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U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland testifying before the House Intelligence Committee during an impeachment hearing in November 2019. It was just a few months before this experience that he ceased donating to political campaigns.
The Washington Post via Getty Images
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Gordon Sondland, a hotelier-turned-ambassador, halted his once-prolific political giving after getting caught up in the scandal surrounding President Donald Trump’s first impeachment.
For years, Sondland had been a reliable donor, shelling out more than $537,000 to federal campaigns (mostly Republican) from 1984 to 2019. When Trump won the election in 2016, Sondland contributed $1 million to the inaugural committee through four LLCs, according to data obtained by OpenSecrets. In March 2018, Trump nominated Sondland to be the U.S. ambassador to the European Union.
Yet Sondland’s largesse halted in March 2019—just a few months before his major role in Trump’s attempt to pressure the government of Ukraine into announcing an investigation into Joe Biden’s family came to light. At first, Sondland disputed accounts that military aid to Ukraine had been contingent on the European country trumpeting an inquiry into Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son. But Sondland later reversed himself and implicated the president in a quid pro quo. Two days after the Senate acquitted Trump, he fired Sondland.
“Ambassador Sondland chose to cease any and all political donations during and since his period of service,” said a spokesperson for Provenance, the hotel business Sondland founded and chairs.
That statement doesn’t quite line up with public documents though. The campaign for Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) reported receiving two $100 contributions from Sondland during his tenure with the State Department. But regardless, the general sentiment is true: Sondland seems to have lost his taste for funding politicians.
I took an unusual route to get here. In a past life, I worked as a travel and food writer, which is how I got the assignment in 2016 to cover the grand opening of the
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I took an unusual route to get here. In a past life, I worked as a travel and food writer, which is how I got the assignment in 2016 to cover the grand opening of the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., just a couple miles from my home. When Trump won the election and refused to divest his business, I stayed on the story, starting a newsletter called 1100 Pennsylvania (named after the hotel’s address) and contributed to Vanity Fair, Politico and NBC News. I’m still interested in Trump, but I’ve broadened my focus to follow the money connected to other politicians as well—both Republicans and Democrats.