Senator Ron Johnson — The First of Many Rats?
By Daryl Auguste (@augustedaryl)
The silence from Republican Senators has been deafening. So it was especially surprising to see US Republican Senator Ron Johnson throw an unforeseen wrench into the Trump administration’s Ukraine defense by confirming the discussion of a quid pro quo surrounding the Trump administration’s politically motivated pressure campaign.
Johnson’s admission puts added pressure on EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland. Sondland is already at the center of recent texts released by the US House intelligence committee. In these texts between the EU envoy and US Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor, Sondland cautiously warns Taylor against the idea that Trump was suggesting a quid pro quo.
The conversation between Sondland and Taylor took place on September 9th. This was almost two weeks after the conversation where Senator Johnson relays Sondland’s confirmation of a quid pro quo. Johnson called Trump in response, who emphatically denied any sort of quid pro quo. When Trump asked who told Senator Johnson about a quid pro quo, he pointed to Sondland.
On August 30th, Gordon Sondland was describing Trump’s pressure campaign towards Ukraine as a quid pro quo. By September 9th he was litigiously pushing back on this idea in secretive, defense terms. What changed?
We know that Trump found out that Sondland was suggesting a Presidential quid pro quo 10 days prior to his conversation with Bill Taylor. It seems increasingly likely that Trump responded to Senator Johnson’s query by making sure Sondland never made the same admission again.
The Theory: Trump responded to Johnson’s warning by chewing Sondland out, and making it clear that he should never invoke the notion of a quid pro quo.
Still, it’s noteworthy that Johnson voluntarily offered his account of a quid pro quo up. Why would one of Trump’s fiercest congressional defenders voluntarily offer up such a damning piece of evidence?
That answer is simple: He’s covering his ass.
Johnson knew he was in trouble as soon as the House Intelligence Committee released the public transcript of texts between Ukraine Envoy Kurt Volker, the President’s personal attorney Rudolph Guiliani, and Ambassador Taylor. However one chooses to interpret these exchanges, it became instantly clear that Sondland was going to be thrust into the limelight as a principal figure. The House Intelligence Committee was quick to depose Sondland — who is expected to testify this coming Tuesday.
Johnson must have known that Sondland was going to be questioned vigorously over conversations he’d had surrounding the Ukraine pressure campaign. There would be focused questioning regarding any other individuals Sondland had communicated with regarding the strategy surrounding the pressure campaign.
Johnson had to know that Sondland could possibly invoke their conversation surrounding a quid pro quo. If this discussion between Sondland (a potential accomplice to a criminal conspiracy) and Johnson were leaked without Johnson’s prior admission, the Senator could look complicit. The headline: “GOP Senator withheld explicit knowledge of a Quid Pro Quo”.
Johnson’s admission represents the first of many rats fleeing the Trumpian Pequod. Note that Johnson only volunteered this information after the release of the text’s the Senator knew would eventually implicate him. He didn’t offer the information in the month-plus, because he had presumably no pressing moral objection to a nakedly corrupt pay for play. It was only once Johnson sniffed out the potential threat to his own personal ambitions that he decided to act on behavior he knew was vastly inappropriate.
How many other GOP Senators find themselves in a similar position to Senator Johnson, waiting with bated breath to see if documents implicating them appear? How many other Senators knew about Trump’s corrupt dealings — only to say nothing?
The rats are just beginning to flee the ship.
