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The Daay 202: What Scadbrd allegedly said after Trump hung up on July 26 badly undercuts hrn and the 
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From: 
The Washin ton Post <[email protected]> 
To: 
Subject: 
The Daily 202: What Sondland allegedly said after Trump hung up on July 26 badly undercuts him and the president 
Sent: 
Tue. 19 Nov 2019 14:36:12 +0000 
If you're having trouble reading this, click here. 
Share: 
aisten to The Big Idea 
What Sondland allegedly said after Trump hung up 
on July 26 badly undercuts him and the president 
Career diplomat 
Holmes, a political counselor at the U.S. embassy in Kyiv, arrives at the Capitol on 
Friday. House investigators released the transcript of his deposition on Monday night. (Jose Luis 
Magana/AP) 
BY 
HOHMANN 
with Mariana Mara 
THE BIG IDEA: 
Holmes, the political counselor at the U.S. Embassy in 
Ukraine, testified that he "vividly" remembers his July 26 lunch at a restaurant in 
Kyiv because he'd "never seen anything like this." 
After ordering a bottle of wine, Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland 
used his unsecured cellphone to update President Trump on his meeting that morning 
with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Holmes said he could hear Trump say, 
"So he's going to do the investigation?" And he said Sondland responded, "Oh yeah, 
he's going to do it." The ambassador explained to the president that Zelensky, whom 
Trump spoke with the day before, "loves your a--," according to the transcript of 
Holmes's deposition released last night by House impeachment investigators. 
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But it's what purportedly transpired after this two-minute conservation that's most 
problematic for both Sondland and Trump. According to Holmes, the E.U. ambassador 
volunteered that the president cared more about the investigation of Joe Biden that Rudy 
Giuliani was pursuing than anything having to do directly with Ukraine. 
Holmes explained that he asked Sondland, point blank, whether it was true that the 
president "doesn't give a s--- about Ukraine" because "it had been very difficult for us to 
get the president interested in what we were trying to do in Ukraine." 
"Ambassador Sondland agreed that the president did not give a s--- about Ukraine," 
Holmes said under oath. "I asked why not, and Ambassador Sondland stated, the 
President only cares about 'big stuff.' I noted that there was 'big stuff' going on in 
Ukraine, like a war with Russia. And Ambassador Sondland replied that he meant 'big 
stuff that benefits the president,' like the 'Biden investigation that Mr. Giuliani was 
pushing.-
- Holmes, a career Foreign Service officer, has agreed to testify publicly on 
Thursday at 9 a.m. alongside Fiona Hill, the former National Security Council 
official who also provided damaging closed-door testimony against Sondland. The 
213-page transcript suggests that Holmes is poised to offer a gripping narrative 
for the benefit of a television audience. 
"This was an extremely distinctive experience in my Foreign Service career," Holmes 
said. "I've never seen anything like this, someone calling the President from a mobile 
phone at a restaurant, and then having a conversation of this level of candor, colorful 
language. There's just so much about the call that was so remarkable that I remember it 
vividly." 
— House Intelligence Chairman 
Schiff (D-Calif.) questioned Holmes about 
his bluntness with Sondland. "I'm not proud of my language," the diplomat answered. 
"But the informal tone of the lunch and the language I had heard him using in his call 
with the president, we were just sort of, you know, two guys talking about stuff, and it 
seemed to me that was the kind of language that he used." Holmes recalled that 
Sondland's exact words were: "Nope, not at all, doesn't give a s--- about Ukraine." 
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Waiters were coming and going as all this played out on the outdoor terrace at SHO, a 
central Kyiv restaurant. Holmes said he was surprised a presidential conversation so 
candid would take place on a cellphone since the Russians own or hold significant 
stakes in the mobile networks and government officials should always assume that 
they're being monitored. Acting ambassador Bill Taylor revealed the July 26 call 
between Trump and Sondland during his testimony last week. 
