At the start of the Impeachment hearings in Ukraine, a witness has provided new information. US diplomat William Taylor said in his statement to the Intelligence Committee that one of his associates overheard a phone call from US President Donald Trump and EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland, which was about "the investigation." When the employee then asked Sondland what Trump think of Ukraine, Sondland said, "Trump is more interested in the investigation into Biden."
Taylor heads the US Embassy in the Ukrainian capital Kiev. He was interrogated by the Intelligence Committee along with State Department diplomat George Kent. At the hearings will be clarified whether Trump held back a planned military aid for Ukraine and used as a lever to enforce legal action in Kiev against his domestic rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
The Democrats see Trump's actions against Ukraine as a serious abuse of office with the aim of obtaining discrediting material against his potential challenger in the presidential election of 2020. The scandal started with the unveiling of a whistleblower who revealed how Trump urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyj to investigate Biden during a telephone conversation in July.
DPA / Andrew Harnik
William Taylor (right), acting US Ambassador to the Ukraine, and George Kent, US State Department diplomat, are sworn in for their testimony before the US Congress
Taylor said Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani had sent an "irregular" diplomatic channel to Kiev that undermined the US government's official relations with Ukraine.
Taylor: Giuliani has "undermined US foreign policy"
About Giuliani's secondary channel was the stop of the already promised US military aid for Ukraine operated, said Taylor. The incident showed, according to Taylor, how US official foreign policy was "undermined" by Giu- lilian's "irregular efforts".
Taylor further said he had informed the US government at the time that "it would be crazy to withhold security aid in exchange for help with a domestic campaign in the US". That a country in the war, the security support should be denied to achieve something, he was alarmed.
After Taylor and Kent, the ex-ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch will be interviewed on Friday. Next week, more government employees are expected to perform. This may include lieutenant colonel in Security Council Alexander Vindman and ex-security adviser John Bolton.