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In a stunning move, 3 House committees launched a massive investigation into reported efforts by President Donald Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani — and possibly others — to pressure Ukraine’s government to assist Trump’s reelection campaign.
Chairmen Eliot Engel of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Adam Schiff of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and Elijah Cummings of the Oversight and Reform Committee wrote letters to the White House and the State Department demanding “records relating to President Trump’s and Mr. Giuliani’s attempts to manipulate the Ukrainian justice system to benefit the President’s re-election campaign and target a possible political opponent, according to their news release.
“A growing public record indicates that, for nearly two years, the President and his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, appear to have acted outside legitimate law enforcement and diplomatic channels to coerce the Ukrainian government into pursuing two politically-motivated investigations under the guise of anti-corruption activity,” wrote the Chairmen. “As the 2020 election draws closer, President Trump and his personal attorney appear to have increased pressure on the Ukrainian government and its justice system in service of President Trump’s reelection campaign, and the White House and the State Department may be abetting this scheme.”
Here is more from the release: “It was also recently reported that the Trump Administration is threatening to withhold security assistance to Ukraine in defiance of explicit congressional direction. The Committees will investigate whether this is part of President Trump’s effort to coerce the Ukrainian government into pursuing politically-motivated investigations, including of former Vice President Joe Biden and his family—all in service of President Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign.”
The release adds, “The Trump Administration’s decision to withhold vital security assistance to Ukraine is only the latest in a series of actions in which President Trump appears to undermine U.S. foreign policy to placate Russia and place his personal interests above the national interest.”
The letter to the White House notes:
A growing public record indicates that, for nearly two years, the President and his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, appear to have acted outside legitimate law enforcement and diplomatic channels to coerce the Ukrainian government into pursuing two politically-motivated investigations under the guise of anti-corruption activity. The first is a prosecution of Ukrainians who provided key evidence against Mr. Trump’s convicted campaign manager Paul Manafort. That investigation aims to undercut the Mueller Report’s overwhelming evidence that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to support Trump’s campaign. The other case targets the son of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden, who is challenging Mr. Trump for the presidency in 2020.
As the 2020 election draws closer, President Trump and his personal attorney appear to have increased pressure on the Ukrainian government and its justice system in service of President Trump’s reelection campaign, and the White House and the State Department may be abetting this scheme.
According to the Ukrainian government, in a July 25, 2019 call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President Trump apparently focused on these investigations, telling President Zelenskyy that he is “convinced the new Ukrainian government will be able to quickly improve [the] image of Ukraine, [and] complete [the] investigation of corruption cases, which inhibited the interaction between Ukraine and the USA.” The next day, Ambassador Kurt Volker, U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine, was dispatched to meet with President Zelenskyy. Days later, the President’s personal attorney met Andriy Yermak, an aide to President Zelenskyy, in Spain, where the President’s personal attorney, who has no official administration or diplomatic position, reportedly suggested a “possible heads of state meeting” between Presidents Trump and Zelenskyy and tweeted an accusation about former Vice President Biden’s son. The State Department subsequently acknowledged that Ambassador Volker used his office to facilitate the meeting between the two. Although the State Department has insisted that President Trump’s attorney is “a private citizen” who “does not speak on behalf of the U.S. Government,” Mr. Yermak publicly stated that “it was not clear to him whether Mr. Giuliani was representing Mr. Trump in their talks.”
President Trump has also threatened to withhold more than $250 million in security assistance that Congress has appropriated, the Pentagon supports, and Ukraine desperately needs. Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are under assault from Russia and its proxies in illegally-occupied Ukrainian territory. If the President is trying to pressure Ukraine into choosing between defending itself from Russian aggression without U.S. assistance or leveraging its judicial system to serve the ends of the Trump campaign, this would represent a staggering abuse of power, a boon to Moscow, and a betrayal of the public trust. That the State Department has apparently acted as a broker between President Trump’s personal attorney and Ukrainian officials raises serious concerns that the Department is complicit in a corrupt scheme that undercuts U.S. foreign policy and national security interests in favor of the President’s personal agenda.
More here.