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Donald Trump

What's going on with Trump and Ukraine? And how does it involve Biden and a whistleblower complaint?

Bart Jansen
USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – A whistleblower complaint and Democratic outrage over President Donald Trump's discussions with the Ukrainian president have sparked yet another inquiry into Trump's interactions with foreign leaders and has spilled over into the 2020 presidential campaign.

The story folds together diplomatic efforts from both the Obama and Trump administrations. Here we've attempted to breakdown what everyone is talking about.

First, it's important to know the players, who include familiar and some not-so-familiar names. They are: Trump, his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, former Vice President Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, former Ukrainian prosecutor general Viktor Shokin and current Ukrainian secretary general Yuriy Lutsenko. 

At the heart of the matter are two developments that took place this summer: an August whistleblower complaint by a U.S. intelligence official and a July phone call between Trump and Ukraine President Zelensky. Democrats demanded the release of the call transcript and the whistleblower complaint, while they sought more information about Trump's and Giuliani's contacts with Ukraine.

A whistleblower complaint and a phone call

A whistleblower complaint Aug. 12 reported that the president "used the power of his office" to solicit foreign help to discredit one of his main political rivals. The whistleblower, who has not been identified publicly, detailed efforts by senior White House officials to "lock down" access to records of a phone call July 25 between Trump and Zelensky in which Trump urged his counterpart to investigate Biden, a Democratic presidential candidate.

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Democrats want to know more about Trump's efforts to push Ukraine to investigate Biden and his son, Hunter, who served on the board of Burisma Group, an energy company in Ukraine. They contend that using the levers of diplomatic engagement to dig up dirt on a political rival is an abuse of power and raises questions about whether the president's actions amount to illegal soliciting of campaign assistance from a foreign country. The issue has further fueled Democratic investigations into Trump, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announcing a formal impeachment inquiry Sept. 24.

Trump acknowledged bringing up Biden in a phone call with Zelensky, but said the talk was appropriate.

"The conversation I had was largely congratulatory, with largely corruption – all of the corruption taking place – and largely the fact that we don't want our people like Vice President Biden and his son creating to the corruption already in the Ukraine," Trump told reporters as he left the White House for a trip to Texas and Ohio.

Hunter Biden in Ukraine

The New York Times reported in May that Biden, while in office in 2016, threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees unless Ukraine reduced its corruption. Part of that demand called for removing the country's top prosecutor, Shokin, who was investigating the oligarch behind an energy company where Hunter Biden served on the board. 

Shokin was accused by U.S. officials of ignoring corruption in his own office. The Ukrainian Parliament eventually voted him out.

But Lutsenko, Ukraine's current prosecutor, told Bloomberg News Service in May that he had no evidence of wrongdoing by Biden or his son.

“Hunter Biden did not violate any Ukrainian laws — at least as of now, we do not see any wrongdoing,” Lutsenko told Bloomberg. “A company can pay however much it wants to its board.”

Hunter Biden told the Times in May that he had "no role whatsoever" in the Ukrainian investigation of the company or any of its officers. The Post has reported there is "no evidence" Biden was trying to help his son.

Trump's call with Zelensky

On July 25, Trump called Zelensky, the Ukrainian president. Trump told Zelensky he could improve that country’s image by pursuing corruption cases.

Trump also withheld more than $250 million in security assistance that Congress had appropriated and that Ukraine desperately needed. But the Trump administration made the funding available earlier this month.

Trump-Ukraine phone call:Trump acknowledges bringing up Joe Biden in phone call with Ukraine president

The day after Trump’s call, Ambassador Kurt Volker, the U.S. special representative for Ukraine, was dispatched to meet with Zelensky. And days later, Giuliani met in Spain with Andriy Yermak, a Zelensky aide, to discuss a possible meeting between Trump and Zelensky.

Giuliani has tweeted allegations of Biden corruption repeatedly, at one point alleging “bribery, extortion, money laundering and fraud” by the Biden family in China and Ukraine.

Biden spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield told The New York Times in May that Biden acted "without any regard for how it would or would not impact any business interests of his son, a private citizen.”

Reviewing the whistleblower complaint

The Trump administration initially refused to provide the complaint to Congress because of concerns that the phone call was protected by executive privilege and because the targets of the complaint – Trump, Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr – weren't members of the intelligence community.

The inspector general for the director of national intelligence (DNI), Michael Atkinson, said in a Sept. 9 letter that the matter involves an "urgent concern," which is defined as "a serious or flagrant problem, abuse, violation of the law," but "does not include differences of opinions concerning public policy matters." Atkinson said a preliminary review found the complaint credible.

Such complaints are typically reported to Congress within seven days. But Atkinson said he hit an impasse with Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence, over sharing the complaint with Congress. Atkinson said he was told by the legal counsel for the intelligence director that the complaint did not meet the definition of an “urgent concern.” And he said the Justice Department said it did not fall under the director’s jurisdiction because it didn't involve allegations concerning a member of the intelligence community or intelligence activity.

Atkinson said in a letter to Maguire he disagreed with that Justice Department opinion.

