Sondland’s testimony could well add up for Democrats

WASHINGTON — Two plus two equals trouble for President Trump.

The House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry produced its most-anticipated witness, an amiable hotelier-turned-diplomat, and he provided, in the vernacular of the Ukraine controversy, the “deliverable.”

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Gordon Sondland, the Trump-appointed ambassador to the European Union, testified Wednesday that there was a quid pro quo with Ukraine.

“Everyone was in the loop,” he said of top administration officials. “It was no secret.”

In a day that saw Sondland alternatively eccentric and riveting, Democrats zeroed in on his account of what they see as a damning quid pro quo. They wanted to learn what he knew about the hold the Trump administration put on nearly $400 million in military aid for Ukraine in exchange for a request the country's leader launch investigations that would help Trump politically.

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