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Trump Meets With Ukraine’s President and Denies Pressuring Him to Investigate Biden Trump Pressed Ukraine’s President to Investigate Democrats as ‘a Favor’
(about 5 hours later)
President Trump on Wednesday adamantly denied that he pressured Ukraine to investigate one of his leading Democratic rivals despite the newly released record of a call in which he asked the country’s president to look into Democrats as “a favor” to him. President Trump repeatedly pressured Ukraine’s leader to investigate leading Democrats as “a favor” to him during a telephone call last summer in which the two discussed the former Soviet republic’s need for more American financial aid to counter Russian aggression.
Mr. Trump received some backing from the president, Volodymyr Zelensky, who by chance met with Mr. Trump on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly at the same time the House was gearing up for impeachment proceedings stemming from the interaction between the two leaders. In a reconstruction of the call released by the White House on Wednesday, Mr. Trump urged President Volodymyr Zelensky to work with Attorney General William P. Barr and Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s personal attorney, on corruption investigations connected to former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and other Democrats.
Sitting side by side with Mr. Trump in their first face-to-face meeting, Mr. Zelensky told reporters that he wanted to stay out of United States politics but provided a benign interpretation of the July 25 call in which Mr. Trump asked him to investigate former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and any Ukrainian ties to Democrats during the 2016 campaign. Although there was no explicit quid pro quo in the conversation, Mr. Trump raised the matter immediately after Mr. Zelensky spoke of his country’s need for more help from the United States. The call came just days after Mr. Trump blocked $391 million in aid to Ukraine, a decision that perplexed national security officials at the time and that he has given conflicting explanations for in recent days.
“We had, I think, a good phone call,” Mr. Zelensky said. “It was normal, we spoke about many things. So, I think you read it that nobody pushed it, pushed me.” The aid freeze did not come up during the call and Mr. Zelensky was not yet aware of it. Instead, he thanked Mr. Trump for previous American aid, including Javelin anti-tank weapons, and suggested he would need more as part of Ukraine’s five-year-old war with Russian-backed separatists in the country’s east.
“In other words, no pressure,” Mr. Trump chimed in. “And by the way,” he added, addressing a reporter, “you know there was no pressure.” “I would like you to do us a favor, though,” Mr. Trump responded, shifting to his interest in investigating Democrats and urging that he work with Mr. Barr and Mr. Giuliani. “Whatever you can do, it’s very important that you do it if that’s possible,” Mr. Trump said.
The timing of the meeting between the two men, scheduled before the revelations that prompted Speaker Nancy Pelosi to open a formal impeachment inquiry, was just one element in a day of rapid-fire developments. After days of resistance, the administration released a memo recounting the conversation between Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky and then agreed later in the day to give Congress the complaint made by an unidentified government whistle-blower that touched off the furor. The July 25 call has become a major flash point in what is rapidly shaping up as a divisive battle between the president and House Democrats over impeachment that will consume Washington for weeks or months. The conflicting interpretations of the call’s meaning began to define the contours of a debate that will seek to determine whether the president committed high crimes and misdemeanors.
The whistle-blower’s complaint reportedly deals with more than just the single call between Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky, but its contents have remained shrouded in mystery until now. House Democrats have decided to examine whether Mr. Trump abused his power by leaning on a foreign country to provide dirt on a domestic political adversary. In a series of public appearances on Wednesday that veered from bristling with anger to uncharacteristically subdued, Mr. Trump insisted he did nothing wrong and was once again the victim of “a total hoax.” Mr. Zelensky, who by an odd coincidence was in New York for a previously scheduled meeting with Mr. Trump, backed him up by saying during a session with reporters that he did not feel pushed by the president.
The complaint was set to be delivered hours before a planned House vote on a resolution that would have condemned Mr. Trump and the administration for withholding the material and would have demanded that Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence, promptly furnish it. “It’s a joke,” Mr. Trump said. “Impeachment for that?”
The resolution also demands that Mr. Maguire, who is set to testify before the intelligence panel on Thursday, ensure that the whistle-blower is protected from retribution. It chastises the president for comments disparaging the whistle-blower in recent days. But House Democrats denounced Mr. Trump for seeking foreign help to tear down Mr. Biden, a leading rival for his job, and said the quid pro quo was implied and clear, comparing him to a mob boss who makes veiled hints to extort money from his victims.
With the complaint heading to Congress, it was not clear whether the vote would happen. “The president has tried to make lawlessness a virtue in America and now is exporting it abroad,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.
