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CORRUPTION

‘Do It in Public’: 7 of the Most Important Details Summarized From Ambassador Taylor’s Impeachment Inquiry Testimony

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Acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor testified to the House of Representatives as part of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump on Tuesday, and a release of his prepared remarks showed that he has blown the case against the president wide open.

While most of the damning evidence of Trump’s wrongdoing has been public for nearly a month now, Taylor’s account provides revealing details and confirms the most damaging inferences a reasonable observer would have had about the Ukraine scandal.

Here are seven key details in his remarks:

1. There was no explanation for Trump’s delay of military aid to Ukraine. The Defense Department affirmed the need for the aid.

Taylor testified that, as was publicly known, Trump delayed congressionally approved security assistance to Ukraine on July 18. But Taylor revealed that no explanation was given for this delay at the time — even to Taylor himself, who was serving as the acting ambassador to this country, which deeply disturbed him.

He even noted this: “At one point, the Defense Department was asked to perform an analysis of the effectiveness of the assistance. Within a day, the Defense Department came back with the determination that the assistance was effective and should be resumed.”

These facts continue to undercut the already deeply implausible claims from Trump and his defenders that the president had legitimate reasons to delay the aid.

2.  Taylor had long-running concerns about Rudy Giuliani’s backchanneling of a secondary Ukraine policy.

He said that even before he joined the administration following a May 28 meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, “I worried about what I had heard concerning the role of Rudolph Giuliani, who had made several high-profile statements about Ukraine and U.S. policy toward the country.”

As he discovered Giuliani’s deep involvement in diplomacy with the country, he only became more alarmed.

3. Ukrainians were troubled by the lack of aid, and there were lives on the line while Trump held up the assistance.

While much of the discussion of the Ukraine scandal focuses on the important stakes it has for U.S politics, Taylor’s testimony helpfully focused on the costs Trump’s machinations had on the beleaguered American ally.

In defending Trump in the Ukraine scandal, many have claimed that the president’s delay of military aid was not linked to the investigations the president wanted President Volodymyr Zelensky to carry out. Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney undercut this argument last week by saying that the investigation of the 2016 election was directly tied to the holdup in military aid, though he tried to claim later that he didn’t say what he said. Some have pointed out that, in Trump’s famous call with Zelensky on July 25 — in which the U.S. president explicitly asked for the investigation of 2016 and of Joe Biden — he didn’t explicitly mention the military aid delay, and Ukrainians weren’t aware of the aid at the time.

But Taylor’s testimony makes clear that, eventually, the Ukrainians were aware of the delayed aid as Trump’s demands for investigations continued. On Aug. 29, Taylor was contacted by Andriy Yermak, a Ukrainian official, about the delayed aid, and the ambassador said he was “embarrassed” that he couldn’t explain the hold. He said Yermak was “very concerned.”

Taylor also made clear that the security assistance was a matter of life and death of the Ukrainians.

“Over 13,000 Ukrainians had been killed in the war, one or two a week. More Ukrainians would undoubtedly die without the U.S. assistance,” he said.

4. After it was public that the military aid to Ukraine was delayed, Trump kept pushing for the investigations of his political opponents.

At several subsequent points, Trump and his officials make clear to the Ukrainians that they still want the investigations. These overtures come from Vice President Mike Pence, who was asked about the aid directly by Zelensky and responded by saying “he wanted the Ukrainians to do more to fight corruption,” Taylor explained. This was coded language Trump has used to discuss the investigations.

Taylor also said: “Ambassador Sondland told Mr. Yermak that the security assistance money would not come until President Zelenskyy committed to pursue the Burisma investigation.” (Burisma is the oil company where Hunter Biden served on the board; Trump has repeatedly claimed that Vice President Joe Biden’s work in Ukraine is therefore corrupt and should be criminally investigated.) Taylor added: “This was the first time I had heard that the security assistance—not just the White House meeting—was conditioned on the investigations.”

5. Trump claimed he wasn’t asking for a quid pro quo — but he demanded Ukraine do what he wanted in order to receive the aid.

Taylor’s testimony makes clear that, even while Trump repeatedly insisted that he wasn’t demanding a quid pro quo from the Ukrainians, his actions revealed that it was exactly what he was asking for. Discussing Trump’s demands of Zelensky, Taylor recounted:

[Ambassador Sondland] said he had talked to President Trump as I had suggested a week earlier, but that President Trump was adamant that President Zelenskyy, himself, had to “clear things up and do it in public.” President Trump said it was not a “quid pro quo.” Ambassador Sondland said that he had talked to President Zelenskyy and Mr. Yermak and told them that, although this was not a quid pro quo, if President Zelenskyy did not “clear things up in public, we would be at a “stalemate.” I understood “stalemate” to mean that Ukraine would not receive the much-needed military assistance.”

