Sonderland testifies that there was no quid pro quo

The Democrats are trying to portray Ambassador Gordon Sondland's testimony as supporting the Democrats claim of a quid pro quo.

Trouble is that it doesn't.

Referring to the aid that the Democrats are claiming constitutes the quid pro quo when asked:

“To the best of your knowledge, do you know about any preconditions on the aid?” he responded, “No.”

He added:

“There were a lot of rumors swirling around as to why the aid had been held up, including they wanted a review, they wanted Europe to do more. There were all kinds of rumors,”

Sonderland called Trump on 9/9/2019 to find out what Trump wanted. According to Sonderland:

“He said: ‘I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo. I want Zelensky to do the right thing.’ And I said: ‘What does that mean?’ And he said: ‘I want him to do what he ran on.’ And that was the end of the conversation.”

What did Zelensky run on; ending corruption in Ukraine.

So Trump wanted not for Zelensky to investigate Biden but for Zelensky to clean up corruption in the Ukraine so that US taxpayer dollars wouldn't just go into the pockets of corrupt politicians.

That's hardly a crime.

What the Democrats are seizing on is that Sondland did testy that he "assumed" that there was a tie between aid and ending corruption in Ukraine.  But even then  Sondland said that the requirement wasn't about Biden but about Zelensky issuing a statement condemning corruption.  

Folks, if someone tells you Gordon Sondland affirmed quid pro quo, you’re being lied to. He didn’t say this.

He said he *did not know* what happened, but he began to *assume* aid was tied to an anti-corruption statement

President Trump corrected Sondland on this, shortly after

— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) November 7, 2019

Once again there's no evidence of Trump conditioning aid to Ukraine on Ukraine investigating Joe and Hunter Biden's obvious corruption.  A statement by Zelensky publicly condemning corruption in the Ukraine can only be interpreted as a link to the Bidens if one assumes that the Bidens if in fact one assumes that the Bidens are corrupt.

It might be argued that the Democrats apparent position that any cracking down by Zelensky on corruption is targeting the Bidens is a sign that the Democrats know that the Bidens are corrupt.