The Trump-Zelensky Phone Call: 6 Key Moments

Mr. Giuliani said in a previously unpublished portion of an interview with The New York Times in April that he was in touch with people “who said that the Ukrainians were the ones who did the hacking,” then participated in an effort to blame the Russian government and link it to the Trump campaign.

The special counsel’s report, which Mr. Trump disparages here, made clear that Russian military officers hacked the D.N.C. mail server. There is no evidence that the Ukrainians were involved. But in May, Attorney General William P. Barr launched his own investigation into the Russia investigation and its origins.

The President: “Germany does almost nothing for you. All they do is talk and I think it’s something that you should really ask them about. When I was speaking to Angela Merkel she talks Ukraine, but she doesn’t do anything. A lot of European countries are the same way so I think it’s something you want to look at but the United States has been very good to Ukraine.”

The geopolitical fate of Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, has been up for grabs. Mr. Zelensky has expressed interest in having his country join NATO, and many in Ukraine want their future to be oriented toward Western Europe. But Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, has been trying to bring it back into Moscow’s orbit.

In recent years, Russia has annexed Crimea and invaded Ukraine’s eastern territory, where many Ukrainian citizens are ethnically Russian and where pro-Russian separatists are strong. In this portion of the phone call, Mr. Trump suggests Ukraine cannot count on Europe and casts aspersions on German assistance.

The President: “Mr. Giuliani is a highly respected man. He was the mayor of New York City, a great mayor, and I would like him to call you. 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 former ambassador from the United the woman, was bad news and the people she was dealing with in the Ukraine were bad news I just want to let you know that.”

Here the president is pushing Mr. Zelensky to deal directly with Mr. Giuliani, his personal lawyer and close ally, while disparaging the United States’ Senate-confirmed ambassador.

Mr. Giuliani has repeatedly pushed conspiracy theories about the Bidens and encouraged the Ukrainian government to ramp up investigations into them. He told The New York Times in May that he was doing so “because that information will be very, very helpful to my client, and may turn out to be helpful to my government.”

At the time of this call, Mr. Giuliani had recently spoken on the phone with a top representative of the new Ukrainian president, and would soon meet him in person in Madrid. Mr. Giuliani has said he was acting on his own as a private citizen, but with the knowledge and assistance of the State Department.

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