White house official who listened to call visibly shaken and what new evidence of growing support for the impeachment inquiry means for democrats. We are dedetermined to find the answers. All that and what happened at the Supreme Court today when the Trump Administration argued that employers can discriminate against lgbt workers. When all in starts right now. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. Well, here we are. The white house is now openingly defying Congress Power to investigate the president for high crimes and misdemeanors. Just tonight white House Counsel cept an unhinged eight page letter to nancy pelosi and the Democratic House chairs investigating trump. It accuses them of violating the constitution and rule of law by depriving trump of his rights during a trial. Even though, to be clear, an impeachment trial is not whats happening. It wouldnt take place until much later in the senate. And thats not how any of this works. The letter asserts, quote, President Trump cannot permit his administration to participate in this partisan inquiry under these circumstances. Of course, participation isnt really optional. The constitution is pretty plain on this, the house of representatives shall have the sole power of impeachment and this is the latest assertions he is fundamentally above the law. The state department ordered a key witness, a trump appointee in the growing ukraine scandal not to appear before congress and theres good reason to believe that witness is at the center of the entire scandal. Theres evidence President Trump corruptly coercing an occupied country to manufacture dirt on his political opponent. So congressional investigators dont really need anything else, but theres good reason to believe the Trump White House is still hiding a lot, and the key to what theyre hiding is a man that they would not let testify today, his name is Gordon Sondland and hes the American Ambassador to the European Union and he has a close relationship with President Trump. In 2017 he gave a Million Dollars to trumps nugeration committee anonymously, and it appears he got his job as a kind of thank you note. Sondland boasted in an interview earlier this year he was running a Foreign Policy to ukraine even though there was no reason whatsoever for him to be running point on ukraine. President trump has not only honored my with the job of being the u. S. Ambassador to the eu, but hes also given me other special assignments including ukraine as i mentioned previously. We have the three amygoes and they are secretary perry, again ambassador volker and myself. And weve been tasked with sort of overseeing the ukraine, u. S. Relationship. Again, hes the u. S. Ambassador to the eu. The ukraine is not in the eu. Nbc news reports, quote, sondland is part of a small cadre of ambassadors. The two speak frequently by phone, have spoken extensively about ukraine in the past, so sondland, a friend to the president ends up running point on ukraine after we should note they removed a career ambassador who had the job of ambassador to ukraine. Parnl she was removed because she was an obstacle to the coercion play that Rudy Giuliani and the president were cooking up. Now the washington reports that when others in the Trump Administration tried to block sondlands naked power grab, quote, he rebuffed their demands to know who granted him such authority with two words, the president. Remember the chain of events, and he was the one texting with Career Foreign Service officer bill taylor in those texts that were released. Remember taylor said to Gordon Sondland, quote, i think its crazy to with hold Security Assistance for help with a political campaign. And what we know is that Gordon Sondland waited five hours to respond. Multiple news outlets are now reporting during that period of time he talked to trump presumably to come up with a cover story before he responded in writing to the Career Foreign Service guy calling him out for quid pro quo. And five hours later with a hilarious worded up text, quote, the president has been Crystal Clear no quid pro quos of any kind. He ends, quote, i suggest we stop the back and forth by text. What we also know is that esondland had already described what was happening to republican senator ron johnson as a quid pro quo. Gordon sondland knew what was happening. He knew what he was tasked with doing. He was the president s guy implementing the president s policy of corruptly coercing a foreign power and that policy in crew crane was to dig up dirt on the president s political inquiries. Remember that lawyered up text. Quote, the president has been crystal kier, no quid pro quos of any kind and he said that to Career Foreign Service knowing full well that investigators some way was going to read it. Now just today the president cited that very same text that sondland presumably cooked up with the president as an albi. I believe you are incorrect about President Trumps intentions, the president has been Crystal Clear, no quid pro quos of any kind. That says it all. First of all, it was not a tweet. It was a text message. But heres the other thing about Gordon Sondland, Gordon Sondland buzz planning to cooperate. Gordon sondland flew in from brussels. He turned over Text Messages from his personal device which i should note included texts using the crypted messages from whatapp. Theyre willing to risk looking like theyre engaged in an active cover up just to not let this guy tell what he knows under oath. And based on that, you our viewer, can draw your conclusions about what it is he does know. Its