. i don t know the guy. anyway, of course, this is the first time the president has used the i hardly knew him defense to minimize his ties to people who may pose a threat to him. james comey, i hardly know the man. i m not going to say, i want you to pledge allegiance. i never met him. i don t know putin. i don t know matt whitaker. he worked for jeff sessions. manafort has nothing to do with our campaign. that s why they have a ricoh charge. who loves to pull this, set it up like this? they have everybody doing what they want them to do but they can deny all the relationships. one thing we ve also seen through trump s presidency is that when he tries to use this defense, it can backfire. in the case of michael cohen it s clear that part of the
mic mulvaney the president s chief of staff under fire. two have testified he put the hold on both the military aid for ukraine and a meeting between the two heads of state. their source, the u.s. ambassador gordon sondlond. he s not just a presidential appointee. he also gave a million dollars towards the president s inauguration. last month he called him a really good man and a great american. today however, president trump acted like he hardly knew the guy. gordon sondlond said at the beginning of september he presumed there was a quid pro quo. then there was a telephone call to you on september the 9th. had he ever talked to you before? i hartly know the gentleman. back with us jeffrey toobin and maggie haberman. it was so predictable that this would happen.
president s chief of staff, under fire tonight. two national security aides have testified he put the hold he put the hold on both the military aid for ukraine and a meeting between the two heads of state. their source, the u.s. ambassador to the eu, gordon sondland. he s not just a presidential appointee, though. he also gave a million dollars towards the president s inauguration. in fact, just last month on twitter, the president called ambassador sondland, quote, a really good man and a great american. today, however, president trump acted like he hardly knew the guy. gordon sondland said at the beginning of september he presumed there was a quid pro quo. then there was a telephone call to you on september the 9th. had he ever talked to you prior to that telephone call? let me just say i hardly know the gentleman. back with us, jeffrey toobin and maggie haberman. it was so predictable this would happen. we saw this before with paul manafort, person after person. michael co