Trump heard asking about investigations by Ukraine, impeachment hearing told
PRESIDENT Donald Trump was overheard asking about “the investigations” he wanted Ukraine to pursue that are central to his impeachment inquiry, a senior diplomat has said.
William Taylor, the top US diplomat in Ukraine, revealed the new information as the House Intelligence Committee opened extraordinary hearings on whether the 45th president should be removed from office.
Mr Taylor said his staff recently told him they overheard Mr Trump speaking on the phone to another diplomat, Ambassador Gordon Sondland, at a restaurant the day after Mr Trump’s July phone call with the new leader of Ukraine.
The staff could hear Mr Trump on the phone asking about “the investigations” and Mr Sondland told the president the Ukrainians were ready to move forward, Mr Taylor testified.
The anonymous whistleblower’s complaint to the intelligence community’s inspector general — including that Mr Trump had pressed Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Democratic foe Joe Biden and Biden’s son and was holding up US military aid — ignited the impeachment inquiry.
As yesterday’s hearing opened, Republican lawmakers immediately pushed Democrats to hear from the anonymous whistleblower in closed session.
Adam Schiff, the Democratic committee chairman, denied the request but said that it would be considered later.
“We will do everything necessary to protect the whistleblower’s identity,” Mr Schiff said.
Mr Schiff outlined the question at the core of the impeachment inquiry — whether the president used his office to pressure Ukraine officials for personal political gain.
“The matter is as simple and as terrible as that,” Mr Schiff said. “Our answer to these questions will affect not only the future of this presidency but the future of the presidency itself, and what kind of conduct or misconduct the American people may come to expect from their commander in chief.”
It was a remarkable moment, even for a White House full of them. The hearing is the first chance for America, and the rest of the world, to see and hear for themselves about Mr Trump’s actions toward Ukraine and consider whether they are impeachable offences.
The first witness, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent, said he never heard any US official try to shield a Ukraine company from investigations, directly contradicting a core complaint against Joe Biden being raised by allies of the White House.
The proceedings were being broadcast live, and on social media, from a packed hearing room on Capitol Hill.
The country has been here only three times before, and never against the 21st century backdrop of real-time commentary, including from the Republican president himself.
Mr Trump has called the whole thing a “witch hunt”. “Read the transcript,” the president tweeted yesterday.