Stop the news, I want to get off.

Earlier Friday evening, CNN’s congressional reporter Manu Raju scooped a copy of the statement that David Holmes delivered to the House Intelligence Committee in a closed session on Friday. Holmes is the aide to whom Ambassador Bill Taylor referred on Wednesday as the guy who overheard the cellphone conversation between the president* and his go-between, Ambassador Gordon Sondland, in a Ukrainian restaurant. Holmes’s statement is detailed and damning. It’s also faintly hilarious that the whole case may be broken because two old men talked too loudly on their cellphones. From CNN:



"Sondland told Trump that Zelensky 'loves your ass,' " Holmes said, according to a copy of his opening statement. "I then heard President Trump ask, 'So, he's gonna do the investigation?' Ambassador Sondland replied that 'he's gonna do it,' adding that President Zelensky will do 'anything you ask him to.’”..."Even though I did not take notes of those statements, I have a clear recollection that these statements were made," he added.

Holmes also confirmed Taylor's testimony about the President's thoughts on Ukraine, saying he had asked Sondland "if it was true that the President did not 'give a s--- about Ukraine.” Holmes said Sondland had responded that Trump cares only about "big stuff." When Holmes said that the Ukraine war was big, Sondland responded, " 'Big stuff' that benefits the President, like the Biden investigation that Mr. Giuliani was pushing," Holmes said.



Holmes’s statement does several things. First, it puts Sondland squarely back on the hook for having once told Congress that he’d had no contact with anyone at the White House on these matters. Sondland’s already had to reupholster that one once, and now, it’s plain that he remains legally vulnerable. Sondland is supposed to testify publicly next week. He must be quivering with anticipation.

Second, it’s another nail in Rudy Giuliani’s coffin. If Sondland folds, which now seems likely, Rudy is the next sucker standing, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and White House Chief-of-Staff Mick Mulvaney lined up behind him like a row of dominoes leading into the Oval Office.

Third, it makes even stronger the testimony of the three witnesses who testified in public this week.

And fourth, and last, it leaves the president*and his enablers with no defense left except to say that, yes, the president* did it, but it’s not impeachable. Not sure how that squares with all the effort the White House put into burying this whole episode, but that’s all they’ve got left. If there’s a gun left here that isn’t smoking, I can’t find it.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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