In releasing a reconstructed record of the July call on Wednesday, the White House argued that it proved that Mr. Trump did nothing wrong. But Democrats said it was evidence that the president had betrayed his oath and should be charged with high crimes and misdemeanors. The White House released the reconstructed transcript of the call in the morning in hopes of undercutting suspicions about the president’s actions but it failed to convince Democrats. By the end of the day, the administration similarly sent Congress the original complaint filed by an unidentified intelligence official that triggered the furor that in just a matter of days has put the future of Mr. Trump’s presidency at risk.
In the call, Mr. Trump urged Mr. Zelensky to contact Attorney General William P. Barr and talk with Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, about opening a potential corruption investigation connected to Mr. Biden, according to the administration’s reconstruction of the conversation. The complaint reportedly calls into question a range of actions by the president beyond just the phone conversation. Democrats and at least one Republican who reviewed it on Wednesday said it contained disturbing allegations, and, while still classified, it will be the central issue on Thursday morning when Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence, testifies before Congress.
“I would like you to do us a favor,” Mr. Trump said in response to Mr. Zelensky raising the prospect of acquiring military equipment from the United States. Noting that the United States had “done a lot for Ukraine,” Mr. Trump asked that the Ukrainians examine an unsubstantiated theory about stolen Democratic emails as well as look at Mr. Biden and his younger son, Hunter Biden, who was on the board of a Ukrainian energy company. The administration dropped its resistance to providing the complaint to lawmakers in the face of a vote planned by House Democratic leaders condemning its handling of the matter. By backing down, Mr. Trump made it possible for Republicans to go along with the resolution, which all but two did later in the day.
“So whatever you can do with the attorney general would be great,” the president told Mr. Zelensky. For Mr. Trump, keeping Republicans in his corner is more important than winning over Democrats, most of whom White House aides consider unmovable at this point. As of Wednesday, at least 216 House members have publicly advocated impeachment or at least an inquiry, just short of the necessary majority of 218.
The Ukrainian president told Mr. Trump that he would have the country’s new top prosecutor look into the matters he raised. Even if the House does impeach Mr. Trump, however, it would require a two-thirds vote by the Senate to convict and remove him from office, meaning at least 20 Republican senators would have to decide he was guilty.
“The next prosecutor general will be 100 percent my person, my candidate,” Mr. Zelensky assured the president. “He or she will look into the situation.” Few Republicans broke with Mr. Trump on Wednesday. Senator Mitt Romney of Utah called the record of Mr. Trump’s phone call “deeply troubling” but most others who spoke publicly said it revealed no impeachable action.
In their meeting on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said there was nothing wrong with asking for that because Mr. Biden and the Democrats were the corrupt ones. He went on to castigate Ms. Pelosi, saying she had caved into the liberal wing of her party that wants him ousted from office by proceeding with impeachment. “From a quid pro quo aspect, there’s nothing there,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, a Trump ally who served as a House prosecutor during the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton in 1999.
“She’s lost her way,” Mr. Trump said. “She’s been taken over by the radical left.” Democrats said no direct quid pro quo was necessary to conclude that the president overstepped his bounds. But even if it was, they said Mr. Trump’s meaning was hard to miss and the timing of the request to Ukraine coming just after he put the aid on hold was damning.
Ms. Pelosi and other leading House Democrats said the record of the July call made clear that Mr. Trump was pressuring Ukraine to help benefit his own political prospects. Just days before making the call, Mr. Trump had blocked $391 million in American aid to Ukraine. That decision did not come up during the call, according to the White House record, but the two did discuss United States assistance for Ukraine and Mr. Zelensky made clear he needed more. “There was only one message that that president of Ukraine got from that call and that was: ‘This is what I need, I know what you need,’” said Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. “Like any mafia boss, the president didn’t need to say, ‘That’s a nice country you’ve have — it would be a shame if something happened to it.’”
“The president has tried to make lawlessness a virtue in America and now is exporting it abroad,” Ms. Pelosi said in a statement. “I respect the responsibility of the president to engage with foreign leaders as part of his job. It is not part of his job to use taxpayer money to shake down other countries for the benefit of his campaign.”
Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California and the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Wednesday that the president did not need to explicitly threaten aid to make his point as he asked for a favor.
“There was only one message that that president of Ukraine got from that call and that was: ‘This is what I need, I know what you need,’” Mr. Schiff said. “Like any mafia boss, the president didn’t need to say, ‘That’s a nice country you’ve have — it would be a shame if something happened to it.’”
Mr. Biden said that the House should “hold Donald Trump to account for his abuse of power,” although he did not directly call for impeachment. “It is a tragedy for this country that our president put personal politics above his sacred oath,” Mr. Biden said. “He has put his own political interests over our national security interest, which is bolstering Ukraine against Russian pressure.”Mr. Biden said that the House should “hold Donald Trump to account for his abuse of power,” although he did not directly call for impeachment. “It is a tragedy for this country that our president put personal politics above his sacred oath,” Mr. Biden said. “He has put his own political interests over our national security interest, which is bolstering Ukraine against Russian pressure.”
