As president, Donald Trump lives by the principle that if you do something out in the open, people can't as easily process that it's shady. His very public obstruction of justice in the Mueller probe, for instance, didn't compute in the way Nixon's shadowy dealings did when they were brought to light. It's a natural human impulse to assume others—particularly our putative leaders—aren't so shameless they'd commit daylight robbery.

Our president leaned on this thesis once again Thursday, when he committed the same offense he admitted he'd committed, then denied he committed, then released a readout of the phone call in question showing he'd committed it. Donald Trump, American president, wandered out to the White House lawn yesterday and once again called on Ukraine to investigate his political opponent, Joe Biden, an invitation for a foreign government to interfere in an American election. It a betrayal of his oath of office, as he subjugated the national interest to his own personal political interests using—and abusing—the powers of the presidency. Not content with that, however, he also called on China to investigate Biden, and even introduced an explicit threat of retaliation if the Chinese did not comply.

This is lawless insanity, but Trump is banking on The Base accepting it because Fox News and the surrounding right-wing infotainment ecosystem will excuse it away with endless segments about Robert De Niro saying "fuck" and, of course, Joe and Hunter Biden: Family Corruption? (Hunter sat on the board of a company that is under investigation but there is no evidence he or the former vice president did anything improper.) Trump is banking on Republicans in Congress doing the same because they are a group of world-historical cowards who have embraced his nihilistic will to power in the knowledge The Base is marinating in this propaganda. Trump seems to be on an inexorable path towards forcing Republicans to see anything he does as acceptable simply because he did it, which is a dark and dangerous situation when he's already weaponized the Departments of Justice and State for his personal prerogatives and is operating a system of concentration camps at the southern border. Happy Friday!

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President Trump, on the South Lawn of the White House, called for China and Ukraine to investigate the Bidens — even as he's facing an impeachment inquiry for a similar request https://t.co/WozgIkECJw pic.twitter.com/k7gvaDqut7 — CBS News (@CBSNews) October 3, 2019

And yet Thursday also saw a wrench tossed into proceedings. We already know Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to open the probes into Biden and the 2016 election, the latter of which was designed to muddy the waters around Russia's interference and possibly implicate Ukraine. The readout of the call the White House released confirmed it. But the immediate Trumpist defense was that there was no quid pro quo—who taught the president this stuff?—so there was nothing to worry about. This is false: it was an impeachable offense before. But Trump and his apparatchiks maintained that it was just a coincidence the White House was withholding congressionally appropriated military aid for Ukraine at the same time the president was pushing for Ukraine to investigate Biden.

But now the former U.S. Special Envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker, has testified before Congress and dropped off a series of texts he exchanged with Rudy Giuliani, Trump's good-brain lawyer; Andrey Yermak, a Zelensky adviser; and most crucially, a former hotelier named Gordon Sondland. The latter gave $1 million to Trump's inauguration and, in totally unrelated news, was made Ambassador to the European Union. Who knows what Sondland thought he'd be getting into when he signed up for this gig. It seems he's got trouble—a lot of it.

Zelensky, it increasingly seems, got royally screwed throughout. SERGEI SUPINSKY Getty Images

The texts released last night by the chairs of the House Intelligence, Oversight, and Foreign Affairs Committees are absolutely damning. You should read the whole thing. There appear to be multiple instances of the same quid pro quo Trump and his allies hung their hats on there not being, and Sondland's at the heart of all of it. This, of course, is the kind of shady backroom dealing, brought to light, that people can more easily process.

Intriguingly, it appears the initial quid pro quo did not have to do with the military aid. The first round of strongman leveraging had to do with Zelensky's desire to get a White House meeting with the American president. That would be a crucial bit of politicking as he seeks to shore up his political position as a newly elected leader and Ukraine tries to hold off Russia's military aggression and meddling in its affairs. That was the subtext of the infamous July 25 call: Zelensky was trying to get a bilateral meeting, but his aides had been briefed beforehand that in order to get one, he'd need to promise an investigation into 2016 that would dispute the established fact that Russia interfered. At least, that's what Volker texted Zelensky's aide beforehand:

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In which Volker informs Zelensky’s aid that a Zelensky visit to Washington is predicated on convincing Trump that he’ll “get to the bottom of what happened” in 2016. pic.twitter.com/mQk62rlOvk — Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) October 4, 2019

Here is a quid pro quo: if you promise an investigation that will be politically useful to the president, the president will grant you the meeting you need. One worrying thing is that Trump seems increasingly convinced Ukraine actually was involved in 2016 interference, a conspiracy theory from the right-wing fever swamp that, as a champion bullshitter, he may have convinced himself of while pushing it.

