WASHINGTON -- For months this spring and summer, Ukraine's newly elected president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, tried to deflect pressure from President Donald Trump and his allies to pursue investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden, Biden's son and other Trump rivals.The pressure was so relentless
WASHINGTON — For months this spring and summer, Ukraine’s newly elected president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, tried to deflect pressure from President Donald Trump and his allies to pursue investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden, Biden’s son and other Trump rivals.
On July 25, two weeks after the first call between Zelenskiy’s aide, Andriy Yermak, and Giuliani, Zelenskiy had a call of his own with Trump. During their conversation, Trump pressed for an investigation into Biden and repeatedly urged Zelenskiy to work with Giuliani, according to people familiar with the call.
Story continuesThen, in late August, the Ukrainians learned that a package of U.S. military assistance was being delayed by the White House, because, Vice President Mike Pence later explained after a meeting with Zelenskiy, he and Trump “have great concerns about issues of corruption.” Trump has often struck a less-than-condemnatory tone toward Russian aggression, including its interference on his behalf in the 2016 presidential election, and its 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, which Trump said last month should no longer prevent Russia from rejoining the Group of 7 industrialized nations.
In May, a delegation of U.S. officials returned from Zelenskiy’s inauguration praising the new president and urging Trump to meet with him, arguing that Zelenskiy faced enormous headwinds and needed American support. The future of Ukraine, they said during an Oval Office meeting with Trump, would be decided in the next six months.
Giuliani has claimed without evidence that the records were doctored, and one of the matters into which he has sought an investigation is the records’ provenance and release, including whether Ukrainian officials improperly worked with American allies of Clinton’s to use the records to generate law enforcement and news media scrutiny of Manafort in an effort to damage Trump’s campaign.
Biden is a leading contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, and Giuliani has acknowledged that such an investigation could damage him. After Zelenskiy’s victory, Giuliani planned a trip to Ukraine in May to try to press Zelenskiy’s team to pursue the investigations and to meet with people Giuliani believed would have insights into the new administration and the investigations he was pushing. “We’re not meddling in an election, we’re meddling in an investigation, which we have a right to do,” Giuliani said at the time.
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