Publicly at least, though, most leading Republicans who addressed the matter on Wednesday stuck by Mr. Trump and agreed that the record of the call showed nothing impeachable. For Mr. Trump, the sudden turn of events has recast the remaining year of his term before next year’s re-election, seemingly all but dooming chances for bipartisan legislation. He castigated Democrats for focusing on this “nonsense” instead of gun control or trade.
“From a quid pro quo aspect, there’s nothing there,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, who served as a House prosecutor during the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton in 1999. And he expressed surprise that impeachment was now back on the table again after the threat seemed to fade following the report on Russian election interference by the special prosecutor Robert S. Mueller III. “I thought we won,” he said. “I thought it was dead, it was dead.”
Wednesday’s meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky could hardly have come at a more tense moment in Ukrainian-American relations. Mr. Zelensky, a former comedian with no prior political experience, was elected this year to take over a country torn by Russian military intervention and desperately dependent on help from the United States and Europe. He blamed Ms. Pelosi, who until this week had been reluctant to pursue impeachment, which so far does not have the support of most Americans. “She’s lost her way,” Mr. Trump said. “She’s been taken over by the radical left.”
The call between Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky took place just a day after Mr. Mueller testified before Congress and the issue was clearly still on Mr. Trump’s mind. Mr. Mueller reported that he did not find sufficient evidence to prove a criminal conspiracy between Mr. Trump’s campaign and Russia, although he identified actions by Mr. Trump that could be construed as obstruction of justice.
Feeling that he had survived the special counsel probe, Mr. Trump apparently wanted to turn the tables and prove that it was illegitimate to begin with. In his discussion with Mr. Zelensky, he pressed the Ukrainian leader to use Mr. Barr’s help to investigate a company involved in the beginnings of the Russia inquiry.
Mr. Trump also pressed Mr. Zelensky to open an investigation of Mr. Biden and his son, Hunter, who sat on the board of a Ukrainian energy company, asserting that the former vice president forced the dismissal of a Ukrainian prosecutor to benefit the company’s owner. Neither claim has been born out by evidence but both held the potential to benefit the president politically.
Mr. Zelensky told Mr. Trump that he would have the country’s new top prosecutor examine the matters he raised.
“The next prosecutor general will be 100 percent my person, my candidate,” Mr. Zelensky assured the president. “He or she will look into the situation.”
Sitting side by side with Mr. Trump in their first face-to-face meeting on Wednesday, Mr. Zelensky told reporters that he wanted to stay out of United States politics but provided a benign interpretation of the call.
“We had, I think, a good phone call,” Mr. Zelensky said. “It was normal; we spoke about many things. So, I think, and you read it, that nobody pushed — pushed me.”
“In other words, no pressure,” Mr. Trump chimed in. “And by the way,” he added, addressing a reporter, “you know there was no pressure.”
The meeting on the sideline of the United Nations General Assembly could hardly have come at a more fraught moment in Ukrainian-American relations. Mr. Zelensky, a former comedian with no prior political experience, was elected this year to take over a country torn by Russian military intervention and desperately dependent on help from the United States and Europe.
Mr. Zelensky made clear just how much he needed the good will of Mr. Trump when he opened his meeting on Wednesday noting that the president had invited him to the White House, but “I think you forgot to tell me the date” and pressing Mr. Trump to visit Ukraine.Mr. Zelensky made clear just how much he needed the good will of Mr. Trump when he opened his meeting on Wednesday noting that the president had invited him to the White House, but “I think you forgot to tell me the date” and pressing Mr. Trump to visit Ukraine.
The two sought to make light of the conflict over their call. “He’s made me more famous,” Mr. Trump joked as he sat down with Mr. Zelensky.The two sought to make light of the conflict over their call. “He’s made me more famous,” Mr. Trump joked as he sat down with Mr. Zelensky.
Mr. Zelensky said it was better to meet in person “than on the phone.” “Mr. Zelensky said it was better to meet in person “than by phone.”
Even as he flattered Mr. Trump, the Ukrainian leader made a point of saying he did not actually order the sought-after investigation.Even as he flattered Mr. Trump, the Ukrainian leader made a point of saying he did not actually order the sought-after investigation.
“We have independent country and independent general security, and I can’t push anyone,” Mr. Zelensky said in halting English, referring to the prosecutor general. “So I didn’t call somebody or the new general security. I didn’t ask him I didn’t push him.”“We have independent country and independent general security, and I can’t push anyone,” Mr. Zelensky said in halting English, referring to the prosecutor general. “So I didn’t call somebody or the new general security. I didn’t ask him I didn’t push him.”