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Ukraine meltdown: 'They tried to f--k me'
All the same, Bolton's book devotes substantial consideration to Ukraine, and the president's dealings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that led to his impeachment.
On March 25, 2019, Trump called Bolton to the Oval Office, but Bolton says he found the president seated in a small dining room alongside personal attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Jay Sekulow. Giuliani was "the source of the stories about [then-U.S. Ukraine ambassador Marie] Yovanovitch," whom Giuliani said was "being protected" by George Kent, another State Department official. Trump ordered Yovanovitch fired at the meeting, the book states.
Speaking to Bolton, Pompeo "protested that Giuliani's allegations simply weren't true and said he would call Trump," who had complained that the diplomat was "bad-mouthing us," according to the memoir.
On April 23, Trump and then-chief of staff Mick Mulvaney were in the Oval Office on the phone with Giuliani. Yovanovitch, Giuliani was telling Trump, "had spoken to President-Elect Zelensky to tell him Trump himself wanted certain investigations by Ukrainian prosecutors stopped."
Bolton writes that Giuliani offered "no evidence" on the call for the allegations, which included that Yovanovitch was "protecting Hillary Clinton" because her campaign could be under investigation in Ukraine -- "and there was some connection with Joe Biden's son Hunter in there as well."
Trump said he couldn't believe Pompeo hadn't fired the diplomat yet, and reiterated that Zelensky should know Yovanovitch didn't speak for the administration, according to the book.
By May 22, after addressing the Coast Guard Academy's graduation ceremony in Connecticut, Trump made clear he had had enough, Bolton writes, citing Bolton deputy Charles Kupperman.
"I don't want to have any f---ing thing to do with Ukraine," Trump reportedly said. "They f---ing attacked me. I can't understand why. Ask [lawyer] Joe diGenova, he knows all about it. They tried to f--k me. They're corrupt. I'm not f---ing with them."
Trump's remarks, Bolton says, concerned what Trump saw as the Clinton campaign's efforts, "aided by Hunter Biden, to harm Trump in 2016 and 2020." When [U.S. diplomat Kurt] Volker tried to say something, Trump responded, "I don't give a sh--." When another official interjected that "we couldn't allow a failed state, presumably a Ukraine where effective government had broken down," Trump replied, "Talk to Rudy and Joe. ... I want the f--king DNC server."
Bolton writes: "I was stunned at the simplemindedness of pressing for a face-to-face Trump-Zelensky meeting where the 'Giuliani issues' could be resolved, an approach it appeared Mulvaney shared from his frequent meetings with [Gordon] Sondland. I told [NSC official] Fiona Hill to take the whole matter to the White House Counsel's office; she quoted me accurately as saying, 'I am not part of whatever drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up.' I thought the whole affair was bad policy, questionable legally, and unacceptable as presidential behavior. Was it a factor in my later resignation? Yes, but as one of many 'straws' that contributed to my departure."
Hill, a former top White House expert on Russia, testified at Trump's impeachment proceedings that Bolton distanced himself from the effort to leverage investigations from Ukrainians in exchange for a White House meeting -- and warned that Giuliani was a "hand grenade" who was "going to blow up everyone," according to transcripts.
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Posted by Erin Burnett to Trang Ánh Nam at June 18, 2020 at 7:03 PM
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