Read: William Taylor's opening statement at impeachment hearing
Read: William Taylor's opening statement at impeachment hearing(Pictured) Donald Trump, accompanied by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, speaks on Oct. 23 in the Diplomatic Room of the White House in Washington, D.C.
-
On Sept. 25, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi initiated an impeachment inquiry against President Trump, following a whistleblower complaint over his dealings with Ukraine. The first public impeachment hearing begins on Nov. 13, in more than two decades where the Democrats hope to wrap up the hearings and hold an official vote prior to Christmas.
(Pictured) Donald Trump, accompanied by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, speaks on Oct. 23 in the Diplomatic Room of the White House in Washington, D.C.
-
Democratic Counsel Daniel Goldman (C), alongside Chairman Adam Schiff (R), Democrat of California, asks questions of witnesses U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor and Deputy Assistant Secretary George Kent during the first public hearings held by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence as part of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on Nov. 13.
-
Top US diplomat in Ukraine William Taylor testifies during the House Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on Nov. 13.
-
Ranking member Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., talks to Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, right, as Steve Castor, Republican staff attorney for the House Oversight Committee, center, listens during the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Nov. 13.
-
24 Discounts Seniors Are Entitled To
Ad Microsoft
Attorney Daniel Goldman questions Ambassador Bill Taylor, charge d'affaires at the U.S. embassy in Ukraine, during a House Intelligence Committee impeachment inquiry hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Nov. 13.
-
Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, asks questions of witnesses US Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor and Deputy Assistant Secretary George Kent during the first public hearings, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, Nov. 13.
Testimony and texts: How the Trump-Ukraine allegations fit together in a timeline
With so many current U.S. officials testifying in open hearings, here is how the Trump-Ukraine allegations fit together in a timeline.How do each of the testimonies and text messages fit together? What allegations do they contain about Trump's actions and those of his government advisers earlier this year?
-
Top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine William Taylor, center, listens as career Foreign Service officer George Kent, testifies before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Nov. 13.
-
Protestors hold a signs outside Longworth House Office Building, where a top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine William Taylor, and career Foreign Service officer George Kent, are testifying before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Nov. 13.
-
A quote from Ambassador Bill Taylor, charge d'affaires at the U.S. embassy in Ukraine, appears on a screen in Washington, on Nov. 13.
-
Top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine William B. Taylor Jr. testifies before the House Intelligence Committee on Nov. 13.
-
Jaw-Dropping Card Offers 0% Interest Until 2021
Ad Microsoft
Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs George P. Kent testifies before the House Intelligence Committee on Nov. 13.
-
George Kent (2nd R), the deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs and Bill Taylor (C), the top diplomat in the U.S. embassy in Ukraine arrive to testify before the House Intelligence Committee for the first public hearings in the impeachment inquiry into U.S. President Donald Trump on Nov. 13.
-
Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs George P. Kent (L) and top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine William B. Taylor Jr. are sworn in before testifying before the House Intelligence Committee on Nov. 13.
-
U.S. Capitol police officers stand in front of a TV screen showing a world map during the first public impeachment hearing on Nov. 13.
-
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, speaks during a House Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on Nov. 13.
-
Democratic Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Adam Schiff speaks to charge d'Affaires at the U.S. embassy in Ukraine Bill Taylor and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia George Kent during the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence hearing on the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, on Nov. 13.
-
Forget Amazon; Here’s a Better Stock to Buy
Ad Microsoft
William Taylor, the top diplomat in the U.S. embassy in Ukraine arrives to testify before the House Intelligence Committee for the first public impeachment hearing on Capitol Hill on Nov. 13.
-
Capitol Police gather before the House Intelligence Committee hearing in the Longworth House Office Building on Nov. 13.
-
George Kent (C), the deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs, arrives to testify before the House Intelligence Committee for the first public impeachment hearing on Nov. 13.
-
The committee room in the Longworth House Office Building that is hosting the House Intelligence Committee's open impeachment hearings against President Trump on Capitol Hill on Nov. 12.
-
Protesters outside on 5th Avenue with signs that say "Impeachment is PATRIOTIC" written in the American Flag while NYPD stand by after the 45th President Donald J. Trump gave his opening ceremony of the New York City 100th annual Veterans Day Parade and wreath-laying ceremony on Nov. 11.
-
Actress and activist Jane Fonda, along with others, march on Pennsylvania Ave., protesting against climate policies and to impeach President Donald Trump, in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 8.
Week 2 Of Public Impeachment Hearings: Who's Testifying And When
After a whirlwind first week of public hearings in the impeachment investigation into President Donald Trump, the House Intelligence Committee is preparing to hear from a whopping eight more witnesses this week. Marie Yovanovitch, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, is sworn in to testify before a House Intelligence Committee hearing as part of the impeachment inquiry, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on Nov. 15.
