Republican Congressman Bradley Byrne (AL-01) has been going through the testimony transcripts released this week from the U.S. House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, and on Thursday Byrne gave his main takeaways exclusively to Yellowhammer News.
“We’ve learned two things this week: career bureaucrats don’t like President Trump and Democrats don’t have a case against him,” the Republican U.S. Senate candidate said.
“Ambassador Yovanovitch was upset that President Trump fired her after rumors she was bad mouthing him,” Byrne outlined. “Is that impeachable? As she agreed under oath, ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the President. Ambassador McKinley wanted Secretary Pompeo to defend Yovanovitch and resigned when he didn’t. Ok, so what?”
He continued, “One witness, Ambassador Volker, says there was no linkage between White House meetings and the investigations and he knew of no conditions for the release of the funds. He revealed that Ukraine didn’t even know about the funds being on hold until the American press reported it. Volker also testified funds get held up all the time and that neither he nor the Ukrainians ever worried they wouldn’t be released (they eventually were). If this was a quid pro quo it was a bad one.”
“Ambassador Sondland testified that when he questioned Trump about the hold, Trump told him he wasn’t holding them up for a quid pro quo. Democrats made a big deal that Sondland amended his testimony to say he told a Ukrainian staff member that issuing Giuliani’s statement on corruption would help release the funds, but he clearly admitted this was based upon a ‘presumption,’ not any direction from President Trump. Sondland clearly stated he had no idea why the funds were held up and that he still doesn’t know,” Byrne advised.
“Finally, Ambassador Taylor, who claims he had a clear understanding of a quid pro quo, admitted when questioned by Republicans this was all second or third hand — no direct knowledge — some of it even from the New York Times! He never even had a conversation with President Trump, Giuliani or Mulvaney,” he remarked.
Byrne concluded, “This week’s hearsay and speculation would get tossed out in court, but not in the Democrats’ kangaroo impeachment court.”
Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
Don’t miss out! Subscribe today to have Alabama’s leading headlines delivered to your inbox.