Unraveling three discrepancies in Gordon Sondland's testimony 
-- Holmes's sworn testimony links Trump himself much more directly to the efforts 
to coerce Ukraine to investigate Biden at a time when the former vice president 
was leading in polls. It also further undermines another favorite GOP talking point: that 
Trump put assistance on ice because he was sincerely concerned about corruption and 
the rule of law in Kyiv. The rough transcript of Trump's initial April call with Zelensky, 
released Friday, revealed that the president didn't even broach corruption during that 
conversation, despite the White House's readout from the time that said he had raised 
the issue. "I think the Ukrainians gradually came to understand that they were being 
asked to do something in exchange for the meeting and the security assistance hold 
being lifted," Holmes testified. 
Not to mention, the president's reported disregard for Ukraine's future is a boon for the 
Kremlin's propaganda efforts in Russia's ongoing invasion in the east and its occupation 
of Crimea. 
— It stands to reason that Sondland would know about Trump's interest in Biden. 
The rough transcript of the July 25 call shows Trump mentioning his political challenger 
to Zelensky. But Sondland insisted under oath that he didn't know the president 
was interested in securing a Biden investigation until later. "Sondland did not 
disclose any conversation with Trump while in Kyiv in his testimony or in the follow-up 
statement," Glenn Kessler notes. "In his initial deposition, he said: 'Again, I recall no 
discussions with any State Department or White House official about former vice 
EFTA00046970

president Biden or his son. Nor do I recall taking part in any effort to encourage an 
investigation into the Bidens.' 
"Sondland in his testimony indicated that he did not understand until late in the 
game that administration requests that Ukraine investigate the Ukrainian gas 
company Burisma - where Hunter Biden was a director — were related to the Biden 
family. He expressed ignorance about statements and tweets made by Trump's 
personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, making that connection. 'I became aware of his 
[Giuliani's] interest in Burisma sometime in the intervening period, but I never made the 
connection between Burisma and the Bidens until the very end,' Sondland said. 'I heard 
the word 'Burisma,' but I didn't understand that Biden and Burisma were connected.'" 
Trump on Sondland: 'I hardly know the gentleman' 
-- Tomorrow morning, Sondland will get a chance to clear up these and other 
discrepancies during his own televised testimony. Holmes's deposition gives him 
more to answer for when he's in the hot seat. The Portland, Ore., hotelier already 
significantly revised his testimony regarding the existence of a quid pro quo after other 
officials gave conflicting accounts of his role. 
-- Trump claimed last week that he doesn't have any recollection of the July 26 
conversation, and the White House refuses to turn over call logs that could 
illuminate the extent of the president's Ukrainian-related contacts. The president 
has begun distancing himself from Sondland. "I hardly know the gentleman," Trump said 
on Nov. 8. The president has previously taken this tack with 
Flynn, 
Cohen, Paul Manafort and others who he apparently concluded had outlived their 
usefulness to him. 
Sondland previously sought to minimize his contacts with Trump. "I think I've 
EFTA00046971

spoken with President Trump — and this is a guess — maybe five or six times since I've 
been an ambassador," he said during his deposition. "And one of those I recall was a 
Christmas, 'Merry Christmas,' and it was zero substance." 
But former National Security Council senior director ■ 
Morrison said it was his 
understanding that Sondland had a lot of conversations with the president. 
"Ambassador Sondland believed and at least related to me that the president was giving 
him instructions," Morrison testified, adding that Sondland related to him that he was 
"discussing these matters with the president." 
— Democrats also released the transcript last night from Undersecretary of State 
for Political Affairs 
Hale's appearance. Hale, the top career official at Foggy 
Bottom, revealed that Mike Pompeo spoke with Giuliani by phone on March 28 and 
March 29 as officials in the department tried to get a statement of support for then-
Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch as the president's personal lawyer participated in a 
smear campaign against her. Hale said Yovanovitch was doing an "exceptional" job. 
