U.S. Envoy William Taylor Says Trump Used Military Aid & White House Meeting As Leverage With Ukraine
William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, linked President Donald Trump closer to the effort to get the country to probe his political opponents in an open congressional hearing on Wednesday.
Taylor — the star witness House Democrats were pushing for to testify as part of their impeachment inquiry — provided an extensive and detailed explanation of Trump’s “highly irregular” foreign policy in Ukraine. More damningly, he revealed that one of his staffers listened to a conversation Trump and U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland had just one day after the president’s infamous July 25 phone call with the leader of Ukraine. According to Taylor, the aide claimed Trump wanted updates on “the investigations,” a reference to the inquiries that the president’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani pushed for into former Vice President Joe Biden and other prominent Democrats.
The U.S. chargé d’affaires for Ukraine went on to say that Sondland told Trump during their conversation over the summer that Ukraine was “ready to move forward” with the probes. The diplomat added that the ambassador to the E.U. explicitly told Taylor’s staffer that Trump “cares more about the investigations of Biden” than about giving military aid to Ukraine.
Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter!
A week of political news in your in-box.
We find the news you need to know, so you don't have to.
SLIDESHOW: TOP DEMOCRATS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT IN 2020
Taylor’s revelations help boost Democratic impeachment investigators’ case that Trump abused his power by enlisting Ukraine’s help to probe his political rivals for personal gain. The diplomat said on Wednesday he did not disclose his staffer’s account of the conversation between Trump and Sondland in his closed-door deposition last month because he did not know about it. Democrats have now called for Taylor’s staff member to testify.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-California) stated Taylor’s updated testimony bolsters Democrats’ theory that Trump ordered both Giuliani and Sondland to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political opponents.
Trump denied the conversation with Sondland in comments to reporters at the White House on Wednesday.
“First time I heard it,” Trump said in a news conference with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Last week, President Joe Biden announced that he would pardon 39 people and commute the prison sentences…
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) condemned his fellow Republican lawmakers during a rant on the House floor after…
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_kYWlyzuiMk Rep. Mike Waltz did 44 pushups to honor a bet after the Army football…
In a series of X posts on Wednesday, the platform's CEO Elon Musk criticized a bipartisan spending…
"You can't love your country only when you win." President Joe Biden has repeated this phrase to…
Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pennsylvania), the top Democrat on the House Ethics Committee, missed a committee meeting after…