Tag: Ukraine

Trump offered Ukrainian president Justice Dept. help for Biden investigation, memo shows

Washington Post logoPresident Trump told his Ukrainian counterpart to work with the U.S. attorney general to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and offered to meet with the foreign leader at the White House after he promised to conduct such an inquiry, according to a rough transcript of the call released Wednesday.

Those statements and others in a July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky were so concerning that the intelligence community inspector general thought them a possible violation of campaign finance law. In late August, intelligence officials referred the matter to the Justice Department as a possible crime, but prosecutors concluded last week that the conduct was not criminal, according to senior Justice Department officials.

The document released Wednesday, in keeping with White House practice, is a memorandum of a telephone conversation and is not a verbatim account. A cautionary note on the memo of the call warns that the text reflects the notes and memories of officials in the Situation Room and that a number of factors “can affect the accuracy of the record.”

View the complete September 25 article by Devlin Barrett, Matt Zapotosky, Carol D. Leonnig and Josh Dawsey on The Washington Post website here.

Trump official breaks with the president and defends the whistleblower

AlterNet logoAs President Donald Trump fights back the groundswell of opposition triggered by the revelation that he has pressured Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, one tactic he has employed is attacking the whistleblower. While much of conduct central to the Ukraine scandal has happened in public, an intelligence community whistleblower complaint — which has been blocked from Congress by the administration — triggered the outcry and greater scrutiny of the series of events.

In response, Trump called the complaint “a political hack job.” He said the stories were “ridiculous,” and he claimed that, though he doesn’t know the whistleblower’s identity, he heard “it’s a partisan person.”

As Media Matters has documented, some of Fox News personalities shared Trump’s rhetoric.

View the complete September 25 article by Cody Fenwick on the AlterNet website here.

Trump’s Pinocchio-laden claims about Joe Biden, Ukraine and polls

Washington Post logo“We’re putting up the bulk of the money. … Europe has to put up money for Ukraine also.”

— President Trump, in remarks to reporters at the United Nations, Sept. 24, 2019

Before giving his annual speech to the United Nations General Assembly, President Trump paused to speak to reporters about the growing controversy over his dealings with Ukraine. In doing so, he provided a string of false and misleading statements designed to obscure his actions and confuse Americans.

Before we tour through Trump’s comments, here’s a quick refresher. On July 25, Trump spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Just days earlier, Trump unexpectedly ordered the withholding of nearly $400 million in military aid to the country, which is battling a separatist conflict backed by Russia on its Eastern border. What was said on the call is not precisely known — though Trump has said he will release the transcript — but Trump has acknowledged he raised former vice president Joe Biden, currently leading in the polls for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Trump originally said he halted the aid because of worries about corruption — suggesting also that “corruption” by Biden was a concern — but at the United Nations, he changed his story. Now he says it was because the Europeans were not contributing enough to Ukraine.

View the complete September 25 article by Glenn Kessler on The Washington Post website here.

Trump confirms he withheld military aid from Ukraine, says he wants other countries to help pay

Washington Post logoNEW YORK — President Trump confirmed Tuesday that he withheld military aid from Ukraine, saying he did so over his concerns that the United States was contributing more to Ukraine than European countries were.

“My complaint has always been, and I’d withhold again and I’ll continue to withhold until such time as Europe and other nations contribute to Ukraine because they’re not doing it,” Trump told reporters at the United Nations General Assembly.

Trump was responding to reporting by The Washington Post that he told his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, to hold back almost $400 million in military aid for at least a week before Trump spoke to the Ukrainian president.

View the complete September 24 article by Seung Min Kim and Colby

Republican lawmakers scramble to contain Ukraine whistleblower fallout

The Hill logoSenate Republicans are scrambling to contain the political fallout from reports that President Trump pressured a foreign leader to investigate his leading Democratic rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.

Several Republican lawmakers have called on Trump to reveal more details from his conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which the president on Sunday acknowledged discussing Biden and his possible links to corruption in Ukraine. This effort comes as some Democrats in the House are ramping up their calls for a vote on an impeachment inquiry.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced on the Senate floor Monday afternoon that Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) is trying to bring the Trump-appointed intelligence community’s inspector general who received a complaint from a whistleblower before his panel to investigate the matter.

