Bill Taylor, the U.S. chargé d'affaires for Ukraine, testified during the first public impeachment inquiry hearing on Wednesday he could only speak to what other people have told him regarding President Trump wanting the country investigating former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.
Daniel Goldman, the lead counsel for House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA), asked Taylor if he believed Trump would not release the military aid to Ukraine unless President Volodymyr Zelensky publicly declared an investigation into the Bidens.
"But regardless of what you call it, whether it’s a quid pro quo, bribery, extortion, abuse of power of the office of the presidency, the fact of the matter, as you understood it, is that security assistance and the White House meeting were not going to be provided unless Ukraine initiated these two investigations that would benefit Donald Trump’s re-election. Is that what you understood the facts to be?" Goldman asked.
"Mr. Goldman, what I can do here for you today is tell you what I heard from people," Taylor replied. "In this case, it was what I heard from Ambassador [Gordon] Sondland. He described conditions for the security assistance and the White House meeting in those terms. That is — they were dependent upon, conditioned upon pursuing these investigations."
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Taylor said he heard about the charges of quid pro quo from multiple people.
Both Taylor and Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs George Kent further reaffirmed they were not on the July 25 call between Trump and Zelensky. The call is what the whistleblower filed a complaint over and started the impeachment inquiry.
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