Trump saw no quid pro quo for Ukraine, but envoys had doubts

WASHINGTON: President Trump has denied that there was any quid pro quo attached to his pressure on Ukraine to investigate his political enemies, but a new batch of texts released on Thursday indicated that his own representatives saw it differently.
Envoys representing Trump sought to leverage the power of his office to prod Ukraine into opening investigations that would damage his Democratic opponents at home. They made clear to Ukrainian officials that the White House invitation their newly inaugurated leader coveted depended on his commitment to the investigations.
And the American diplomat posted in Ukraine suspected it went even further than a trade of an Oval Office visit, telling colleagues that it appeared to him that unfreezing $391 million in American aid that Trump had blocked was contingent on the country following through on the politically charged investigations sought by the president and his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani. The text messages, provided to three Democratic-led House committees by the former special envoy for Ukraine, Kurt Volker, may shape the impeachment inquiry threatening Trump.
The messages demonstrated that the president's team had made clear to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine before the July 25 call with Trump that he would have to agree to the probes to confirm a promised visit to the White House that had been held up for two months.
"Heard from White House - assuming President Z convinces trump he will investigate / 'get to the bottom of what happened' in 2016, we will nail down date for visit to Washington," Volker wrote to Andrey Yermak, a Ukrainian presidential adviser on the morning of the call. During the call, Trump did press Zelenskiy to "do us a favour" and investigate supposed Ukrainian efforts to help Democrats in the 2016 presidential election, pursuing a conspiracy theory that even the president's own homeland security adviser had told him was "completely debunked". Trump also pressed Zelenskiy to probe former Vice-President Joe Biden and his son.
Zelenskiy assured the president he would, according to a transcript released by the White House. The texts indicate that the Ukrainians were given possible dates for a White House visit by Zelenskiy. William "Bill" Taylor, the charge d'affaires at the US embassy in Ukraine, and Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the EU - discussed the statement Zelenskiy would issue in support of the probe. "Are we now saying that security assistance and WH meeting are conditioned on investigations?" he asked Sondland in a text on Septmeber 1.
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References

1. ^{^} quid pro quo (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
2. ^{^} Ukraine (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
3. ^{^} Rudy Giuliani (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
4. ^{^} Joe Biden (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)

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