But in the summer of 2019, he and his colleagues were sending a very different message to Ukraine.
Tag: Ukraine
Ukrainian lives hung in balance as Trump held up aid
Critical weapons, training held hostage by monthslong freeze on funds
On June 6, Russian-allied forces in Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region fired a volley of artillery shells on Ukrainian soldiers based in a rural area, even though Moscow had signed a ceasefire agreement the day before.
Two young Ukrainian soldiers — 28-year-old Dmytro Pryhlo and 23-year-old Maksym Oleksiuk — were killed in their dugout by that shelling in the settlement of Novoluhanske, Ukrainian commanders said at the time. Eight other Ukrainian soldiers suffered concussions and other injuries.
Pryhlo and Oleksiuk were just two men. But the day before, the Russians had killed another Ukrainian soldier. The day before that, they had killed two others. And in the nearly five-plus years before that, thousands more had fallen.
View the complete October 24 article by John M. Donnelly on The Roll Call website here.
How two businessmen hustled to profit from access to Rudy Giuliani and the Trump administration
WASHINGTON, DC (CNN) — Long before they burst onto the national scene with their high-profile arrests at Dulles International Airport earlier this month, Soviet-born businessmen Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman were already turning heads in Republican fundraising circles.
“They seemed like hustlers — but not in a bad way. In a good way,” one high-ranking Republican operative familiar with the pair told CNN.
But a CNN review of campaign contributions and court filings, as well as interviews with nearly a dozen people with knowledge of Parnas and Fruman’s interactions, tell a different story. The pair raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars and jetted around the world touting their connections to Giuliani and the Trump administration while pushing for business and favors, even claiming to arrange a Fox News interview, right up until the day they were arrested for conspiracy and campaign-finance related charges.
At one point, they pushed a Ukrainian businessman to pay them to bring Trump administration officials to Ukraine. At another time, they convinced a Florida-based businessman to loan them $100,000 so they could connect him with Giuliani and other prominent conservatives. And in a third instance, they attempted to influence the management board of a Ukrainian gas company.
‘This is a lie’: Critics slam Trump’s desperate claim that Ukraine didn’t know he withheld military aid
Democratic lawmakers and impeachment supporters on Wednesday called out President Donald Trump for suggesting on Twitter that Ukrainian officials were not aware that military aid was being withheld as part the administration’s efforts to convince the country’s leader to publicly launch an investigation involving former Vice President Joe Biden.
Trump’s tweet was a “relatively lackluster” response to career diplomat William Taylor’s 10 hours of “explosive” testimony Tuesday about the administration’s “pervasive” attempts to force a Ukrainian investigation into an energy company that employed Biden’s son Hunter. Taylor testisfied behind closed doors to the House Oversight, Intelligence, and Foreign Affairs committees as part of Democrats’ impeachment inquiry into Trump.
Shortly before a July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky—which provoked a whistleblower complaint that led Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to finally launch an impeachment inquiry last month—Trump instructed acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to hold back $391 million in military aid for Ukraine.
Republicans scramble to dispose of campaign cash from Giuliani associates
Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas plead not guilty Wednesday to violating campaign finance laws
Republican lawmakers unwittingly entangled in a campaign finance scandal have scrambled to get rid of contributions from two men at the center of the alleged wrongdoing, both of whom were back in court Wednesday.
Igor Fruman and and Lev Parnas pleaded not guilty to violating campaign finance laws when they appeared in federal court in New York for their arraignment. Fruman, Parnas and two other men were indicted earlier this month for “engaging in a scheme to funnel foreign money to candidates.” The indictment alleged the two men did so to “buy potential influence with the candidates, campaigns, and the candidates’ governments.”
Fruman and Parnas, both Soviet-born U.S. citizens, are also tied to President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. They reportedly assisted with Giuliani’s quest to have the Ukrainian officials investigate former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, who served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company. Trump’s own push for Ukraine to investigate Biden and the Democratic National Committee is at the center of the ongoing impeachment probe.
View the complete October 23 article by Bridget Bowman on The Roll Call website here.
Pentagon official testifies about withheld military aid to Ukraine
Laura Cooper’s closed-door testimony could strengthen the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.
A Pentagon official who sought the release of U.S. military aid to Ukraine — withheld by the White House amid attempts to persuade Ukraine to investigate President Donald Trump’s political rivals — testified Wednesday to House impeachment investigators about her knowledge of the episode amid attempts by the Trump administration to block her appearance.
Laura Cooper — the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia — appeared despite an effort by the Pentagon to block her cooperation. Her testimony was also delayed for more than five hours Wednesday after dozens of House Republicans stormed the secure facility inside the Capitol where investigators were set to depose her.
An official who works on the impeachment inquiry said Cooper testified for more than three hours behind closed doors under subpoena — a repeat of the tactic lawmakers have used to circumvent other attempts by the Trump administration to block witnesses from complying with interview requests.
Prosecutors flagged possible ties between Ukrainian gas tycoon and Giuliani associates
When two business associates of Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer, were arrested this month on charges that they funneled foreign money into U.S. elections, federal prosecutors working on a different case in Chicago took note.
The investigators had previously come across the two men, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, as they pursued a long-standing case against a Ukrainian gas tycoon accused of bribery, according to two people familiar with the matter. They, like others interviewed regarding the case, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing litigation.
The Chicago prosecutors reached out to their counterparts in New York, where the foreign money charges had been brought, to offer assistance, the people said.
An Envoy’s Damning Account of Trump’s Ukraine Pressure and Its Consequences
William B. Taylor Jr. laid out in visceral terms the potentially life-or-death stakes of what he saw as an illegitimate scheme to pressure Kiev for political help by suspending American security aid.
WASHINGTON — He stood on one side of a war-damaged bridge in Ukraine staring across at Russian-backed forces and saw the real-world consequences of President Trump’s efforts to advance a personal agenda. “More Ukrainians,” he said, “would undoubtedly die.”
Recalling that moment during explosive testimony on Tuesday, William B. Taylor Jr., the top American diplomat in Ukraine, laid out in visceral terms the stakes of what he saw as an illegitimate scheme to pressure the Kiev government for political help by suspending American security aid.
In by far the most damning account yet to become public in the House impeachment inquiry Mr. Taylor described a president holding up $391 million in assistance for the clear purpose of forcing Ukraine to help incriminate Mr. Trump’s domestic rivals. Mr. Trump’s actions, he testified, undercut American allies desperately fighting off Russia’s attempt to redraw the boundaries of Europe through force.
View the complete October 22 article by Peter Baker on The New York Times here.
Trump made Ukraine aid contingent on public pledge to investigate Bidens and 2016 election, U.S. envoy says he was told
In a 15-page opening statement, obtained by The Washington Post, Taylor repeatedly expressed his shock and bewilderment as he watched U.S. policy toward Ukraine get overtaken by Trump’s demand that newly elected president Volodymyr Zelensky “go to a microphone and say he is opening investigations of [Democratic presidential candidate Joe] Biden and 2016 election interference.”
Trump made Ukraine aid contingent on public pledge to investigate Bidens and 2016 election, U.S. envoy says he was told
In a 15-page opening statement, obtained by The Washington Post, Taylor repeatedly expressed his shock and bewilderment as he watched U.S. policy toward Ukraine get overtaken by Trump’s demand that newly elected president Volodymyr Zelensky “go to a microphone and say he is opening investigations of [Democratic presidential candidate Joe] Biden and 2016 election interference.”