This archive report was first published on 4 October 2019.
October 4, 2019, marked a significant moment in the unfolding Ukraine scandal, as it revealed new evidence of how President Trump's fixation with Ukraine began driving senior diplomats to bend American foreign policy to the president's political agenda.
According to three people briefed on the effort, two of President Trump's top envoys to Ukraine, Gordon D. Sondland and Kurt D. Volker, drafted a statement for the country's new president in August 2019 that would have committed Ukraine to pursuing investigations sought by Mr. Trump into his political rivals.
The statement, which was drafted with the awareness of a top aide to the Ukrainian president and Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Trump's personal lawyer, would have committed Ukraine to investigating the energy company Burisma, which had employed Hunter Biden, the younger son of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
It would have also called for the Ukrainian government to look into what Mr. Trump and his allies believe was interference by Ukrainians in the 2016 election in the United States to benefit Hillary Clinton.
Mr. Volker spent Thursday on Capitol Hill being questioned by House investigators as Democrats pursued their impeachment inquiry into Mr. Trump's actions.
He disclosed a set of texts in September in which William B. Taylor Jr., the top American diplomat in Ukraine, alluded to Mr. Trump's decision earlier in the summer to freeze a military aid package to the country.
Mr. Sondland texted back that there was no quid pro quo, adding, 'I suggest we stop the back and forth by text.'
