In damaging testimony to Congress on Wednesday, Chargé d’Affaires Bill Taylor revealed new information regarding a phone call between EU ambassador Gordon Sondland and Donald Trump.
According to Taylor – whose 15-page opening statement to lawmakers during closed-door testimony in October underscored just how perilous this situation really is for the White House – said one of his staff heard a phone call between Sondland and Trump, where the two spoke of “the investigations”.
“The Ukrainians were ready to move forward”, Sondland allegedly told the president. Taylor’s aide then asked Sondland about Trump’s feelings towards Ukraine. The ambassador “responded that President Trump cares more about the investigations of Biden, which Giuliani was pressing for”.
Read more: Bill Taylor Reveals New Information In First Day Of Public Impeachment Hearings
Later, during his joint press conference with Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Trump essentially pleaded ignorance.
“I know nothing about that”, Trump said of the alleged call, which took place the day after the infamous conversation with Zelensky. “First time I’ve heard it”.
Well, as it turns out, another person overheard the call in addition to Taylor’s aide.
“A second US embassy staffer in Kyiv overheard a key cellphone call between President Donald Trump and his ambassador to the European Union discussing the need for Ukrainian officials to pursue ‘investigations'”, the Associated Press said Thursday, adding that “the second diplomatic staffer also at the table was Suriya Jayanti, a foreign service officer based in Kyiv”.
That does not appear to be good news for the GOP, to the extent it validates Taylor’s testimony and doesn’t come from a nameless person.
Meanwhile, speaking to reporters on Thursday, Nancy Pelosi said “What President Trump has done on the record in terms of [the Ukraine affair] … makes what Nixon did look almost small”.
Nothing further.
So long as he’s bigger than Nixon….