"I set forth my reasons for concluding that the subject matter involved in the complainant's disclosure not only falls within the DNI's jurisdiction, but relates to one of the most significant and important of the DNI's responsibilities to the American people," Atkinson wrote.

epa07853988 House Intelligence Committee Chairman Representative Adam Schiff responds to questions from the news media following the closed door testimony of intelligence community Inspector General Michael Atkinson in the US Capitol in Washington, DC, USA, 19 September 2019. A whistleblower complaint has been filed by a US intelligence official involving allegations that President Trump made a troubling promise to a foreign leader.  EPA-EFE/SHAWN THEW ORG XMIT: STX21

The inspector general said he requested authorization to at the very least disclose the “general subject matter” to Congress but had not been allowed to do so. He said the information was “being kept” from Congress.

Biden:I never talked to son Hunter about overseas business dealings

On Sept. 25, the White House released a five-page memo summarizing the call and provided the whistleblower's nine-page complaint to the House and Senate intelligence committees. The House panel released the complaint Sept. 26, at the start of a hearing with Maguire. The intelligence director and inspector general met privately with the Senate Intelligence Committee the same day.

Maguire told the House panel he delayed providing the complaint to Congress while consulting with the White House about executive privilege and with the Justice Department about whether the complaint qualified as an "urgent concern." Maguire said the release of the call summary eliminated the concern about executive privilege, but that the Justice Department decided the complaint didn't qualify as an "urgent concern" because the targets weren't members of the intelligence community.

“Reports of a reliable whistleblower complaint regarding the President’s communications with a foreign leader raise grave, urgent concerns for our national security,” Pelosi said in a statement before announcing the impeachment inquiry.

Giuliani admits he talked to Ukraine about Biden

Congressional Democrats said they were appalled by the efforts of Trump and Giuliani to get Ukraine to investigate Biden.

"If he demanded a foreign government do his political bidding, that’s when he crossed the critical threshold," Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Conn., a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, wrote on Twitter.

The dispute had been simmering as Congress investigated what was said during the call. But it began to boil over Sept. 19, when Giuliani gave an interview to CNN in which he first denied that he urged Ukraine to investigate and then acknowledged it.

“Of course I did,” Giuliani said during the rambling interview.

Giuliani said he met with Ukrainian officials on his own and then told Trump.

“I did what I did on my own,” Giuliani said. “I told him about it afterward.”

In reaction to Trump's acknowledgment that he talked about Biden in the call with Ukraine's president, Murphy tweeted: "If an American president gets away with bullying foreign counties to do his political bidding then we should just give up and accept our new banana republic."

Three congressional chairmen – Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y.; Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; and Oversight and Reform Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md. – had announced Sept. 9 that they were demanding records from the White House and State Department about alleged attempts to manipulate Ukraine’s judicial system.

“As the 2020 election draws closer, President Trump and his personal attorney appear to have increased pressure on the Ukrainian government and its justice system in service of President Trump’s reelection campaign, and the White House and the State Department may be abetting this scheme,” said the letter from the Democratic chairmen.

The State Department has insisted that President Trump’s attorney is “a private citizen” who “does not speak on behalf of the U.S. Government.” Yermak publicly stated that “it was not clear to him whether Mr. Giuliani was representing Mr. Trump in their talks.”

House Democrats voice concerns

Schiff said the prospect of misconduct at the highest levels of government "raises grave concerns that your office, together with the Department of Justice and possibly the White House, are engaged in an unlawful effort to protect the President and conceal from the Committee information related to his possible 'serious or flagrant' misconduct, abuse of power, or violation of law."

Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., tweeted that withholding the complaint could become another part of the House Judiciary Committee's impeachment investigation.

"This is deadly serious," Cicilline said. "If the President does not allow the whistleblower complaint against him to be turned over to Congress, we will add it to the Articles of Impeachment."

Trump said the complaint was partisan, although he later said he didn’t know who made it.

"It’s a partisan whistleblower," Trump said.

Trump's response

Trump has said Biden should be investigated, but when speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Friday, Trump refused to describe his July call with the Ukrainian president and he dismissed the whistleblower complaint as a partisan attack.

"Somebody ought to look into Joe Biden's statement, because it was disgraceful, where he talked about billions of dollars that he's not giving to a certain country unless a certain prosecutor is taken off the case," Trump said. "It's a disgrace."

Trump has denied any impropriety in the call.

"I've had conversations with many leaders. They're always appropriate," Trump said last week. "It's just another political hack job."

Biden's response

Biden lashed out Sept. 20 at Trump's effort to push Ukraine to investigate him.

"Not one single credible outlet has given credibility to these assertions. Not one single one," Biden said during a campaign stop in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.. "So I have no comment other than the president should start to be president.”

Biden then put out a statement late that evening.

"If these reports are true, then there is truly no bottom to President Trump’s willingness to abuse his power and abase our country," the statement said. "This behavior is particularly abhorrent because it exploits the foreign policy of our country and undermines our national security for political purposes. It means that he used the power and resources of the United States to pressure a sovereign nation — a partner that is still under direct assault from Russia — pushing Ukraine to subvert the rule of law in the express hope of extracting a political favor."

Biden said Sept. 21 he has never spoken to his son about his business dealings overseas.

"Here’s what I know," he said. "Trump should be investigated."

More about President Donald Trump's clashes with Congress:

Impeach Trump? House Democrats face delicate choice as lawmakers, but not public, push for action

'Slow-motion constitutional car crash': Trump, Congress battle over investigations with no end in sight

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