‘Don’t worry about it’: Ambassador blocked officials from Trump-Zelensky call, impeachment witness s

[mystery-ak]

‘Don’t worry about it’: Ambassador blocked officials from Trump-Zelensky call, impeachment witness says
by Joel Gehrke
 | November 08, 2019 01:38 PM


Ambassador Gordon Sondland blocked U.S. officials from listening to President Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky because he didn’t want the conversation transcribed, a key impeachment witness said.

“The normal channel, where you would have staff on the phone call, was being cut out,” William Taylor, the chargé d’affaires for Ukraine, told House investigators on Oct. 22, according to a transcript released Wednesday. “That irregular channel didn't have a respect for or an interest in having the normal staff participate in this call with the head of state.”

Taylor derived that view from his conversations with Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, in the course of scheduling the July 25 phone call that lit the fuse on the Democratic-led impeachment proceedings. Sondland resisted Taylor's suggestion that they tell staff that the time of the call had been changed because Sondland wanted fewer government employees to hear the discussion, Taylor testified.

“I asked him something like, shouldn't we let everybody else know who's supposed to be on this call? And the answer was, don't worry about it,” Taylor said.

The exchange reflected Sondland’s wish to keep staffers from making “a record of the discussion,” Taylor said.

more
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/dont-worry-about-it-ambassador-blocked-officials-from-trump-zelensky-call-impeachment-witness-says

[aligncare]

Laughable conjecture and opinion dressed up as “testimony” from the partisan Trump hater, Taylor.  I guess though the audition went well for him behind closed doors. So, it looks like we’ll see him next week for the public phase of the House impeachment inquiry and traveling road show.

[Hoodat]

“The normal channel, where you would have staff on the phone call, was being cut out,” William Taylor, the chargé d’affaires for Ukraine, told House investigators  .  .  .

.  .  .  or at least that's what he read in the NY Times.

[PeteS in CA]

And yet it was transcribed based on the notes of multiple attendees ... as it would have been anyway. Sounds like Amb. Sondland knowingly or unknowingly excluded some Trump-Hating moles.