Diplomats first to testify at public impeach hearings
WASHINGTON — Democrats succeeded Wednesday in more directly connecting President Donald Trump to alleged misconduct related to Ukraine as they opened historic public impeachment hearings with two career U.S. diplomats who solemnly testified about watching American policy hijacked for Trump’s personal benefit.
The witnesses described a scheme by administration officials and Trump’s personal attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, to push Ukraine’s president to launch investigations of political opponents that would help the president in the 2020 election. One of them revealed a previously undisclosed cellphone call in which Trump appeared to personally push a senior State Department official to pressure the Eastern European nation.
The witnesses, both of whom have served many years under Republican as well as Democratic presidents, provided compelling testimony, presenting as distinguished public servants driven to sound the alarm out of concern that the Trump administration’s hunt for political dirt was undermining U.S. interests.
Selected by Democrats to begin laying out the public case against Trump, the men held their ground throughout questioning that stretched through the day. Republican lawmakers worked to undermine the legitimacy of the hearings, and repeatedly noted that neither man had personally spoken with Trump and neither had firsthand knowledge of his motivations.
The stark divide — in Congress and among the broader electorate — over Trump’s alleged misdeeds was on full display. The committee members snapped at one another about the way Democrats were managing the proceedings and their decision to shield an anonymous whistleblower from public hearings.
William B. Taylor Jr., the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, testified about a shadow diplomacy effort in the country led by Trump loyalists looking to damage the reputation of former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading 2020 Democratic presidential candidate. Taylor recalled a text message he sent after learning that nearly $400 million in sorely needed U.S. aid to Ukraine was being held up until Ukrainian officials agreed to announce the politically motivated investigations that Trump wanted.
“I wrote that withholding security assistance in exchange for help with a domestic political campaign in the United States would be ‘crazy,’” Taylor said. “I believed that then, and I believe it now.” Taylor recalled sitting in “astonishment” when he first learned in a security briefing that the assistance had been put on hold.
Taylor also revealed new information about Trump’s apparent ongoing eagerness for Ukraine to open the investigations.
He said he learned Friday for the first time about a July 26 cellphone conversation between Trump and Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the European Union. Taylor testified that he learned about the conversation from a staff member who was at a restaurant with Sondland and could hear Trump’s voice coming through the phone.
It was the day after a July 25 call in which Trump personally pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to open investigations into Biden and his son Hunter, as well as into debunked allegations that Ukraine had interfered in the 2016 U.S. election.
The staffer said Sondland phoned Trump to update the president about some meetings with Ukrainians and heard Trump ask Sondland about “the investigations.” After the call was over, the staff member, who has been identified by the State Department as David Holmes, then asked Sondland about the conversation.
Taylor said Sondland “responded that President Trump cares more about the investigations of Biden” then he does about Ukraine.
Taylor told lawmakers he did not know about the July 26 call when he gave a sworn deposition Oct. 22. Trump told reporters Wednesday that he remembers no such call.
Republicans dismissed Taylor’s account as secondhand. But it will put even more heat on Sondland, who has changed his testimony during the course of the investigation and is due to testify publicly Nov. 20. Lawmakers also announced plans to depose Holmes.
The account raised national security concerns since it describes Trump discussing a sensitive matter on a phone line that is unlikely to be protected from spies all over the world. And it reinforces the narrative that Trump freelances on U.S. policy in a way that his predecessors did not, issuing direct orders to a small circle of confidants, bypassing formal diplomatic channels.