On Wednesday morning, the White House released damning evidence which revealed that U.S. President Donald Trump deliberately sought information from a foreign country that Trump hoped would be damaging to a political opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden. Specifically, the White House released a memorandum of a telephone conversation between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that took place on July 25, 2019.
The phone call was at the heart of an allegation by an unnamed member of the U.S. intelligence community, who filed a whistleblower complaint with the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community, Michael Atkinson, on August 12, 2019. Prior to the release of the transcript, all that was known of the complaint was that it concerned an allegation of an inappropriate promise made by Trump to a foreign leader through a telephone call. The complaint was deemed credible and of an urgent concern by Atkinson, who turned over the complaint to acting Director of National Intelligence, Joseph Maguire. Because it had been deemed of urgent concern, federal law required Maguire to turn the complaint over to the intelligence committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate. When Maguire failed to do so in the time proscribed by statute, Akinson alerted Congress to the existence of the complaint.
While the Administration dragged its heels on releasing the text of the complaint, the Wall Street Journal published an article on September 21, 2019, asserting that Trump had pressured Zelensky about eight times in the telephone call to investigate Biden and his son Hunter. Despite initial denials and cries of "fake news," Trump himself acknowledged that he had pressured Zelensky into investigating Biden and his son. Trump's admission, along with his Administration's intransient stance on withholding the text of the complaint, prompted the House Democrats to meet on Tuesday night. As a result of that meeting, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who had been opposed to impeachment over the findings of the Mueller Report, announced that the House would now begin a formal impeachment inquiry. Feeling the political pressure on him growing, Trump agreed to the release of the transcript of his telephone call after obtaining consent from the Ukrainian Government.
It should be noted that no real word for word transcript of the telephone conversation exists. Rather, the White House released a memorandum of the telephone call pieced together by government officials whose job included taking notes of such conversations.
Nonetheless, despite Trump's claims that the telephone call was "perfect," and that the transcript would exonerate him, the memorandum instead provides a smoking gun of an abuse of presidential power for personal political gain.
A review of the conversation demonstrates how Trump brazenly ignores his constitutional oath, and seeks to use his office for his own personal benefit.
Specifically, the memorandum confirms that Trump requested that Ukraine cooperate with his private attorney, Rudolph Guiliani, and the Attorney General, William Barr, specifically mentioning Trump's belief that Biden stopped a prosecution in the Ukraine that involved Biden's son, Hunter. After Zelensky agreed to cooperate, Trump stated that he would have both Giuliani and Barr call Zelensky.
Joe Biden, of course, seeks the Democratic nomination for the 2020 presidential election, and currently leads the pack of potential nominees in most polls. Indeed, in head to head polls, Biden leads Trump by wide margins. Receiving information that Biden acted corruptly from Ukraine could potentially help Trump in his bid for reelection.
Trump faces the problem, however, that no evidence exists showing that either of the Bidens did anything wrong. Before Zelensky was elected Ukraine's President, Vitkor Shokin served as Ukraine's top prosecutor. He was supported by Russia, who was interfering in Ukrainian internal politics. As is well known, once Ukraine started to turn more towards the West, Russia supported armed Ukrainian separatists, and even invaded Ukraine, occupying the Crimea and claiming it as Russian territory.
Shokin was viewed by Western European governments and the Obama Administration as being soft on corruption. President Obama sent Biden on a mission to Ukraine to pressure the Ukrainian President to remove Shokin by withholding about $1 billion in U.S. aid. The intention behind the move was to pressure Ukraine to be tougher on corrupt oligarchs through more aggressive investigations.
At the time, Biden's son, Hunter, held a position as a paid member of the board of a Ukrainian oil and gas company, Burisma. While Burisma had been under investigation by the Ukrainian Government, under Shokin, the investigation had stalled. Thus, by insisting on the appointment of a tougher prosecutor, Biden was not only representing official U.S. policy, but risking a renewed investigation of the company that employed Hunter. No evidence exists that Biden was using his office for personal gain, or that Hunter himself had engaged in any sort of corruption. Trump's goal. therefore, was simply to manufacture as much alternative facts as possible to cast dispersions on Biden, and hopefully use that to whittle away at Biden's lead in the polls.
In addition to claiming that his request to the Ukrainian President was appropriate, Trump has also claimed that the memorandum shows that there was no pressure placed on Zelensky, and no quid pro quo (or an exchange for something of value to Ukraine for providing the requested information). Trump's defense again strains credibility.
