White House National Security Aide Warned in May That Giuliani's Demands Had Rattled Zelensky
October 29th 2019
Fiona HIll 2017 (Kuhlmann /MSC)
By Kerry Eleveld
A former top White House national security aide learned in mid-May that the investigatory demands of Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and one of his top ambassadors were already roiling the newly elected Ukrainian leader and his staff, according to NBC News.
Fiona Hill, then a National Security Council adviser specializing in European and Russian affairs, was informed that Giuliani, along with his now-indicted sidekicks, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were pushing the incoming administration of President-elect Volodymyr Zelensky to both open a probe on the Bidens and upend the leadership team of the state-owned oil and gas giant Naftogaz. Hill relayed the information to Trump's then-national security adviser, John Bolton. In the meantime, Hill learned that Trump donor-turned-admbassador Gordon Sondland was offering his own pipeline of unsolicited advice to Zelensky on key appointments to his nascent administration.
At the time of the revelations, Zelensky was still about a week away from being sworn in, and former Vice President Joe Biden had made his campaign for the presidency in 2020 official only weeks earlier. Apparently, Trump and Giuliani dispensed with the diplomatic pleasantries and got right down to business.
Former U.S. diplomat Amos Hochstein relayed the information to Hill after returning from a meeting with Zelensky in Ukraine in which they discussed how the incoming leader could insulate the country from getting enmeshed in U.S. politics.
News of Hill's mid-May revelation backs up earlier reporting from the Associated Press in Ukraine that Zelensky and his aides spent the bulk of a meeting on May 7 trying to figure out how to navigate the demands of Trump and Giuliani to open a probe into Trump’s political rival Biden.
The early timing of the National Security Council being made aware of the Trump-Giuliani pressure campaign makes the potential testimony of Bolton in the impeachment inquiry even more interesting. But one defense of Trump that's been completely obliterated is the claim by his allies that no quid pro quo took place because Ukraine never knew about Trump's demands. Instead, the incoming Ukrainian leaders were clearly made aware of Tump's desires early and often, and their dismay with the Trump-Giuliani shadow campaign was reported back to the National Security Council through normal channels.
Posted with permission