Some will surely continue to argue that Trump’s denial of a quid pro quo is exculpatory. But in fact, it’s the opposite. Because Trump’s actions clearly demonstrate that he’s seeking to arrange a quid pro quo, the fact that he is at the same time denying this obvious reality indicates that he was aware that what he is doing is wrong and was trying to cover it up.

6. Sondland’s defense of Trump is damning.

Taylor recounted:

Ambassador Sondalnd tried to explain to me that President Trump is a businessman. When a businessman is about to sign a check to someone who owes him something, he said, the businessman asks that person to pay up before signing the check. Ambassador Volker used the same terms several days later while we were together at the Yalta Europena Strategy Conference. I argued to both that the explanation made no sense: the Ukrainians did not “owe” President Trump anything, and holding up security assistance for political gain was “crazy,” as I said in my text message to Ambassadors Sondland and Volker on September 9.

This explanation of Trump’s actions actually sounds very plausible — and it confirms he was corruptly acting for his own ends, not for the national interest.

7. Taylor said that the investigations explicitly included the ask for dirt on Biden, including, potentially, in a CNN interview.

Taylor confirms, as has long been denied but has been obvious, that Trump’s pressure on Ukraine tied in directly to his ask for an investigation into Joe Biden, a potential 2020 opponent. He said he did not hear the July 25 phone call in which Trump explicitly mentioned the Bidens to Zelensky, but he said, “I had come to understand … that ‘investigations’ was a term that Ambassadors Volker and Sondland used to mean matters related to the 2016 elections, and to investigations of Burisma and the Bidens.”

He also revealed, for the first time, that Zelensky apparently had plans to give an interview to CNN announcing the investigations after meeting with Sondland. This would amount to a de facto campaign ad for the Trump 2020 re-elect. That interview never happened, and the aid was eventually released as it came under increasing scrutiny.

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CORRUPTION

‘My Friends Will Get Hurt’: MTG Says Trump Told Her Why He Doesn’t Want to Reveal Epstein Conspirators’ Names

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1 month ago

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December 29, 2025

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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said that President Donald Trump was reticent to reveal the identities of any of the men accused of abusing children in the Epstein files was because “My friends will get hurt.”

Greene made the allegation in a new interview with The New York Times published Monday morning. She said that Trump told her the reason while on a call after a press conference where Greene said she may expose the names of some of those listed in the files related to disgraced financier and convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump had called Greene in her office, and a staff member told the Times that the entire office could hear the president shouting at Greene over a speakerphone. The article alleges that she was confused why Trump was so upset, and her question led to the remark.

READ MORE: DOJ Issues ‘Bizarre’ Disclaimer Defending Trump in Latest Epstein Files Dump

Greene also alleges that she asked Trump to invite some of Epstein’s victims to the White House, but he balked at the suggestion. Trump reportedly told her that the women abused by Epstein hadn’t done anything to warrant a White House invitation. Greene says this is the last time she talked with the president.

She says the outburst blindsided her as previously she had believed Trump’s assertions that he was not in the Epstein files.

“The story to me was that I’d seen pictures of Epstein with all these people. And Trump is just one of several. And then, for me, I’d seen that Bill Clinton is on the flight logs for his plane like 20-something times. So, for people like me, it wasn’t suspicious. And then we’d heard the general stories of how Epstein used to be a member of Mar-a-Lago, but Trump kicked him out. Why would I think he’s done anything wrong, right?” Greene told the Times about her beliefs prior to the phone call.

Though Greene was formerly a staunch ally of Trump, her interest in the Epstein files caused Trump to turn on her. She joined with Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) to force a House vote compelling the Department of Justice to release all of its files on the Epstein case, with the only redactions to protect victims’ names.

The bill ultimately passed both House and Senate and was signed by Trump, giving the DOJ a December 19 deadline to release the information, But when the date rolled around, only a portion of the files were released. What was available was heavily redacted, with names of co-conspirators and others blacked out.

Shortly after Trump called her a “traitor” on his Truth Social platform over her calls to release the Epstein files, Greene announced that she would be resigning from the House January 5, midway through her term.

Image via Reuters

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CORRUPTION

ICE Agents Appear To Detain Man on Christmas Eve, Steal His Groceries: Video

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1 month ago

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December 26, 2025

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ice agents appear to rob from detained man

A new video appears to show ICE agents detain a man in a Walmart parking lot, and then steal his groceries on Christmas Eve.

The video, originally posted to TikTok by the anti-ICE organization People Over Papers on Christmas Day went viral across platforms. The account @LongTimeHistory shared the clip on X, where it received over 1.5 million views.

The incident took place at a Walmart parking lot in Yakima, Washington, about two hours away from Seattle. In the video, ICE agents appear to arrest and detain a man. The woman recording the video asks the man repeatedly for his name and phone number so she can let his family know what’s happened. He identifies himself as Emilio Moreno before he’s put in an unmarked ICE vehicle.

