Sondland put himself in the line of a number of people who seemed dismayed at the fact that President Trump was outsourcing U.S. foreign policy to his lawyer. [...] Please know that I would not have recommended that Mr. Giuliani or any private citizen be involved in these foreign policy matters. However, given the President’s explicit direction, as well as the importance we attached to arranging a White House meeting between Presidents Trump and Zelensky, we agreed to do as President Trump directed. I spoke about this bizarre situation with Heather Hurlburt, a foreign policy expert at New America who served in the White House and the State Department under Bill Clinton. Even having Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union, managing Ukraine policy is unprecedented.

Source: Washington Post October 17, 2019 17:12 UTC