worth noting there are already several smoking guns. The notes from trumps call with the president of ukraine, the call where trump responded by saying, quote, i would like you to do us a favor, though, and that was after trump had just complained about the relationship between the countries saying, quote, the United States has been very, very good to ukraine. I would not say that its reciprocal necessarily. Every day brings us new reporting about the scope and also crucially about how freaked out people at the white house were. The people close to the call and close to the policy. Fox news, yes, that fox news first reported that the whistleblower who tipped off congress to the scandal wrote a different memo a day after trumps call with the president. A day after that memo the white house official who heard the entirety of the phone call described it as crazy, frightening and completely lack in substance related to National Security. The New York Times added to that according to the memo the white house official was visibly shaken by what had transpired. In the officials view the president had clearly committed a criminal act by urging a foreign power to investigate a u. S. Person for the purpose of advancing his own reelection bid in 2020. A criminal acts, thats a white house official. People in the white house saw that it wasnt a perfect phone call. In fact, it was so far from perfect that a slew of people who had heard it were worried immediately that the law had been broken. Here with me now one of the Washington Post reporters whos written about the relationship with ukraine greg miller whos also the author of the apprentice, trump, russia and the subversion of american democracy. What have we learned to how central sondland was to this entire affair . Good he shows up over and over to this crinology as you just laid out. He is basically really trying to impress the president. He donates a Million Dollars as you noted through hidden channel tuesday the inaugural committee so that he can get a position like this in government. And then as people in the white house told us even though hes ambassador to the eu, he is shuttling back to washington with such frequency seeking face time with the president they started joking hes more ambassador to the west wing than to brussels. And i mean in his own words, right, in his own texts he is placing himself in charge of this relationship with ukraine, pursuing this transaction that the president wanted. And i think probably being the most energetic person outside of donald trump and Rudy Giuliani in the pursuit of that objective. Theres two moments where we know that Gordon Sondland talk tuesday the president. Once by his own admission and once by reporting. The other is right before he responds to that incredibly, you know, whistle blowing text that what youre doing is quid pro quo basically in effect with that very lawyered up text. That suggests to me he and trump are coordinating at some point. Yeah, and you would think in that sort of position if you were watching the events in this white house for the past couple of years you might be inclined to consult with somebody besides donald trump if youre trying to cover tracks on Something Like this. You know, it just sort of backfires in a very big way. He does have a close relationship with the president. Its something he worked to develop and in this case hes interacting with am president at very crucial moments in that time line. What happened today . It seems this took the house investigative committees by surprise. It took House Republicans carg to reporting by surprise. What happened today . You know, its hard to say. I mean we had ambassador volker who was also on those text exchanges to be the first in line to meet with the Committee Last week and to get his testimony but he quit his government job to do that. And we saw markers laid down by the Trump Administration last week, in particular secretary of state pompeo basically saying indicating very clearly there would not be cooperation with this inquiry. And so im not sure why it was such a surprise that sondland was blocked from testifying today. I think it would have been to some people more surprising if he had been allowed to proceed. Although we should note i think he could fly back from brussels. There wasnt anticipation among some at least including mr. Sondland that he was sent he wouldnt have flown back otherwise. There was also an important distinction between his testimony and ambassador volkers in that volker brought all his messages with him. Sondland didnt do that. Sondland turns them over to state. And so those are things the committee desperately wants to get at as well and it will now have to fight for. In that white house today it suggests its going to be a and theres a bunch of evidence about them. Thank you very much. Id like to matt miller, an msnbc justice and National Security analyst and former National Security advisor and representative to the united nations. When i first started to see this story i thought to myself i must be missing something. Why is the ambassador to eu the one in the middle of this . Ukraines not in the eu but the more im learning the more it seems it had nothing to do with his port foal you. Is this a strange setup . Its very strange. Ambassador sondland was new to the game, got sucked in to the awe of being in the trumps orbit. The president has got the authority to tell him to do whatever he wants and the president chose to have him take over the ukraine portfolio because he would do what he wanted the fact he didnt testify