Pompeo: 'I'm not going to get into issues surrounding the Democrat impeachment inquiry 
-- Pompeo continues to defy a subpoena and refuses to turn over records that 
could validate - or undercut - some of the most damning witness testimony about 
Trump's conduct. Sondland turned over communications from his personal devices to 
the State Department, but State won't share them with investigators. 
— Holmes also testified that aides to Energy Secretary Rick Perry were "very 
aggressive in terms of promoting an agenda" in Ukraine, as well as in "excluding 
embassy personnel from meetings without giving explanations." 
-- He will return to the Capitol on Thursday with a deep reservoir of credibility 
because he has a proven track record of speaking truth to power. "Holmes won an 
award in 2014 for raising concerns about then-President Barack Obama's policy toward 
EFTA00046972

Afghanistan, where Holmes had served," Anne Gearan reports. "The 'constructive 
dissent' honor recognizes mid-level State Department officials who use an internal 
process to flag problems they observe, which in his case was about how Obama had, in 
his view, muddied decision-making on Afghanistan and Pakistan. ... A rising star in the 
Foreign Service, Holmes had a string of sought-after jobs before landing as the senior 
political officer at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv. In addition to the National Security Council 
— a high-stress, high-profile plum — Holmes also was picked for a prestigious job 
working for the State Department's No. 3 official during the Obama administration." 
-- Two more-junior staffers who were sitting at the table might also be able to 
corroborate Holmes's testimony if Sondland disputes his allegations: Suriya 
Jayanti arranged Sondland's schedule in Kyiv, and Tara Maher, a political officer at the 
U.S. Embassy in Brussels, where Sondland is based. 
— Holmes said he also told others in the embassy: The encounter was so 
"extraordinary" that Holmes immediately told his direct supervisor at the embassy. 
"You're not going to believe what I just heard," he recalled telling her. "I would refer back 
to it repeatedly in our morning staff meetings," he added. "We'd talk about what we're 
trying to do. ... And I would say, 'Well, as we know, he doesn't really care about Ukraine. 
He cares about some other things.-
- House investigators have now released all but two deposition transcripts. Mark 
Sandy from the Office of Management and Budget testified on Saturday and hasn't 
come back to the Capitol to approve the text. Philip Reeker, the acting assistant 
secretary of state in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, has not completed a 
review of his transcript either. 
Jennifer Williams and Alexander Vindman arrive on Tuesday morning to testify before the House Intelligence 
Committee in the Longworth House Office Building. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) 
EFTA00046973

HAPPENING TODAY: 
-- Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, European affairs director at the National Security 
Council, and Jennifer Williams, Vice President Pence's special adviser on Europe 
and Russia, are testifying this morning. They are the first public witnesses who heard 
Trump's July 25 call with Zelensky. This afternoon, lawmakers will hear from Kurt Volker, 
a former Trump administration envoy to Ukraine, and Morrison, the former top Russia 
and Europe adviser on the National Security Council. 
Vindman, a Purple Heart recipient, plans to testify about his alarm at Trump's 
request that Ukraine investigate his political opponents. "But Republicans are 
also seizing on Vindman's testimony as an opportunity, signaling that they plan to 
try to discredit one of the key witnesses in the inquiry by questioning his motives 
and his loyalty to the president," Tom Hamburger, Carol Leonnig and Rachael Bade 
report. "Sen. Ron 
(R-Wis.) suggested in a letter released Monday that Vindman 
fits the profile of 'a significant number of bureaucrats and staff members within the 
executive branch [who] have never accepted President Trump as legitimate and ... react 
by leaking to the press and participating in the ongoing effort to sabotage his policies 
and, if possible, remove him from office.' Vindman's lawyer, 
Volkov, called 
assertion 'such a baseless accusation, so ridiculous on its face, that it doesn't 
even warrant a response.' 
