Trump lawyer Giuliani pursued shadow Ukraine agenda as U.S. foreign policy officials were sidelined: WaPo
The sequence, which began early this year, involved the abrupt removal of the US ambassador to Ukraine, the circumvention of senior officials on the National Security Council, and the suspension of hundreds of millions of dollars of aid administered by the Defence and State departments.
As those worries intensified, some senior officials worked behind the scenes to hold off a Trump meeting or call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky out of concern that Mr Trump would use the conversation to press Kiev for damaging information on his potential rival in the 2020 race, former vice president Joe Biden, and Mr Biden’s son, Hunter.
Though the whistleblower report focuses on the Trump-Zelensky call, officials familiar with its contents said that it includes references to other developments tied to the president, including efforts by Mr Giuliani to insert himself into US-Ukrainian relations. US officials described an atmosphere of intense pressure inside the NSC and other departments since the existence of the whistleblower complaint became known, with some officials facing suspicion that they had a hand either in the complaint or in relaying damaging information to the whistleblower, whose identity has not been revealed and who is entitled to legal protection.
Mr Mulvaney has agitated for foreign aid to be cut universally but has also stayed away from meetings with Mr Giuliani and the US president, officials said. The former New York mayor appears to have seen Mr Zelensky, a political neophyte elected president of Ukraine in April and sworn in in May, as a potential ally on two political fronts – punishing those Mr Giuliani suspected of playing a role in exposing the Ukraine-related corruption of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and delivering political ammunition against Mr Biden.
“She should be part of the investigation as part of the collusion,” Mr Giuliani said in a recent interview with The Washington Post, adding that “she is now working for Soros.” In late March, the president’s son Donald Trump Jr amplified this campaign with a tweet calling for the removal of “Obama’s US Ambassador.”
In a 19 May interview on Fox News, Mr Trump recited repeatedly disproved allegations that then-vice president Joe Biden had coerced Ukraine to drop an investigation into the owner of an energy company, Burisma, for which Mr Biden’s son, Hunter was a board member. In Washington, officials outside Mr Trump’s inner circle who were dismayed by Ms Yovanovitch’s ouster reacted with growing alarm and confusion over Mr Giuliani’s subsequent activities.Then-national security adviser John Bolton was outraged by the outsourcing of a relationship with a country struggling to survive Russian aggression, officials said.
Officials at the US Embassy in Kiev were similarly deprived of information, even as they faced questions from Ukrainians about whether Mr Giuliani was a designated representative. He also said that he began pursuing the issue in late 2018 after a visit from an investigator he did not identify. But even then, clear answers proved elusive. Officials were told that the money was being blocked by the Office of Management and Budget, without any accompanying explanation.Pelosi is taking a huge gamble with her Trump impeachment inquiry
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