Republicans are grasping at straws after EU ambassador Gordon Sondland blew up one of their last defenses of Trump

• The US ambassador to the EU, Gordon Sondland, offered damning testimony against President Donald Trump in the fourth day of public impeachment hearings on Wednesday.
• "We followed the president's orders," Sondland said.
• He testified to the existence of an explicit quid pro quo linking frozen military aid to Ukraine and a desired White House meeting to investigations into Trump's political rivals.
• But Republicans zeroed in on Sondland stating he did not directly communicate with Trump on the security assistance being conditioned on the investigations. 
• The GOP is grasping at straws by focusing on this narrow aspect of Sondland's testimony given the mounting trove of evidence that backs him up. 
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• Follow along with our live coverage of the hearings here.

Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the European Union, shattered key talking points of President Donald Trump and his Republican allies in Congress as he testified before House investigators leading the impeachment inquiry on Wednesday.

"We followed the president's orders," Sondland said, portraying Trump as intricately involved in an effort to pressure Ukraine to launch investigations into his political rivals. He said everything that was done with regard to Ukraine was "at the express direction of the president of the United States."

Sondland also testified that there was an explicit quid pro quo linking the investigations to frozen security assistance to Ukraine and a White House meeting desired by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

"Was there a 'quid pro quo'?" Sondland said, adding, "The answer is yes."

The Oregon hotelier, who donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration committee, also said that the Ukraine efforts he was involved in and the president's intentions were broadly understood at the highest levels of the administration. 

"Everyone was in the loop. It was no secret," Sondland said.

But Republicans ignored the damning aspects of Sondland's testimony, moving past the fact he essentially threw the president under the bus.

Instead, they zeroed in on Sondland testifying that Trump did not "directly" communicate to him that the release of the roughly $400 million in aid to Ukraine was conditioned on the public announcement of investigations by Zelensky. 

Steve Castor, the GOP counsel, tried to hammer this point home as he questioned Sondland.

Sondland throughout the hearing repeatedly stated that he was presuming that the military aid was conditioned on the investigations based on demands to Ukraine from Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and the "absence of any credible explanation for the suspension of aid." 

Republican lawmakers on the panel continued to focus on this throughout the hearing as they sought to portray Sondland's testimony as lacking credibility. 

But the GOP is grasping at straws by focusing on this narrow aspect of Sondland's testimony given the mounting trove of evidence that backs him up. 

Sondland's testimony is corroborated by other witnesses - and evidence provided by the White House

Multiple witnesses in the inquiry, including career officials and decorated military veterans who've worked across Republican and Democratic administrations, have corroborated the existence of a quid pro quo with Trump and Ukraine. 

The acting US ambassador to Ukraine, Bill Taylor, and Trump's former top adviser to the National Security Council on Russia and Europe, Tim Morrison, both testified that the release of the security assistance was conditioned on the public announcement of investigations.

Moreover, Trump's acting White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, said during a press conference that the aid was conditioned on the launch of investigations. Mulvaney at the time said "get over it," before later walking back on his comments after the political firestorm that ensued. 

Sondland is also a Trump loyalist, and Republicans cannot dismiss his testimony as motivated by partisanship. 

The impeachment inquiry spiraled out of a whistleblower complaint that centered on a July 25 phone call between Trump and Zelensky. During the call Trump urged Zelensky to launch investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, and an unfounded conspiracy theory linked to the 2016 election. 

The White House released a memo on the call that showed Trump asked for a "favor" before discussing the investigations after Zelensky mentioned US military assistance to Ukraine. Trump asked Zelensky to work on the investigations with Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr.

The military aid, which had been approved by Congress (the branch of government with the "power of the purse"), was put on hold by Trump just several days before the call.

The president has denied there was a quid pro quo, and offered inconsistent justifications for withholding the security aid - ranging from nebulous concerns over corruption to consternation over other countries in Europe not offering more assistance to Ukraine. 

The congressionally-approved security aid was ultimately released to Ukraine in September - less than a week after three House committees launched a broad investigation "into reported efforts by President Trump, the President's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and possibly others to pressure the government of Ukraine to assist the President's reelection campaign."

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