The deliverable
by Tom Sullivan
Late Thursday, the House Intelligence Committee released emails and text messages between U.S. diplomats and a senior Ukrainian aide from dates bracketing the July 25 White House call between the Presidents Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The conversations demonstrate how deeply Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani — with no official standing — was embedded in U.S Ukraine policy.
The messages also reveal that Ukrainian officials were well aware the release of U.S. military aid to Ukraine depended on its government agreeing to carry out investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.
The Washington Post reports:
The texts, which former special U.S. envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker provided investigators during a nearly 10-hour deposition Thursday, reveal that officials felt Trump would not agree to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky unless Zelensky promised to launch the investigations — and did so publicly. Although the texts do not mention Biden by name, congressional Democrats leading an impeachment inquiry are pointing to them as clear evidence that Trump conditioned normal bilateral relations with Ukraine on that country first agreeing “to launch politically motivated investigations,” top Democrats said in statement Thursday night.
Volker wrote to Zelensky aide Andrey Yermak on July 25 prior to the call:
Heard from the White House — assuming President Z convinces trump he will investigate / ‘get to the bottom of what happened’ in 2016, we will nail down date for visit to Washington.
Two weeks after the call, the meeting had still not been arranged and the military aid approved in mid-June had not been released. On Aug. 9, U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland had this exchange with Volker:
Sondland: Morrison ready to get dates as soon as Yermak confirms.
Volker: Excellent!! How did you sway him? 🙂
Sondland: Not sure i did. I think potus really wants the deliverable
A public statement about Ukraine’s intention to investigate election meddling from Ukraine would be required. Aug. 10:
Yermak: Once we have a date, will call for a press briefing, announcing upcoming visit and outlining vision for the reboot of US-UKRAINE relationship, including among other things Burisma and election meddling in investigations
Volker: Sounds great!
Hunter Biden sat on the board of the energy company Burisma for five years and fits into conspiracy theories promoted by Giuliani.
It is not clear how complete the release is nor of how representative the documents are of the set in the House’s possession.
U.S. Charges D’affaires for Ukraine William B. “Bill” Taylor wrote to Sondland in September (Washington Post):
“As I said on the phone, I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign,” Taylor later texted Sondland on Sept. 9, complaining that the Trump administration’s decision to withhold congressionally approved military aid to Ukraine had already created a “nightmare scenario.”
“The president has been crystal clear no quid pro quo’s of any kind,” Sondland replied. “The president is trying to evaluate whether Ukraine is truly going to adopt the transparency and reforms that president zelensky promised during his campaign I suggest we stop the back and forth by text.”
Sondland declined to comment through an attorney, Jim McDermott. Volker did not respond to requests for comment. The State Department did not immediately respond to messages, nor did the White House.
The exchange prompted this tweet from former federal prosecutor/Assistant U.S. Attorney/MSNBC legal analyst Glenn Kirschner:
Today’s exposure of Trump nonsense: when email traffic says, ‘remember, there’s no quid pro quo here’ it’s exactly as credible as when Manafort was telling his co-conspirators, ‘remember, we never lobbied in the US on behalf of Ukraine.’ That = “Witness Tampering for Dummies.”— Glenn Kirschner (@glennkirschner2) October 4, 2019
The impeachment investigations are only going to get worse for the Trump administration. Clearly, Trump himself is already worse:
As the President of the United States, I have an absolute right, perhaps even a duty, to investigate, or have investigated, CORRUPTION, and that would include asking, or suggesting, other Countries to help us out!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 4, 2019
As President I have an obligation to end CORRUPTION, even if that means requesting the help of a foreign country or countries. It is done all the time. This has NOTHING to do with politics or a political campaign against the Bidens. This does have to do with their corruption!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 4, 2019
See Glenn Kirschner tweet above. Get the net.
And because about now we all need a chaser: