“The 25 July Presidential phone call”
one
According to the letter of accusation, on July 25th, local time, Trump had a 30-minute telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Zelenski.
A whistleblower‘ s complaint triggered by a July 25 phone call between U.S。 President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been released to the public.The complaint is potentially explosive for the Trump presidency。 “I am concerned that these actions pose risks to U.S。 national security and undermine the U.S。 government’ s efforts to deter and counter foreign interference in U.S。 elections，” the whistleblower wrote of the president， who now faces an impeachment inquiry。
During the call, Trump first congratulated Zelenski on winning the Ukrainian presidential election. However, after a brief exchange of greetings, the topic changed — —
“… after an initial exchange of pleasantries， the President used the remainder of the call to advance his personal interests。 Namely， he sought to pressure the Ukrainian leader to take actions to help the President‘ s 2020 reelection bid，” the whistleblower said。
"President Trump began to use the remaining talk time to grab his personal interests. In other words, he tried to put pressure on Ukrainian leaders to take action to help them run for re-election in 2020. "
Specifically, it includes — —
(1) Let Ukraine help investigate its main competitors — — Former US Vice President, Democratic presidential candidate Biden and Biden’s son Hunter;
(2) Ask Ukrainian leaders to investigate Crowdstrike, an American cyber security company related to "TongRumen", and hand it over to the company’s servers in Ukraine;
(3) Let your personal lawyer and the US Attorney General contact Zelenski.
Under the pressure of public opinion, the White House released a transcript of Trump’s conversation with the Ukrainian president on Wednesday. It is worth noting that this call record is not a verbatim transcript, but is based on the on-site notes of the White House Situation Room and officials of the National Security Bureau. The underlying allegation is that Trump put pressure on Zelensky to investigate unsubstantiated corruption rumors involving political rival Joe Biden‘ s son Hunter， withholding military aid money as a possible means of leverage。 Transcript of some calls (bilingual/sliding view):
Donald Trump： I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it。 I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine， they say Crowdstrike。 . . I guess you have one of your wealthy people。 . . The server， they say Ukraine has it… I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it…
Trump: I want to ask you a favor. Our country has experienced a lot (recently) and I believe Ukraine knows it very well. I hope you can help me find out what all this is about, especially the part about Ukraine and Crowdstrike company … … I’ll put our attorney general Giuliani on the phone with you, and I hope you can get to the bottom of it.
Vladimir Zelenskyy： … I will personally tell you that one of my assistants spoke with Mr。 Giuliani just recently and we are hoping very much that Mr。 Giuliani will be able to travel to Ukraine and we will meet once he comes to Ukraine。 I just wanted to assure you once again that you have nobody but friends around us… I guarantee as the President of Ukraine that all the investigations will be done openly and candidly。 . That I can assure you。
Zelenski: … … I want to tell you personally that one of my assistants just got off the phone with Mr. Giuliani, and we hope he can visit Ukraine to meet us. I want to assure you again that we are surrounded by people you can trust … … As for this investigation, as the president of Ukraine, I assure you that all investigations will be conducted openly and fairly. I can assure you of that.
Donald Trump： … Mr。 Giuliani is a highly respected man。 . . I will ask him to call you along with the Attorney General。 Rudy very much knows what‘ s happening and he is a very capable guy。 If you could speak to him that would be great… The other thing， There’ s a lot of talk about Biden‘ s son， that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great。 Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it。 . . It sounds horrible to me。
Trump: Mr. Giuliani is a respected man … … I’ll have him call you and your attorney general. Giuliani knows exactly what happened. He is a very capable man. It would be great if you could talk to him … … One more thing, many people are talking about Biden’s son, saying that Biden stopped the prosecution of his son. Many people want to know this matter, so if you can help the attorney general to investigate this matter, no matter what you do, it will be very good. Biden boasted everywhere that he stopped the prosecution, so if you can investigate … … It makes me feel terrible.
Vladimir Zelenskyy： … Since we have won the absolute majority in our Parliament， the next prosecutor general will be 100% my person… He or she will look into the situation， specifically to the company that you mentioned in this issue…
Zelenski: Because we won an absolute majority in Parliament, the next Attorney General is 100% mine … … He or she will investigate the relevant situation, especially the company you mentioned in this incident … …
In the letter of accusation, the informant also mentioned an important message — —
“In mid-July， I learned of a sudden change of policy with respect to U.S。 assistance for Ukraine。”
This "sudden change" means that a few days before the call with Zelenski, Trump had ordered the suspension of the distribution of about 400 million U.S. dollars of military aid to Ukraine. About two months later, the military aid was distributed as planned. Is this putting pressure on Ukraine to investigate Biden and his son in exchange for military assistance? Trump denied this speculation on the 24 th.
“Efforts to restrict access to records related to the call”
Two
However, the story about "this phone call" did not stop there. The letter of accusation further broke the news — — The White House tried to "block" all records related to this call.
