The latest on the Trump impeachment inquiry

Bill Taylor, as the US chargé d’affaires in Ukraine, is in a difficult and delicate position testifying today, a source said.

Taylor’s view is that he is there to speak to the committee and answer their questions, and he’s not looking to issue his own statement publicly.

Other officials who have given testimony and also delivered opening statements were in different positions: Kurt Volker had already resigned and Gordon Sondland, a major Trump donor, was unlikely to be fired by Trump. Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, who testified earlier this month, is still a State Department employee but is not currently in an active ambassador role.

Taylor plans to return to Ukraine on Wednesday, the source said. He wants to keep his job, and thinks it is important work.

More about Taylor: A career diplomat, Taylor had to be convinced to take the Ukraine job in the first place, sources familiar with conversations explained. Volker, the former US special envoy for Ukraine, recommended Taylor to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for the post after Yovanovitch’s unexpected removal in the spring. Taylor then met with Pompeo, State Department Counselor Ulrich Brechbuhl and Volker at the department at the end of May.

The conversation focused on US policy towards Ukraine and Pompeo’s view of that policy. The secretary of state argued the Trump administration had a robust policy — a position he has taken in numerous interviews — and the elephant in the room — Yovanovitch’s ouster — was not extensively addressed, the sources told CNN.

After the meeting, Taylor texted back and forth with Volker, and among other things he asked why Volker would not want to take the job. Volker said he was better off in his current role — covering Ukraine as well as Washington and allies and NATO. Taylor was on the ground in Ukraine, serving as de-facto ambassador, about a month later.

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham released a statement about Bill Taylor’s testimony today.

“Today was just more triple hearsay and selective leaks from the Democrats’ politically-motivated, closed door, secretive hearings,” she said in a statement.

Read her full statement:

Lawmakers from both parties are raising questions about apparent inconsistencies between closed-door testimony that impeachment investigators have received from US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland and the top US diplomat in Ukraine, Bill Taylor.

One source cited two events where Democrats have questions in particular, though there could be additional cases. According to the source, the events are…

Rep. Will Hurd, a Republican from Texas, told CNN that lawmakers will likely need to reinterview certain witnesses following Bill Taylor’s testimony today.

Hurd said President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani also needs to talk to lawmakers about his activity in the region.

“Ultimately there’s a question about how diplomacy should be conducted and having an informal channel is not a good way of doing that,” he said. “And the question that we’re going to be answering here is — does this reach a level of impeachment or is it a disagreement on policy and there is a lot of more questions that need to be answered.”

Watch the moment:

CNN Political Director David Chalian takes a look at a new poll indicating that support for impeachment is growing in the latest episode of “The Daily DC: Impeachment Watch” podcast.

He is also covering:

Chalian is joined by CNN senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny and Mike Shields, CNN political commentator and former chief of staff for the Republican National Committee. 

Listen to the podcast here.

John Bolton is seen in August 2019 in Minsk, Belarus.

Top US diplomat to Ukraine Bill Taylor told Congress that former national security adviser John Bolton had expressed concern about a call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to Taylor’s opening statement.

Taylor said in August and September, he “became increasingly concerned” about the US’ relationship with Ukraine. Taylor wrote that he was concerned that “our relationship with Ukraine was being fundamentally undermined by an irregular, informal channel of US policy-making and by the withholding of vital security assistance for domestic political reasons.”

According to Taylor, Bolton recommended he “send a first-person cable to Secretary Pompeo directly, relaying my concerns.”

“I wrote and transmitted such a cable on August 29, describing the ‘folly’ I saw in withholding military aid to Ukraine at a time when hostilities were still active in the east and when Russia was watching closely to gauge the level of American support for the Ukrainian government,” Taylor said. “I told the secretary that I could not and would not defend such a policy.”

House committee members gathered for another day of testimony in the impeachment inquiry into President Trump. Meanwhile, the President spent part of the morning on Twitter.

If you’re just catching up, here are four key developments from today so far:

Top US diplomat in Ukraine Bill Taylor said Gordon Sondland told him President Trump wanted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to publicly state he would investigate Burisma and the 2016 election in order to provide the Ukrainians with a meeting and security assistance, according to a copy of Taylor’s opening statement obtained by CNN.

“During that phone call Ambassador Sondland told me that President Trump had told him that he wants President Zelensky to state publicly that Ukraine will investigate Burisma and alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 US election,” according to the testimony from earlier today.

Sondland, US ambassador to the European Union, told Taylor he’d also made a mistake earlier by telling the Ukrainian officials that a White House meeting with Zelensky “was dependent on a public announcement of the investigations.”

Taylor testified that Trump wanted Zelensky “in a public box” by making a public statement about ordering the investigations.

The top diplomat in Ukraine Bill Taylor testified today that he was told by US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland that security aid to Ukraine could have been held up, in part, because of a push for Ukraine to publicly announce an investigation that could help President Trump politically, according to sources in both parties.

CNN has obtained a copy of his lengthy and detailed opening statement.

In it, Taylor said that he and Sondland spoke by phone about why the aid was frozen, and Sondland cited the need for Ukraine to open an investigation among other reasons, according to the sources.

Sondland told Taylor that the investigations potentially included both Ukraine’s involvement in the 2016 election and Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company that hired former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden, the sources said.

We’re going through the statement now, and we’ll post more details here.

Hear part of Bill Taylor’s statement:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said today he never had — or at least doesn’t recall having — a conversation with President Trump in which he told the President that his July call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was perfect.

McConnell was asked about Trump’s assertion, which the President has made publicly many times, at his weekly news conference in the Capitol.

Asked about Trump’s remarks, McConnell said, “We’ve not had any conversations on that subject.”

In a follow up question where he was asked if Trump was “lying” when he said McConnell told him the call was perfect, McConnell responded, “You have to ask him. I don’t recall any conversations with the President about that phone call.”

In the past, McConnell’s staff has declined to verify if Trump’s claims were valid.

McConnell would not answer another reporter’s question about the appropriateness of the call.