Later in the text threads, we see Zelensky had basically agreed to announce the investigations in exchange for confirmed dates for a Washington trip. As Chris Hayes and others pointed out on Twitter, it appears this scheme was going to work until a whistleblower blew it open. (Although The New York Times seems dead-set on giving Trump the headlines he wants, even today, with full knowledge of the scheme. Perhaps they would say the news is the news.) As August came around, Trump's people solidified the message they wanted from Ukraine: investigations into both 2016 and Burisma, the gas company on whose board Hunter Biden once sat. It would quickly become about The Bidens—a successful ratfucking operation. But in late August, Zelensky's aide also became aware of the withheld military assistance:

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Zelensky aid texts Volker our @politico story breaking the news that Ukraine military aide was being withheld at Trump’s request pic.twitter.com/tUn7oiOoYR — Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) October 4, 2019

At this point, a career diplomat named Bill Taylor—currently the chief of mission in Kiev—entered the plot and seemed determined to make an official record of the shady shit going on. Trump had canceled a planned meeting with Zelensky in Warsaw, Poland, and the aid was still withheld. Taylor decided to put something—which may have been discussed in a phone call—down in writing.

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Ambassador Taylor, Sept 1: “Are we now saying that security assistance and WH meeting are conditioned on investigations?” pic.twitter.com/S6cwwwfBLi — Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) October 4, 2019

Note Sondland's response: "Call me." He doesn't want this in writing because he knows it's bad and probably illegal. He doesn't want a record, but it appears Taylor does. On September 8, they're discussing an "interview" the Ukrainians will need to give in order to secure the meeting and the military aid, and Taylor again goes on-record: "The nightmare is they give the interview and don't get the security assistance. The Russians love it. (And I quit.)" He couldn't be more clear.

But this was all a prelude to the glorious crescendo of criminal shit.

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Bill Taylor: "The nightmare is they give the interview and don't get the security assistance. The Russians love it. (And I quit.)

Bill Taylor: "The message to the Ukrainians (and Russians) we send with the decision on security assistance is key." pic.twitter.com/qceKVXDK6D — Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) October 4, 2019

Throughout, Taylor's only goal was to secure the aid for Ukraine. (Taylor may have other motives involved, but the bare fact is that Russia has orchestrated a shadow invasion of Eastern Ukraine after already annexing Crimea.) When Sondland expresses zero certainty the aid will be delivered even if the Ukrainians do what they've been hammered into doing, Taylor again puts it explicitly on the record: "As I said on the phone, I think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign."

This is a work of art. Not only is Taylor laying out the quid pro quo, he makes it clear that this has been extensively discussed between Trump's people on phone calls we can't see. It's like a blinking neon sign that reads, "Subpoena Us When These Texts Leak." Sondland is a rookie operator who's getting worked here, which is why he took five hours to respond—presumably after talking to Giuliani or perhaps someone even higher up. When he does respond, it looks like a press release. (By now, he, too, knows this could someday see the light of day.) That includes how it sets up what will become the Trumpist public line on this issue: No Quid Pro Quo. It's amazing to think back to when the call first broke and Trump jumped out in public to yell the same thing.

This thing certainly is not done, but the evidence is now substantial that there was a quid pro quo with two elements on each side. Trump wanted investigations into 2016 to minimize the Russians' role, and into the Bidens to damage the elder's 2020 campaign. Zelensky wanted a meeting with Trump and for the military aid to be delivered. For Zelensky to get those things, it was made clear by Trump's envoys that he would need to deliver the things Trump wanted for his personal gain.

The president sold out American foreign policy for his own political advantage, and now we will be treated to the freak show as various Republican members of Congress further debase themselves in claiming that either it was not a quid pro quo or, in an inevitable development, that quid pro quo is actually good and any smart president would do it. They are well down the path towards excusing anything now, and history tells us it will only get worse and worse. Unless, of course, they finally see the writing on the wall and try to save what's left of their legacies. Don't wait up for that phone call.

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

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