Ukraine prez adviser reveals damning “precondition” for Trump phone call
When Ukrainians voted to elect comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy as their next president in the spring of 2019, the fledgling administration was eager to coordinate a phone call with Kyiv’s most important benefactor — the United States, according to an adviser to Zelenskiy. But after weeks of discussions with American officials, Ukrainian officials came to recognize a precondition to any executive correspondence, the adviser said.
“It was clear that [President Donald] Trump will only have communications if they will discuss the Biden case,” said Serhiy Leshchenko, an anti-corruption advocate and former member of Ukraine’s Parliament, who now acts as an adviser to Zelenskiy. “This issue was raised many times. I know that Ukrainian officials understood.”
We’d say our friend Bill Palmer is on the money when he writes:
It means Ukraine is confirming that it understood that Donald Trump was 100% presenting this as a quid pro quo, and that it would not receive any U.S. aid – or even be allowed to bargain for any aid – unless it was willing to help Trump alter the outcome of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
Notably, Serhiy Leshchenko is offering to testify before Congress about the Trump-Ukraine scandal. After this latest revelation, don’t be surprised if House Democrats take him up on it, and have him testify as part of their impeachment hearings.
Which may also explain this additional development today:
House Democrats are looking into a second phone call made between President Donald Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky as part of an impeachment investigation that has upended the administration.
The call in question took place on April 21 of this year, shortly after Zelensky won election. There is no apparent White House read out of what was discussed between the two world leaders, but foreign press reports said it was congratulatory.
Just congratulatory? Trump is strictly transactional and. like the mob boss he actually is, was no doubt playing an angel.
DEVELOPING HARD…
