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What was known about Ukraine scandal by 28 October 2019?
Summary
A look back at the testimony and court appearance that had shaped the U.S. impeachment inquiry in the days before that date.
What did the public already know about the Trump–Ukraine scandal on 28 October 2019? Two developments from the preceding week stood out: testimony in Congress and a court appearance in New York City.
On 22 October 2019, William B. Taylor Jr., the acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, testified before Congress as part of the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump. He said he had been told that the U.S. President would withhold military aid to Ukraine until the country publicly declared that investigations would be launched. These concerned Burisma Holdings, a company that had hired Hunter Biden, son of former Vice President Joe Biden, and Ukraine's alleged involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. According to the testimony, the purpose was to help Trump's reelection chances.
On 23 October 2019, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman pleaded not guilty at a hearing in New York City. They were associates of Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal lawyer, who had aided him in a search in Ukraine for damaging information on the President's political opponents. Prosecutors charged that the two had funnelled $350,000 in illegal donations to a pro-Trump political committee and another $20,000 to former Republican Congressman Pete Sessions, while acting on behalf of at least one Ukrainian government official.
The wider picture
The scandal arose from Trump's attempts to press Ukraine to investigate his political rival Biden, potentially damaging Biden's campaign for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Contacts between the White House and the Ukrainian government culminated in a phone call between Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on 25 July 2019. Trump had also blocked payment of a congressionally mandated $400 million military aid package.