-- "Trump and many of his allies have seized on a core defense strategy by 
attacking career public servants who are testifying as witnesses in the probe and 
spreading disinformation about their motives as `unelected bureaucrats," Elise 
Viebeck and Isaac 
-Becker report. 
Vindman is the second of three immigrants scheduled to testify. (My Big Idea 
from Friday explains the significance.) 
-- Volker will modify his testimony and plans to say this afternoon that he didn't 
know the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations. From the Times: "Mr. Volker will 
say that he did not realize that others working for Mr. Trump were tying American 
EFTA00046974

security aid to a commitment to investigate Democrats. His testimony, summarized by a 
person informed about it who insisted on anonymity to describe it in advance, will seek 
to reconcile his previous closed-door description of events with conflicting versions 
offered subsequently by other witnesses. ... Mr. Volker will modify his account as well, 
addressing disparities between his testimony and that of other witnesses. While he has 
been lumped together with Mr. Sondland and Energy Secretary Rick Perry as 'the three 
amigos' working on behalf of the president, he plans to try to distinguish his role, 
insisting that he was not part of any inappropriate pressure and that he was unaware of 
certain events that he has only now learned about through other testimony. ... 
"Mr. Volker plans to say that he never knew that Mr. Sondland told the Ukrainians 
that the aid and investigations were linked and that he did not know that Mr. 
Zelensky was being pressed to appear on CNN and announce that he would open 
the investigations Mr. Trump sought. He also will seek to explain why his description 
of a key July 10 meeting in the White House with Ukrainian officials differed from those 
provided by several others. According to other witnesses, John R. Bolton, then the 
national security adviser, abruptly ended the meeting when Mr. Sondland raised the 
investigations." 
-- State Department officials were informed that Zelensky was feeling pressure 
from the Trump administration to investigate Biden even before the July phone 
call, the AP reports: "In early May, officials at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, including then-
Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, were told Zelenskiy was seeking advice on how to 
navigate the difficult position he was in ... He was concerned [Trump] and associates 
were pressing him to take action that could affect the 2020 U.S. presidential race ... 
State Department officials in Kyiv and Washington were briefed on Zelenskiy's concerns 
at least three times ... Notes summarizing his worries were circulated within the 
department ... The briefings and the notes show that U.S. officials knew early that 
Zelenskiy was feeling pressure to investigate Biden, even though the Ukrainian leader 
later denied it in a joint news conference with Trump in September." 
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), left, confers with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) during a Finance Committee 
EFTA00046975

committee hearing on Oct. 24. (Mark _'Getty 
Images) 
MORE ON THE INVESTIGATIONS: 
-- Two senators are looking into a second whistleblower's allegations that at least 
one political appointee at the Treasury Department tried to interfere with an audit 
of Trump or Vice President Pence. Jeff Stein and Tom Hamburger scoop: "Staff 
members for Sens. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Wyden (Ore.), the chairman 
and ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, met with the IRS 
whistleblower earlier this month ... Follow-up interviews are expected to further explore 
the whistleblower's allegations. It could not be learned to what extent the senators 
consider the whistleblower a credible source. Trump administration officials have 
previously played down the complaint's significance and suggested that it is politically 
motivated. The whistleblower, a career IRS official, initially filed a complaint in July, 
reporting that he was told that at least one Treasury political appointee attempted to 
improperly interfere with the annual audit of the president's or vice president's tax 
returns. 
"In recent weeks, the whistleblower filed additional documentation related to the 
original complaint, which was given to congressional officials in July ... The IRS 
whistleblower complaint was first disclosed in an August court filing by Rep. Richard E. 
Neal (D-Mass.), the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. ... Neal made 
the disclosure in court filings as part of his battle with the Trump administration over the 
president's tax returns, which the Treasury Department has refused to furnish. ... The 
Treasury inspector general has opened a review of the Treasury Department's 
handling of House Democrats' request for Trump's tax returns. Asked whether that 
review would look at the IRS whistleblower's complaint, Rich Delmar, the acting 
inspector general, said in an email that 'the inquiry is ongoing, and will take into account 
that aspects of the underlying matter are the subject of litigation." 
