WASHINGTON, D.C.—“As I said on the phone, I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign,” wrote Bill Taylor, senior U.S. diplomat in Ukraine. This was just after midnight on Sept. 9, before this whole matter of President Donald Trump’s conduct with the Ukraine came to public attention, and after months of negotiations between U.S. diplomats, the White House, and the office of the president of the Ukraine. The outlines of those negotiations are depicted in a series of text messages submitted as evidence during former Ukrainian ambassador Kurt Volker’s appearance before a House committee investigating the impeachment inquiry of Trump, and released late Thursday night. “Crazy,” Taylor wrote in his blunt assessment of the situation. After roughly five hours, Trump’s appointed ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, replied: “Bill, I believe you are incorrect about President Trump’s intentions. The president has been crystal clear no quid pro quo’s of any kind…” he wrote, then suggested Taylor stop communicating about it by text and instead take the matter to higher ups in D.C. by phone. “No quid pro quo” has been the White House talking point since this all became public. “No quid pro quo,” as if saying those words repeatedly and explicitly makes it so. But this bit of White House messaging came at the end of almost two months of arrangements to get U.S. aid released to the eastern European country and secure a meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. In those messages, both the quids and the pros are spelled out, and apparently in many cases dictated, checked and signed off on by Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. “Had breakfast with Rudy this morning — teeing up call w [Ukrainian presidential aide Andrey] Yermak Monday. Must have helped. Most impt is for Zelensky to say that he will help investigation — and address any specific personnel issues — if there are any,” wrote Volker on July 19. “Heard from the 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 Yermak on July 25. Two items were demanded of Ukraine according to the texts: investigating Giuliani and Trump’s suspicion (described as a “completely debunked” conspiracy theory by former Trump homeland security adviser Thomas Bossert) that it was Ukraine and not Russia which interfered with the 2016 U.S. election, and launching an investigation into an affair involving Hunter Biden, the son of former vice-president and current presidential candidate Joe Biden, who once sat on the board of the Ukrainian company Burisma. “Once we have a date [for a meeting at the White House], will call for a press briefing, announcing upcoming visit and outlining vision for the reboot of US—UKRAINE relationship, including among other things Burisma and election meddling in investigations,” Yermak wrote on Aug. 10. Volker and Sondland had Giuliani working with Yermak to vet a statement Zelenskiy would give explicitly committing to the two apparent White House priorities. “Are we now saying that security assistance and WH meeting are conditioned on investigation?” Taylor asks on Sept. 1. To which Sondland replies, “Call me.” Which brings us, just about, back around to where we started, with Taylor outlining his “crazy” understanding of the situation, and Sondland previewing the now-familiar line that it is “crystal clear” the president is not asking for a “quid pro quo.” The president had already seized on that last text by a Friday morning press gaggle back on the lawn of the White House, saying it “nullified” the rest of the messages. But Taylor’s understanding seems to be a straightforward summary of the situation as it would appear to any reasonable observer. Not that “reasonable” is a word you’d use to describe Trump’s recent discussion of this. This week, Robert De Niro caused a bit of fuss with a foul-mouthed anti-Trump rant on CNN. Then Trump took a couple pages from the actor’s book — with foul-mouthed dismissals of the impeachment investigation as BS, and then on Wednesday delivering an angry “You talkin’ to me?” performance reminiscent of De Niro’s character Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver. Trump snapped out those words at a press conference at the White House with the Finnish president beside him, badgering a Reuters reporter to stop asking questions about the impeachment matter and instead direct a question to his Finnish guest. The question Trump didn’t want to hear again was what Trump wanted Ukraine to do in reference to Joe Biden. The next day, he sure wasn’t avoiding that question on the White House lawn. There, he suggested “I would say, President Zelenskiy, if it was me, I would start an investigation into the Bidens.” And then he went further. “China should start an investigation into the Bidens, because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine.” This, in the middle of ongoing trade negotiations with the Asian giant. It may be worth reminding ourselves that U.S. law doesn’t require any quid pro quo to render certain types of behaviour illegal. Among other things, what Trump stands accused of doing in the case of Ukraine is simply soliciting help in the form of information or actions that could be damaging to a likely election opponent. He repeatedly denied that’s what he did. And then he went out on the lawn of the White House and did it again. And added a similarly blunt plea to China. What do you call that? Perhaps Bill Taylor would know the appropriate word. Edward Keenan is the Star’s Washington Bureau chief. He covers U.S. politics and current affairs. Reach him via email: [email protected] |