The most perilous allegation for the president may ultimately be the claim that the White House tried to “lock down” details of the call between Trump and Zelensky， effectively an accusation that there was an attempt to cover up the details of the conversation。
"After the call, I learned from several American officials that senior White House officials had intervened in this matter and ‘ Blockade ’ All telephone records, especially the official telephone verbatim records routinely produced by the White House Situation Room. This series of practices makes me sincerely believe that White House officials know the seriousness of what was discussed in that phone call. "
“… the transcript was loaded into a separate electronic system that is otherwise used to store and handle classified information of an especially sensitive nature。 One White House official described this act as an abuse of this electronic system because the call did not contain anything remotely sensitive from a national security perspective，” the whistleblower said。
“… … This call record is stored in another electronic system — — An independent electronic system dedicated to storing and processing particularly sensitive and confidential information. A White House official described this behavior as an abuse of the electronic system, because from the perspective of national security, this phone call did not contain any information that could be considered sensitive. "
According to the source, this is not the first time that the White House has stored the call records in a more "secure" system for reasons of "sensitive political information" rather than "national security".
Trump： “Another Witch Hunt！”
three
On the 26th, Trump privately denounced the "informer". He hinted to about 50 members of the US Mission to the United Nations and their families that he would "severely punish" the informers. Unexpectedly … … His front foot finished, and his back foot was leaked to The New York Times.
“I want to know who‘ s the person that gave the whistleblower the information， because that’ s close to a spy。”
"I want to know who leaked the information, because this is basically espionage."
Trump made the complaint on Thursday in front of about 50 employees and their families of the United States Mission to the United Nations。 The remarks were leaked to the media soon after and were first reported by the New York Times。
“You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart？ Right？ The spies and treason， we used to handle it a little differently than we do now。 . 。”
"You know what we did in the past when we were still smart, right? For espionage and treason, we handled it differently then than now. "
The New York Times reported that Trump’s words shocked everyone present. According to New York Times， his comment “stunned people in the audience。” And Democratic chairmen of the House Foreign Affairs， Intelligence， and Oversight and Reform Committees called it “reprehensible witness intimidation。” This is "reprehensible ‘ Witness intimidation ’ Behavior ",the democratic chairmen of the House Foreign Affairs, Intelligence, Supervision and Reform Committee commented on this.
According to CNN, a source also condemned these remarks as "shocking" and "terrible", but not everyone present opposed Trump’s remarks.
The CNN report also mentioned that mccabe, former deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, commented that Trump’s "implicit threat" was "exactly what government officials should not do".
"Is this to show all government workers that if they have any complaints about the president, will the president settle accounts with them?"
According to CNN， former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe commented that Trump‘ s implicit threat is “exactly what government officials are not supposed to do。” “So you have to ask， was this some sort of a message to all of those folks and indeed a message to all people serving in the government that if they step forward with comp laints， they can expect the President to come after them？”
From the 26th to the 27th, Trump once again sent a number of tweets to express his dissatisfaction.
"Too many lies! Biden, who is sleepy, and Democrats who have done nothing. " Trump responded that "Tongwumen" was completely a lie of Biden and the Democratic Party, and the Ukrainian president did not feel the pressure from the White House.
And this "informer" denounced by Trump, his identity has gradually surfaced. On 26th, The New York Times quoted three insiders as saying that the informant was a CIA official who was once assigned to work in the White House. According to informed sources, the man later returned to work in the CIA. According to the report, he is a well-trained analyst, very sensitive to American foreign policy in Europe, well aware of Ukrainian politics and at least has some legal knowledge.
Pelosi： “No one is above law”
four
1976 movie “All the President‘ S Men "("presidential team ")
Up to now, there have been only three impeachment events in American history, and all of them were initiated by the House of Representatives to start impeachment procedures.
However, none of these three impeachments succeeded, and so far no American president has been impeached and removed.
In 1868, the House of Representatives initiated impeachment proceedings against then-President Andrew Johnson for crimes such as "violating the law on official positions". In the end, when the Senate voted, the impeachment case failed because of one vote difference.
In 1974, then President Richard Nixon was arrested for a political scandal that shocked the world — — Impeached for the Watergate incident. Faced with the impeachment of Congress and the loss of political support, Nixon chose to resign voluntarily before the impeachment vote in the House of Representatives, thus avoiding the humiliation of being deposed.
In 1998, Bill Clinton, then president, was found to have an affair with Monica Lewinsky, an intern in the White House, and he was impeached by the House of Representatives for perjury and obstruction of justice. However, in the Senate vote, the number of affirmative votes was obviously less than two-thirds, and Clinton was able to continue to serve.
On 24th, nancy pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives, announced an impeachment investigation against Trump.
This is also the second time that the US Congress has launched an impeachment investigation against the president after more than 20 years.
The result of the investigation is unknown.
However, Pelosi said this when she announced the launch of the impeachment investigation — —
“The president must be held accountable。 No one is above the law。”
"The President must take responsibility. No one is above the law. "
(Sources： The New York Times, CNN, Xinhuanet, Global Times, etc.)