Ambassador to Ukraine, Amb. Taylor, just confirmed a quid pro quo, bribery, and extortion.[1]
Diplomat Bill Taylor says EU ambassador Gordon Sondland said on a September 1 call that "everything was dependent, including security assistance" on a public announcement by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky of investigations of Burisma and the alleged interference of the 2016 election.
Sondland added, according to Taylor, that President Trump wanted Zelensky "in a public box by making a public statement about ordering such investigations."
Taylor said he responded to Sondland that "President Trump should have more respect for another head of state."
Ambassador Taylor was extremely troubled by withholding aid to an ally dependent on it.^
[2]
Democratic Counsel Daniel Goldman asks Taylor why he was so troubled by what was going on in terms of the withholding of aid.
"It's one thing to try and leverage another meeting in the White House, it's another thing I thought to leverage security assistance to a country at war dependent on both the security assistance and demonstration of support," he said.
Ambassador Taylor testified that a member of his staff heard President Trump ask Ambassador Sondland about "the investigation." When Sondland was asked about Trump's views about Ukraine by Ambassador Taylor, Sondland stated that "President Trump cares more about the investigations of Biden, which Giuliani was pressing for."^
[3]
Taylor says a member of his staff, on July 26, heard EU Amb. Sondland call Trump at a restaurant.
"The member of my staff could hear President Trump on the phone, asking Ambassador Sondland about “the investigations.” Ambassador Sondland told President Trump that the Ukrainians were ready to move forward," he said.
"Following the call with President Trump, the member of my staff asked Ambassador Sondland what President Trump thought about Ukraine. Ambassador Sondland responded that President Trump cares more about the investigations of Biden, which Giuliani was pressing for," he says. "At the time I gave my deposition on October 22, I was not aware of this information. I am including it here for completeness."
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and the Caucasus George Kent described efforts to start politically motivated investigations were infecting U.S. policy towards protecting Ukraine against Russian aggression.
[4] President Trump's personal attorney conducted a smear campaign against an anti-corruption U.S. official, former Ambassador Yovanavitch.
George P. Kent, a senior State Department official and one of two star witnesses at Wednesday’s impeachment hearing, testified that Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer, conducted a smear campaign against the United States ambassador to Ukraine and led an effort to “gin up politically motivated investigations,” according to a copy of his opening statement.
Mr. Kent, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Europe and the Caucasus, appeared before the House Intelligence Committee Wednesday morning along with William B. Taylor Jr., the top American diplomat in Ukraine, for the first public impeachment hearing as Democrats began to build their case that Mr. Trump committed extortion, bribery or coercion by trying to enlist Ukraine to help him in the 2020 elections.
In his opening statement, Mr. Kent said that he concluded by mid-August that Mr. Giuliani’s efforts to pressure President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to open investigations into Mr. Trump’s rivals “were now infecting U.S. engagement with Ukraine, leveraging President Zelensky’s desire for a White House meeting.”
Mr. Kent also assailed what he called a “campaign to smear” American officials serving in Ukraine, which succeeded with the ouster of Marie L. Yovanovitch, the former United States ambassador to Ukraine.
