Watergate Prosecutor Says Gordon Sondland’s Testimony Is ‘As Bad As It Gets’ For President Trump
Though President Donald Trump and most of his GOP allies insist that the president is still in the clear in the wake of several witness testimonies, Nick Akerman, a former U.S. attorney who famously prosecuted the Watergate case, thinks that one witness in particular sealed the deal for House Democrats.
According to The Hill, Akerman was adamant that U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland’s televised testimony in front of the House Intelligence Committee was a “tipping point” and damaging enough to remove any doubt that some form of bribery was used by Trump in his dealings with Ukraine.
“There’s no defense to any of it now, there’s nothing. What’s he going to say, the Devil made me do it? That’s what they’re left with. There’s no good defense. There’s no good reason why he did this. It’s purely for personal campaign purposes,” Akerman said.
Sondland was the first witness to say, without a doubt, that a quid pro quo took place between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. House Democrats claim that Trump purposely dangled a much-needed, nearly $400 million U.S. military aid package in front of the Ukrainian government in exchange for opening up an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.
That kind of investigation would theoretically provide Trump with potentially damaging political ammunition against what is likely to be one of his top 2020 election opponents.
“What we’re really talking about here is two things: bribery and extortion. That’s what the facts amount to,” Akerman said, describing what he believes Sondland confirmed in his testimony.
“Bribery is important because bribery is listed in the U.S. Constitution as an impeachable offense in addition to high crimes and misdemeanors,” he added.
Akerman said that Sondland’s testimony will present a major hurdle for Republicans, as he claimed the evidence from Sondland’s testimony objectively proves that bribery and extortion took place between the two leaders.
“If you’re ever going to impeach a president on anything, this is about as bad as it gets,” he said.
Akerman’s prediction that the president is in a worse position after Sondland’s testimony came one day after a new Gallup poll revealed a slight uptick in overall approval of Trump’s performance on the job. As The Inquisitr reported, the poll was taken during the first two weeks of November and only managed to capture the first day of live impeachment inquiry testimony.
The president scored a 43 percent approval rating in the survey, which was a two-point bump from the same poll in October. His disapproval rating dropped from 57 percent to 54 percent.
