Republicans are looking to defend Donald Trump against impeachment, in part by claiming that he was not directly involved in any pressure campaign his personal attorney may have mounted on Ukraine. “If it’s a step removed from the president,” one Republican told Axios Wednesday, just before Democrats took their impeachment inquiry public, “he doesn’t lose any Republicans in the House.” Unfortunately for the president, Bill Taylor, the career diplomat who has become one of the inquiry’s key witnesses, rendered that already-shaky talking point more or less useless, testifying that a member of his staff overheard a phone call between Trump and Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland discussing the probes the president and Rudy Giuliani had sought.

“In the presence of my staff at a restaurant, Ambassador Sondland called President Trump and told him of his meetings in Kiev,” Taylor testified before the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday morning. “The member of my staff could hear President Trump on the phone, asking Ambassador Sondland about ‘the investigations.’ Ambassador Sondland told President Trump that the Ukrainians were ready to move forward.”

The conversation, which allegedly occurred on July 26 and which Taylor told lawmakers he had been unaware of until last week and had therefore not included in his closed-door testimony, undercuts the notion that any attempt to pressure Volodymyr Zelensky was undertaken without Trump’s blessing, directly implicating the president in the extortion scheme. Republicans had been seeking to pin any “rogue” foreign policy moves on Giuliani, distancing Trump himself from the allegations. Republicans have also sought to dismiss tales of Trump’s wrongdoing as politically-motivated, claiming the president was merely trying to root out corruption. But, the Ukraine charge d’affaires testified Wednesday, what Trump actually seemed to care about was getting Zelensky to publicly announce an investigation into Joe Biden. “Following the call with President Trump, the member of my staff asked Ambassador Sondland what President Trump thought about Ukraine,” Taylor said. “Ambassador Sondland responded that President Trump cares more about the investigations of Biden, which Giuliani was pressing for.”

The conversation—which, according to Taylor, occurred the day after Trump’s call with Zelensky that triggered the whistleblower complaint—was one of many details disclosed by Taylor and diplomat George Kent in their appearances on Capitol Hill Wednesday. Speaking in somber tones that contrasted with an opening statement from Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the committee, Kent and Taylor gave detailed accounts of how Trump associates, apparently at his direction, dangled military aid and a White House visit appearance over Ukraine. This effort undermined U.S. policy of support for Ukraine and endangered both Kiev and Washington’s strategic interests, the diplomats said.

Much of what Kent and Taylor described in their televised opening statements is not new to anyone who read transcripts of their closed-door testimonies, but watching them describe an apparent extortion attempt by the president and his cronies is different than merely reading words on a page. It remains to be seen if their accounts are powerful enough to move the needle with the public—and, more importantly, with Senate Republicans, who hold Trump’s potential conviction in the balance. But at the very least, their testimonies make it a hell of a lot harder to reasonably argue that everybody but Trump was participating in the scheme. That argument could become even more difficult to make later this week. After Taylor’s remarks, a reporter for CBS News tweeted that Democrats had scheduled additional interview for Thursday and Friday this week. One witness, on Friday, will be David Holmes, an aide to Taylor.

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