READ MORE: Sotomayor Slams SCOTUS Over Ruling ‘Declaring All Latinos Fair Game to Be Seized’ by ICE

The woman then asks one of the ICE agents for the man’s number. He refuses the request, telling her Moreno will be allowed to call his family from the facility.

“No, you don’t. You didn’t let my husband call. He’s in f*ckin’ Mexico right now,” she replies.

The agent then accuses her husband of fighting back—which she says he wasn’t. She asks the agent if he was the one who arrested her husband, and he confirms he is. While this conversation is going on, other ICE agents can be seen removing things from Moreno’s shopping cart; though it is unclear where the agents are placing the purchased food, @LongTimeHistory alleges they took the groceries for themselves.

The video was shot by volunteers documenting ICE activity in parking lots for Walmart and WinCo stores, according to the Yakima Herald. One of the activists, Ezequiel Morfin Jr., a board member of the activist organization Latino Votes, said that he was nearly run over in the Walmart parking lot.

“Our main goal today was that someone does not have to get picked up and separated from their families on Christmas Eve,” Morfin told the Herald.

“Are these guys Christians? Do they believe in God, or are they Christian Nationalists?” Morfin added. “Couldn’t they just pause for a day or two?”

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CORRUPTION

Despite Jeffrey Epstein ‘Hoax’ Comments, Speaker Claims Trump ‘Wants Everything To Come Out’

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5 months ago

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September 8, 2025

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In an attempt to walk back his previous claim that President Donald Trump had been an FBI informant in the case against sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) said that Trump wants to see all the files released. This runs counter to many statements from Trump calling the files’ release “foolish” and that the files themselves are a “hoax.”

On Friday, video of Johnson telling CNN’s Manu Raju that Trump had been an FBI informant in the Epstein case went viral. Over the weekend, Johnson’s office released a statement clarifying that he meant Trump “was the only one more than a decade ago willing to help prosecutors expose Epstein for being a disgusting child predator.”

In a new video, Raju asks Johnson again about the claim. Though Johnson said he didn’t know if he “used the right terminology,” the fact that Trump was willing to assist prosecutors and had previously ejected Epstein from Mar-a-Lago was “common knowledge.” Raju asked if Trump had been “asked to wear a wire,” but Johnson said he had no knowledge of that, only that Trump “was helpful in trying to get Epstein for law enforcement.”

READ MORE: Trump Launches Bizarre Epstein Files ‘Scam’ Rant When Asked About Russiagate

“The President and I have talked about the Epstein evils many times. He’s disgusted by it as everybody else. He has long had a history of acknowledging that, and he has said repeatedly he wants everything to come out, all credible information, everything for the American public to decide,” Johnson added.

Despite Johnson’s statement, Trump has had varied reactions to the Epstein files. While many in his orbit said his administration would release the Epstein files in full during his 2024 campaign, Trump himself was less keen on the idea, according to Time. While Trump suggested he may release the files, he also warned of inaccuracies in the data.

In a June 2, 2004 appearance on Fox & Friends, Trump said, “I guess I would [declassify the Epstein files. I think that less so, because you don’t know—you don’t want to  affect people’s lives if there’s phony stuff in there, because there’s a lot of phony stuff in that whole world. But I think I would.”  A few months later, Trump told Lex Fridman that he’d “certainly take a look” at releasing the client list.

On the other hand, Vice President JD Vance, during the campaign told comedian and podcaster Theo Von, “Seriously, we need to release the Epstein list. That is an important thing.” FBI Director Kash Patel also repeatedly called for “ALL of it to be released” during the campaign. Former advisor Elon Musk called for Trump to beat former Vice President Kamala Harris, because if he won “that Epstein client list is going to become public. And some of those billionaires behind Kamala are terrified of that outcome.”

Trump’s own son also demanded the release of the client list during the campaign.

“Everyone knows Bill Clinton was on Jeffrey Epstein’s plane and island a lot. Literally no one is at all surprised that he’s all over the release. What we want to know is ALL THE OTHER NAMES that the government has been hiding & running cover for. That will actually be revealing!” Donald Trump Jr. wrote on X (formerly Twitter) in January 2024.

But after Trump’s election, his administration released a portion of the Epstein files—though most of the files released had already been publicly available. Trump had also dismissed calls from fellow Republicans to release the rest of the files.

“Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bullsh*t,’ hook, line, and sinker,” he wrote on Truth Social this July.

Around the same time, he called Republicans still interested in the Epstein files “former supporters” who had been “duped by the Democrats.”

On Monday, Politico reported that the House Oversight Committee had received additional files from the Epstein estate. The committee is led by James Comer (R-Ky.). It is yet unclear what from these latest files will be released publicly and when.

Comer’s fellow Kentucky Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie, has been behind a push to compel the Department of Justice to release all information on Epstein publicly. Massie and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Ca.) say they have the votes to force the DOJ to release the information.

Image via Reuters

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