![]() ![]() On September 25, the day after Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that the House of Representatives would open an official impeachment inquiry into the president, the White House released a summary transcript of the call, which showed that Trump said he would direct Attorney General William Barr and Giuliani to call Zelensky. Meanwhile, the State Department confirmed that it had assisted in connecting Giuliani with Yermak, a fact Giuliani boasted of on Fox News : “I was operating at the request of the State Department.” While Trump seesawed with his explanations about why he had withheld the $400 million, Giuliani wasted little time before appearing on cable news to admit that he had asked Ukraine to investigate Biden. ![]() The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) had subsequently instructed the Defense and State Departments to freeze the aid. After news surfaced of the whistleblower complaint involving Trump’s communications with Zelensky, additional reporting revealed that in mid-July Trump had ordered his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, to withhold Ukraine’s military aid. Later that summer, however, the New York Times reported that Giuliani had renewed his efforts, secretly talking to Ukrainian official Andriy Yermak. ambassador to Ukraine, who had been under attack in conservative media for purportedly criticizing Trump in private conversations. The trip was canceled after widespread criticism, but Giuliani defended his actions by saying, “We’re not meddling in an election, we’re meddling in an investigation.” Before the announcement of the canceled trip, the State Department recalled the U.S. ![]() Giuliani had announced in May 2019 that he would travel to Ukraine to urge the government to investigate Hunter Biden’s involvement with a Ukrainian energy company as well as allegations (for which no evidence exists) that Joe Biden, then a potential 2020 Trump opponent, had played a role in the Ukrainian government’s dismissal of a prosecutor. Equally concerning were unabashed claims from Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani that he had made similar efforts in talks with Ukrainian officials. In September 2019, the Trump administration’s refusal to turn over to Congress an intelligence whistleblower complaint led to extraordinary revelations that former President Donald Trump had allegedly urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the son of former Vice President Joe Biden - a week after ordering the freeze of military aid to Ukraine. ![]()
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