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At a White House briefing last week, Mulvaney acknowledged the aid was withheld in part until Ukraine agreed to investigate an unsubstantiated theory about Ukraine's involvement in the 2016 election. He later walked back the statement in a written statement, and again on Sunday.

During his nearly 10 hours of closed-door testimony on Tuesday, Taylor described some of the conversations he had with his diplomatic colleagues including Volker and current European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland.

\"PHOTO:
Alex Wong/Getty Images, FILE
PHOTO: U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland arrives at a closed session before the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees Oct. 17, 2019 at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
>

\"During that phone call, Amb. Sondland told me that President Trump had told him that he wants President [Volodymyr] Zelensky to state publicly that Ukraine will investigate Burisma and alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election,\" Taylor said in the statement referring to a September phone call he had with Sondland.

The former vice president's son, Hunter Biden, served on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian oil and gas company, until his term ended in April of 2019. The role has drawn criticism from Trump and his allies, who have characterized his role with the company as a conflict of interest in light of the fact that his father led U.S. foreign policy toward Kiev at the time.

Taylor spent much of his prepared remarks talking about the events of the last several months and his reaction to them including the release of the transcript of Trump's July phone call with Zelenskiy.

\"Although this was the first time I had seen the details of President Trump's July 25 call with President Zelenskyy, in which he mentioned Vice President Biden, I had come to understand well before then that ‘investigations' was a term that Ambassadors Volker and Sondland used to mean matters related to the 2016 elections, and to investigations of Burisma and the Bidens.\"

Taylor, who said he was urged by his wife to not take on the job after Marie Yovanovitch, the ambassador at the time, was removed, said that as time went on he became more troubled by the actions and statements of members of the Trump Administration.

\"There are two Ukraine stories today. The first is the one we are discussing this morning and that you have been hearing for the past two weeks. It is a rancorous story about whistleblowers, Mr. Giuliani, side channels, quid pro quos, corruption and interference in elections. In this story Ukraine is an object.\"

READ TAYLOR'S OPENING STATEMENT:

Taylor Opening by ABC News Politics on Scribd

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