Text messages between Trump officials, Giuliani, Ukrainians, annotated

This letter is sent by three committee chairs – Rep. Adam Schiff of the Intelligence Committee, Rep. Eliot Engel of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Rep. Elijah Cummings of the Oversight Committee – to their colleagues. One of the unique elements of this impeachment inquiry is that it includes elements of probes being conducted by six committees all at the same time.

Trump has argued that his call with the Ukrainian President was “perfect” and and that he wasn’t offering any kind of quid pro quo — specifically, US aid in exchange for an investigation of Joe Biden and his son Hunter. There is no evidence of wrongdoing by either in Ukraine. Trump this week also expanded his calls for investigation into his political rivals, telling reporters at the White House Thursday that China should also be investigating the Bidens. CNN later reported that Trump mentioned the Bidens in a June conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the transcript of which was put in a secure server at the White House. Trump’s defense appears to be that he is trying to root out corruption and that there’s nothing wrong with talking about his rivals with foreign leaders. Here’s a fact check of Trump’s allegations.

Pompeo, who sidestepped questions last month about what he knew of Trump’s conversations with the Ukrainian President, admitted this week during a press conference in Italy that he was on the call between Trump and Zelensky. Trump has said he’d take “oppo research” from foreigners and suggested in a June interview that “everyone” does it. Wray once said the FBI should know if foreign governments are giving information to US candidates. Trump said, forcefuly, “The FBI director is wrong.” FEC Chair Ellen Weintraub has pointed out that asking for or accepting something of value “in connection with a US election” from a foreign national would be against the law for a US candidate.

Kurt Volker abruptly resigned as US Special Envoy for Ukraine after the publication of the whistleblower complaint detailing his role in Trump’s pressure campaign. He was the first to testify and to provide text messages to Congress, in early October. The State Department inspector general also provided documents in a briefing earlier in the week, including these text messages. Marie Yovanovitch, the US ambassador — a career civil servant — controversially recalled from her post earlier this year, will testify. The Wall Street Journal reported Trump recalled Yovanovitch after complaints by his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, a key player in the Ukraine campaign.

The official in question is Bill Taylor, another career civil servant, who served as ambassador to Ukraine under President George W. Bush. He was back in Kiev as chargé d’affaires after Yovanovitch was recalled. His concerns are exactly those of the whistleblower.

It’s important to emphasize that these are only excerpts and, while the committees have said they will release the full set of messages, they have not yet done so.

Each set of messages is preceded by context written by Democrats on the House committees. Giuliani is Trump’s lawyer, but they’re calling him an “agent.” Giuliani’s interest in pushing conspiracies about corruption in Ukraine has been long established. But this shows that even before Trump’s July 25 phone call with Zelensky, State Department officials were helping facilitate his talks with Ukrainian officials.

Zelensky was fully briefed by Americans — official representatives of the US government – who had been in contact with Giuliani — the President’s personal attorney — before a formal phone call with Trump. And the Americans think they are on the same page with Zelensky. “He’s got it.” But it’s not clear exactly what “it” is.

The issues Volker raised for the Trump/Zelensky call are key. Did he mean an investigation of the Bidens or an investigation into the origins of the Mueller probe? Those are the investigations that Trump ultimately pushes Zelensky to pursue. And regarding personnel, Zelensky assured Trump when they finally spoke on July 25 that the new prosecutor general will be “100% my person” and will look into Trump’s requests.

Taylor made clear that he feels Zelensky didn’t want to be used to further Trump’s domestic interests, but rather for his country to be “taken seriously.” Russia invaded and annexed Crimea, which had been part of Russia, in 2014. There is an ongoing war in Ukraine with Russian-backed separatists, and Ukraine needs US help. Trump was pushing Ukraine to help him personally, and what Sondland is saying is that it’s important to give Trump what he wants in order to get the US behind Ukraine. It is unclear what “the alternative” he alludes to might be.

