Key impeachment witness told to leave Ukraine before Pompeo visit
Bill
Taylor testifies before the House Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence hearing on the impeachment inquiry into President Donald
Trump, on Capitol Hill November 13, 2019.
(CNN)A
top State Department aide told acting US ambassador to Ukraine Bill
Taylor -- a key witness in President Donald Trump's impeachment inquiry
-- to hand over his duties just days before Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo is expected visit Kiev in January, a source familiar with the
situation told CNN.
The timing means that Pompeo will not have to meet, be seen or photographed with Taylor, who drew the President's ire after his damning House testimony
that Trump demanded his appointees set up a quid pro quo with Ukraine,
explicitly offering much-needed US military aid and an Oval Office
meeting in exchange for personal political favors.
Pompeo,
a stalwart Trump ally who many expect to announce a run for a US Senate
seat in Kansas in the near future, has insulated himself from Taylor
for weeks, the source familiar said.
Since
his public testimony before Congress last month, Taylor has not had any
direct contact with Pompeo, either over the phone or in person, the
source familiar said. After both his closed-door testimony in October
and his public appearance in November, Taylor returned to work the next
day.
No effort to extend
The
Wall Street Journal was the first to report that Ulrich Brechbuhl, a
key aide to Pompeo, told Taylor that Pompeo wanted him to hand over
responsibilities in early January, before the top US diplomat arrived,
and that Taylor understood Pompeo didn't want to be photographed with
him during his visit.
Taylor will
step down from his post and leave Ukraine on January 2, two sources
familiar with his plans tell CNN. The exact dates of Pompeo's visit have
not been made public.
Although
Taylor's appointment expires in early January, the State Department
could have tried to extend his stay in Kiev, but sources tell CNN there
was no effort to do so despite the vacuum his departure will create in
US leadership on relations with Ukraine at a particularly fraught time.
The
State Department did not reply to requests for comment on Taylor's
tenure, his departure or explain who would follow him as top US diplomat
in Ukraine.
Critics
in Congress expressed alarm at reports that Taylor would be returning
to the US. Rep. Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat, accused Trump of
seeking retribution.
"Bill Taylor
shouldn't be punished for doing the right thing," Swalwell told CNN a
day after the House held its historic vote to impeach the President.
"We're in the position we're in today," Swalwell said, because "people
like ... Bill Taylor, did the right thing."
"They
stood up, the President got caught, Ukraine got the aid, and the lesson
I take from that is, when you stand up to the President you stop his
corruption."
Taylor, career
diplomat and military veteran, came out of retirement earlier this year
to take on duties in the embassy after Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch was
abruptly recalled to Washington at the President's direction.
'A snake pit'
Taylor testified
about his concerns about taking the post in Kiev in the wake of
Yovanovitch's unexpected removal in May after a smear campaign led by
the President's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.
"I
was concerned that there was, I think I put it, a snake pit in Kiev and
a snake pit here, and I was not sure that I could usefully serve in
that context," Taylor said, according to the transcript.
Taylor
had served as the US ambassador to Ukraine from 2006 to 2009, but at
the time he was asked to take over at the embassy, he had retired from
the Foreign Service and was serving as executive vice president at the
US Institute of Peace, a nonpartisan think tank.
Pompeo
had to convince Taylor to take the job, a move the top US diplomat may
regret if he runs for Senate and seeks the backing of the President's
supporters. Pompeo has made multiple trips to Kansas this year and
recently launched a personal Twitter account that features posts about
his dog Sherman, farmers, football and the military.
Since Taylor's testimony, Trump has repeatedly made the unfounded claim
that the former ambassador is a "Never Trumper," first leveling the
charge in an October tweet. The President repeated it to a gaggle of
reporters on the White House lawn. "Here's the problem," Trump said,
referring to Taylor. "He's a Never Trumper."
Taylor
has been widely described as a respected and apolitical public servant
who has served in both Republican and Democratic administrations.
Kurt
Volker, the former special representative to Ukraine, left his post
earlier this year when the Ukraine controversy began. And those who are
still tending to the relationship do not have the political vote of
confidence from the Trump administration.
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