In a new exclusive audio, CNN got the goods on the godfather Donald Trump who told Zelensky, “I would like you to do us a favor” and investigate our conspiracy theories. His bagman Rudy Giuliani went to the Ukraine and tried to manipulate its government into a fake investigation of these wild theories. The request was meant to discredit then-candidate President Joe Biden. Now, there is deadly proof.
In this audio, Giuliani told Andriy Yermak, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to do this for Donald Trump, or the very significant American military aid to his country would dry up.
There were two fake claims Trump wanted from the Ukrainians. The first was Biden’s corruption. The second was for Ukraine to take the heat for meddling in the 2016 election [versus Russia] with the goal of hurting Trump. Both were untrue. Giuliani said in the call:
‘All we need from the President [Zelensky] is to say, I’m gonna put an honest prosecutor in charge, he’s gonna investigate and dig up the evidence, that presently exists and is there any other evidence about involvement of the 2016 election, and then the Biden thing has to be run out,” Giuliani said, according to the audio. “… Somebody in Ukraine’s gotta take that seriously.’
Giuliani said doing this would improve the US-Ukraine relationship and would even give Zelensky a one-on-one meeting with ex-POTUS. That was something the Ukrainian president seriously wanted, and Trump knew it:
‘That would clear the air really well. And I think it would make it possible for me to come and make it possible, I think, for me to talk to the President (Trump) to see what I can do about making sure that whatever misunderstandings are put aside … I kinda think that this could be a good thing for having a much better relationship.’
In the released call, Volker warned Giuliani that these conspiracy theories from corrupt Ukrainian officials feeding out of Russian President Vladimir’s hand were “simply not credible:”
‘I got information from a reliable investigator, international investigator, that there was a certain amount of activity in Ukraine during the 2016 election.’
After that, the former Southern District of New York’s (SDNY) main attorney wanted proof that US embassy officials tried to “produce dirt on then-candidate Trump and Paul Manafort,” which was also false.
Then, Giuliani referred to the billionaire who supports Democratic policies. The GOP conspiracy theories eat their lunch on him:
‘Another one was involved with (George) Soros … Soros apparently is behind a lot of this.’
Giuliani also wanted the Ukrainian president to claim the previous president Petro Poroshenko knew Biden acted “corruptly.” The then-vice president fired a Ukrainian prosecutor for corruption. The former New York mayor said:
‘To me, as a lawyer, it sounds like a bribe. A bribe is offering something of value in exchange for official action. So, he offered Poroshenko a $1.2 billion loan guarantee, critical to Poroshenko’s success as president, in exchange for getting rid of a prosecutor general.’
Former Zelensky adviser Igor Novikov listened in on the call. He noted that Giuliani severely threatened the Ukraine’s “already-fragile national security situation:”
‘We’re a country fighting an active war with Russia for many years. So, anything to do with swapping favors within our bilateral relationship in exchange for trying to get us involved in US domestic politics is just wrong, on many levels, morally, ethically and probably even legally.’
Yermak said:
‘I’m absolutely sure that as soon as the dates of the President Zelensky’s upcoming visit to United States will be confirmed, I am ready to be personally assume control of the preparation/ And of course, I will be ready to come, and we can (be) personally sitting (down), and in detail discuss all the questions, all this investigation which you listed in our conversation.’
After that, Yermak referred to the asks by Giuliani, US diplomat Kurt Volker, and Zelensky regarding the call with Trump, which was to come:
‘I’m sure that Zelensky will say that.’
Volker replied simply:
‘Good.’
Then, Giuliani said:
‘Believe me, Andriy, that would be good for all of us. That would move it along very fast. And I can assure you that, as far as I’m concerned, I think they should talk this week.’
Volker responded:
‘I will press that as well.’
The face-to-face meeting that Zelensky had wanted so much never happened.
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