Los Angeles Times - 13.11.2019

LATIMES.COM WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2019A

dential impeachment in-
quiry in American history.
“The most important
thing that will come out in
the public hearing is the de-
meanor and credibility of
the witnesses themselves,”
Schiff said in an interview on
Capitol Hill on Tuesday af-
ter participating in mock
hearings to prepare. “It’s
also an opportunity for the
American people to really
hear what this president did,
why it’s such a serious mat-
ter, why it jeopardizes our
national security, why they
should care about it.”
The stakes are similarly
high for Republicans, who
stand to benefit if they can
undermine the fairness and
integrity of the investiga-
tion. To that end, GOP law-
makers last month stormed
the classified hearing room
in which the depositions
were previously held to point
out that not every member
of Congress was allowed to
attend. Republican and
Democratic members of
three congressional com-
mittees were permitted to
participate, but GOP law-
makers said every American
should be represented in
such a serious matter.
The two witnesses ap-
pearing Wednesday — State
Department official George
Kent and William B. Taylor
Jr., the senior U.S. diplomat
in Ukraine — have sepa-
rately told lawmakers they
were troubled by the presi-
dent and his administra-
tion’s pressure on Ukraine to
conduct investigations that
would benefit Trump politi-
cally while holding up con-
gressionally approved mili-
tary aid to the ally country.
Democrats will frame their
testimony as part of the
president’s extortion of the
foreign power and his abuse
of power for political gain.
Their testimony is ex-
pected to track closely with
what they told congres-
sional investigators in
closed-door depositions in
recent weeks. Kent, based in
Washington, and Taylor,
who still works in Ukraine,
will sit side by side before
cameras in an ornate House
committee room to convey
the story that played out on
both continents. Taylor is a
Vietnam veteran and both
men are longtime State De-
partment officials who have
worked for both Republican
and Democratic adminis-
trations — bonafides that
Democrats hope will make
them powerful messengers.
They are the first in what
will be a series of public hear-
ings over the next two weeks
at least. On Friday, lawmak-

ers will hear from former

U.S. Ambassador Marie

Yovanovitch, who said she

was ousted from her job be-

cause of a smear campaign

against her conducted by

Trump’s personal lawyer,

Rudolph W. Giuliani.

Democrats on Tuesday

announced five hearings

next week with eight wit-

nesses, some of whom were

requested by Republicans.

Among them is Gordon

Sondland, the U.S. ambas-

sador to the European

Union, who originally said he

did not remember telling the

Ukrainians that the military

aid was conditioned on the

political investigation but

later recanted his testimony.

Schiff — a former prose-

cutor who has become the de

facto prosecutor and face of

the Democrats’ case — said

he isn’t worried about a re-

peat of other high-profile

congressional hearings that

failed to live up to the hype of

the moment.

“These are very different

kinds of witnesses than Bob

Mueller or Corey Lewan-

dowski. These are fact wit-

nesses who observed meet-

ings and conversations,” he

said. “Because they’re first-

hand observers of things,

they’ll be much more capti-

vating than someone who is

giving a summary of what

other people saw.”

Democrats have taken

steps to try to eliminate the

risk of partisan disruptions

and to set the solemn tone

sought by Schiff and other

Democratic leaders such as

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-

San Francisco), even if that

means quieting some in

their own party eager to

more aggressively confront

Trump.

Significant chunks of

time — 45 minutes each —

will be given to Schiff and the

top Republican on the com-

mittee, Rep. Devin Nunes

(R-Tulare), with the goal of

focusing the questioning, in-

stead of flipping back and

forth between Republicans

and Democrats for hours.

Other lawmakers, who are

prone to using their time to

score partisan points in

front of the C-SPAN cam-

eras, are being given five-

minute increments as they

normally get in hearings.

But many lawmakers, in-

cluding Schiff and Nunes,

are expected to give some of

their time to staff lawyers

who are better skilled at

questioning. That could

lend a more serious cre-

dence to the questioning.

Schiff has taken other

steps to try to keep the pro-

ceeding from spiraling out of

control. In a letter he circu-

lated to lawmakers Tuesday,

he hinted that lawmakers

could be subject to an ethics

investigation if they utter

the name of the whistle-

blower whose report set off

the investigation. Republi-

cans want the person publi-

cly identified, but whistle-

blower laws say the person’s

identity should not be re-

vealed.

Schiff also sternly

warned that he would en-

force rules that prohibit any

lawmakers not on the com-

mittee from participating

and said he won’t put up

with members who try to

bring up the “sham investi-

gations into the Bidens or

the debunked conspiracies

about the 2016 U.S. election

interference.” Republicans,

including Trump, argue

without evidence that for-

mer Vice President Joe Bid-

en’s son Hunter engaged in

wrongdoing while working

for a Ukrainian energy com-

pany. Ukrainian officials say

there is nothing to suggest

he did anything improper.

