Here are all the major players in the Trump-Ukraine scandal

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

• President Donald Trump is at the center of an impeachment inquiry over his efforts to pressure the Ukrainian government to investigate his political rival, and possibly using military aid as a bargaining chip.
• A whistleblower complaint filed against Trump in August claimed the president was "using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election" in a July 25 phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. 
• Trump had ordered his administration to withhold a nearly $400 million military-aid package to Ukraine days before the phone call.
• The White House's notes of the call do not show Trump bringing up military aid explicitly, but they confirm Trump brought up how the US does "a lot for Ukraine" right before asking Zelensky to do him a "favor, though" by investigating Biden and discrediting the former special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe.
• And last week, Trump admitted to reporters that he pressured another foreign leader — Chinese president Xi Jinping — to also investigate Hunter Biden's business dealings in China.
• On Sunday, the attorneys representing the original intelligence whistleblower announced they are now representing "multiple" whistleblowers with knowledge of Trump's conduct with Ukraine. 
• Scroll down to read more about all the major players in the Trump-Ukraine scandal.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

President Donald Trump is at the center of an impeachment inquiry over his efforts to pressure the Ukrainian government to investigate his political rival, and possibly using military aid as a bargaining chip.

An explosive whistleblower complaint filed by an anonymous intelligence community official in August claimed Trump was "using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election" in a July 25 phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. 

Trump ordered his administration to withhold a nearly $400 million military-aid package to Ukraine days before the phone call.

While the White House's notes of the call show the US president made no direct mention of offering aid in exchange for Zelensky's assistance in probing former Vice President Joe Biden, they confirm Trump brought up how the US does "a lot for Ukraine" right before asking Zelensky to do him a "favor, though" by investigating Biden and discrediting the former special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe.

Read more: Trump is dragging down Biden with him as the Ukraine scandal threatens to upend his presidency

A series of text messages that were traded between Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, former US Special Representative to Ukraine Kurt Volker, US Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland, and the US chargé d'affaires in Ukraine Bill Taylor, reveal that the men explicitly and repeatedly discussed the possibility that Trump wanted to dangle US military aid to Ukraine in exchange for politically beneficial investigations.

The messages were recently turned over to Congress as part of its impeachment inquiry.

In early October, Trump doubled down and publicly called on both China and Ukraine to investigate the Bidens.

The impeachment inquiry is moving fast. The intelligence community inspector general Michael Atkinson and Volker have already testified in closed-door sessions to the House Intelligence, Oversight, and Foreign Affairs Committees. The panels have also issued subpoenas to the White House, Giuliani, and Secretary of State and Mike Pompeo, among others.

On October 6, the attorneys representing the first intelligence community whistleblower announced they are also representing a second intelligence official who wants to come forward, and who has firsthand knowledge of Trump's alleged misconduct connected to Ukraine. 

Here are all the major American and Ukrainian officials in the Trump-Ukraine scandal:

President Donald Trump

The pressure came from the very top. Trump has long been fixated on the unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia, meddled in the 2016 race and did so in order to help the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.

He also believes the Obama administration — Biden specifically — strongarmed the Ukrainian government to oust its prosecutor general, Viktor Shokin, while Shokin was investigating Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian natural gas company whose board Biden's son sat on until recently.

Despite Trump's allegations, there's no evidence that the Bidens engaged in wrongdoing. That's been confirmed by both US and Ukrainian government officials.

Trump pressed the Ukrainian president to work with Giuliani to investigate the Bidens eight times during their phone call. He'd ordered the US to withhold security assistance just days before that conversation.

Speaking to reporters in early October, Trump doubled down in calling for Ukraine to investigate Biden and his son and added that China should do the same.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky

Zelensky, a former comedian and TV star, was elected as Ukraine's president in April after he ran on an anticorruption platform. 

Trump pressured Zelensky to probe both CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm retained by the DNC to investigate Russia's hack of its servers in 2016, and the Bidens during his July phone call. 

Ukraine is heavily reliant on US military aid in its fight with Russian-backed militants.

Zelensky has tried to distance himself from the ongoing controversy engulfing at the White House.

At the United Nations General Assembly meeting in late September, Zelensky denied that he felt pressure from Trump to investigate the Bidens, and emphasized that he did not want to be involved in American elections. 

Read more: Meet Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine's comedian turned president who's at the center of the scandal threatening Trump's presidency

Former Vice President Joe Biden

As former President Barack Obama's top deputy, Biden served as the administration's point-person for US-Ukraine policy and relationships. 

When he called for Shokin to be fired, Biden represented the US's official position on the matter, one that was shared by many other Western governments and anticorruption activists in Ukraine, according to The Associated Press.

However, Trump and Giuliani allege that Biden pushed for Shokin's ouster because he wanted to stymie the investigation into Burisma.

But there's a loophole in those claims. Government officials and Ukrainian anticorruption advocates say Shokin had hampered the investigation into Burisma long before Biden even stepped into the picture, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Biden has called Trump's push to have him investigated by a foreign power disturbing and said it shows Trump is unfit for office.

Read more: Trump brought up Joe Biden during a June phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping

See Also:

SEE ALSO: Everything we know about Hunter Biden's business connections in China

SEE ALSO: Trump is daring Democrats to impeach him because he thinks he cannot lose in the Senate