Trump, Ukraine And The Path To The Impeachment Inquiry: A Timeline
When President Trump spoke to Volodymyr Zelenskiy on July 25th, Trump held the keys to two things the new Ukranian president needed in order to demonstrate he had full U.S. backing to push back on Russian aggression: military assistance and an Oval Office meeting. Both would send a necessary signal that the U.S.-Ukraine alliance was strong.
But the alliance was on shaky ground. In the months leading up to the call, Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani pressed Ukrainian officials to launch investigations that stood to benefit the president politically. Trump was also withholding the White House meeting Zelenskiy coveted, in addition to military aid that was already approved by Congress.
What started as a mission to undermine former special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation had morphed into an effort to sully a potential political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden. Now, Trump faces the greatest threat to his presidency — the risk of impeachment.
Here's how we got there.
Trump's Early Focus On Ukraine
April 21, 2017: Three months after his inauguration, President Trump sits for an interview with the Associated Press and floats a debunked conspiracy theory about Ukrainian involvement in hacks of the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee during the election.
"They get hacked, and the FBI goes to see them, and they won't let the FBI see their server," Trump says about the attack on the DNC, which U.S. intelligence has traced to Russian state actors. "... They brought in another company that I hear is Ukrainian-based."
Trump is talking about CrowdStrike, the California cybersecurity firm that helped investigate the DNC attack — even providing federal investigators with evidence.
