Texts shatter Trump’s Ukraine defence

U.S. OFFICIALS

KIEV • Text messages have revealed U.S. diplomats dangled the prospect of a White House meeting between the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump while pressing for an inquiry into Joe Biden. The messages show the lengths U.S. State Department figures went to get Zelenskiy to investigate the Democratic presidential hopeful this summer, weakening the U.S. president’s key rebuttal to the scandal.

From mid-july to early September, officials repeatedly pushed to secure an investigation into Biden and his son Hunter, who once worked for a Ukrainian gas firm, even helping draft an announcement to be put out by Ukraine.

However, with almost $532 million of U.S. military aid to Ukraine held back, one diplomat raised concerns, writing in a text: “I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.”

The messages from three U.S. senior officials and an aide to Zelensky, which were released by congressional committees leading the impeachment inquiry, show the degree of arm-twisting behind the scenes.

They provide a serious challenge to Trump’s core defence on the scandal — that there was no “quid pro quo” between holding back the military aid and demanding the investigation.

Trump defended his call for the Bidens to be investigated, suggesting it had “nothing” to do with the fact Biden is a front-runner to face him in next year’s election. “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,” he wrote on Twitter.

Ruslan Ryaboshapka, Ukraine’s new prosecutor general, said this week that he was reviewing cases including those involving the Burisma gas company, where Hunter Biden sat on the board.

The text messages were handed over to the congressional committees by Kurt Volker, the former special representative for Ukraine negotiations, who resigned last month. The two other officials whose messages appear are William Taylor, the U.S. embassy in Ukraine’s charge d’affaires, and Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the EU.

One text was sent the morning of the July 25 phone call in which Trump would push Zelensky to launch an investigation into the Bidens.

In two separate texts Taylor raises concerns about holding back aid to Ukraine, writing: “Are we now saying that security assistance and WH meeting are conditioned on investigations?” Sondland replies: “Call me.”