-
School students cheer to demonstrators as they pass their bus during the march on Pennsylvania Av.e., protesting against climate policies and to impeach Donald Trump, in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 8.
-
Representative Eric Swalwell (D-CA) exits the U.S. House of Representatives Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) during a break in the impeachment inquiry into President Trump led by the House Intelligence, House Foreign Affairs and House Oversight and Reform Committees on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 7.
-
Jennifer Williams, a special adviser to Vice President Mike Pence for Europe and Russia who is a career foreign service officer, departs after a closed-door interview in the impeachment inquiry on President Donald Trump's efforts to press Ukraine to investigate his political rival, Joe Biden, at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 7.
-
Former National Security Council Director for European Affairs Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, center, arrives to review his testimony before a closed-door interview in the impeachment inquiry on President Donald Trump's efforts to press Ukraine to investigate his political rival, Joe Biden, at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 7.
-
People march on Pennsylvania Avenue protesting against climate policies and President Donald Trump, in Washington, on Nov. 8.
-
Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Donald Trump, talks to reporters on the driveway outside of the White House Nov. 1, in Washington, DC. Conway fielded questions about the ongoing impeachment inquiry, Trump's decision to become a resident of Florida and a potential visit to the White House by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
-
Director of the National Economic Council Larry Kudlow speaks to the media outside the White House in Washington, DC, on Nov. 1.
-
A women holds an umbrella as she walks past banners in front of the Capitol in Washington, on Oct. 31.
-
US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi presides over the House vote on a resolution formalizing the impeachment inquiry against President Donald J. Trump on the House floor in the US Capitol, on Oct. 31.
-
Former top national security adviser to President Donald Trump, Tim Morrison, arrives for a closed-door meeting to testify as part of the House impeachment inquiry into Trump, on Oct. 31.
-
U.S. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) walks to attend testimony from Timothy Morrison, National Security Council’s Russia and Europe Director, at a closed-door deposition, on Oct. 31.
-
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., right, speaks to members of the media as Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, left, looks on as they arrive for a closed-door meeting to hear testimony from Tim Morrison, on Oct. 31.
-
Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., speaks to reporters as he leaves a closed door meeting where Catherine Croft, a State Department adviser on Ukraine, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Laura Cooper testify as part of the House impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Oct. 30.
-
The House of Representatives Rules Committee Chairman James McGovern (D-MA) talks with an aide as he chairs a Rules Committee markup hearing to prepare a resolution directing House congressional committees to continue their ongoing investigations in the impeachment inquiry, on Oct. 30.
-
Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi talks to reporters encountered as she walks near the room where witnesses are testifying in the impeachment inquiry led by the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight and Reform Committees on Capitol Hill, on Oct. 30.
-
House Rules Committee members Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., and Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., right, work on the markup of the resolution that will formalize the next steps in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump, on Oct. 30.
-
Christopher Anderson (C), a State Department employee arrives for a closed-door deposition at the US Capitol, on Oct. 30.
-
U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) speaks to reporters outside the House Intelligence Committee SCIF as U.S. foreign service officer Catherine Croft, who once served as a deputy to then-Special Envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker, testifies inside as part of the House of Representatives impeachment inquiry, on Oct. 30.
-
The U.S. House of Representatives Rules Committee holds a markup hearing to prepare a resolution directing House congressional committees to continue their ongoing investigations in the impeachment inquiry into the President Trump on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Oct. 30.
-
U.S. foreign service officer Catherine Croft, who once served as a deputy to then-Special Envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker, arrives to testify as part of the House of Representatives impeachment inquiry into the President Trump led by the House Intelligence, House Foreign Affairs and House Oversight and Reform Committees on Oct. 30.
-
Rep. Rob Woodall, R-Ga., a member of the House Rules Committee, argues a point during a markup of the resolution that will formalize the next steps in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump, at the Capitol, on Oct. 30, 2019.
-
Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N) and Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) speak to reporters while Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, director for European Affairs at the National Security Council, testifies as part of the U.S. House of Representatives impeachment inquiry into President Trump led by the House Intelligence, House Foreign Affairs and House Oversight and Reform Committees on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Oct. 29.
Officials Testify That Trump Requests on Ukraine Call Were Inappropriate
The new accounts came as the House Intelligence Committee opened a packed week of testimony, with nine witnesses scheduled to answer questions before the public before the House decamps for Thanksgiving. Democrats used Tuesday’s back-to-back hearings to move the focus of their growing case into the White House and back to the July phone call they see as the centerpiece of an abuse of power by Mr. Trump.Taking their cues from the White House, Republicans moved aggressively to try to undercut the day’s lead witness, Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman, the National Security Council’s Ukraine expert.
