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.

‘LONG Overdue’: Trump Calls for Ukraine to Oust Zelenskyy

Watch: El-Sayed Still Can’t Condemn Dead Ayatollah Khamenei, Man Who Killed and Oppressed His Own People

Wage growth lags inflation, making the affordability crisis feel even more acute

China is in bed with the world’s worst regimes

A new biography revisits ‘No Country for Old Men’ author Cormac McCarthy

Flock executive defends crime-fighting cameras as ACLU attorney questions company’s motives amid backlash

MAP IT: DOJ illegal voting crackdown sweeps 17 states as razor-thin elections face scrutiny

Delaware neighborhood on edge after masked men with apparent weapons knock on doors of homes

Trump says he’d ‘love’ to have Sen. John Fetterman as a Republican amid growing speculation

Trump says he will ‘make a decision’ on Pentagon’s plans to livestream Nidal Hasan’s firing squad execution

Toxicology reports reveal same controlled substances in 2 Ole Miss students found dead: court docs

President talks ‘Trump Ocean,’ trades jokes with Tennessee crowd as Kid Rock kicks off sprawling rally

Supreme Court climate case could bankrupt oil companies, send gas prices soaring, experts warn

Trump calls for Ukraine to replace Zelenskyy after clash over Russia diesel deal: ‘Get a new president’

Christa Pike discharged from hospital, returned to prison after botched execution, attorneys say

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.”