Top diplomat in Ukraine gave "damning" testimony, Democrats say -- live updates
Source: cbsnews
Updated on: October 22, 2019 / 2:27 PM / CBS News
Key facts and latest news
William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, is testifying before lawmakers behind closed doors. One congressman who heard the testimony called it "very troubling."
President Trump referred to the impeachment inquiry against him as a "lynching."
Russ Vought, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), tweeted Monday morning that he and Mike Duffey, another top OMB official, will not comply with congressional requests for interviews.
On a July call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mr. Trump urged Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden.
Washington -- ............................................
William Taylor, the U.S. chargé d'affaires in Kiev, is a key witness in the investigation into the Trump administration's efforts to pressure Ukraine into investigating the president's political rivals. In messages with other diplomats from August and September released earlier this month, Taylor raised concerns about the U.S. withholding hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine, saying it was "crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign."
Democrats emerging from his deposition on Tuesday called his 15-page opening statement "very dramatic," "detailed" and "lengthy." Representative Andy Levin, a Democrat from Michigan, said the U.S. diplomat's account was "very troubling."
"All I have to say is that in my 10 short months in Congress -- it's not even noon, right? -- and this is my most disturbing day in Congress so far," Levin said.
Taylor, a career diplomat who was once the ambassador to Ukraine, emerged as a key figure in the scandal upon the release of messages he sent to Gordon Sondland and Kurt Volker, two other diplomats at the center of the controversy who have testified before the committees. The State Department tried to block Taylor's deposition on Tuesday, ................................
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/live-news/trump-impeachment-inquiry-latest-william-taylor-ukraine-testimony-2019-10-22/
Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch said after leaving the SCIF that Bill Taylors testimony is a sea change.
This testimony is a sea change. I think it could accelerate matters, he said. This will, I think, answer more questions than it raises. Lets put it that way.
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Dennis Donovan
(18,770 posts)yellowcanine
(35,692 posts)Too easy for Republicans to spin what he said behind closed doors.
hlthe2b
(101,730 posts)I understand the issues, but damn, this is frustrating.
Pacifist Patriot
(24,647 posts)hlthe2b
(101,730 posts)Cognitive_Resonance
(1,546 posts)gibraltar72
(7,486 posts)😳😜
✌🏼
BumRushDaShow
(127,322 posts)Republicans accused Democrats of exaggerating, but they declined to share details of the testimony.
I dont know that any of us, if we are being intellectually honest, are hearing revelations that we were not aware of, said Representative Mark Meadows, Republican of North Carolina. The bottom line is no one has yet to make the case for why the aid was withheld or even if the Ukrainians knew about it.
Still, by Democrats account, Mr. Taylors testimony provided the most extensive picture yet of the scope of the presidents effort to pressure Ukraine and the players who were involved in the effort on Mr. Trumps behalf.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/22/us/trump-impeachment-ukraine.html
Goal post change! Must have been pretty bad.
According to the NYT, this guy come in there with his contemporaneous notes -
The testimony drew what one lawmaker described as a direct line between American foreign policy and his own political goals.
In testimony that Democrats in attendance called the most damaging account yet for the president, Mr. Taylor provided an excruciatingly detailed opening statement that described the quid-pro-quo pressure campaign that Mr. Trump and his allies have been denying.
Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Democrat of Florida, who sat in on the deposition as a member of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, said that Mr. Taylor relied in part on detailed notes to the file that he had made as he watched the pressure campaign unfold. His testimony shed new light on the circumstances around a previously revealed text message in which Mr. Taylor wrote to colleagues that he thought it was crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/22/us/trump-impeachment-ukraine.html
BumRushDaShow
(127,322 posts)nitpicker
(7,153 posts)nitpicker
(7,153 posts)Trump impeachment: US envoy condemns 'irregular' pressure on Ukraine
2 hours ago
(snip)
"Our relationship with Ukraine was being fundamentally undermined by an irregular, informal channel of US, policy-making and by the withholding of vital security assistance for domestic political reasons," Mr Taylor said in opening remarks carried by US media.
The "informal" channel included US envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker, Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland, Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Mr Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.
(snip)