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.

Battle over Daylight Saving Time erupts as push to stop changing clocks hits Senate wall

President Trump endorses Wyoming’s secretary of state for US House of Representatives

NYPD detective released from hospital after being stabbed multiple times in Bronx

Massachusetts felon pleads guilty after DOJ says he sold Russian plutonium to 67 customers

Nobu chef killed after teen driver crashes into parked car in California

Catfight! Insiders Say ‘The View’ Hosts Ticked at ABC After Whoopi’s Hiatus – ‘Every One of Them Wanted [It]’

Breaking: Televangelist Jim Bakker Dies at 86

Trump signs order waiving off-road rule for red-dyed diesel at Nebraska rally

Dennis Hastert, longest-serving Republican House Speaker and convicted child molester, dies at 84

Trump Says the New York Times Is Lying About His Ohio Rally, and That He Has Proof

Video: USNORTHCOM Repositioning Hundreds of Troops to Rio Grande After Servicemen Fired on from Mexico

Trump clears way for Fort Hood terrorist to face Army firing squad nearly 17 years after massacre

Luxury fashion designers found shot dead in California as family reportedly reveals troubling lead-up

Text Messages Between Cornell Jane Doe and Alleged Attacker Turn Case on Its Head

Biden DOJ officials warned their school board investigation resembled ‘Anti-MAGA Task Force’

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.”