According to people in the room where it happened, Ambassador William Taylor submitted a 15-page statement which clearly outlined how military aid was withheld as pressure so that Ukraine would investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.
CNN reports that both parties confirm that Taylor testified that "security aid to Ukraine could have been held up in part because of a push for Ukraine to publicly announce an investigation that could help Trump politically."
There's more:
Taylor said that he and Sondland spoke by phone about why the aid was frozen, and Sondland cited the need for Ukraine to open an investigation among other reasons, according to the sources
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 22, 2019
Can you say quid pro quo? Say it louder: QUID PRO QUO.
Reactions were swift after committee members left the SCIF:
Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch said after leaving the SCIF that Bill Taylor’s testimony “is a sea change.”
“This testimony is a sea change. I think it could accelerate matters,” he said. “This will, I think, answer more questions than it raises. Let’s put it that way.”— Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) October 22, 2019
New: Per source in the room, Bill Taylor’s opening statement was 15 pages long and prompted “a lot of sighs and gasps.”
— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) October 22, 2019
UPDATE: Manu Raju describes comments made to him by people in the room where it happened in the video above.
UPDATE 2: From Politico:
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the president's lead defender in the room, was tight-lipped as he emerged from the closed-door deposition for a lunch break. He praised what he described as GOP lawyers’ effective questioning of Taylor but declined to say whether it yielded exculpatory information.
