Icarus wrote:Bill Taylor drops a bomb:
"Amb. Sondland told me that President Trump had told him that he wants President [Volodymyr] Zelensky to state publicly that Ukraine will investigate Burisma and alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election."
Check, and mate.
But tomorrow the news will be all about Gabbard and Hillary.... again.
Download the PDF of Ambassador William B. Taylor's opening statement here:
https://games-cdn.washingtonpost.com/no ... 714783.pdfThe whole document is a multi-barrelled smoking gun showing the President's grossly improper use of his powers for personal political ends, with no regard for the national interests of the US or (as usual) of a US ally, and to the dismay of the career diplomats who watch this happening and see how disgraceful and damaging for the US Trump's behaviour is.
But here are some extracts (I have added the bold emphasis; I have OCRd the PDF and have not corrected all the resultant glitches):
Page 1:
Opening Statement of Ambassador William B. Taylor - October 22, 2019
Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the opportunity to appear today to provide my
perspective on the events that are the subject of the Committees' inquiry. My sole
purpose is to provide the Committees with my views about the strategic
importance of Ukraine to the United States as well as additional information about
the incidents in question.
I have dedicated my life to serving U.S. interests at home and abroad in both
military and civilian roles. My background and experience are nonpartisan and I
have been honored to serve under every administration, Republican and
Democratic, since 1985.
For 50 years, I have served the country, starting as a cadet at West Point, then as an
infantry officer for six years, including with the 101' Airborne Division in
Vietnam; then at the Department of Energy; then as a member of a Senate staff;
then at NATO; then with the State Depaiiment here and abroadin Afghanistan,
Iraq, Jerusalem, and Ukraine; and more recently, as Executive Vice President of
the nonpartisan United States Institute of Peace.
While I have served in many places and in different capacities, I have a particular
interest in and respect for the importance of our country's relationship with
Ukraine. Our national security demands that this relationship remain strong.
However, in August and September of this year, I became increasingly concerned
that our relationship with Ukraine was being fundamentally undermined by an
irregular, informal channel of U.S. policy-making and by the withholding of vital
security assistance for domestic political reasons. I hope my remarks today will
help the Committees understand why I believed that to be the case.
At the outset, I would like to convey several key points. First, Ukraine is a
strategic partner of the United States, important for the security of our country as
well as Europe. Second, Ukraine is, right at this momentwhile we sit in this
roomand for the last five years, under armed attack from Russia. Third, the
security assistance we provide is crucial to Ukraine's defense against Russian
aggression, and, more importantly, sends a signal to Ukrainiansand Russians
that we are Ukraine's reliable strategic partner. And finally, as the Committees are
now aware, I said on September 9 in a message to Ambassador Gordon Sondland
that withholding security assistance in exchange for help with a domestic political
campaign in the United States would be "crazy." I believed that then, and I still
believe that.
Pages 10-11:
On September 1, just three days after my cable to Secretary Pompeo, President
Zelenskyy met Vice President Pence at a bilateral meeting in Warsaw. President
Trump had planned to travel to Warsaw but at the last minute had cancelled
because of Hurricane Dorian. Just hours before the Pence-Zelenskyy meeting, I
contacted Mr. Danyliuk to let him know that the delay of U.S. security assistance
was an "all or nothing" proposition, in the sense that if the White House did not lift
the hold prior to the end of the fiscal year (September 30), the funds would expire
and Ukraine would receive nothing. I was hopeful that at the bilateral meeting or
shortly thereafter, the White House would lift the hold, but this was not to be.
Indeed, I received a readout of the Pence-Zelenskyy meeting over the phone from
Mr. Morrison, during which he told me President Zelenskyy had opened the
meeting by asking the Vice President about security cooperation. The Vice
President did not respond substantively, but said that he would talk to President
Trump that night. The Vice President did say that President Trump wanted the
Europeans to do more to support Ukraine and that he wanted the Ukrainians to do
more to fight corruption.
During this same phone call I had with Mr. Morrison, he went on to describe a
conversation Ambassador Sondland had with Mr. Yermak at Warsaw.
Ambassador Sondland told Mr. Yermak that the security assistance money would
not come until President Zelenskyy committed to pursue the Burisma investigation.
I was alarmed by what Mr. Morrison told me about the Sondland-Yermak
conversation. This was the first time I had heard that the security assistancenot
just the White House meetingwas conditioned on the investigations.
Very concerned, on that same day I sent Ambassador Sondland a text message
asking if "we [are] now saying that security assistance and [a] White House meeting are
conditioned on investigations?" Ambassador Sondland responded asking me to
call him, which I did. During that phone call, Ambassador Sondland told me that
President Trump had told him that he wants President Zelenskyy to state publicly
that Ukraine will investigate Burisma and alleged Ukrainian interference in the
2016 U.S. 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 investigationsin 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.