Taylor is the son of Nancy Dare (Aitcheson) and William Brockenbrough Newton Taylor,[3] who had been a director of research and development for the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).[4]
Like his father, he attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, graduating in 1969. The Howitzer yearbook describes his modesty about his many academic and athletic accomplishments, describing him as "a man who is held in the highest esteem and admiration by all of us." [5] In 1977 he completed graduate studies at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, receiving a Master of Public Policy degree.
After Taylor graduated from West Point, he served in the Infantry for six years, including tours of duty in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam and as aero-rifle commander in the 2nd Cavalry Regiment (United States) in Germany.[6]
As a civilian he served as Director of Emergency Preparedness Policy in the Department of Energy before serving for five years as Legislative Assistant on the staff of U.S. Senator Bill Bradley (D-N.J.). He then directed a Defense Department think tank at Fort Lesley J. McNair. Following that assignment, he transferred to Brussels for a five year assignment as the Special Deputy Defense Advisor to the U.S. Ambassador to NATO, William Howard Taft IV. From 1992 until 2002 Taylor served with the rank of ambassador coordinating assistance to Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, followed by an assignment in Kabul coordinating U.S. and international assistance to Afghanistan. In 2004 he was transferred to Baghdad as Director of the Iraq Reconstruction Management Office. [7]
Until 2006 he then was the U.S. Government's representative to the Quartet's effort to facilitate the Israeli disengagement from Gaza and parts of the West Bank, led by Special Envoy James Wolfensohn in Jerusalem. The Quartet Special Envoy was responsible for the economic aspects of this disengagement.
Taylor was confirmed as United States ambassador to Ukraine by the U.S. Senate on May 26, 2006 and was sworn in on June 5, 2006; he held the post till May 2009.[2]
On September 30, 2009 U.S. President Barack Obama nominated John Tefft as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.[8] Taylor was appointed Special Coordinator for Middle East Transitions in September 2011.[9]
In 2015 Taylor was appointed executive vice president of the United States Institute of Peace after serving a year in the same role in an acting capacity.[10][11]
Taylor became chargé d'affaires ad interim for Ukraine in June 2019, taking over the role from the deputy chief of mission, Kristina Kvien, after Marie Yovanovitch departed Ukraine.[12]
Taylor arrived in Ukraine a month after the abrupt ousting of Ambassador Yovanovitch and the inauguration of the country's new president Volodymyr Zelensky. But following President Donald Trump's phone call with the new Ukranian president, Taylor questioned Trump's motivation in a text to Gordon Sondland, the United States Ambassador to the European Union: "Are we now saying that security assistance and WH meeting are conditioned on investigations?" Sondland told him to phone.[13]
On October 3, 2019, it was revealed that Taylor had expressed, in text messages, concern that President Trump may have withheld aid to Ukraine unless they investigated corruption in Ukraine and interference in the 2016 US election. According to transcripts released by the house impeachment probe, Taylor on September 9, 2019 at 12:47:11 AM texted, "I think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign." He also texted that withholding military aid would be a nightmare because it sends the wrong message to both Kyiv and Moscow. "The Russians love it. (And I quit)."[14]
Over four hours later, at 5:19:35 AM,[15] in his response to Taylor, Gordon Sondland, the United States Ambassador to the European Union, responded that the charge is "incorrect." "Bill, I believe you are incorrect about President Trump's intentions. The President has been crystal clear: no quid pro quo’s of any kind. The President is trying to evaluate whether Ukraine is truly going to adopt the transparency and reforms that President Zelensk'y promised during his campaign."[15] He then suggested Taylor call the Executive Secretary of the United States Department of State about any concerns[16]: "I suggest we stop the back and forth by text If you still have concerns I recommend you give Lisa Kenna or S a call to discuss them directly. Thanks."[17] In his testimony during the impeachment inquiry Sondland noted that it was only out of his deep respect for Taylor that he tried to address Taylor's concerns.[18] Taylor gave a deposition before a closed-door session of the House Intelligence Committee on October 22, 2019.[19]
On October 22, 2019, Taylor testified before the US Congressional House regarding the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump and the Trump-Ukraine scandal. In his opening statement, Taylor says "in August and September of this year, I became increasingly concerned that our relationship with Ukraine was being fundamentally undermined by an irregular, informal channel of US policy-making and by the withholding of vital security assistance for domestic political reasons. I hope my remarks today will help the committees understand why I believed that to be the case."[20]
In his opening statement, Taylor commented directly on the text exchange with Ambassador Sondland, stating, "As the committees are now aware, I said on September 9 in a message to Ambassador Gordon Sondland that withholding security assistance in exchange for help with a domestic political campaign in the United States would be 'crazy'. I believed that then, and I still believe that."[21]
Taylor explained further that while he wanted to say "yes" to accepting Secretary of State Michael Pompeo's initial offer to serve as Ambassador to Ukraine, it was not an easy decision because former Ambassador Masha Yovanovitch had been "treated poorly" and "caught in a web of political machinations both in Kyiv and Washington." Taylor said in his statement that former Ambassador Yovanovitch encouraged him to accept the position "both for policy reasons and for the morale of the embassy". Taylor then explains that he had decided he could only be effective "if the US policy of strong support for Ukraine - strong diplomatic support, along with robust security, economic, and technical assistance - were to continue" and "If I had the backing of the Secretary of State to implement that policy" as Taylor was "worried about what I had heard concerning the role of Rudolph Guliani, who had made several high-profile statements about Ukraine and US policy toward the country." As a result Taylor states that "So during my meeting with Secretary Pompeo on May 28, I made clear to him and the others present that if US policy toward Ukraine changed, he would not want me posted there, and I could not stay. Taylor states that Secretary Pompeo "assured me that the policy of strong support for Ukraine would continue and that he would support me in defending that policy".