View the complete September 24 article by Alexander Bolton on The Hill website here.

Senate Republicans dodge questions on Trump-Ukraine whistleblower complaint

Washington Post logoSenate Republicans on Monday were largely mum on whether Congress should investigate whistleblower allegations that President Trump pressured the leader of Ukraine for help in his 2020 reelection bid, with some ignoring questions on the matter while others disparaged the individual who raised the alarm.

Trump suggested on Sunday that he mentioned former vice president Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, on a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in July. But Trump has denied that he pressured Zelensky to investigate Biden, who is leading in polls for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, in exchange for military aid.

The revelations have mobilized Democrats in the House, which their party controls, with many members escalating their calls for impeachment proceedings against Trump. A trio of House committee chairs on Monday threatened to subpoena Trump for documents related to his alleged efforts to pressure Zelensky.

View the complete September 23 article by Felicia Sonmez, Mike DeBonis and Erica Werner on The Washington Post website here.

Trump ordered hold on military aid days before calling Ukrainian president, officials say

Washington Post logoPresident Trump told his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, to hold back almost $400 million in military aid for Ukraine at least a week before a phone call in which Trump is said to have pressured the Ukrainian president to investigate the son of former vice president Joe Biden, according to three senior administration officials.

Officials at the Office of Management and Budget relayed Trump’s order to the State Department and the Pentagon during an interagency meeting in mid-July, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. They explained that the president had “concerns” and wanted to analyze whether the money needed to be spent.

Administration officials were instructed to tell lawmakers that the delays were part of an “interagency process” but to give them no additional information — a pattern that continued for nearly two months, until the White House released the funds on the night of Sept. 11.

View the complete September 23 article by Karoun Demirjian, Josh Dawsey, Ellen Nakasima and Carol D. Leonnig on The Washington Post website here.

Key House committees threaten subpoenas over Trump-Ukraine allegations

Axios logoThe Democratic chairs of the House Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees on Monday sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo demanding that the State Department produce documents related to allegations that President Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani have pressured the Ukrainian government to investigate Joe Biden.

“Seeking to enlist a foreign actor to interfere with an American election undermines our sovereignty, democracy, and the Constitution, which the President is sworn to preserve, protect, and defend.  Yet the President and his personal attorney now appear to be openly engaging in precisely this type of abuse of power involving the Ukrainian government ahead of the 2020 election.”

— Chairs Adam Schiff, Elijah Cummings and Eliot Engel

Why it matters: With a majority in the House, Democrats have the power to subpoena Trump administration officials to cooperate in their investigations. The allegations over Trump and Ukraine have erupted into a source of massive controversy over the past week, with Democratic leaders such as House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) suggesting that they could pave a new path to impeachment.

View the complete September 23 article by Zachary Basu on the Axios website here.

Trump defends raising corruption on call with Ukraine leader

The Hill logoPresident Trump on Monday defended the idea of raising corruption issues with foreign leaders as he faces mounting scrutiny over whether he pressured the president of Ukraine to investigate his political rival.

Trump told reporters at the United Nations headquarters in New York City that it was fair to ask about corruption when determining whether to provide aid to a foreign country, even as Democrats have raised concerns that the president threatened to withhold aid to Ukraine if it didn’t investigate former vice president Joe Biden and his son.

“We’re supporting a country. We want to make sure that country’s honest,” Trump said when asked about his call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “It’s very important to talk about corruption. If you don’t talk about corruption — why would you give money to a country you think is corrupt?”

View the complete September 23 article by Brett Samuels on The Hill website here.

Ukraine controversy follows Trump to UN assembly

The Hill logoPresident Trump will arrive in New York City on Monday under a cloud of controversy over his conversations with Ukraine’s leaders, creating a new distraction as he kicks off three days of speeches and meetings at the United Nations General Assembly.

The annual gathering of world leaders is always a frenetic event for a U.S. president, but this one promises to be even more of a pressure cooker given the questions about Trump’s contacts with Ukraine over an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden.

Trump must also deal with a host of foreign policy crises, most notably the question of how to respond to attacks on Saudi oil fields that the U.S. suspects were done with the hand of Iran.

View the complete September 23 article by Brett Samuels and Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.