-
House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif., arrives for a Democratic caucus meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Oct. 29. Her panel is one of the key committees with jurisdiction in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.
-
U.S. House Intelligence Committee Chair Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) exits a closed-door deposition of U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland as part of the U.S. House of Representatives impeachment inquiry into U.S. President Trump led by the House Intelligence, House Foreign Affairs and House Oversight and Reform Committees on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Oct. 28.
-
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, center, speaks with members of the media after former deputy national security adviser Charles Kupperman signaled that he would not appear as scheduled for a closed door meeting to testify as part of the House impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, Monday, Oct. 28, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Standing with Jordan are Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., left, and Rep. Michael Conaway, R-Texas.
READ: Gordon Sondland's opening remarks at impeachment hearing
READ: Gordon Sondland's opening remarks at impeachment hearing
-
Senate Majority Leader Republican Mitch McConnell participates in a news conference on Oct. 29, in Washington. Republican Senators took the opportunity to criticize House Democrats' approach to an impeachment probe into President Donald J. Trump.
-
A draft of a U.S. House of Representatives resolution formally laying out the next steps in the Democratic impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump, authorizing public committee hearings and the public release of transcripts of closed-door depositions, is seen after its release on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Oct. 29.
-
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, director for European Affairs at the National Security Council, arrives to testify as part of the U.S. House of Representatives impeachment inquiry into President Trump led by the House Intelligence, House Foreign Affairs and House Oversight and Reform Committees on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Oct. 29.
Trump meets with Romney, Collins, other Republican senators at White House during impeachment hearing
The lunch meeting was the latest event in a Trump outreach to Republican lawmakers that began after the prospect of impeachment surfaced in September.WASHINGTON – As House Democrats conducted another impeachment hearing, President Donald Trump lunched Thursday with a group of lawmakers who might well decide his political fate: Republican senators.
-
Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) speaks to reporters before entering a closed-door deposition on Oct. 29.
-
From left, Reps. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D., Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Scott Perry, R-Pa., conduct a news conference in the Capitol Visitor Center outside the deposition of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, on Oct. 29.
-
Philip Reeker, the acting assistant secretary of state for Europe, leaves the Capitol in Washington after a closed-door interview on Oct. 26. Reeker took questions about President Donald Trump's ouster of the ambassador of Ukraine in May and whether he had knowledge about efforts to persuade Ukraine to pursue politically motivated investigations.
'Fierce, focused and fearless': Fiona Hill emerges as a principled voice in impeachment inquiry
Responding to the question of whether she is a "Never Trumper," Fiona Hill called it a "puzzling term" for nonpartisan officials.Dr. Fiona Hill, a former National Security Council official, delivered punchy lines of testimony and asserted her position as a witness in the inquiry who would present facts exactly as she knew them to be, persistent in the face of accusations of partisanship.
-
-
-
Slideshow by photo services
WASHINGTON — When Donald Trump was constructing the opulent Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan four decades ago, he was infuriated when he saw a thin layer of golden-hued marble lining the walls and column in the lobby, and ordered aides to make it appear twice as thick.
Sure, he had architects and engineers to handle those decorating details so that he could focus on the building’s multimillion-dollar budget and other big-picture concerns of a business empire that would teeter in and out of bankruptcy.
But when something bothers Trump, however small, he can obsess over it.
That tendency to become preoccupied by narrow interests is haunting him in the impeachment inquiry, which hit a milestone Wednesday when the Democratic-led House Intelligence Committee held its first public hearing since the investigation began in September.
A second hearing is scheduled Friday, and eight more witnesses will testify over three days next week.
The first hearing provided compelling evidence of one of Trump’s most audacious fixations: getting Ukraine’s new president to announce investigations of Trump rivals, including potential 2020 opponent Joe Biden, after Trump had suspended $391 million in congressionally approved security aid to the government in Kyiv.
House Democrats argue that the evidence shows Trump hijacked foreign policy, and put national security at risk, to help his reelection bid. On Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi went further, saying for the first time that the president’s demands to Ukraine amounted to bribery.
Key takeaways from day 5 of the public impeachment hearings
It was day No. 5 of the House impeachment hearings and the last day of testimony scheduled by Democrats so far. Here are five key takeaways.Testifying on Thursday were Fiona Hill, former senior director for Europe and Russia on the White House's National Security Council and David Holmes, a political counselor at the U.S. embassy in Ukraine.
“The bribe is to grant or withhold military assistance in return for a public statement of a fake investigation into the elections. That’s bribery,” Pelosi told a news conference.
During the hearing Wednesday, William B. Taylor Jr., the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, revealed publicly for the first time that an embassy staffer had overheard Trump speaking to the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, who had called the president on a cellphone from a restaurant in Kyiv after meeting senior Ukrainian officials.
