Day 974: Collusion, corruption: Trump urged Ukraine to investigate Biden family eight times
There were a lot of rumblings about the nature of a whistleblower complaint made by a member of the intelligence community earlier this week. Now that the facts are being fleshed out, the scandal appears disastrous for Donald Trump, and more importantly, American democracy.
According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Trump pressured and pressured and pressured the Ukrainian president to investigate Joe Biden’s son, Hunter.
President Trump in a July phone call repeatedly pressured the president of Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden ’s son, according to people familiar with the matter, urging Volodymyr Zelensky about eight times to work with Rudy Giuliani on a probe that could hamper Mr. Trump’s potential 2020 opponent.
“He told him that he should work with [Mr. Giuliani] on Biden, and that people in Washington wanted to know” if his lawyer’s assertions that Mr. Biden acted improperly as vice president were true, one of the people said. Mr. Giuliani has suggested Mr. Biden’s pressure on Ukraine to fight corruption had to do with an investigation of a gas company for which his son was a director. A Ukrainian official this year said he had no evidence of wrongdoing by Mr. Biden or his son Hunter Biden.
Congress is trying to determine if there was a quid-pro-quo of American aid in exchange for investigating one of Trump’s biggest 2020 opponents. Even if not explicitly mentioned, the Ukrainians know about the potential for aid and need it. Trump and his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, have made no secret of their desire to see a Biden probe unfold.
Mr. Giuliani in June and August met with top Ukrainian officials about the prospect of an investigation, he said in an interview. After the July call between the two presidents, the Ukrainian government said Mr. Trump had congratulated Mr. Zelensky on his recent election and expressed hope that his government would push ahead with investigations and corruption probes that had stymied relations between the two countries.
Giuliani is openly admitting that he wants the investigation to happen.
The Trump-appointed inspector general apparently told lawmakers Thursday that the whistleblower complaint stemmed from a series of events, and not just a single episode. However, the complaint itself is being buried by everyone, including the Justice Department, surrounding the executive branch.
While Trump has claimed there was nothing nefarious during his conversation with Zelensky, that could easily be cleared up by releasing a complete transcript of the phone call.
Even without more, a U.S. president asking — begging — a foreign nation to investigate a potential opponent eight different times in a single phone call indicates just how far Trump wants to go to harm political foes. Undermining American democracy and colluding with a foreign country isn’t simply unbecoming of the office of the president and potentially traitorous, it’s easily, easily, grounds for impeachment.
974 days in, 488 to go
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