The Crowdstrike conspiracy theory had long since been debunked, and investigating it is not an appropriate foreign policy issue. Further, the secretive back-channel approach to the investigation gives the appearance of corrupt intent.
– rob rünt
Republicans argue that it was legitimate for Trump to want Ukraine to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden. Hunter Biden potentially made millions working for Burisma, despite having little obvious relevant experience in the energy industry. His father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, was overseeing the U.S. relationship with Ukraine. At best, this has a strong appearance of conflict of interest.
However, President Trump’s approach – having his private attorney, Rudy Giuliani, pushing for the investigations behind the scenes, telling Zelensky to “talk to Rudy,” keeping the career diplomats in the dark, hiding the call transcript on a classified server – all seem to indicate an intent that was itself corrupt. And while the family of a political opponent should not be immune to investigation, such an investigation would need to be conducted in a way that rigorously avoids conflict of interest. That did not happen in Trump’s request to investigate the Biden’s.
“It is improper for the President of the United States to demand a foreign government investigate a US citizen and political opponent. It was also clear that if Ukraine pursued an investigation into the 2016 election, the Bidens and Burisma, it would be interpreted as a partisan play.”
U.S. Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman
National Security Counsel Ukraine Expert, Director for European Affairs
(11/19/19)
“I participated in the July 10th meeting between National Security Advisor Bolton and then Ukrainian chairman of the National Security and Defense Council, Alex Danylyuk. As I remember, the meeting was essentially over when Ambassador Sondland made a general comment about investigations. I think all of us thought it was inappropriate.”
Kurt Volker
Former US Special Envoy to Ukraine
(11/19/19)
“The specific instruction [from John Bolton] was that I had to go to the lawyers, to John Eisenberg, our senior counsel for the National Security Council, to basically say, ‘You tell Eisenberg Ambassador Bolton told me that I am not part of this, whatever drug deal that Mulvaney and Sondland are cooking up.’”
Fiona Hill
Former White House Adviser, Former Senior Director for European and Russian Affairs
(11/21/19)
– rob rünt
The Week In Trump 