Donald Trump envoy set to testify hasn’t always been Trump backer

An envoy wrapped up in a congressional impeachment inquiry was a late convert to President Donald Trump, initially supporting another candidate in the Republican primary and once refusing to participate in a fundraiser on his behalf. But Gordon Sondland nonetheless donated $1 million to Trump’s election effort and ultimately scored a plum post as U.S. ambassador to the European Union. Now, a whistleblower’s complaint and text messages released by another envoy portray Sondland as a potentially important witness to allegations that the president sought to dig up dirt on a rival in the name of foreign policy.

Sondland heads to Capitol Hill

On October 8, Sondland heads to Capitol Hill to face questions about the episode, the second time in as many weeks that congressional lawmakers have privately interviewed an ambassador about the president’s push to get Ukraine to investigate Democrat Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 presidential election. Until last week, Sondland was far better known in his home state of Washington than in the nation’s capital, where he finds himself embroiled in an impeachment inquiry centered on a July 25 call between Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart. But even if not accustomed to the global spotlight, the wealthy hotelier, philanthropist and generous benefactor of political campaigns have long been comfortable around the well-connected on both sides of the political aisle.

“He very much enjoyed having personal relationships with those in power,” said David Nierenberg, a Washington state investment adviser who has known Sondland for years. “Some people collect books. Some people collect cars. He collected those relationships.”

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Text messages released

Text messages released by House Democrats show Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, working with another of Trump’s envoys to get Ukraine to agree to investigate any potential interference in the 2016 U.S. election and of the energy company that appointed Biden’s son Hunter to its board. In exchange, the American officials dangled the offer of a Washington meeting with Trump for Ukraine’s new president. There has been no evidence of wrongdoing by Biden or his son.
The messages also show Sondland trying to reassure a third diplomat that their actions were appropriate, but that they should take precautions by limiting their text messages.

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“The President has been crystal clear no quid pro quo’s of any kind. The President is trying to evaluate whether Ukraine is truly going to adopt the transparency and reforms that President Zelensky promise during his campaign,” he wrote, adding, “I suggest we stop the back and forth by text.”

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Washington power broker

Like the president who picked him, Sondland cut an unconventional path to becoming a Washington power broker. The son of German immigrants who fled the Nazis in the 1930s and later founded their own dry cleaning business in Seattle, Sondland is best known in the Pacific Northwest as the founder of the Provenance Hotels chain. He and his wife also established a foundation that’s bestowed millions of dollars on health care and regional arts and culture programs. While Sondland emerges in the texts as in sync with the president’s wishes, he hasn’t always been supportive of Trump himself. He took a meandering path to supporting the president, contributing over the years to eventual Trump adversaries like Mitt Romney and John McCain. In 2015, he donated thousands of dollars to a super PAC associated with Jeb Bush, Trump’s Republican primary opponent.

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