Keep in mind (before someone claims deep state or never-trumper), sondland is a trump associate and appointee...
All this crooked activity, of course, was these oafs just "trying to overturn the 2016 election" (TM).
I think at this point, anyone that was hanging their hat on the "no quid pro quo" defense just lost their hat and now has to reach for the "well, quid pro quos" are not bad. They also have to create a new defense for the dangerous shadow government being run by rudy.