Taylor told Congress in closed-door testimony last month he saw the requests as so dangerous that he believed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should ignore them -- even if it meant losing a one-on-one meeting with Trump.
"If President Zelensky, in order to get that meeting (with Trump), were going to have to intervene in U.S. domestic policy or politics ... by announcing an investigation on that would benefit someone in the United States, then it's not -- it wasn't clear to me that that would be worth it," he said.
Taylor's testimony corroborates a major allegation from the whistleblower complaint, that Giuliani and Trump were trying to solicit help from the Ukrainians to boost his reelection chances in 2020. Giuliani wanted Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and Democratic National Committee servers.
Taylor also testified that it was his "clear understanding" US security aid to Ukraine wouldn't be released unless the country's president announced he would investigate Trump's political rivals. He said that it was Giuliani, representing Trump's interests, who came up with "the idea to get President Zelensky to say out loud he's going to investigate Burisma and the 2016 election."
Taylor's testimony is among the most significant for the Democratic impeachment investigation into allegations that $400 million in security aid and a meeting between Trump and Zelensky were conditioned on Ukraine announcing investigations into the 2016 election and Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company that hired former Biden's son Hunter to serve on its board. In his opening statement, which was published when he testified on October 22, Taylor explained that Sondland told him "everything" Ukraine wanted was conditioned on the investigation. There is no evidence of wrongdoing in Ukraine by either Joe or Hunter Biden.
House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff announced Wednesday that Taylor would testify next week on Wednesday, the first day that Democrats will hold public impeachment hearings.
Taylor's testimony provided a damning account of how Trump told his appointees to establish a quid pro quo with Ukraine, trading much-needed US military assistance for political favors from Zelensky.
Taylor, a career official who remains in his post in Kiev, testified that he was prepared to resign amid the holdup of aid, and he explained in more detail what he meant in text messages describing a "nightmare" for Ukraine that would have prompted his departure.
"'The nightmare' is the scenario where President (Volodymyr) Zelensky goes out in public, makes an announcement that he's going to investigate Burisma and the election in 2016, interference in 2016 election, maybe among other things," Taylor told the House committees. "The nightmare was he would mention those two, take all the heat from that, get himself in big trouble in this country and probably in his country as well, and the security assistance would not be released. That was the nightmare."
In the wake of his testimony, Trump accused Taylor of being a "Never Trumper." Trump made this claim even though there is zero public evidence to support his assertion, and available information paints Taylor as a respected and apolitical career diplomat.
In text messages to Sondland, Taylor said it would be "crazy" to withhold military aid in exchange for political help from Ukraine, suggesting a potential quid pro quo.
Taylor said Sondland told him repeatedly that Trump did not view the arrangement as a "quid pro quo." While Taylor would not explicitly say the arrangement was a quid pro quo — "I don't speak Latin," he responded at one point to Schiff — Taylor said that the aid was conditioned on the investigations.
"I observed that, in order to move forward on the security assistance, the Ukrainians were told by Ambassador Sondland that they had to pursue these investigations," he said.
In what's likely a preview of next week's public hearings, Republicans pressed Taylor on whether he had direct knowledge of the President's intentions.
"I've never talked to the President," Taylor told GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York.
Republicans also criticized the deposition at the outset of the hearing, in another potential theme for Republicans when the hearings turn public. Rep. Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, called it a "lawless" proceeding.
This story has been updated with additional developments and will be updated Wednesday.
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Top US diplomat gave damning account of how quid pro quo was established with Ukraine - CNN
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