“Yermak” is Zelensky’s aide. “Fiona” is Fiona Hill, the hawkish former top Russian affairs specialist on the National Security Council. She left that post in July. “Bolton” is now-former national security adviser John Bolton, who left the White House in September. “Mick” is Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff. This was all three days before the July 25 call between Trump and Zelensky.

At least in this message, Volker seemed to say that Zelensky must convince Trump the Ukrainians will look into the origins of the Russia probe in order for Trump to meet Zelensky in Washington, which is the clear priority for Zelensky is many of these messages.

Zelensky’s aide Yermak, talking to the Ukraine point person for the administration, had two asks after the call. First, when can Zelensky come to Washington? That is clearly so important to Zelensky and his new presidency. Second, when can they talk to Giuliani as Trump requested?

No meeting without the “deliverable” — an investigation or at least the announcement of one.

Volker and Sondland wanted Zelensky’s people to tell them exactly what he would say if he and Trump have a meeting in September.

To be clear, this is a State Department official asking Giuliani, who is Trump’s personal lawyer, what to tell the leader of a foreign country. Giuliani holds no official position in the US government and his job, in Trump’s world, is apparently to go after the Mueller report and go after Biden.

What did they discuss? We don’t know. This is a good place for a reminder that these are only snippets of conversations.

The two specific things Zelensky’s aide mentioned alongside a “reboot” to US and Ukraine elections were an investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation and an investigation into the company that once had Hunter Biden on its board. Those are also Trump’s political priorities.

This appears to be the US officials discussing how Trump’s political priorities should be placed into an official statement from the Ukrainian President. The irony of the idea that such an investigation would prevent future meddling in US elections is that the investigation itself, by targeting Biden, is election meddling.

Message from whom? It’s not clear whether this is a reference to the message given to Sondland and Volker from Trump and Giuliani, or the message they’re communicating to the Ukrainians.

This appears to be evidence of a back and forth between the Americans and the Ukrainians on a draft statement for Zelensky to issue. The Americans are concerned it does not unequivocally mention the Mueller probe origins and Burisma, the Ukrainian natural gas company that hired Hunter Biden to sit on its board in 2014.

CNN has reported that Trump moved to withhold funding from Ukraine back in June, but in the message above Ukrainian aides appeared to be learning about it from (or at the least were surprised to read it in) a US news story in late August.

Trump canceled his trip to remain in Washington as Hurricane Dorian threatened the eastern seaboard. Taylor and Volker appear to be going back and forth with the Ukrainians on a draft statement from Zelensky to convince Trump of his intentions and the members of the Trump administration were concerned it did not unequivocally mention the Mueller probe origins and Burisma

Taylor out and out says what has felt like the subtext for a lot of these messages — that Trump’s decision to release US aid would depend on Zelensky pursuing the Biden investigation. Sondland would rather talk about it on the phone. Trump has said repeatedly there was no quid pro quo. Taylor will return to this key question again later.

What interview? How or was it made clear that Ukrainians had to say something in an interview in order to get the security assistance? The Russians would love for Ukraine not to get the security assistance. And is Taylor’s parenthetical serious? Would he actually have quit if the military assistance had not been given to Ukraine?

Taylor, an experienced diplomat, is raising concerns about how this all looks to the Russians — who closely monitor any US interaction with Ukraine.

This is the single key passage in these text message excerpts. It shows the top US government representative in Kiev believed the administration was withholding aid in exchange for helping Trump’s campaign.

Sondland said Taylor was mistaken about Trump’s intentions, and he absolutely did not want all of this in a text chain. If the timestamps above are correct, it took him hours to respond to Taylor or he was asleep. His response feels like an official statement rather than a conversation. We have learned that, at the very least, Tayolor, a seasoned diplomat, agreed with the whistleblower that Trump’s pressure on Zelensky was linked to withholding of the aid. Trump says he just wanted Europe to do more. It’s important to remember in all of this that Trump’s decision to raise Biden with Zelensky at all, is a radical break from the norms of presidential conduct that impacts the US relationship with a key foreign country.