Top U.S.
diplomat in Ukraine William Taylor,
right, and career Foreign Service
officer George Kent, arrive to
testify before the House
Intelligence Committee on Capitol
Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Nov.
13, 2019, during the first public
impeachment hearing of President
Donald Trump's efforts to tie U.S.
aid for Ukraine to investigations of
his political opponents. (Reuters
Photo/Joshua Roberts)
Trump
impeachment
hearings
focus on
Ukraine
pressure
campaign
in first
day
By
Patricia
Zengerle
reuters.com
WASHINGTON
- The
top U.S.
diplomat
in
Ukraine,
testifying
on
Wednesday
in the
first
televised
hearing
of the
impeachment
inquiry
against
President
Donald
Trump,
linked
him more
directly
to a
pressure
campaign
on
Ukraine
to
conduct
investigations
that
would
benefit
him
politically.
William
Taylor
was one
of two
career
diplomats
who
testified
before
the
House of
Representatives
Intelligence
Committee
as a
crucial
new
phase
began in
the
impeachment
inquiry,
which
threatens
Trump’s
presidency
even as
he seeks
re-election
in 2020.
Both
Taylor
and
George
Kent
testified
about
the
pressure
Trump
and
allies
applied
to get
Ukraine
to
investigate
Democratic
political
rival
Joe
Biden
over his
son’s
business
dealings
in
Ukraine.
Their
testimony
was calm
and
forceful,
but it
was not
clear
whether
it would
help
Democrats
break
through
a
partisan
divide
and
convince
more
Americans
that the
Republican
president
has
committed
misdeeds
worthy
of
ousting
him from
office.
In a
disclosure
that
drew the
most
attention,
Taylor,
acting
ambassador
to
Ukraine,
pointed
to
Trump’s
keen
interest
in
getting
the
eastern
European
ally to
investigate
Biden, a
former
vice
president,
and
reiterated
his
understanding
that
$391
million
in U.S.
security
aid was
withheld
from
Kiev
unless
it
cooperated.
Taylor
said a
member
of his
staff
overheard
a July
26 phone
call
between
Trump
and
Gordon
Sondland,
a former
Trump
political
donor
appointed
as a
senior
diplomat,
in which
Trump
asked
about
those
investigations
and
Sondland
told him
the
Ukrainians
were
ready to
proceed.
After
that
conversation
- which
occurred
a day
after
Trump
had
asked
Ukraine’s
president
during a
phone
call to
conduct
the
investigations
- the
staff
member
asked
Sondland,
the U.S.
ambassador
to the
European
Union,
what
Trump
thought
about
Ukraine,
Taylor
said.
“Ambassador
Sondland
responded
that
President
Trump
cares
more
about
the
investigations
of
Biden,
which
Giuliani
was
pressing
for,”
Taylor
testified,
referring
to
Trump’s
personal
lawyer,
Rudy
Giuliani.
Asked by
Adam
Schiff,
the
committee’s
Democratic
chairman,
if that
meant
Trump
cared
more
about
the
investigations
than
about
Ukraine,
Taylor
said:
“Yes,
sir.”
Taylor,
who was
appointed
by Trump
in June,
also
said
withholding
military
aid from
Ukraine,
which
has been
locked
in
conflict
with
Russia
since
Moscow
annexed
the
Crimean
peninsula
in 2014,
undermined
U.S.
strategic
interests.
“It
was
counterproductive
to all
of what
we had
been
trying
to do.
It was
illogical
... It
was
crazy,”
he said.
At a
White
House
news
conference
with
Turkish
President
Tayyip
Erdogan
after
the
hearing
ended,
Trump
said he
knew
“nothing”
about
the call
with
Sondland
that
Taylor
said his
aide
overheard.
“It’s
the
first
time I
heard
it,”
said
Trump,
who has
denied
any
wrongdoing.
David
Holmes,
a Taylor
aide
subpoenaed
to
testify
behind
closed
doors on
Friday
in the
impeachment
inquiry,
is the
staffer
who
overheard
the call
that
Sondland
made to
Trump
from
Ukraine,
said a
person
familiar
with the
issue.
Republican
lawmakers
called
Taylor’s
account
hearsay
and
noted
Ukraine’s
president
has not
said he
felt
pressured
by
Trump.
HISTORIC
SESSION
With
a
potential
television
audience
of tens
of
millions
looking
on,
Schiff
opened
the
historic
session
- the
first
impeachment
drama in
two
decades
- in an
ornate
hearing
room
packed
with
journalists,
lawmakers
and
members
of the
public.
The
contentious
hearing
lasted
5-1/2
hours.
Schiff
and
other
Democrats
accused
Trump of
abusing
his
power
while
the
panel’s
senior
Republican,
Devin
Nunes,
denied
that
Trump
and his
aides
improperly
pressured
Ukraine
to dig
up dirt
on
Biden, a
leading
contender
for the
Democratic
nomination
for the
2020
election.
Taylor
and
Kent,
the
deputy
assistant
secretary
of state
for
European
and
Eurasian
affairs,
detailed
the
evidence
they saw
that
U.S.
security
aid - as
well as
a
meeting
with
Trump at
the
White
House -
was
withheld
from
Ukraine
as
leverage
over
Kiev.
