Nov. 20, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in response to U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland’s testimony that “never received a clear answer” as to why the military aid to Ukraine was suspended:
“The Sondland testimony is nothing more than kicking over the same rocks that already been turned over in his prior testimony. The simple fact remains that Sondland mistakenly ‘presumed’ by his own testimony that the release of military aid to Ukraine was conditioned to a public statement by Ukraine on investigating corruption. He says, ‘No one told me directly that the aid was tied to anything.’ Sondland then acted as patient zero spreading this notion throughout the foreign service and to Ukraine even though he admits in his own testimony no one told him that any quid pro quo related to the aid existed.
“To sum up, Sondland’s presumption about military aid is the root of the entirety of the Democratic case, but nobody told him to condition the aid as he per his testimony ‘never received a clear answer’ as to why the military aid to Ukraine was suspended. The actual quid pro quo for a meeting which Sondland references had already been dismissed as the meeting which the Ukrainian government wanted on Sept. 1 (which Trump was going to attend until a hurricane hit the U.S.) was already happening without any public statement having ever been issued, as other diplomats have testified.”
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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