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What Taylor told Congress on 22 October 2019
Summary
A look back at testimony linking withheld U.S. military aid for Ukraine to demands for public investigations.
What did Washington's top diplomat in Kyiv tell Congress about military aid? On 22 October 2019, Acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William B. Taylor Jr. testified in the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump. He said he had been told that the president would withhold military aid to Ukraine until the country publicly declared that investigations would be launched.
According to the testimony, the investigations concerned two subjects: Burisma Holdings, a company that had hired Hunter Biden, son of former Vice President Joe Biden, and Ukraine's alleged involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Taylor said he had been told the aim was to help Trump's reelection chances.
Why it mattered for security
The aid at issue was military. Later background describes it as a congressionally mandated package of $400 million, which Trump blocked in an attempt to obtain cooperation from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Contacts between the White House and the Ukrainian government had culminated in a phone call between Trump and Zelenskyy on 25 July 2019.
The testimony placed the aid question at the centre of the inquiry: Taylor's account tied the support Ukraine received for its defence to a public political commitment from Kyiv.
