In case you’ve not had the time to peruse the text messages between Administration members concerning the Zelensky phone call – that would be the one that is being investigated via Impeachment Inquiry – that was recently released by Congress, here’s the most interesting part:
[page 9]
A little context is helpful. Gordon Sondland is the United States Ambassador to the European Union. According to Wikipedia,
He was a major donor to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
We may presume he is, like many Ambassadors over many Administrations, an appointee awarded an Ambassadorship as a reward for some service. This is not unusual, at least to those countries which are considered friendly.
William Taylor is currently the Charge d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine. A Charge d’Affaires is a diplomat temporarily in charge of an embassy, presumably while the Ambassador is away or no Ambassador currently holds the appointment. My impression is that Foreign Service personnel are typically career professionals whose political preferences, if any, are not permitted to influence their conduct.
With that information, these messages become more interesting. A naive reading would simply suggest that Taylor was misreading the situation, and Sondland corrected him. However, a more careful reading, keeping the roles and origins of the correspondents in mind, suggests it’s not nearly out of the realm of possibility that Sondland, aware that President Trump might be committing an unethical act that could possibly rise to the level of a High crime or misdemeanor, is suggesting to Taylor that Trump is not thinking that at all, and then suggests the discussion be taken offline, i.e., where it is less likely to be recorded and revealed.
Neither reading is certain, but the fact that the latter is not only possible but probable, suggests the distance to which the rot has radiated.
