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“The lawsuit is ludicrous,” a spokesperson for Pompeo told NBC News later Monday morning. “Mr. Pompeo is confident the court will see it the same way.”

The Department of Justice declined NBC’s request for comment

The bombshell testimony from Sondland, who was a hotelier before being tapped for the ambassador role by the Trump administration, became the centerpiece of the former president’s first impeachment in the House.

Trump was acquitted in the Senate on the charges he abused his power by leaning on Ukraine to announce the politically charged investigations in exchange for military aid.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, says that Sondland was denied government services to help him with the “staggering” amount of preparation required to comply with the subpoenas in the impeachment probe.

Sondland was forced to retain private counsel just days before his first closed-door deposition on Capitol Hill “to reconstruct all the materials needed and to prepare for this daunting task,” the legal complaint says. He used those private services “in reliance on Pompeo’s promise of reimbursement,” the lawsuit says.

Sondland testified under oath before Congress for 17 hours, the final seven of which were broadcast live. His testimony, which addressed the “quid pro quo” that Trump had vociferously denied, was “highly fraught, highly charged, and highly risky with tremendous consequences,” the lawsuit says.

“For all his troubles, Ambassador Sondland learned that testifying truthfully and candidly before Congress as cameras roll was in fact a fireable offense in Pompeo’s Department of State,” the complaint alleges.

Sondland was recalled from his position on Feb. 7, 2020, days after the GOP-led Senate voted for acquittal.

The legal complaint accuses Pompeo of abandoning his contractual commitment to Sondland “apparently for political convenience.”

The complaint also argues that if Pompeo should now claim he did not have authority at the time to order the reimbursement of Sondland’s legal fees, then “Pompeo was at all times acting for his own self-serving personal or political reasons, to further his interests to protect himself and others.”

In that case, Sondland “seeks to hold Pompeo personally liable for misrepresenting his authority,” the lawsuit says.

If Pompeo had no authority to make such a promise to Sondland, then he “intentionally committed fraud,” the complaint argues.