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.

California football coach arrested after students make disturbing discovery at school

Maryland dad blamed ‘Satan’ after 2-month-old daughter died from horrific head trauma

Trump offers update on White House press secretary sweepstakes

Trump unloads on AOC, Mamdani for laughing during sacred 9/11 ceremony at Ground Zero

GOP gov candidate recounts miracle water landing as dispatch audio reveals desperate search for sinking plane

Trump says Lindsay Clancy case is a ‘state situation’ following attorney’s pardon plea

Charlie Kirk statue defaced with red paint, Jesus crossed out days after 1-year mark of assassination

Arrest rips apart media narrative on death of Black woman found hanging from Mississippi tree

Trump tells Zelenskyy to stop doing ‘one thing’ during attacks on Russia

Election chaos in this red state just got even stranger for Republicans after Supreme Court ruling

The Left Loves ‘Land Acknowledgements’: Here’s One That Honors Our Forefathers and Actually Tells the Truth About Native Tribes

Arizona Corrections Officer Arrested for Smuggling 5,400 Rounds of Ammo for Mexican Drug Cartel

You’ve Never Heard of This Potential US Partner, But Their Minerals Could Help Us Take on China

3 House Democrats Visit ICE Detention Center to Meet with Illegal Aliens with Deportation Orders

Trump gives Smithsonian days to replace ‘strange modernist sculpture’ with Founding Father

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.”