— The impeachment inquiry is expanding to explore whether Trump lied to former 
special counsel Bob Mueller, the House's general counsel told a federal appeals 
court. Ann E. Marimow, Spencer S. Hsu and Rachael Bade report: "The statement 
EFTA00046976

came during arguments over Congress's demand for the urgent release of secret grand 
jury evidence from Mueller's probe of Russia's 2016 election interference, with House 
lawyers detailing fresh concerns about Trump's truthfulness that could become part of 
the impeachment inquiry. The hearing followed Friday's conviction of longtime 
Trump friend Roger Stone for lying to Congress. Testimony and evidence at his 
trial appeared to cast doubt on Trump's written answers to Mueller's questions ... 
'Did the president lie? Was the president not truthful in his responses to the Mueller 
investigation?' General Counsel Douglas N. Letter said in court. 'The House is now 
trying to determine whether the current president should remain in office,' Letter added. 
'This is something that is unbelievably serious and it's happening right now, very fast.' ... 
Behind the scenes, there's been debate among Democratic lawmakers about whether 
articles of impeachment should include obstruction of justice allegations detailed in 
Mueller's report." 
— Mitch McConnell said he still "can't imagine a scenario" that would lead to 
Trump's conviction in the Senate. "I can't imagine a scenario under which President 
Trump would be removed from office with 67 votes in the Senate," the Senate majority 
leader said, according the Louisville Courier-Journal. 
— The Supreme Court placed a temporary hold on a lower court's ruling that said 
accounting firm Mazars USA must turn over eight years of Trump's financial 
records. 
Barnes reports: "The House itself had acquiesced to such a move 
earlier Monday. Without the court's intervention, the firm would have been required to 
turn over the records Wednesday. Trump last week asked the high court to stop the 
order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. ... House General Counsel 
Douglas N. Letter said in a letter to the court Monday morning that the committee will 
oppose Trump's motion. But 'out of courtesy to this court,' Letter said the committee did 
not oppose putting the D.C. Circuit's ruling on hold temporarily. Roberts said in his short 
order that the House's opposition to Trump's filing should be filed by Thursday." 
Another federal judge blocked the House from obtaining Trump's New York 
state tax returns without a court review. Spencer S. Hsu reports: "U.S. District Judge 
Carl J. Nichols of Washington entered the unusual order in a potentially precedent-
EFTA00046977

setting case, which came even though the House committee has not said whether it 
wants the records and has sought to toss out Trump's lawsuit, filed last July. Nichols's 
19-page decision and order came one week after the judge dismissed New York state 
officials from the lawsuit, which sought to bar the House from requesting and state 
officials from turning over Trump's returns using New York's Trust Act, signed by Gov. 
Andrew M. Cuomo (D) and enacted July 7. ... New York tax officials had agreed not to 
turn over Trump's records any sooner than seven days after Nichols ruled on whether 
the Trump lawsuit should be heard before him or before a federal judge in New York." 
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham announced that he will 
hold a hearing on Dec. 11 featuring Justice Department Inspector General 
Horowitz. From Politico: "Horowitz's scheduled appearance before the committee 
comes as the inspector general is wrapping up an investigation into the origins of the FBI 
probe into the 2016 Trump campaign's dealings with Russia. ... In a statement 
announcing the hearing, Graham described Horowitz as 'a good man that has served 
our national well.' ... The South Carolina Republican added that Horowitz 'will deliver a 
detailed report of what he found regarding his investigation, along with recommendations 
as to how to make our judicial and investigative systems better.-
- Nepotism alert: What does Rudy Giuliani's son Andrew actually do in the White 
House all day? The Atlantic's Elaina Plott tried to figure it out: "The younger Giuliani 
has served in the Office of Public Liaison, beginning as an associate director, since 
March 2017, making him one of the longest-serving members of the Trump 
administration. According to White House personnel records from 2018, he earns a 
salary of $90,700. The public-liaison office deals with outreach to outside coalitions, and 
several of the current and former administration officials I spoke to for this story 
said Giuliani helps arrange sports teams' visits to the White House. ... But sports-
team visits are more special-occasion than scheduling staple in the business of 
government, especially in this White House, where many title-winning teams decline 
invitations to visit or are simply not invited at all. ... Steve Munisteri, who was principal 
director of the public-liaison office and Giuliani's supervisor from February 2017 to 
February 2019, told me that Giuliani fills out his time by serving as the office's 
representative at White House meetings about the opioid crisis. 
