Inside the intertwined network of Trump and Zelensky officials of Ukraine

But, because of the public and private demands of Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, officials have also asked how to raise allegations regarding the son of Vice President Joe Biden, who held a consultancy position in a Ukrainian company. 39 energy and Trump insisted that an investigation be conducted. . There is no evidence of wrongdoing by Joe or Hunter Biden.

Defiant, Trump sought to explain his decision as a desire to force Europe to pay more. In explaining it, however, Trump brought his various subordinates to the fray.

"I said it loud and clear.I told this to Mick Mulvaney, I told a lot of people – where is Mick?" – wherever he is, " said Trump, referring to his acting chief of staff.

"I told a lot of different people, I told Mike, two Mikes, I told Steve, I told Wilbur Ross," he added, referring to his Vice President and the Secretaries of State, Treasury and Trade. "I keep asking the same question: why are the United States still paying these foreign countries?"

It's a familiar complaint that has nevertheless come to life this week after the revelations. Trump regularly raised the issue of Biden and his son on a phone call with Zelensky at the end of July. This prompted the Democrats to open a formal impeachment procedure and raised questions about who in the administration knew about Trump's decision-making process as the events unfolded. .

Asked this week about the controversy, Trump 's councilors sought to blame Biden and dismissed the impropriety suggestions.

"He mentioned Vice President Biden and his son in the context of our desire to see an honest government," Pence said in an interview for Fox News. "That's exactly what the American taxpayer would expect."

Evaluate a new chef

However, before the call took place, Trump's administration officials and allies had spent months reviewing the new Ukrainian leader.

Trump spoke by telephone with Zelensky in April, shortly after his election, to congratulate him on his victory. In a description of this call, the White House said that Mr. Trump had expressed the wish to "eradicate corruption" in Ukraine – a key issue that reading to the White House of the phone call from July did not include.

In the months that followed, officials worked to strengthen Zelensky's administration, including the then national security advisor, John Bolton, and the United States' special representative for the United States. Ukraine, Kurt Volker.

At the same time, Giuliani was trying to convince Kiev to investigate Hunter Biden and his business relations in Ukraine – an effort that quickly caught the president's eye.

Trump himself was not interested initially by Zelensky, officials said. Instead, he considered that Ukraine was a corrupt country that was not engaged in reform, according to people familiar with his thinking at the time.

His phone call – and a scheduled meeting with Zelensky on Wednesday – was launched after months of exchanges between Trump and his advisers, who strove to convince him that the dialogue with the new Ukrainian leader was worth his time and effort. security reasons.

At a meeting between Zelensky and Volker in early July – in anticipation of Trump's second phone call with the Ukrainian president – Zelensky referred to Giuliani with joking, according to a source close to the discussion.

Mr. Biden's allegations were not at the center of this discussion, which took place in Toronto, as it was aimed primarily at urging Ukrainians to make positive political decisions, including eliminating corruption and preventing corruption. dealing with the Russians.

The role of Giuliani

While the United States set these priorities, Zelensky joked about the difficulty of involving lawyers. It was at this point that he referred to Giuliani, recognizing that his Trump administration was not responsible for the President's persistent personal prosecutor.

According to reports in the press, Volker reportedly said on the sidelines of meetings that Ukraine had "a judiciary system that has long been subject to various political influences" – an allusion to the corruption problems that US officials have long encouraged. Ukraine to solve.

The Ukrainian authorities quickly traveled to Washington for important meetings at the White House, State Department and Pentagon, which eventually led to Trump's phone call on July 25.

People accustomed to this case said that Bolton and other US officials who had met with the senior Ukrainian official in early July also had not discussed the Biden case. But the problem was known and colored the discussions.

"It was a weird situation, but everything seemed to be traced to Giuliani," said a person familiar with the meetings. "It was there, but it was Giuliani who was busy with it." We did not deal with that because he (Giuliani) was talking about it and saying that he was not there. he was a private citizen. "

In the following weeks, it was Volker who helped organize a meeting between Giuliani and a Zelensky assistant, during which the former mayor of New York City urged an investigation into the Biden folder. Volker put the assistant in touch with Giuliani at the request of Zelensky's presidential adviser, the state department said. The demand was a distinctly different approach from Zelensky's, who mocked Giuliani's role a few weeks ago.

Volker was determined to try to solve the Biden problem, said the person accustomed to, eager to eliminate the problem of bilateral conversations between the United States and Ukraine. His efforts to organize the meeting between Giuliani and a Zelensky assistant were aimed at entrusting the issue to a non-governmental interlocutor so that government officials could focus on the many other issues between countries.

But since Trump himself had evoked the Biden affair with Zelensky during his July 25 phone call, he clearly inserted it in the middle of the US-Ukrainian relationship.

Vague answers

While Volker, a State Department official, was leading the meeting, Pompeo would not discuss the role played by his department in a series of interviews Sunday. Pompeo also refused to give a direct answer when asked if he had already asked Zelensky to open an investigation into Biden or not. Instead, he spoke in vague terms of the official US-Ukrainian dialogue.

"I have spoken several times to the Minister of Foreign Affairs.We are talking about the important relationship that unites our two countries and how we can strengthen Ukraine and ensure excellent trade between our two big countries. "said Pompeo.

At the time when Pence was sitting in a conference room of a Warsaw hotel opposite Zelensky in September, an intelligence whistleblower had already lodged a complaint against Trump's behavior towards Ukraine.

A day later, reporters asked Pence if the issue of Biden's son had been raised at his meeting. He said that was not the case – but quickly tackled the problem of corruption.

"As President Trump has made clear, we have serious concerns about corruption issues, and fortunately President Zelensky was decisively elected for an anti-corruption message," said Pence, adding that : "To invest more taxpayers in Ukraine, the President wants to be assured that these resources really contribute to the kind of investments that will contribute to security and stability in Ukraine." It is an expectation of the American people and from the president expressed very clearly. "

Meanwhile, Zelensky travels to the United States just as his conversations with Trump are provoking a historic political crisis.

He seemed unfazed Tuesday.

"I expect that our relations with the United States will be fantastic, I hope that we will invite Donald Trump to go to Ukraine, I would like the leaders of the countries to come and see what point Ukraine is great, do not believe the words, but the eyes, "he said in a video of Facebook.

CNN then asked him if he understood that the aid to Ukraine and the investigation of the Bidens were related, Zelensky simply replied that his conversations with the president were "private and confidential".

When asked if he wanted the transcript of the call to be published, Zelensky only replied, "We'll see."