Diplomat’s testimony energises Trump probe
THE top US diplomat in Ukraine poured fuel on US President Donald Trump’s impeachment probe on Tuesday with a detailed account of how Trump pushed Kiev to discredit one of his main political rivals by withholding US military aid to exert pressure.
US Democrats said the congressional testimony by Bill Taylor was a stunning confirmation of their allegations that Trump abused his office by seeking foreign help to hurt Democratic candidate Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
“It’s all there. What’s there left for me to say when you have such a clear and detailed statement?” said House Democrat Tom Malinowski, a former diplomat.
The White House rejected what it called a “coordinated smear campaign from far-left l a w ma k e r s a n d r a d i c a l unelected bureaucrats”.
“Today was just more triple hearsay and selective leaks from the Democrats’ politically-motivated, closed-door, secretive hearings. Every day this nonsense continues more taxpayer time and money is wasted,” the administration said in a statement.
Taylor is a military veteran and career diplomat who served as US ambassador to Ukraine from 2006 to 2009 and is now charge d’affaires following the ousting of ambassador Marie Yovanovitch this year.
Yovanovitch testified to Congress two weeks ago, telling House investigators she was pushed out on “false claims” that she had disparaged Trump.
According to Taylor, much of the pressure he described was applied through “weird” back channels, including Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
Taylor had already damaged Trump’s defence with a paper trail that included text messages in which he expresses alarm about having to pressure Zelensky’s government.
“Are we now saying that security assistance and WH [ White House] meeting are conditioned on investigations?” Taylor asked Sondland in a September text message.
Later, Taylor expressed more explicit reservations to Sondland: “I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.”
On Tuesday, Taylor said in his opening statement that he stood by that characterisation of the quid pro quo being “crazy”.
In a 15-page opening statement quickly leaked to US media, Taylor recounted in deep detail how Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, came under sustained pressure after taking office.
Taylor said he was told Trump wanted Zelensky “to state publicly” that he would investigate Biden and his son Hunter for what he said was corruption in the ex-Soviet republic.
He said that the US ambassador to the EU, Gordon Sondland, told him that “’everything’ was dependent on such an announcement, including security assistance”.
Another carrot being dangled, Taylor said, was a proposed summit between Zelensky and Trump.
Emerging from the testimony, Democratic congressman Adriano Espaillat tweeted that “what I heard today from [Bill Taylor] was very troubling and explosive”.
“At some point, we’re going to have to conclude our investigation and go forward with what we have, and what we have is incredibly damning right now,” another Democratic legislator, Ted Lieu, said.
Trump admits to asking Ukraine’s government to probe what he says is corruption related to Biden.
However, he denies the Democrats’ allegation that he tried to strong-arm the Ukrainians by linking the delivery of US military aid to his request for an investigation.
Trump has already branded t he impeachment proceedings a “coup,” a “hoa x” and a “witch hunt”.
A new CNN/SSRS poll on Tuesday showed support for Trump’s removal from office is at 50 per cent.
However, reflecting the partisan divide among voters, 87 per cent of Democrats said that they are pro-impeachment, compared to just six per cent of Republicans.