today frankly was not a surprise to me. I was stunned they got as far to the end before they pulled the plug, and its important to see the real stories. We have it Text Messages, the president s admission. And investigate a theory about emails and to investigate biden but we know that and thats enough to move forward on an impeachment effort. But theyre also trying to figure out what else happened. Is their testimony peag used to have youll yawny and all these others lawyer flying around, who held up the aid, and i also think the three amygoes we hear about earlier on in the show, theyre going to have to lawyer up and ultimately there will be casualties in this administration and rick perry is on his way out the door and v e volker has already resigned. And everyone caught in this web is eventually going to have to lawyer up and the president doesnt care, hell find someone else to do the bidding. But the truth will come out. What the president doesnt understand is that congress is a coequal branch of gernment and he can delay and execute an attack, but ultimately this is not like running his business. Its a coequal branch of government and hes going to lose this fight. Do you believe the truth will come out . I think it will mostly come out. I dont think its going to come out through the subpoena process or the house are requesting documents. I think the white house has made the decision that if the political costs from obstructing this investigation, the political cost of executing coverup is lower than the cost of turning over information. We should say that one news cycle of one guy that goes in kirk volker and its massively incriminating. You geteds of quid pro quo and if you want the meeting of the president you need to open these investigations. So i think the white house is i think, you know, greg miller was right. If a week ago the white house had said therapy going to let sondland testify and the thing surprising is the way it happened today because as you noted he flew to the United States, hired a private attorney and been prepping for testimony. And the fact the white house pulled his testimony at the last minute tells me they said a problem. Either he was going to have to talk about his conversations with the president and those were incriminating or the conversations with giuliani or Mick Mulvaney and i think the white house is going to make that decision over and over again. And whats going to happen the truth if it comes out will come out because of whistle blowers or people like kirk volker who decide that my career and my ongoing viability, my ability to work again in washington or professional life is more important to me than going down with the ship at the white house. Ambassador . I think its important for the press, the congress, those who care about the National Security over our country also to push away this moat that the president keeps throwing up about whats happening and look at whats really happening. We know what happened in ukraine. We dont really need a lot of investigation on that. My guess is it had less to do what sondland had to say and more about this letter. Look at whats happening in the rest of the world. We have this crisis with the kurds where we learn today the president on his own decision invited president erdogan on the verge and perhaps after he slaughtered kurds who were our allies and helped us defeat isis in syria, constantly you have one man just making his own decisions without involving his core National Security team, and thats what happened in ukraine, and thats why sondland was protinto this. He doesnt want to work within the system. You had the attorney state where senator johnson on a talk show says he doesnt trust our own fbi and cia. If theres something there, those are the professionals that should be investigating this, and its just going to be a crisis of chaos. Its not going to end well for any of the parties participating in that. Finally, matt, do you think all these people are going to ultimately have to lawyer up . Without a doubt. Some of them they obviously have access to attorneys provided to them by the administration. But i think ultimately this was the decision i was talk about a minute ago, if youre someone whos been subpoenaed by the house and seen yourself implicated through leaks to the media eventually you have to decide am i going to take advice from lawyers of it state department, the Justice Department or am i going to get my own attorney who has my interest at heart . I was in that position and the lawyers i have been through that in some of the 19 6 and investigations. The lawyers and the government advise you to hire your own lawyer because everyone one of these are going to have to hire their own lawyer. Thank you for sharing your time. Next, the Trump Administration argues they are basically above the law and in the process makes a case so flat out bananas that even the judge needed to take a beat. What they said in two minutes. What they said in two minutes. Hi. Maria ramirez mom maria Maria Ramirez. Mcdonalds is committing 150 Million Dollars in tuition assistance, education, and career advising programs. Prof Maria Ramirez mom and dad Maria Ramirez to help more employees achieve their dreams. Of all the days for Donald Trumps department of justice to walk into court and basically argue tat the watergate coverup should have been allowed to happen, today was the day they chose to do that. The very same day that the white house notified the house that the Trump Administration will not participate and democrats quoteunquote illegitimate impe