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Backed by a series of text messages showing that US diplomacy conditioned a meeting of the Ukrainian president with Donald Trump at the opening of a Kiev inquiry into Joe Biden and his son, the Democrats are speeding up their investigation to oust President Trump.
With our Washington correspondent, Anne Corpet
In the United States, the Democrats are continuing their investigation as part of the impeachment process of President Trump. They will hear this Friday in camera the inspector of the intelligence services. Michael Atkinson was the first to alert Congress of a whistleblower complaint about the phone call between the US president and his Ukrainian counterpart.
Thursday evening, after hearing Kurt Volker the former special envoy of the US administration in Ukraine, the elected Democrats revealed new evidence against the administration: text messages exchanged between US diplomats and the Ukrainian authorities. These texts directly evoke the pressures exerted by the American administration on the Ukraine.
These SMS are particularly troubling: the first was sent by Kurt Volker to an adviser to the Ukrainian presidency just before the phone call between the two heads of state .. It reads: " Heard of the White House. If President Zelenskiy convinces Trump that he will investigate, we will find a date for a visit to Washington . "
In another message written on 1 September, Bill Taylor, the US charge d'affaires in Ukraine wonders: " Are we now saying that the military aid to Ukraine and the visit to the White House are conditioned by opening an investigation? ". And a week later, he worries in an SMS sent to the US ambassador for the European Union: " I think it's crazy to condition military aid to a helping hand in an election campaign ." Probably sensing the danger coming, the diplomat answers " C try these exchanges of text messages, call me ".
Texts exchanged between US diplomats also show the involvement of Rudolf Giuliani, the president's personal advocate in the pressure exerted on Ukraine. Finally, according to the New York Times , two of President Trump's key envoys to Ukraine drafted a statement for President Zelenskiy, after the phone call between the two heads of state: this text would have urged Ukraine to continue investigations asked about his political rivals.
These revelations do not seem to shake Donald Trump
The US president sticks to a line of defense: he claims to have acted not to harm his political opponent Joe Biden, but to fight against corruption. "I do not care about politics," he has just said on the lawn of the White House, adding, " but I have the duty, the obligation to fight against corruption ."
Donald Trump is therefore a hero of the fight against malpractices. But to a journalist who asked him if in the context of this new fight, he had already tried to obtain information about someone who would not be a political opponent the president replied: " E uh, I do not know it I'll have to check ... "