WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd October, 2019) Acting US Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor told House of Representatives lawmakers in a closed hearing that President Donald Trump's decision to withhold security assistance to Ukraine was tied to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's decision to publicly announce he was going to open investigations into Joe and Hunter Biden and 2016 US election.
"Ambassador [to European Union Gordon] Sondland said that he talked to President Zelenskyy and Mr. [Andrey] Yermak and told them that, although this was not a quid pro quo, if President Zelenskyy did not 'clear things up' in public, we would be at a 'stalemate,'" Taylor said on Tuesday. "I understood a 'stalemate' to mean that Ukraine would not receive the much-needed military assistance."
Taylor also said Trump wanted Zelenkskyy to publicly announce in an interview with CNN that he was launching an investigation into the Bidens and the scandal involving the 2016 US presidential election.
In addition, Taylor said the official US foreign policy toward Ukraine was undercut by the irregular efforts led by Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
On September 24, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced an impeachment inquiry into Trump in the wake of a whistleblower complaint that claimed the US president might have abused his power by allegedly pressuring Zelenskyy during a July 25 phone call into investigating Joe and Hunter Biden for corruption.
Trump has denied the allegations of misconduct, released the transcript of the call and characterized the impeachment inquiry as another political witch hunt aimed at reversing the result of the 2016 US presidential election.