Taylor explained that once he arrived in Kyiv, Ukraine, there was much hope and encouragement because the new President of Ukraine Zelenskyy had won an overwhelming mandate controlling 60 percent of Rada seats, and was taking quick executive action to implement an anti corruption agenda which created "excitement in Kyiv that this time things could be different - a new Ukraine might finally be breaking from its corrupt, post-Soviet past" where previously "raw corruption" had existed for two decades. However, Taylor also "found a confusing and unusual arrangement for US policy towards Ukraine, as "there appeared to be two channels of US policy making and implementation, one regular and one highly irregular."
Taylor added that, alongside the regular diplomatic channel, which "has had consistently strong, bipartisan support both in Congress, and in all administrations since Ukraine's independence from Russia in 1991", there existed an "irregular, informal channel of US policy-making" led by Ambassador Sondland, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, and Ambassador Kurt Volker, dubbed the "three amigos" and Senator Ron Johnson.[22] Taylor shared his concerns with John Bolton, the National Security Advisor of the United States under the Trump administration from April 2018 to September 2019, who recommended that Taylor send a first-person cable to Secretary Mike Pompeo directly, which he did. "I wrote and transmitted such a cable on August 29, describing the ‘folly’ I saw in withholding military aid to Ukraine at a time when hostilities were still active in the east and when Russia was watching closely to gauge the level of American support for the Ukrainian government," Taylor said. "I told the secretary that I could not and would not defend such a policy.” [23]
Taylor stated that, while both the regular and irregular channels initially served the same - a strong US-Ukraine partnership, it became clear by August that the channels had diverged in their objectives leading to Taylor becoming "increasingly concerned". To elaborate, Taylor explains that on a June 18 conference call among senior US officials Volker, Philip T. Reeker, Secretary Perry, Sondland, and Ulrich Brechbuhl, there was unanimous consensus "that a meeting between the two presidents was an agreed-upon goal". However, during Taylor's subsequent communications with Volker and Sondland, they relayed that the President "wanted to hear from Zelenskyy before scheduling a meeting in the Oval Office" which Taylor states "It was not clear to me what this meant". Taylor goes on to say that on June 27th, Sondland told Taylor during a phone conversation that Zelenskyy needed to make clear to President Trump that was not standing in the way of "investigations". Taylor states that "I sensed something odd when Ambassador Sondland told me on June 28 that he did not wish to include most of the regular interagency participants in a call planned with Zelenskyy later that day" and "he wanted to make sure no one was transcribing or monitoring as President Zelenskyy joined the call. Taylor states that, "also, before President Zelenskyy joined the call, Ambassador Volker told the US participants that he "planned to be explicit with President Zelenskyy in a one on one meeting in Toronto on July 2 about what Zelenskyy should do to get the white House meeting." While Taylor did not initially understand what this meant, Taylor states that Volker noted that President Trump wanted to see "rule of law, transparency, but also specifically, cooperation on investigations to 'get to the bottom of things'."[24][25]
Taylor is married to Deborah Ann Furlan [26] and they have two children. His nephew (sister's son) is actor and comedian Zach Cregger.
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From Dana Milbank in The Washington Post
Impeachment Diary
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