THENEWYORKER,DECEMBER2, 2019 15
COMMENT
INTHELOOP
O
n July 29, 1986, at the King David
Hotel in Jerusalem, Vice-Presi-
dent George H.W. Bush met with Ami-
ram Nir, a counterterrorism adviser to
the Israeli government. Nir briefed Bush
in detail about the latest doings in a
shadow foreign-policy scheme autho-
rized by President Ronald Reagan. With
Israel’s help, the United States had se-
cretly sent arms to Iran, in the expec-
tation that American hostages held by
Iranian proxies in Lebanon would be
released. Reagan had pledged never to
negotiate with terrorists, yet Bush had
endorsed the operation and, according
to a retired Air Force general who was
involved in it, was “very attentive, very
interested” in Nir’s update. That No-
vember, news broke about what became
known as the Iran-Contra scandal,
which eventually led to the indictments
of fourteen Administration officials.
Early on, Bush spoke about his role in
a manner that was “at best misleading
and at worst a lie,” in the judgment of
Jon Meacham, his authorized biogra-
pher. Secretary of State George Shultz
remarked privately that Bush was get-
ting drawn into a “web of lies. Blows
his integrity. He’s finished, then.”
In the unravelling of White House
malfeasance, there comes a time when
the bonds of omertà dissolve and the
reckonings of high-level conspirators
begin. In the case of Donald Trump’s at-
tempt to bully Ukraine into investigat-
ing Democrats for his political gain, that
juncture seemed to arrive last week, with
the testimony of Gordon Sondland,
Trump’s Ambassador to the European
Union. Sondland had earlier given a
closed-door deposition to the House In-
telligence Committee, which is conduct-
ing the impeachment inquiry into Trump.
Last week, in public, he set out to clar-
ify the “bigger picture” on Ukraine. He
explained, “We followed the President’s
orders” while carrying out a wide-rang-
ing effort to strong-arm Ukraine’s Pres-
ident, Volodymyr Zelensky, into aiding
Trump’s reëlection. Was there a quid pro
quo? “The answer is yes,” Sondland de-
clared. His remarks were replete with
such lines for the ages. One in particu-
lar seemed certain to jolt Vice-President
Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo: “Everyone was in the loop.”
Pence and Pompeo have sought to
evade accountability in the Ukraine
affair. Pompeo is reportedly consider-
ing a Senate run in Kansas next year;
both men are seen as eventual contend-
ers for a Republican Presidential nom-
ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOÃO FAZENDA
THE TALK OF THE TOWN
ination. Since September, as sundry rats
on Trump’s foundering ship of state
have scurried for dry ground, Pompeo
and Pence have addressed the Ukraine
matter tersely, protected in part by White
House stonewalling of House subpoe-
nas for documents and testimony. Sond-
land’s appearance has made their at-
tempts at political finesse considerably
more difficult.
Sondland is a Trump-lite figure who
made a fortune in hotels and donated
a million dollars to Trump’s inaugural
committee before the President ap-
pointed him to the ambassadorship. In
that role, he joined the Administration’s
attempt, earlier this year, to persuade
Zelensky to announce investigations
into former Vice-President Joe Biden
and his son, Hunter, and also into sup-
posed coöperation between the Dem-
ocrats and Ukraine during the 2016 cam-
paign. Hunter Biden served on the board
of Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company,
when his father was Vice-President;
both Bidens deny any wrongdoing.
Fiona Hill, who, until earlier this year,
served as the Trump Administration’s
top N.S.C. expert on Russia, forcefully
testified on Thursday that claims of
Ukrainian electoral interference are a
“fictional narrative.”
To undermine the Democrats, Trump
asked Sondland to work with his per-
sonal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and Sond-
land duly attended meetings with Ze-
lensky, while coördinating with the U.S.
Embassy in Kyiv and the White House.
Throughout, his boss at the State De-
partment, Pompeo, “knew what we were
doing and why,” Sonderland testified.
It was already clear that, as the campaign
