PUBLIC HEARINGS BEGIN
As probe enters a new phase, diplomat says Trump inquired about investigations in Ukraine
Career U.S. diplomat William Taylor advanced fresh testimony tying President Donald Trump to efforts pressing Ukraine to investigate Trump’s political rivals as House investigators launched public impeachment hearings Wednesday.
Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, said his staff recently told him they overheard Trump asking about “the investigations” the day after Trump’s July 25 phone call with the new leader of Ukraine.
WASHINGTON – Career U.S. diplomat William Taylor advanced fresh testimony tying President Donald Trump to efforts pressing Ukraine to investigate Trump’s political rivals as House investigators launched historic public impeachment hearings Wednesday.
Republicans retorted that the Democrats still have no more than secondand third-hand knowledge of allegations that Trump held up millions of dollars in military aid from the Eastern European nation facing Russian aggression.
The hearing was the first on television for the nation to see.
“I’m too busy to watch it,” Trump said as he appeared at the White House with visiting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan by his side. “It’s a witch hunt. It’s a hoax.”
His reelection campaign was busy, too, sending out an email blast: “FAKE IMPEACHMENT HEARINGS HAVE BEGUN! … I WANT TO RAISE 3 MILLION DOLLARS IN THE NEXT 24 HOURS.”
Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, said his staff recently told him they overheard Trump when they were meeting with another diplomat, Ambassador Gordon Sondland, at a restaurant the day after Trump’s July 25 phone call with the new leader of Ukraine that sparked the impeachment investigation.
The staff explained that Sondland had called the president and they could hear Trump on the phone asking about “the investigations.” The ambassador told the president the Ukrainians were ready to move forward, Taylor testified.
Trump denied knowledge of the call, saying, “I know nothing about that.”
The inquiry was launched after an anonymous whistleblower’s complaint that Trump, in the July phone call, pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Democratic foe Joe Biden and Biden’s son – all while the U.S. was holding up U.S. military aid.
At the start, Rep. Adam Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the Intelligence Committee, 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,” said Schiff, of California. “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.”
Both Taylor and George Kent, a deputy assistant secretary at the State Department, defied White House instructions not to testify.
They both received subpoenas to appear.
Asked about a text message released earlier in the probe in which Taylor called it “crazy” to withhold the security aid to a foreign ally, he said, “It was illogical. It could not be explained. It was crazy.”
Kent directly contradicted a core complaint against Joe Biden being raised by allies of the White House, saying he never heard any U.S. official try to shield a Ukraine company.
Kent acknowledged that he himself raised concerns in 2015 about the then vice president’s son, Hunter Biden, being on the board of Burisma, a Ukraine gas company. He warned that it could give the “perception of a conflict of interest.” But Kent indicated no one from the U.S. was protecting the company from investigations in Ukraine as Republicans have implied.
At its core, the inquiry stems from Trump’s call with Zelenskiy, when he asked him for “a favor.”
Trump wanted the Ukraine government to investigate Democrats in the 2016 election and his potential 2020 rival, Biden.
Whether Wednesday’s proceedings begin to end a presidency or help secure Trump’s position, it was certain his chaotic term had finally arrived at a place he could not control and a force, the constitutional system of checks and balances, that he could not ignore.