Trump Impeachment Testimony: What One Key Witness Said About The Ukraine Bribery Scandal

House impeachment investigators released a fifth transcript Wednesday: the testimony of acting Ukraine Ambassador William Taylor, who outlined how a White House invitation and military aid to Kyiv were linked to Ukraine’s agreement to investigate President Trump’s political rivals.

The release came just hours after House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff announced Taylor would testify in public next week along with two other diplomats. At the same time, more closed-door testimony was being taken from David Hale, the No. 3 official at the State Department. Former White House Chief of Staff John Bolton was scheduled to testify Thursday, but he was expected to be a no-show.

Taylor’s testimony undermined the White House argument there was no quid pro quo involved in Trump’s request for an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and conspiracy theories involving the 2016 presidential election.

Taylor testified it was clear to him military aid to Ukraine would not be released unless Kyiv announced the investigations.

“That was my clear understanding. Security assistance money would not come until the president [of Ukraine] committed to pursue the investigation,” Taylor testified.

Trump has dismissed Taylor as a “never Trumper.”

Taylor’s testimony can be found here, with key excerpts available here.

In other developments:

-- Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., called Schiff a liar and said he should be the first witness to testify in public.

“He must answer if his committee improperly coordinated with the ‘whistleblower’ to take down @realDonaldTrump,” she tweeted.

She tagged the impeachment inquiry #KangarooCourt in a separate tweet.

-- Earlier, comments by key Trump ally Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., indicated Republicans may try to pin the Ukraine controversy on Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani.

“There are a whole lot of things that he does that he doesn’t apprise anybody of,” he said in reference to the former New York mayor and federal prosecutor.

Testimony has indicated Giuliani may have been conducting a shadow foreign policy outside State Department Channels. Former Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch testified Giuliani conducted a smear campaign against her.

Meadows also called the impeachment inquiry an “Adam Schiff conspiracy theory.”

-- Attorneys for the individual whose complaint about Trump’s July 25 call to Ukraine’s president touched off the impeachment inquiry warned against releasing the person’s name, saying it would put that individual and the person’s family at “risk of serious harm.”

Attorneys Andrew Bakaj and Mark Zaid said disclosing any name would undermine the whistleblower system. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., called threats of outing the whistleblower “a blatant attempt at witness intimidation.”

-- Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., had another take on why no impeachable offense had been committed. He told reporters the Trump-Ukraine policy was “incoherent,” adding the administration seems “incapable of forming a quid pro quo.”