Following bombshell testimony from the top U.S. diplomat in Kiev that Donald Trump had withheld aid from Ukraine until its president publicly promised investigations into the Bidens and DNC server, Trump rushed to Twitter to deny the quid pro quo.
"Neither he (Taylor) or any other witness has provided testimony that the Ukrainians were aware that military aid was being withheld. You can’t have a quid pro quo with no quo,'" Trump tweeted, quoting a GOP congressman on Fox News discussing Bill Taylor, who gave the congressional testimony Tuesday.
That can now be added to the 13,435 other lies Trump has told the American people, based on new reporting from the New York Times that Ukraine absolutely knew the aid was being deliberately withheld by the first week of August, at least. In fact, Ukrainian leaders were also explicitly told to reach out to White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney in order to address the hold up, which was not merely bureaucratic in nature. That also means the Ukrainians knew about the freeze during much of August, when Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani was leading an effort to force Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into publicly committing to the investigations Trump wanted, according to the Times.
The new reporting syncs with the information relayed in the complaint filed by the original whistleblower, who wrote, "As of early August, I heard from U.S. officials that some Ukrainian officials were aware that U.S. aid might be in jeopardy, but I do not know how or when they learned of it."
During that critical period in August when Ukrainian leaders were trying to make sense of the aid freeze and U.S. policy, Zelensky had just come off the July 25 phone call in which Trump asked Zelensky for "a favor" and repeatedly mentioned alleged corruption by the Bidens.
Taylor, the diplomat who testified Tuesday, pinpointed Sept. 1 as the date when the Ukrainians were explicitly told the aid was tied to Ukraine investigating the Bidens.