At the beginning of the telephone conversation, Trump reminds Zelensky that the United States has been Ukraine's biggest supported. Trump denigrates the actions of European allies, such as Germany, for not doing as much as the United States in supporting Ukraine. Zelensky responds by fawning all over Trump, agreeing with his statement "1000%." Most of Zelensky's responses transmit his desire to stay in the good graces of the Trump Administration. Specifically, Zelensky is quoted a saying, "We are ready to continue to cooperate for the next step specifically we are almost ready to buy more Javelins from the United States for defense purposes." A Javelin is a missile used by the U.S. military, and would presumably be used by Ukraine in defending its territory from Russia and Russian backed separatists.
This reference to Javelin purchases must be placed in context. Congress had approved about $250 million in military aid to Ukraine. However, just days before this telephone call, Trump had ordered that the disbursement of this aid be suspended. It should also be noted that Trump's admiration of Russian President Vladimir Putin is well-known globally. In fact, not long after this telephone conversation, Trump publicly stated his support for the readmission of Russia to the G-8, even though Russia had been thrown out because of its invasion of Ukraine. Clearly, Zelensky had reason to believe that Trump's continued support of Ukraine in its struggle against Russia was soft at best, and could be withdrawn if Ukraine did not do as Trump requested.
In that regard, Trump is quoted as stating, "I would like you to do us a favor though," immediately after Zelensky brings up his desire to buy more Javelins. The juxtaposition of this request from Trump immediately after Zelensky's spoken desire to buy more missiles, as well as his use of the word "though," indicates that Trump's willingness to provide additional aid was contingent on Ukraine's cooperation with his request for a favor.
What is interesting, however, is that Trump requests more than one favor. The first one concerned a matter Trump refered to as "Crowdstrike." Crowdstrike is the company that the Democratic National Committee used to investigate the hacking of its email server. The Crowdstrike, the FBI and Robert Mueller's investigative team all concluded that Russia was responsible for that hacking. Yet Trump refused to believe his own Government in reaching that conclusion. One reason for his belief is because Crowdstrike never turned the physical server over to the FBI. Trump believed rumors that Ukraine was in possession of the server. He therefore asked Zelensky for his help in proving that Trump's convoluted conspiracy theory was true.
It is beyond odd that Trump demanded of the Ukraine that it find evidence Trump hoped would exonerate Trump's buddy, Putin, from the conclusion of the U.S. intelligence community, the FBI and the Mueller team that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. It demonstrates Trump's refusal to accept the conclusions of the Mueller and his team, who spent about two years investigating Russia, the Trump Campaign and the Trump Administration. That investigation resulted in numerous criminal indictments, including the indictments of Russian officials.
Indeed, the timing of the telephone call further demonstrates the contempt that Trump held for Robert Mueller and his investigation. Mueller had testified before Congress on the day before this telephone call. Through his investigation, Mueller presented evidence of Russia's interference in the election, that the Trump Campaign had welcomed Russia's interference (although the conduct of campaign officials did not rise to the level of conspiracy), and of numerous instances that could support a conclusion that Trump engaged in obstruction of justice by frustrating the investigation into Russia's interference.
Mueller crafted his report on the investigation with the understanding that a sitting president could not be indicted during his term in office. Thus, Mueller was careful not to make a conclusion that Trump had committed criminal acts. Nonetheless, through his report, Mueller made it clear that his investigated did not exonerate Trump. Rather, he preserved the evidence so that it could be used presumably either by Congress through impeachment or through a criminal prosecution once Trump left office. Trump and his Administration publicly characterized the investigation as finding that there was "no collusion" and "no obstruction," despite the fact that Mueller made neither of those findings.
Trump, of course, repeatedly referred to the Mueller investigation as a "which hunt," confessing his belief that he, his campaign and his administration did nothing wrong. Thus, in an interview aired in June of 2019, Trump answered a question from George Stephanopoulos by stating that he did not think it would not be wrong to accept information about a political opponent in an election from a foreign national. Trump even indicated that if a foreign national provided such information, that he did not believe it was necessary to inform the FBI. This brazen flaunting of the law raised such an uproar, that the Chairwoman of the Federal Elections Commission was prompted to tweet that "it is illegal to solicit, accept, or receive anything of value from a foreign national in connection with a U.S. election." A thing of value incudes information that can be used against an opponent.
Trump, of course, never accepted that he did anything wrong. Thus, in the shadow of Mueller's testimony before Congress, Trump went one step further than merely welcoming foreign interference in a U.S. election; he outright solicited such interference from a foreign leader.
The conclusion here is inescapable. The memorandum of the telephone call to Zelensky shows that Trump has violated the public trust. He has violated his oath to protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. In fact, Trump himself has violated the Constitution as well as criminal law by soliciting foreign interference in connection with a federal election. In order to protect the constitutional balance, governmental ethics and our treasured democracy, the House of Representatives has no choice now, but to proceed with the impeachment inquiry.
By: Willliam J. Kovatch, Jr.
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