(13 Nov 2019) FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: apus126642
For the first time, a top diplomat testified Wednesday that President Donald Trump was overheard asking about "the investigations" that he wanted Ukraine to pursue that are central to the impeachment inquiry.
William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, revealed the new information as the House Intelligence Committee opened extraordinary hearings on whether the 45th president of the United States should be removed from office.
Taylor said his staff recently told him they overheard Trump speaking on the phone to 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 inquiry.
The staff could hear Trump on the phone asking about "the investigations," and Sondland told the president the Ukrainians were ready to move forward, Taylor testified.
The anonymous whistleblower's complaint to the intelligence community's inspector general — including that Trump had pressed Ukraine's president to investigate Democratic foe Joe Biden and Biden's son and was holding up U.S. military aid — ignited the impeachment inquiry.
Taylor also told House lawmakers that he noticed there were two policy channels operating with Ukraine, a "regular" and an "irregular" one.
He said the president's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani was guiding requests through the irregular channel, which was unaccountable to Congress.
Taylor says it slowly became clear to him that conditions were placed on Ukraine's new president and that aid to Ukraine would be held up unless President Volodymyr Zelenskiy publicly announced investigations into Biden and the 2020 Elections.
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