Ukraine Foreign Minister: U.S. Aid, Investigations Were ‘Never’ Linked

Ukrainian foreign minister Vadym Prystaiko said Thursday that U.S. Ambassador to the E.U. Gordon Sondland had “never” linked U.S. aid to Ukrainian investigations of the 2016 elections or the Biden’s role in stopping a probe of Burisma.

Prystaiko spoke the day after the first public hearings in the House Intelligence Committee as part of the “impeachment inquiry,” where two witnesses said they came to believe there had been such a link — though only some time after Politico reported on August 28 that aid had been held up by the Trump administration.

One of the witnesses, Chargé d’affaires Bill Taylor, introduced new evidence that a staffer told him recently that he overheard Sondland speaking to President Donald Trump the day after his July 25 phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, discussing “investigations.” The staffer also told Taylor that Sondland said that Trump was more interested in investigations than anything else.

As Breitbart News’ Kristina Wong noted, that new evidence — which is fourth-hand hearsay, plus opinion — added little new information, but was cited by Democrats and journalists as evidence that aid might have been linked to investigations Trump had asked the new Ukrainian government to pursue.

Republicans rush to green light White House ballroom following third Trump assassination scare

Supreme Court hands GOP a redistricting win by striking down lower court block on Texas map

‘One-Door’ Welfare Policy Is a One-Way Street to Welfare Fraud

White House Correspondents’ Dinner Attendees Pinpoint Troubling Security Lapse: ‘We Are Lucky This Wasn’t Far Worse’

DNC vice chair attacks Democratic Sen. John Fetterman: ‘You’re a mess’

DOJ cites White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting in push to drop lawsuit against ballroom

North Dakota state rep, pilot killed in plane crash

What we know about the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting suspect and more top headlines

Fox News Reporter Describes Experiencing Chaos on Stage During Trump Assassination Attempt

Another Eight Nigerian Christians Killed in Coordinated Attacks

Mamdani’s racial equity plan a hidden ‘moving the goalposts’ ploy to justify massive gov expansion: expert

ACLU, NAACP accused of trying to ‘sabotage’ US tourism with ‘fearmongering’ campaign

US military conducts strike on another boat carrying alleged narco-traffickers, killing 3

New York woman convicted for throwing dynamite at boyfriend, blowing off his hand as he tried to get rid of it

Obama says motive unclear despite manifesto outlining alleged targets in WHCD shooting

On Thursday, Prystaiko said that there had been no link in discussions at the time with Sondland, as Reuters reported:

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said on Thursday that U.S. ambassador Gordon Sondland did not explicitly link military aid to Kiev with opening an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Interfax Ukraine reported.

…

“Ambassador Sondland did not tell us, and certainly did not tell me, about a connection between the assistance and the investigations. You should ask him,” Prystaiko said about Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union.

…

“I have never seen a direct relationship between investigations and security assistance,” Prystaiko was quoted as saying by Interfax. “Yes, the investigations were mentioned, you know, in the conversation of the presidents. But there was no clear connection between these events.”