EFTA00046978

"Others who have worked with Giuliani offered a different take on his White House 
tenure. `He doesn't really try to be involved in anything,' one former senior White 
House official told me ... `He's just having a nice time.' Yet for the differing opinions 
on the nature of Giuliani's role, the officials I spoke to were certain that Giuliani had 
nabbed a White House post in the first place because of his father. A second former 
senior White House official plainly called it 'a nepotism job.-
--
 secretary of state Rex Tillerson said it's "wrong" to ask another country 
for personal favors. "If you're seeking some kind of personal gain and you're using —
whether it's American foreign aid or American weapons or American influence — that's 
wrong. And I think everyone understands that," he told PBS NewsHour. (Well, not 
everyone.) 
— Jimmy Finkelstein, the owner of the Hill newspaper, has stayed out of the 
impeachment headlines, despite playing a crucial role in the saga. From CNN: 
"Finkelstein was [John] Solomon's direct supervisor at The Hill and created the 
conditions which permitted Solomon to publish his conspiratorial stories without the 
traditional oversight implemented at news outlets. And he has kept a watchful eye on the 
newspaper's coverage to ensure it is not too critical of the President. As one former 
veteran employee of The Hill told CNN Business, 'Solomon is a symptom of the larger 
problem of Jimmy Finkelstein.' ... The paper's editor-in-chief sent staff a note Monday 
morning notifying employees that editors 'are reviewing, updating, annotating with any 
denials of witnesses, and when appropriate, correcting any [of Solomon's] pieces 
referenced during the ongoing congressional inquiry.' ... Finkelstein has been friends 
with Trump for decades. In fact, according to a former employee at The Hill, he 'boasts 
that he's a close friend' of the President." 
— Rep. Devin Nunes's attorney is representing one of the congressman's former 
aides in a new defamation lawsuit against Politico. McClatchy reports: "Kashyap 
'Kash' Patel, a lawyer who worked for Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee 
when Nunes was the committee's chairman, is suing Politico over an Oct. 23 story with 
the headline 'Nunes Protege Fed Ukraine Info to Trump.' ... Patel is represented by 
Virginia attorney Steven Biss, who has filed five lawsuits on behalf of Nunes this year 
EFTA00046979

alleging that news organizations, Twitter, anonymous social media users and political 
consultants conspired against the California congressman. ... The news story at the 
center of Patel's lawsuit reported that Patel tried to involve himself in the Trump 
administration's Ukraine policy. Patel now works [on] the National Security Council. The 
story by Politico reporter Natasha Bertrand was based on sources who described 
diplomats' testimony at closed-door House Intelligence Committee hearings..." 
Politico spokesman Brad Dayspring calls the suit baseless: "This lawsuit is high on 
bombast and low on merit. It is unserious and is a public relations tactic designed to 
intimidate journalists and media organizations from doing their job," he said in a 
statement. 
