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.

Victor Davis Hanson: Consequences Await Tim Walz After Somali Fraud Scandal

How the Feds Unmasked, Caught Jan. 6 Pipe Bomb Suspect

911 calls from deadly Texas Hill Country flood reveal heartbreaking pleas

High-brow New Jersey suburb’s high school launches Socialist Club with Karl Marx imagery

Hollywood star endorses Republican for California governor after ‘devastating’ Newsom admin

Walz ‘derelict leadership’ to blame in $1B fraud scandal with ‘haunting reminds of Watergate’: GOP challenger

How one of the biggest local TV mergers ever could blow a hole in Trump’s affordability push

Marjorie Taylor Greene plays hooky with House resignation in sight

Hard to Read: Lesbian Couple Facing 1st Degree Murder Charge After Foster Son Found Dying in Horrific State – Their Nickname for Him Was Evil

Jan. 6 bomb suspect’s arrest exposes holes in FBI’s story about cellphone data

Chick-Fil-A Under Fire After Betraying Loyal Customers with Shockingly Woke Statement

State-level AI rules survive — for now — as Senate sinks moratorium despite White House pressure

Democrats reveal whether they believe US citizens or drug boat traffickers are more important

Detained illegal immigrants will face $5K ‘apprehension fee’: Border Patrol chief

DHS fires back after Dem lawmaker claims she was ‘pushed aside and pepper sprayed’ during ICE raid

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.”