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.

State Department Has Revoked Over 175K Visas to Date for Criminals and Others During Trump’s 2nd Term

Graphic: UK Cop Tries to Arrest Man Who Bought Baseball Bat and Carried It Out of Store, Crowd Comes to Man’s Defense Instead of Cop’s

‘Common sense against crazy’: Trump-backed candidate sounds alarm on socialist Hong in Wisconsin race

Child vaccine schedule reduced as Trump moves to dramatically shift medical power to parents

Georgia jogger runs for her life after stranger allegedly tries to mow her down 3 times

Repeat offender illegal immigrant accused of plowing pickup into Nashville crowd – now ICE wants him

36-Year-Old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Attempts to Control Time by Freezing Her Eggs

Potential Contamination from Mexico Triggers Salsa Recall from Walmart, Target, Kroger

Fauci discussed COVID mRNA vaccine concerns for pregnant women in text chain released by Senate committee

Board of Peace undeterred by Israel’s rejection of peace plan at this stage

Trump announces aide will soon step into White House counsel post

FBI investigated then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions one day after Comey’s firing, declassified documents show

Op-Ed: Make Families Self-Sufficient Again

WJ Straw Poll: Rubio Remains the Man to Beat as Thomas Massie Gains Ground

Socialist leader squirms during TV interview when forced to address push to abolish prisons, police

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.”