It doesn’t take a CIA analyst to discern President Trump’s meaning in reading the notes of a conversation between the himself and Ukraine President Zelenskyy on July 25 of this year. In fact, all it takes is basic English skills.
After congratulating Zelenskyy on his election win, Trump begins with an obvious “set-up.”
“I will say that we do a lot for Ukraine. We spend a lot of effort and a lot of time. …the United States has been very very good to Ukraine… but the United States has been very very good to Ukraine.
Following Zelenskyy’s response, Trump follows up with “the ask.” I’ve italicized the key phrases that go to intent.
“I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike… The server, they say, Ukraine has it.”
Trump’s referring to a 2016 Democratic National Committee computer server. No evidence that it was ever missing. No evidence that Ukraine has it.
“There are a lot of things that went on, the whole situation,” Trump continues. “I think you’re surrounding yourself with some of the same people. I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it. As you saw yesterday, that whole nonsense ended with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller, an incompetent performance, but they say a lot of it started with Ukraine. Whatever you can do, it’s very important that you do it if that’s possible.”
“Yes,” Zelenskyy says, “it is very important for me and everything that you just mentioned earlier. … I will personally tell you that one of my assistants spoke with Mr. Giuliani just recently and we are hoping very much that Mr. Giuliani will be able to travel to Ukraine and we will meet once he comes to Ukraine. … I guarantee as the President of Ukraine that all the investigations will be done openly and candidly. That I can assure you.”
Zelenskyy gets the drift and agrees to Trump’s request.
“Mr. Giuliani is a highly respected man,” Trump continues. “He was the mayor of New York City, a great mayor, and I would like him to call you. I will ask him to call you along with the Attorney General. Rudy very much knows what’s happening and he is a very capable guy. If you could speak to him that would be great.”
Now we get the meat of “the ask.”
“There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it…”
There is no evidence that former-Vice-President Biden personally interceded, or that he or his son Hunter have done anything illegal (unless your watching Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson).
Zelenskyy responds: “The issue of the investigation of the case is actually the issue of making sure to restore the honesty so we will take care of that and will work on the investigation of the case. On top of that, I would kindly ask you if you have any additional information that you can provide to us, it would be very helpful for the investigation to make sure that we administer justice in our country…”
Zelenskyy specifically says, “we will take care of that and will work on the investigation of the case.”
Trump’s response: “I will have Mr. Giuliani give you a call and I am also going to have Attorney General Barr call and we will get to the bottom of it.”
Why is Trump telling Zelenskyy that Giuliani will call him? Giuliani does not work for the government; he’s Trump’s private attorney.
This is textbook collusion: “…where two persons (or business entities through their officers or other employees) enter into a deceitful agreement, usually secret, to defraud and/or gain an unfair advantage over a third party…”
At a press conference at the U.N., Trump called all this a “hoax,” and another “Witch Hunt.”
Memo to Republicans: Do Your JOB!