Joe.My.God. LGBT News
CNBC reports:
A top diplomat testified Tuesday in the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump after House Democrats issued a subpoena to him following State Department attempts to block his appearance, an official working on the probe told NBC News.
Acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor appeared Tuesday morning on Capitol Hill for a scheduled deposition in the House impeachment investigation.
His text messages with other administration officials — shared with lawmakers by former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker as part of the inquiry — have helped fuel suspicions that the Trump administration was trying to arrange a politically motivated quid pro quo with Ukraine.
The New York Times reports:
William B. Taylor Jr., the top diplomat in Ukraine, gave “damning” testimony Tuesday about President Trump and the effort to pressure Ukraine’s government for political gain, according to a Democratic lawmaker and another person familiar with the opening statement Mr. Taylor delivered behind closed doors in the ongoing impeachment inquiry.
“What he said was incredibly damning to the president of the United States,” Representative Ted Lieu, Democrat of California, said after emerging after hours of questioning Tuesday morning. He declined to elaborate further, citing House rules against releasing such testimony.
Mr. Taylor became one of star witnesses in the Democratic impeachment probe after a colleague, Kurt D. Volker, the special envoy to Ukraine, revealed a series of text messages from September in which Mr. Taylor wrote that he thought it was “crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.”
New: Per source in the room, Bill Taylor’s opening statement was 15 pages long and prompted “a lot of sighs and gasps.”
— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) October 22, 2019
Asked how much longer today’s Taylor deposition will go, @RepMarkMeadows tells us: “y’all have plans for the weekend?”
— Sam Brodey (@sambrodey) October 22, 2019
Ambassador Bill Taylor is a graduate of West Point. He served in Vietnam with the 101st Airborne. He is an American patriot. He understands duty, honor, country. https://t.co/aT4YV3ATeR
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) October 22, 2019
Taylor said that he and Sondland spoke by phone about why the aid was frozen, and Sondland cited the need for Ukraine to open an investigation among other reasons, according to the sources
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 22, 2019
Asked about Taylor’s comments, a source familiar with Sondland’s testimony said that Sondland cited, in addition to the investigations, that the aid may have been frozen because the Europeans weren’t giving Ukraine enough and corruption generally.
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 22, 2019
Amb. Taylor “indicated that he kept extensive notes on all of his correspondence,” Rep. Stephen Lynch says of testimony, without discussing details. “He’s a meticulous public servant.”
— Ben Siegel (@benyc) October 22, 2019
Lots of Dems, like Lieu, say Taylor’s testimony was explosive. Rep. Espaillat said this was the most important witness so far. Unanimity among Ds on this point so far.
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) October 22, 2019
Bill Taylor, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, gave “incredibly damning” testimony about President Trump and the effort to pressure Ukraine’s government for political gain, said Rep. Ted Lieuhttps://t.co/Bc4hgFPm4b
— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 22, 2019
“All I have to say is in my ten short months in Congress, it’s not even noon and this is my most disturbing day in Congress so far. Very troubling.” – Rep. Andy Levin’s comments after emerging from Bill Taylor’s testimony pic.twitter.com/huOD2j54yR
— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) October 22, 2019