biden formally announced his bid for a the democratic nomination for president. then about aatom week later on 3rd, president trump spoke with president putin on the telephone. one senior state department official testified that the conversation between president trumpen and president putin included a discussion of ukraine.cu third, on may 9th, mr. giuliani told the new york times he intended tork travel to ukraine behalf of his client, president trump in order to quote, meddle in an congestion, unquote. but after public backlash, and apparent push back from the ukrainians mr. giuliani cancelledra his trip the next d claiming that president zelensky was surrounded byes enemies of president trump. at a critical may 23rd meeting in the oval office, president trump said that ukraine was corrupt and tried to take him down in 2016. the same false narrative pushed
by president putin and mr. giuliani. in order for the white house meeting to occur, president trump told the delegation they must talk to rudy to get the visit g scheduled. these comments from president trump were the first of many subsequent indications that in his mind corruptiont equals investigations. in the weeks and months a following, mr. giuliani relayed to both ukrainian officials and the government officials that president trump had designated at the may 23rd meeting to take a lead on ukraine policy, the directive from president trump meeting wouldouse notld occur until ukraine announcedl the two political investigations that president trump required. and wellp before the july 25th call, ambassador sondland and kurt volker alsoan relayed this quid pro quo to the ukrainians, including to president zelensky himself. ambassador kurt volker conveyed thevo message directly to
giuliani, and mr. trump s hand-picked representatives they continued thisve pressure campas to secure a public announcement of thebl investigations. now, according toti ambassador sondland and this is very important. president trump did not require that ukraine actually conduct the investigations as a prerequisite for thes white how meeting. instead the ukrainian government needed touk only publicly annoue the investigations. it is clear that the goal of not the investigations themselves os not any corruption that those investigations might have entailed but the political benefit that t president trump enjoy from an announcement of investigations into his 2020 political rival and against a unanimous assessment that showes he received foreign support in thefo 2016 election. for that reason the facts didn t actually matter to president trump because he only cared
about the personal and political benefit from the announcement of the investigation. over the next couple of weeks ambassador sondland and kurt volker worked with the aide. when the aide t proposed a statement that did not include specific references to the investigations that president trump wanted, the burisma and biden investigation, mr. de giuliani relayed that would not be good enoughay to get a white house meeting. andwh here you can see a comparison on the left of the original statement drafted by the topft aide to mr. zelensky d on the right a revised statement with mr. giuliani s requirements. itir says we intend to initiate and complete a transparent and unbiassed investigation of all available facts and episodes including those involving burisma and the 2016 u.s.
former permanent ambassador to ukraine texted ambassador sondland and kurt volker or rather he stated in his testimony on july i 20th i had phone conversation with mr. danyliuk during which he conveyed to me that president zelensky did not want toen be ud as a pawn in a u.s. re-election campaign. mr. trump s pressure campaign ou president zelensky didn t relent. then president zelensky received the message he needed to convince president trump he would do the investigations in order to get that white house meeting.t as i have described president zelensky tried to do exactly that on the july 25th call with president trump. in theit weeks following the ju 25th call, president zelensky heeded president trump s request. p sending his top aide to madrid to meet with mr. giuliani. in coordination with mr.