Bill Taylor tells the House committees investigating impeachment STRAIGHT TO THEIR FACES that...
A ) He was told by an official at the National Security Council that Trump had insisted the Ukrainian president himself publicly announce a probe into Joe Biden and his son.
The acting US ambassador to Ukraine said: “President Trump did insist that President Zelensky go to a microphone and say he is opening investigations of Biden and 2016 election interference, and that President Zelensky should want to do this himself.”
B ) Gordon Sondland said that “everything,” including the release of military aid to Ukraine, was tied to the country’s president publicly announcing investigations into Joe Biden and the 2016 election.
“Ambassador Sondland also told me that he now recognized that he had made a mistake by earlier telling the Ukrainian officials to whom he spoke that a White House meeting with President Zelenskyy was dependent on a public announcement of investigations – in fact, Ambassador Sondland said, ‘everything’ was dependent on such an announcement, including security assistance.
“He said that President Trump wanted President Zelenskyy ‘in a public box’ by making a public statement about ordering such investigations.”
C ) He realized that Giuliani – along with Kurt Volker, Gordon Sondland and Rick Perry – controlled “an irregular, informal channel of U.S. policy-making with respect to Ukraine.”
Taylor said: “Although this irregular channel was well-connected in Washington, it operated mostly outside of official State Department channels.”
D ) He became “increasingly concerned” that the US-Ukraine relationship was being “fundamentally undermined” by withholding military aid for “domestic political reasons.”
Taylor added that he stood by his Sept. 9 text message to Gordon Sondland and Kurt Volker, in which he said it would be “crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.”