— Tribalism alert: A remarkable 2 in 3 Americans say that nothing they hear in the 
inquiry will change their minds on impeachment, according to a new NPR-PBS-
Marist poll. "It's a tangible example of just how locked in most Americans are in their 
partisan positions, even as nearly a dozen people have either testified or are set to 
testify in the impeachment inquiry. The poll was conducted Nov. 11-15 — before, during 
and after the testimonies of the first three witnesses to be called in the inquiry. ... By a 
47%-41% margin, Americans say they are more likely to support impeachment based on 
what they've heard or read from the testimonies and evidence presented. And the 
testimonies could actually be serving to harden their views — 86% of Democrats said 
they are now more likely to support impeachment after hearing testimony and evidence 
while 83% of Republicans said they are less likely to now support impeachment. ... 
Some 70% of registered voters say they've been paying 'very' or 'fairly' close attention to 
the House impeachment inquiry. And 53% of those paying at least fairly close attention 
say they're more likely to support impeachment." 
-- Notable commentary from The Post's opinion page: 
• Dana Milbank: "Trump-friendly judges run out the clock on 
impeachment." 
• Foreign affairs columnist 
Kagan: "Republicans are pushing 
the U.S. to accept quid pro quo as the new normal." 
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• Catherine Rampell: "Trump and Republicans are on the hunt for 
Real Crimes." 
• The Post's Editorial Board: "Republicans' defense of Trump is full 
of holes." 
• 
Gerson: "Trump spurs a Wild West of continuously 
worsening political rhetoric." 
• Eugene Robinson: "For Trump, incompetent bribery is still bribery." 
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Pompeo: Israeli settlements in West Bank do not violate international law 
THE NEW WORLD ORDER: 
-- Mike Pompeo declared that Israel's West Bank settlements do not violate 
international law. Karen DeYoung, Steve Hendrix and John Hudson report: "The move 
upends more than 40 years of U.S. policy that has declared Israeli expansion into 
territories occupied since the 1967 war a major obstacle to settling the Israeli-Palestinian 
conflict. In response to a question, Pompeo denied that the announcement was 
connected to turmoil in Israel in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has 
supported the Israeli annexation of West Bank territory, is fighting for his political life. ... 
Pompeo said the administration was returning to policy under Ronald Reagan, pointing 
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out that Reagan said in a 1981 interview that settlements were 'not illegal.' Reagan went 
on in that interview, however, to say that settlements were 'ill-advised." Pompeo said the 
Trump administration, as it did with recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and 
Israel's sovereignty over the disputed Golan Heights, has simply "recognized the reality 
on the ground." 
A bid by Netanyahu's rival to form a new Israeli government has entered its 
final, fraught stretch. Ruth Eglash reports: Benny Gantz's options are limited. "The 
most obvious choice — uniting with [Netanyahu's] ruling Likud party — appears 
increasingly unlikely, while forming a government dependent on smaller parties with 
sharply conflicting ideologies seems an almost impossible gamble. Gantz has until 
midnight Wednesday to announce a government, then secure enough support in the 
Knesset, Israel's parliament, to approve the new configuration. If not, Israel will enter 
politically uncharted territory, with even the keenest of political observers saying they 
have no idea what might happen next — though most are betting it will set Israel on the 
path to a third national election in less than a year." 
An American and an Australian who were being held hostage for the past three 
years were released by the Taliban. That announcement came shortly after it was 
revealed that three detained Taliban commanders had been flown to Qatar. Sayed 
Salahuddin and Sharif Hassan report: "American 
King and Australian 
Weeks were instructors at the American University of Kabul when they were kidnapped 
in 2016. The militants are Mali Khan, Hafiz Rashid and Anas Haqqani, a younger brother 
of the Taliban's deputy leader and son of the Haqqani network's founder. They were 
held in a government detention center at Bagram air base. The Haqqani network is an 
insurgent group closely allied with the Taliban. It is accused of orchestrating many of the 
sophisticated and deadly attacks against Afghan and foreign installations in recent 
years." 
— Swedish prosecutors announced that the alleged rape investigation involving 
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been dropped. Karla 
reports: "Eva-
Marie Persson, the deputy director of public prosecution, said in a statement that 'my 
overall assessment is that the evidential situation has been weakened to such an extent 
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