A key witness weakens Donald Trump's denials in the Ukrainian case

The charge d'affaires of the United States in Kiev, William Taylor, assured Tuesday that a US aid for Ukraine was conditioned by the president to the opening of investigations by the Ukrainian justice.

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US Charge d'Affaires in Kiev William Taylor arrives at the Capitol to be auditioned in the House of Representatives on October 22.
US Charge d'Affaires in Kiev William Taylor arrives at the Capitol to be auditioned in the House of Representatives on October 22. ALEX WONG / AFP

New testimony has confirmed Democratic suspicions of a possible abuse of power by Donald Trump for political purposes, Tuesday, October 22.

The charge d'affaires of the United States in Kiev, William Taylor, who had taken office after the brutal dismissal of Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch in May, assured, during a hearing in the House of Representatives, that aid for Ukraine had been conditioned by the US president to open investigations by the Ukrainian courts.

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They include the son of one of his political opponents, the former Democratic Vice President and presidential candidate for the 2020 Joe Biden. Hunter Biden served on the board of directors of a private gas company from 2014 to 2019. No violations have ever been reported about him.

A parallel diplomacy

In his opening remarks, William Taylor, a former ambassador to Ukraine at the time of George W. Bush's Republican administration, lamented the establishment of a parallel diplomacy. It was conducted, according to him, by the US Ambassador to the European Union (EU), Gordon Sondland – a businessman propelled to this post by Donald Trump – by the special envoy Kurt Volker , and by resigned Energy Secretary Rick Perry, in coordination with the president's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani.

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William Taylor was worried in an SMS conversation about a give-away, judged "Nutcase" between this aid and the surveys. He confirmed his remarks in early September and said Gordon Sondland had tried to justify him in the past of Donald Trump. "When a businessman is about to sign a check to someone who owes him something, the businessman asks that person to pay before he signs the check."he would have told him. The aid was released later under the strong pressure of the Congress.

The Ukrainian case, which is the subject of an indictment (impeachment) of the president, is part of a report of a whistleblower initially blocked by the US Department of Justice, after an alarming conversation between Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.

Under the pressure of the Democrats, the White House published on September 24 a report of this exchange in which the President of the United States asks " A favor " to his interlocutor after the latter has mentioned the need for weapons of his country.

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