GOP lawmakers have

complained that Democrats

unfairly conducted the in-

vestigation by keeping it be-

hind closed doors and not al-

lowing all lawmakers to par-

ticipate. Now that the in-

quiry is being opened to the

public, that claim may not

carry as much weight. Still, if

the public views the inquiry

as overtly partisan, Republi-

cans in Congress may feel lit-

tle pressure from their con-

stituents to support the arti-

cles of impeachment vote

that is expected to come to

the House floor this year.

Republicans, who also

conducted mock hearings in

preparation for Wednes-

day’s event, are expected to

focus on the fact that none of

the witnesses appearing this

week were on the phone call

between the president and

Ukrainian President

Volodymyr Zelensky, nor

had ever met Trump.

Both Trump and Zelen-

sky say there was no pres-

sure campaign and the mon-

ey was ultimately released,

Republicans will argue. The

fears the witnesses have ex-

pressed, GOP lawmakers re-

counted in a memo circu-

lated Tuesday, were merely

opinions.

Democrats on Capitol

Hill have put their faith in

Schiff, who entered Con-

gress as a member of the

moderate Blue Dog Coali-

tion although he is now a

member of a business-ori-

ented group of centrists. For

the seven weeks since Pelosi

announced the inquiry,

Schiff has been at the helm,

conducting closed-door

depositions with witnesses

and strategizing with his fel-

low Californian, Pelosi, on

the path forward.

Schiff ’s task is to conduct

the fact-finding of the inves-

tigation and hold public

hearings to tell the story to

the American public. In

coming weeks, he will hand a

majority report to the House

Judiciary Committee, which

would be tasked with draft-

ing articles of impeachment.

A challenge for Schiff will

be to take the witnesses’ co-

pious testimony — tran-

scripts of depositions

amounting to hundreds of

pages of paper — and turn

them into a digestible narra-

tive.

Mieke Eoyang, a former

House Intelligence Commit-

tee Democratic staffer who

is now a national security ex-

pert at the centrist Demo-

cratic group Third Way,

compared that challenge to

the 1950 movie “Rashomon,”

in which one event is wit-

nessed by several people,

who all saw it differently.

“The key things to look

for are what were the presi-

dent’s actions,” she said.

“The president was trying to

bring pressure to bear

against a foreign power to

coerce them into something

that is for his personal politi-

cal benefit.”

Steering the impeachment hearing

WEDNESDAY’Spublic hearing of the impeachment inquiry into President Trump at the U.S. Capitol is the first in what will be a series of

such hearings over the next two weeks at least. Rep. Adam B. Schiff has restructured the hearing to try to keep it free of partisan antics.

Patrick SemanskyAssociated Press

[Analysis,from A1]

WASHINGTON — When
Democrats announced last
week that William B. Taylor
Jr. would be their first wit-
ness in public impeachment
hearings starting Wednes-
day, the top U.S. diplomat in
Ukraine was nearly 5,
miles away on the front lines
of that country’s war with
Russia, praising camou-
flage-clad Ukrainian troops
for enforcing a nascent
cease-fire.
That Taylor hasn’t given
up his daily ambassadorial
duties in Kyiv, even as he’s
emerged as a key witness in
the impeachment inquiry, is
typical of the diligence and
dedication long shown by
the 72-year-old Vietnam vet
and career public servant,
friends and colleagues say.
Some were surprised
that the relatively low-pro-
file, by-the-book diplomat
would be playing such a cen-
tral role in the possible re-
moval of a president. At the
same time, it was Taylor’s
credentials and, by all ac-
counts, nonpartisan gravi-
tas that gave his explosive
Oct. 22 closed-door testi-
mony such credibility.
Taylor does not crave the
spotlight, friends say, but
also won’t shy away from de-
nouncing corruption or
wrongdoing, whether it’s by
officials in a host country or
among his own bosses.
“I don’t drop the term
‘Eagle Scout’ very often, but
he absolutely is one,” said
James Pettit, who served as
the diplomat’s No. 2 in the
U.S. Embassy in Kyiv during

Taylor’s first stint there. “I

don’t think he was looking

for this but felt very strongly

about what was going on.”

Taylor, who grew up in a

Virginia military family and

studied at Harvard, is seen

in some quarters as a di-

plomat in the mold of former

Secretary of State Colin L.

Powell and his deputy, Rich-

ard Armitage — successful

military commanders who

became effective senior di-

plomats in the George W.

Bush administration.

William Courtney, a for-

mer ambassador to Georgia

and Kazakhstan who

worked with Taylor in the

1990s airlifting medicine and

other supplies into the win-

ter-bound former Soviet

Union republics, says Taylor

— tall and trim with wire-

rimmed glasses — exhibits

the combination of “disci-

plined thinking” that is

honed in both the military

and in U.S. diplomacy.

