The US Charge d’Affaires in Ukraine William Taylor bluntly stated that Donald Trump was pushing President Vladimir Zelensky to investigate his political opponent Joe Biden.
Every new day there are more and more details of Donald Trump’s attempt to put pressure on Ukraine. Congress is investigating this as part of the Trump impeachment proceedings. The White House is struggling to fight back.
What has become known recently?
Acting Chief of Staff of the White House Mick Mulvani, while talking to reporters, accidentally admitted that military assistance to Ukraine was frozen, in exchange for the start of Ukraine’s investigation of the case against the Democrats.
During the speech, Mulvani emphasized that he only knows about the US request to investigate the hacking server of the Democratic National Committee in 2016.
At the same time, the civil servant did not specify that the published correspondence of American diplomats referred to attempts to force Ukraine to investigate the case of Joe Biden’s son, political rival of the US President Donald Trump.
At first, Mulvani said that the President did not allocate money because of corruption in Ukraine and the unwillingness of other countries to help Kiev. But then he called the third factor:
“Did Trump mention corruption associated with the Democrats server? Of course! There is no doubt about that. Well, that’s it. That’s why we delayed the money”, – he said.
“So, the requirement to investigate the history of the server was one of the reasons why Ukraine was not given money?”, – the journalist asked again.
“Of course yes”, – Mulvini replied.
“You just described a deal in style: You are investigating us, and we are giving you money!”, – the journalist did not relent.
“Yes, we do this all the time! Humble yourself. There will always be an element of political pressure in foreign policy”, – Mulvini ended.
Revelations of Taylor
But these are still flowers in comparison with the statements of the US Chargé d’Affaires in Ukraine William Taylor. The attorney spoke at the closed hearing in the US House of Representatives and posted all the cards.
Taylor said that Kurt Volker and Gordon Sondland, who were part of the unofficial channel for the implementation of the US policy towards Ukraine, wanted Zelensky to make it clear to Trump that he would help with the investigation.
“Ambassador Volker said that the most important thing for Zelensky will be to say that he will help the investigation, and also solve personal staff issues, if there are any”, – Taylor’s statement said.
“On July 20, I spoke by telephone with Ambassador Sondland while he was traveling by train from Paris to London. Sondland told me that he recommended President Zelensky to use the phrase“ I’ll look under every stone” when he will discuss the investigation with President Trump”, – William Taylor added.
He noted that on the same day he spoke with the former Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Alexander Danilyuk, who said that President Zelensky did not want to be used as a pawn in the American election campaign.
Taylor says that he realized then that the unofficial communication channel was used to push the Ukrainians to realize their own political interests, Donald Trump – the beginning of an investigation into the son of his political rival Joe Biden.
Excuse the White House
The White House called the testimony of the US Chargé d’Affaires in Ukraine William Taylor as part of the impeachment investigation to be”triple rumors” and insists that President Donald Trump “did nothing wrong”.
White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham released a statement Tuesday after Taylor told congressmen that the Trump administration had conditionally supported Ukraine’s public announcement of President Zelensky’s investigation into Burisma, where former US vice president Joe Biden’s son worked.
Grisham insists that President Trump did not demand any quid pro quo – “service for service”.
“Today there were only triple rumors and selective leaks from the politically biased secret Democratic closed-door hearings”, – she said.
She called the investigations nonsense and a “slanderous campaign”.
The US observers indicate that Taylor’s testimony generally confirmed Trump’s desire to use military assistance to Ukraine as a lever of pressure to launch an investigation into Biden.
Trump himself said that he did not know Taylor, who is a US Chargé d’Affaires in Ukraine. Trump also said that it would be great if the White House Administration did not give a post to his opponents.
They put pressure before the inauguration
Even before the inauguration of the presidency, Vladimir Zelensky felt pressure from the US President Donald Trump and his lawyer Rudolf Giuliani about the investigation into Democrat’s son Joe Biden, three sources told the Associated Press that spoke on condition of anonymity.
On May 7, Zelensky gathered a small group of advisers in Kiev to talk about the country’s energy needs. As a result, most of the three-hour discussion they talked about how to cope with the demands of Trump and Giuliani to conduct an investigation and how to avoid involvement in the US election.
The meeting on May 7 was attended by two of his main assistants – Andrei Yermak and Andrei Bogdan, the head of Naftogaz Andrei Kobolev and the American Amos Hohstein, who is a member of the supervisory board of the Ukrainian company, were also present there.
Hochstein is a former diplomat who advised Biden on Ukraine’s issues with the administration of Barack Obama. The meeting took place before Zelensky’s inauguration, but about two weeks after Trump called to congratulate him on the night of the April 21 election. And this happened more than two months before the telephone conversation of the new president of Ukraine and the American leader took place on July 25.
“The full details of what the two leaders discussed in a telephone conversation on Easter Sunday have never been made public, and it is unclear whether Trump asked to explicitly investigate the Biden case”, – AP said.
The memories of the three people disagree on whether Zelensky referred to the first conversation with Trump as a source of his concern. But they all show that the president-elect of Ukraine was wary that Trump insisted on investigating the case of the former Vice President of the United States and the business relationship of his son Hunter.
In any case, the newspaper writes, Zelensky knew right away that vital military support could depend on which side he would choose in the American struggle. Zelensky’s office did not respond to AP’s request for comment before posting.