Tag: Trump attempt to strong arm Ukraine

Here are the next shoes to drop in the Trump-Ukraine scandal

Washington Post logoBill Taylor laid out the most compelling evidence to date of a quid pro quo involving President Trump and Ukraine. In doing so, he became the first U.S. official to describe an explicit request involving official U.S. government concessions potentially being exchanged for politically advantageous investigations for Trump.

The acting top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine said not just that this setup involved both military aid and Ukraine’s desired meeting between its president and Trump, but also that it involved requested investigations focused on the Bidens and a conspiracy theory about Ukraine’s role in interference in the 2016 U.S. election.

But Taylor’s version won’t be the final word. His testimony both provides important clues about what future witnesses could say and indicates that Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, who testified last week, has a lot of explaining to do.

View the complete October 23 article by Aaron Blake on The Washington Post website here.

Trump made Ukraine aid contingent on public pledge to investigate Bidens and 2016 election, U.S. envoy says he was told

Washington Post logoAmerica’s top diplomat in Ukraine delivered a forceful blow to President Trump’s account of his “perfect” dealings with that nation, telling lawmakers Tuesday that the White House had threatened to withdraw much-needed military aid unless Kyiv announced investigations for Trump’s political benefit.

The explosive, closed-door testimony from acting ambassador William B. Taylor Jr. undermined Trump’s insistence that he never pressured Ukrainian officials in a potentially improper “quid pro quo.” It also offered House investigators an expansive road map to what Taylor called a “highly irregular” channel of shadow diplomacy toward Ukraine that lies at the heart of the impeachment inquiry.

In a 15-page opening statement, obtained by The Washington Post, Taylor repeatedly expressed his shock and bewilderment as he watched U.S. policy toward Ukraine get overtaken by Trump’s demand that newly elected president Volodymyr Zelensky “go to a microphone and say he is opening investigations of [Democratic presidential candidate Joe] Biden and 2016 election interference.”

View the complete October 22 article by Rachael Bade, Anne Gearan, Karoun Demirjian and Mike DeBonis on The Washington Post website here.