New details are coming to light in the whistleblower affair surrounding a potentially onerous telephone conversation by Donald Trump with Ukrainian new president Volodymyr Selenskyj.
So the US President is said to have ordered in the days leading up to the conversation that promised military aid to Ukraine be frozen. The "New York Times" ("NYT") and the Washington Post agree. It went according to "NYT" by 391 million US dollars. Also, the rival sheet writes of "nearly 400 million" US dollars.
The newspapers refer to unnamed senior US officials who are familiar with the process. Accordingly, the decision of the President on its Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney was forwarded to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Pentagon. The reason given was that the president had "reservations" as to whether the aid really needed to be paid. According to reports, the funds were released months later, on September 11th.
The telephone conversation between Trump and Selenskyj on July 25 has been causing a stir in the US for days. Media reported on Friday that Trump Selenskyj in the interview has been asked several times to work with his lawyer Rudy Giuliani to initiate investigations against Joe Biden's son Hunter. The son of ex-US Vice President worked at times for a Ukrainian company.
In Video: Trump speaks of "perfect phone call"
Jonathan Ernst / REUTERS
The incident became known after a secret service worker was so worried about the conversation that he reported the information to an internal control authority. This classified the complaint as urgent and credible. The White House denies all suspicions. Trump admitted, however, that the phone call had been about Hunter Biden.
The recent revelations are likely to fuel the suspicion that Trump was trying to abuse Congressional aid to harm a potential political opponent. However, the Washington Post cited its source as saying that there was no direct link between the aid and the alleged attempted influence on Selenskyj: "It was not about anything in return."
Carlos Barria / REUTERS
Joe and Hunter Biden (archive image): No evidence of misconduct
A threat is always implied, according to the Democratic Senator
The article also cites Democrat Senator Chris Murphy, who says it does not matter if Trump explicitly threatened to freeze aid: "There is always a threat implied when a US president wants something from another state State knows it will have consequences if it refuses. "
Murphy said that Selenskyj told him in a personal conversation that he was worried that the aid would be held back as a punishment for refusing to pay. This conversation took place in Ukraine in early September.
The calls for impeachment of the president are growing louder among US Democrats. Above all, they first require the release of a transcript of the presidential phone call.
So release the transcript of the call then. https://t.co/pWD7xmVLQO
- Joe Biden (@ JoeBiden) September 23, 2019Trump himself said on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly that he hopes the public will see the transcript "soon". A little later he declared that the release could create a bad precedent.
The US president has been struggling for days to shake off the accusations and focus on a possible wrongdoing of Biden. He accuses Biden, among other things, as Vice President to have the dismissal of a Ukrainian corruption investigator to have to protect his son.
Direct attack on Biden - without any slip
Trump also hinted that Biden's son was said to have profanely benefited from his father's office in his dealings. On Monday, he tightened the rhetoric on the fringes of the UN rally, claiming "Joe Biden and his son are corrupt."
more on the subject
As is so often the case in the past, Trump did not owe any form of evidence or evidence, leaving it entirely clear. So far, there is no official evidence that it could be in the statements of the US President is more than a verbal fog candle to distract from the affair of his own person.
But Trump went even further in his choice of words - and chose a drastic comparison. If a Republican had ever done that and said what Biden did and said, he would have landed in the electric chair, Trump, himself a Republican, said. It is measured with two different measures. What exactly "that" is what Biden supposedly did, Trump then did not explain.