Taylor said the aide, who was later identified as political counselor David Holmes, specifically heard Trump ask Sondland about “the investigations,” and that Sondland said after the call that Trump cared more about Biden than about U.S. policy toward Ukraine, an ally battling a Russian-backed insurgency.
© Alex Wong/Getty Images North America/TNS U.S. President Donald Trump walks along the colonnade after greeting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan upon his arrival at the South Portico of the White House on November 13, 2019 in Washington, DC. On Thursday, the Associated Press reported that a second U.S. diplomat, a foreign service officer based at the embassy in Kyiv, also heard Trump speaking on the call.
If confirmed, the cellphone conversation could place Trump and Sondland in jeopardy.
It contradicts Sondland’s previous sworn testimony about his direct interactions with the president, when he failed to mention the conversation, and potentially puts him at risk of perjury. Sondland is scheduled to testify publicly next Wednesday.
More importantly, it places the president more directly into the alleged scheme to demand political favors from Ukraine in exchange for U.S. assistance, a narrative that largely has been outlined by White House aides and U.S. diplomats so far.
As a side issue, it raises questions about why Trump was willing to risk security by taking a cellphone call from abroad.
Sondland’s call normally would be routed through a senior member of the national security staff or an assistant secretary of State, who might brief the president through a memo or verbally to a superior, who would then pass the information to the president.
“Nothing is particularly orthodox” in the way Trump runs diplomacy, said Alexander Vershbow, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia.
Sondland’s ability to dial up the president in a public place was particularly alarming to U.S. security experts, who cited Russia’s well-documented efforts to undermine the fragile democracy in Ukraine, and its near-certain surveillance of American diplomats there.
“The fact that (Sondland) either didn’t know or knew but took a cavalier attitude — neither answer is a really good answer,” said Larry Pfeiffer, a former senior U.S. intelligence official who ran the White House Situation Room from 2011 to 2013.
Pfeiffer said calls to the president from a foreign country are supposed to be made from a secure area in an embassy to the White House switchboard or the Situation Room, and then patched through to the president.
He said President Barack Obama received some personal calls on his BlackBerry device from a very small group of friends, but they were not supposed to contain potentially sensitive information.
Placing a call from a restaurant is particularly brazen. Even with the best equipment, government employees are constantly warned that “your call is only as secure as the place you’re sitting,” Pfeiffer said.
Republicans contend that Trump did nothing wrong, or at least worthy of impeachment, and suggested that his aides may have been acting on their own. They also complain that few of the witnesses had direct conversations with Trump, and derided their accounts as hearsay.
For his part, Trump retweeted a Fox Business host who said the hearing amounted to a “policy dispute” that average Americans would not find impeachable.
In some ways, the cellphone conversation, as described, would confirm available evidence about Trump’s preoccupation with getting Ukraine to investigate his political opponents.
On July 25, a day before Sondland picked up his cellphone, Trump had asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a phone call for a “favor” immediately after Zelenskiy had pleaded for U.S. anti-tank weapons.
Trump made clear that he wanted Zelenskiy to investigate a debunked theory that Ukraine had interfered in the 2016 presidential election, and to reopen an inquiry into Burisma, the Ukrainian natural gas company that had put Biden’s son Hunter on its board.
Since Biden effectively led U.S. policy to Ukraine as vice president, the arrangement appeared to pose a conflict of interest. But no evidence has emerged to suggest that Biden or his son committed a crime, and Trump has never said why, if he believes such evidence exists, that he asked a foreign power instead of the Justice Department to investigate U.S. citizens.
Trump’s obsession with “the investigations” is not new, although its meaning appears to have shifted over time.
He often brings up his upset victory in the 2016 election in his speeches before supporters, and still claims — without any credible evidence — that Democrats committed voter fraud. He beams when he mentions Hillary Clinton at his rallies and supporters chant, “Lock her up.”
And he complains bitterly about the “phony” special counsel investigation that concluded the Kremlin interfered in the 2016 election, in part to help him win, and that his campaign “welcomed” the Russian help. Federal prosecutors indicted 25 Russians for alleged hacking and other crimes.
Analysts said Trump’s eagerness to blame Ukraine, despite U.S. intelligence and Justice Department conclusions that Russia was responsible, is partly aimed at sowing doubt about the Russia inquiry that tarnished his presidency.
———
©2019 Los Angeles Times
Visit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Key takeaways from day 5 of the public impeachment hearings .
It was day No. 5 of the House impeachment hearings and the last day of testimony scheduled by Democrats so far. Here are five key takeaways.Testifying on Thursday were Fiona Hill, former senior director for Europe and Russia on the White House's National Security Council and David Holmes, a political counselor at the U.S. embassy in Ukraine.