Nov. 5, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in light of former Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland’s statement that he “presumed” military assistance to Ukraine was being conditioned by the administration but that he “did not know… when, why, or by whom the aid was suspended”:
“The quid pro quo presumption by Speaker Pelosi and Chairman Schiff turns out is based entirely Ambassador Sondland’s stated ‘presumption’ to a Ukrainian presidential aide on Sept. 1 that a pause in military assistance could be ended through a public statement that Ukraine was looking into the origins of the Russiagate investigation in Ukraine and an anti-corruption probe of Burisma Holdings. The fact that Sondland testified under oath that he did not know who suspended the aid, did not know the aid had been suspended until Politico reported it on Aug. 28, and no one gave him any instructions on what the Ukrainian government could do to restore the aid creates a dead end for Schiff. This conversation by Sondland to Yermak immediately followed a face-to-face meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Vice President Mike Pence on Sept. 1 in Warsaw, where Zelensky directly asked Pence about the military aid, receiving an answer that clearly did not convey any action that the Ukrainian government needed to take. Why else would a Zelensky aide then query Sondland asking for clarity on this issue? That proves there was no quid pro quo, and the Pelosi-Schiff impeachment farce is simply relying on an out-of-the-loop ambassador reacting to news reports about the suspended aid and speaking out of turn.
“This whole thing is a house of cards. The more we learn about the Pelosi-Schiff impeachment fraud, the more it is clear that the House Intelligence Committee is producing sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 1 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview.
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