“His judgment is tremen-

dous,” said Courtney, who is

now at Rand Corp. “He is

straightforward, honest and

always with good humor.

When you are around him,

you not only respect him,

you feel good.”

Taylor’s duty in Ukraine

this year almost didn’t hap-

pen.

He retired in 2015 after

nearly half a century at the

State Department — work-

ing in the Middle East, Af-

ghanistan and Eastern Eu-

rope — as well as stints at the

Pentagon, Department of

Energy and Capitol Hill.

He’s worked in both Repub-

lican and Democratic ad-

ministrations.

He was toiling away at

the U.S. Institute of Peace, a

government-funded non-

partisan think tank in Wash-

ington, writing essays about

the need to stand up to Mos-

cow over Ukraine and im-

pose tougher sanctions on

Russian President Vladimir

Putin.

After the abrupt recall in

May of Marie Yovanovitch,

who had been the U.S. am-

bassador in Kyiv since 2016,

Secretary of State Michael

R. Pompeo asked Taylor to

come out of retirement for a

six-month tour.

Taylor had served as am-

bassador to Kyiv from 2006

to 2009 and, he has testified,

became a passionate advo-

cate for the former Soviet re-

public’s struggles domes-

tically against endemic cor-

ruption and internationally

against Russia. His wife told

him not to take the job. He

was concerned that the

murky politics that doomed

Yovanovitch were still in

play.

But Taylor said he took

the job after a Republican

mentor counseled him that

when your country calls, you

comply.

“He was willing to go [to

Kyiv] knowing it was a chal-

lenging but critical time,”

said John Herbst, who pre-

ceded Taylor as ambassador

to Ukraine and has known

him for years. “He is a first-

rate professional.”

Throughout his career,

Taylor was rarely seen with-

out a little green notebook,

friends and colleagues re-

call. In it, he took meticulous

notes of meetings, discus-

sions, ideas.

“He writes everything

down,” Pettit said. “He could

return from a meeting I had

not attended and recite back

every twist and turn of the

conversation.”

That attention to detail

was clear in his Oct. 22 testi-

mony, which produced star-

tling recollections of dates,

times and comments de-

scribing how the Trump ad-

ministration was conduct-

ing a parallel channel of di-

plomacy and withholding

military aid to Ukraine until

new President Volodymyr

Zelensky agreed to publicly

announce he would investi-

gate Trump’s political rivals.

Trump, who has tried to

discredit every witness who

has appeared against him,

described Taylor as a “never

Trumper,” a reference to

those members of the GOP

establishment who opposed

the real estate tycoon’s pres-

idential candidacy from the

beginning. There is no evi-

dence Taylor was a “never

Trumper,” and colleagues

said they never detected

partisan bias in his work or

professional interactions.

Pompeo has not de-

fended Taylor against

Trump’s aspersions. Both

Pompeo, 55, and Taylor

graduated from West Point,

17 years apart, Pompeo at

the top of his class and Tay-

lor in the No. 5 slot. Taylor

served in the infantry for six

years, saw combat in Viet-

nam with the 101st Airborne

Division and earned a

Bronze Star.

Taylor “is the whole pack-

age,” said Mark Taplin, a re-

tired career diplomat who

has crossed paths with Tay-

lor numerous times and re-

mains in contact with him.

“Policy smarts, exceptional

leadership and people

skills,” he said. “At the same

time, he knows how to man-

age resources and budgets

and make things happen.”

Friends and colleagues

believe the betrayal of long-

held U.S. policy that upheld

the strategic importance of

Ukraine is what most con-

cerned Taylor, and no one is

surprised he has chosen to

speak out about it.

Taylor first came to the

attention of impeachment

investigators because of his

Sept. 9 text message to the

U.S. ambassador to the Eu-

ropean Union, Gordon

Sondland, a major donor to

Trump, who had taken

charge of Ukraine policy.

“I think it’s crazy to with-

hold security assistance for

help with a political cam-

paign,” Taylor wrote. This

message was one of the

starkest descriptions of

what Democrats now say

was an abuse of presidential

powers to pressure a foreign

government to interfere in a

U.S. election.

Taylor’s friends said the

choice of the somewhat

undiplomatic word “crazy”

had to be intentional, per-

haps a sign that Taylor sus-

pected his objections would

come to light and he hoped

to establish a record.

“If he said, wrote or

texted something, it was not

a slip-up,” Pettit said. “He is

not a loose cannon. He did it

for a reason.”

‘Eagle Scout’ diplomat makes for a strong witness

WILLIAM B. TAYLOR JR., center left, pictured arriving for his explosive Oct.

22 closed-door hearing, will be first to testify in the public impeachment hearings.

Kirk McKoyLos Angeles Times

By all accounts,

William B. Taylor’s

nonpartisan gravitas

gives him credibility.

By Tracy Wilkinson