It's going to be hard to employ the no quid-pro-quo defense against texts like 'I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign”
Photo: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images Last week, as Republicans scrambled to defend the president against the evidence of his Ukrainian plot to pressure Kiev into investigating the Bidens in exchange for $391 million in military aid, they accidentally sent their talking points to Democrats in the Senate and House. One of the more prominent Sunday-circuit crutches stated: “Let’s be clear, there was no quid pro quo for Ukraine to get US aid in exchange for looking into Biden or his son.
Late on Thursday, that argument collapsed when leaders of the House impeachment inquiry sent a public letter to House lawmakers, including 22 pages of text messages that former envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker provided in his House testimony — messages that he sent to European Union ambassador Gordon Sondland, Ukrainian administration staff, and former Ukraine ambassador Bill Taylor.
Three texts are worth highlighting, as they immediately shatter the notion that the administration did not engage in a quid pro quo when they withheld aid in order to influence Ukraine into investigating a political rival.
By September 1, the you-investigate, we-provide-aid dynamic was established, as is apparent by Taylor’s text to Sonland conveniently laying out the exchange Trump has been pining for. Poor Gordon Sondland — All he wanted to do was to commit impeachable offenses, but over the phone. You can almost feel his face-palm in the acerbic “call me” reply to Taylor, who appears to have never stepped into a law school classroom, or has never seen a mob movie. In another text from September 9, he outlines the plot even more explicitly: “As I said on the phone, I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.
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