In what seems a clear attempt to head off charges of lying to Congress, Trump-allied Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland has now "updated" his previous testimony before House impeachment investigators to admit that he did indeed explicitly inform Ukrainian officials that U.S. military aid to the country would "likely not occur" until Ukraine publicly announced "anti-corruption" investigations demanded by Donald Trump.
This is the exact "quid pro quo" Trump and his House allies have loudly insisted never happened. Sondland's statement says other witnesses’ testimony as to his own actions has now "refreshed my recollection," allowing him to suddenly remember one of the pivotal details about his own role in demanding the Ukrainian government open those investigations.
The two investigations, targeting the Biden family and seeking to further a conspiracy theory exonerating Russia for 2016 election hacking, were both intended to boost Trump's personal reelection chances. The Trump administration in fact texted the script Ukrainian officials should use to announce the investigations Trump and his ally Rudy Giuliani demanded.
Sondland's "updated" testimony comes after testimony by top Ukraine diplomat William Taylor and National Security Council director Timothy Morrison sharply conflicted with Sondland's own claims to Congress, discrepancies that were all but certain to result in Sondland being re-summoned to explain his memory lapses. Whether congressional investigators will find these "updates" sufficient remains to be seen