Trump's phone call
So, Trump has released a transcript of one of his phone calls with the Ukrainian president. You can read the whole of it at NPR, but below are the parts I thought most relevant.
Keep in mind that (1) we have only Trump's word this is accurate, and (2) given the ellipses within the transcript it's almost certainly not complete, and (3) this is just one of a number of similar calls Trump made to the Ukrainian president.
* * *
[...]
President Zelenskyy: [...] I would also like to thank you for your great support in the area of defense. We are ready to continue to cooperate for the next steps specifically we are almost ready to buy more Javelins from the United States for defense purposes.
The President: I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike... I guess you have one of your wealthy people... The server, they say Ukraine has it. There are a lot of things that went on, the whole situation. I think you're surrounding yourself with some of the same people. I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it. As you saw yesterday, that whole nonsense ended with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller, an incompetent performance, but they say a lot of it started with Ukraine. Whatever you can do, it's very important that you do it, if that's possible.
President Zelenskyy: Yes [...] one of my assistants spoke with Mr. Giuliani just recently and we are hoping very much that Mr. Giuliani will be able to travel to Ukraine and we will meet once he comes to Ukraine [....]
The President: Good because I heard you had a prosecutor who was very good and he was shut down and that's really unfair. A lot of people are talking about that, the way they shut your very good prosecutor down and you had some very bad people involved. Mr. Giuliani is a highly respected man. He was the mayor of New York City, a great mayor, and I would like him to call you. I will ask him to call you along with the Attorney General. Rudy very much knows what's happening and he is a very capable guy. If you could speak to him that would be great. The former ambassador from the United States, the woman, was bad news and the people she was dealing with in the Ukraine were bad news so I just want to let you know that. The other thing, there's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it... It sounds horrible to me.
[...]
* * *
Trump has tried to extort help from the Ukrainian president on two issues ... getting dirt on his political opponent, Biden ... trying to clear Paul Manafort/Roger Stone and debunking Russian hacking of Clinton's emails (Trump's reference to Crowdstrike). The leverage he used = nearly 400 million dollars in military aid already appropriated for Ukraine but put on hold by Trump while he squeezes Zelensky. If this isn't impeachable conduct, what the hell is?
More: Trump’s weird reference to “CrowdStrike” during the Ukraine call, briefly explained
Keep in mind that (1) we have only Trump's word this is accurate, and (2) given the ellipses within the transcript it's almost certainly not complete, and (3) this is just one of a number of similar calls Trump made to the Ukrainian president.
* * *
[...]
President Zelenskyy: [...] I would also like to thank you for your great support in the area of defense. We are ready to continue to cooperate for the next steps specifically we are almost ready to buy more Javelins from the United States for defense purposes.
The President: I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike... I guess you have one of your wealthy people... The server, they say Ukraine has it. There are a lot of things that went on, the whole situation. I think you're surrounding yourself with some of the same people. I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it. As you saw yesterday, that whole nonsense ended with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller, an incompetent performance, but they say a lot of it started with Ukraine. Whatever you can do, it's very important that you do it, if that's possible.
President Zelenskyy: Yes [...] one of my assistants spoke with Mr. Giuliani just recently and we are hoping very much that Mr. Giuliani will be able to travel to Ukraine and we will meet once he comes to Ukraine [....]
The President: Good because I heard you had a prosecutor who was very good and he was shut down and that's really unfair. A lot of people are talking about that, the way they shut your very good prosecutor down and you had some very bad people involved. Mr. Giuliani is a highly respected man. He was the mayor of New York City, a great mayor, and I would like him to call you. I will ask him to call you along with the Attorney General. Rudy very much knows what's happening and he is a very capable guy. If you could speak to him that would be great. The former ambassador from the United States, the woman, was bad news and the people she was dealing with in the Ukraine were bad news so I just want to let you know that. The other thing, there's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it... It sounds horrible to me.
[...]
* * *
Trump has tried to extort help from the Ukrainian president on two issues ... getting dirt on his political opponent, Biden ... trying to clear Paul Manafort/Roger Stone and debunking Russian hacking of Clinton's emails (Trump's reference to Crowdstrike). The leverage he used = nearly 400 million dollars in military aid already appropriated for Ukraine but put on hold by Trump while he squeezes Zelensky. If this isn't impeachable conduct, what the hell is?
More: Trump’s weird reference to “CrowdStrike” during the Ukraine call, briefly explained
posted by crystal | 12:22 PM
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