Former U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland is suing former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the U.S. government for $1.8 million for allegedly backing out on a promise to cover his legal fees following his testimony against former President Donald Trump during his first impeachment trial, The Washington Post reports.
Sondland, who made waves during the Senate trial when he testified that Trump and his aides pressured Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelensky to investigate President Biden and his son Hunter in exchange for military aid (the infamous "quid pro quo"), is alleging that Pompeo told him the government would cover all of his attorney fees and that the $86,040 he reportedly did receive falls well short of that promise.
The suit also claims Pompeo should not be subject to governmental immunity, the Post notes, because although he was secretary of state at the time, the reimbursement promise was "self-serving" and "made entirely for personal reasons for his own political survival in the hopes that Ambassador Sondland would not implicate him or others by his testimony." Read more at The Washington Post.
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