AMBASSADOR/FOREIGN POLICY/NATIONAL SECURITY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “A former top White House foreign policy adviser told House impeachment investigators this week that she viewed Gordon D. Sondland, the United States ambassador to the European Union, as a potential national security risk because he was so unprepared for his job, according to two people familiar with her private testimony. The adviser, Fiona Hill, did not accuse Mr. Sondland of acting maliciously or intentionally putting the country at risk. But she described Mr. Sondland, a hotelier and Trump donor-turned-ambassador, as metaphorically driving in an unfamiliar place with no guardrails and no GPS, according to the people, who were not authorized to publicly discuss a deposition that took place behind closed doors. Ms. Hill, the former senior director for European and Russian affairs at the White House, also said that she raised her concerns with intelligence officials inside the White House, one of the people said.”
–Nicholas Fandos and Adam Goldman, “Ex-Aide Saw Gordon Sondland as a Potential National Security Risk,” The New York Times online, October 16, 2019