“The
questions
presented
by this
impeachment
inquiry
are
whether
President
Trump
sought
to
exploit
that
ally’s
vulnerability
and
invite
Ukraine’s
interference
in our
elections,”
Schiff
said.
“Our
answer
to these
questions
will
affect
not only
the
future
of this
presidency,
but the
future
of the
presidency
itself.”
Schiff
added:
“If this
is not
impeachable
conduct,
what
is?”
This
week’s
sessions,
where
Americans
are
hearing
directly
for the
first
time
from
people
involved
in
events
that
sparked
the
congressional
inquiry,
may pave
the way
for the
Democratic-led
House to
approve
articles
of
impeachment
- formal
charges
-
against
Trump.
That
would
lead to
a trial
in the
Senate
on
whether
to
convict
Trump of
those
charges
and
remove
him from
office.
Republicans
control
the
Senate
and have
shown
little
support
for
Trump’s
removal.
The
inquiry
is being
conducted
as the
2020
presidential
campaign
gathers
steam.
Opinion
polls
show
Democrats
strongly
back
impeachment
and
Republicans
strongly
oppose,
leaving
both
parties
appealing
to a
small
sliver
of the
public -
independents
and
others
who have
not made
up their
minds.
During
his news
conference
with
Erdogan,
Trump
said he
had been
too busy
to watch
the
hearing.
“I hear
it’s a
joke,”
he said.
“This is
a sham
and
shouldn’t
be
allowed.”
Nunes
accused
Democrats
of
conducting
a
“carefully
orchestrated
smear
campaign”
and said
they had
combined
with the
media
and
“partisan
bureaucrats”
to try
to
overturn
the
results
of the
2016
election
won by
Trump.
He
hewed to
the
Republican
strategy
of
arguing
Trump
did
nothing
wrong in
asking
Ukraine’s
new
president
to
investigate
Biden,
calling
it “an
impeachment
process
in
search
of a
crime.”
The
focus of
the
inquiry
is on
the July
25
telephone
call in
which
Trump
asked
Ukrainian
President
Volodymyr
Zelenskiy
to open
a
corruption
investigation
into
Biden
and his
son
Hunter,
and into
a
discredited
theory
that
Ukraine,
not
Russia,
meddled
in the
2016
U.S.
election.
Hunter
Biden
had been
a board
member
for a
Ukrainian
energy
company
called
Burisma.
Democrats
say
Trump
abused
his
power by
withholding
the
security
aid to
Ukraine
- a
vulnerable
U.S.
ally
facing
Russian
aggression
- as
leverage
to
pressure
Kiev
into
conducting
the
investigations.
The
money,
approved
by the
U.S.
Congress
to help
Ukraine
combat
Russia-backed
separatists
in the
eastern
part of
the
country,
was
later
provided
to
Ukraine.
‘STAR
WITNESS’
Both
witnesses
remained
calm and
unflappable
throughout
the
marathon
session.
Taylor
said at
the
outset:
“I am
not here
to take
one side
or the
other,
or to
advocate
for any
particular
outcome
of these
proceedings.”
Republican
Jim
Jordan,
a
forceful
Trump
ally,
told
Taylor:
“You’re
their
star
witness,”
referring
to the
Democrats.
“I
don’t
consider
myself a
star
witness
for
anything,”
Taylor
responded.
Taylor,
a former
U.S.
Army
officer,
previously
served
as U.S.
ambassador
to
Ukraine
and is
now the
chargé
d’affaires
of the
U.S.
Embassy
in Kiev.
Kent
oversees
Ukraine
policy
at the
State
Department.
“I
do not
believe
the
United
States
should
ask
other
countries
to
engage
in
selective,
politically
associated
investigations
or
prosecutions
against
opponents
of those
in
power,
because
such
selective
actions
undermine
the rule
of law
regardless
of the
country,”
Kent
said.
Taylor
said he
found
two
channels
of U.S.
policy
toward
Ukraine
- one
regular
and one
“highly
irregular”
- and
recounted
how a
Trump
meeting
with the
Ukrainian
president
was
improperly
conditioned
on Kiev
agreeing
to
investigate
Burisma
and the
debunked
notion
of
Ukrainian
interference
in the
2016
election.
Taylor
said he
became
aware
that a
hold on
the
security
aid was
contingent
on
Ukraine
opening
the
investigations,
which
was
alarming
to him
because
it
entailed
“security
assistance
to a
country
at war.”
Trump
has
derided
some of
the
current
and
former
U.S.
officials
who have
appeared
before
committees
as
“Never
Trumpers”
- a term
referring
to
Republican
opponents
of the
president
whom he
has
called
“human
scum.”
Asked
during
the
hearing
whether
they are
“never
Trumpers,”
Taylor
responded:
“No,
Sir,”
and Kent
noted he
had
worked
as a
diplomat
under
presidents
of both
parties.
Reporting
by Matt
Spetalnick,
Patricia
Zengerle
and
Karen
Freifeld;
Additional
reporting
by
Richard
Cowan,
Susan
Cornwell,
David
Morgan,
Jonathan
Landay,
Doina
Chiacu,
Lisa
Lambert,
Susan
Heavey
and Jan
Wolfe;
Writing
by Matt
Spetalnick
and John
Whitesides;
Editing
by Scott
Malone,
Will
Dunham,
Peter
Cooney
and
Gerry
Doyle