2019 Trump–Ukraine scandal
| Trump–Ukraine scandal |
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| Conspiracy theories |
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Business and personal 45th and 47th President of the United States Incumbent Tenure
Impeachments Legal proceedings |
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Tenure Elections |
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The Trump–Ukraine scandal was a political scandal that arose primarily from the discovery of U.S. president Donald Trump's attempts to coerce Ukraine into investigating his political rival Joe Biden and thus potentially damage Biden's campaign for the 2020 Democratic Party presidential nomination. Trump enlisted surrogates in and outside his administration, including personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr, to pressure Ukraine and other governments to cooperate in supporting and legitimizing the Biden–Ukraine conspiracy theory and other conspiracy theories concerning U.S. politics. Trump blocked payment of a congressionally-mandated $400 million military aid package, in an attempt to obtain quid pro quo cooperation from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Contacts were established between the White House and government of Ukraine, culminating in a call between Trump and Zelenskyy on July 25, 2019.
Trump released the aid after becoming aware of a whistleblower complaint made in August 2019, before the complaint was known by Congress or the public. The scandal reached public attention in mid-September 2019. The complaint raised concerns about Trump using powers to solicit foreign electoral intervention in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. The White House corroborated allegations raised by the whistleblower. A transcript of the Trump–Zelenskyy call confirmed Trump requested investigations into Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, as well as a conspiracy theory involving a Democratic National Committee server, while urging Zelenskyy to work with Giuliani and Barr on this.
Former acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said one reason why Trump withheld aid to Ukraine was Ukrainian "corruption related to the DNC server", referring to a debunked theory that Ukrainians framed Russia for hacking into the DNC system. Trump has publicly urged Ukraine and China to investigate the Bidens. The Trump administration's top diplomat to Ukraine, Bill Taylor, testified he was told aid to Ukraine and a Trump–Zelenskyy White House meeting were conditional on Zelenskyy announcing investigations into the Bidens and alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections. U.S. ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland testified he worked with Giuliani at Trump's "express direction" to arrange a quid pro quo with the Ukraine government.
On September 24, 2019, the House of Representatives began a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump. On October 31, 2019, the House of Representatives voted to approve guidelines for the next phase of impeachment. Trump was impeached on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, but was acquitted by the Senate.
On December 3, 2019, as part of the inquiry, the House Intelligence Committee published a report detailing that "President Trump, personally and acting through agents within and outside of the U.S. government, solicited the interference of a foreign government, Ukraine, to benefit his reelection. ...President Trump conditioned official acts on a public announcement by the new Ukrainian president...of politically-motivated investigations, including one into Joe Biden, one of Trump's domestic political opponents. In pressuring President Zelenskyy to carry out his demand, President Trump withheld a White House meeting desperately sought by the Ukrainian president, and critical U.S. military assistance to fight Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine.": 8 In January 2020, the Government Accountability Office, a non-partisan watchdog, concluded the White House broke federal law by withholding Congress-approved military aid to Ukraine.
The legal resolution of the Ukraine affair involving former U.S. President Donald Trump concluded with his impeachment by the House of Representatives in December 2019 and subsequent acquittal by the Senate in February 2020. The House, led by Democrats, charged Trump with two articles of impeachment: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The abuse of power charge stemmed from allegations that Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden by withholding $391 million in military aid approved by Congress, while the obstruction charge accused him of systematically blocking congressional subpoenas and witness testimony during the inquiry. The House voted largely along party lines to impeach Trump, marking the third presidential impeachment in U.S. history. The Senate trial, controlled by Republicans, proceeded without allowing new witnesses or evidence, despite public revelations from figures like former national security advisor John Bolton. On February 5, 2020, the Senate acquitted Trump on both charges, with only one Republican senator, Mitt Romney, joining Democrats in voting to convict on the abuse of power charge. Legally, the acquittal meant Trump faced no immediate consequences, as impeachment is a political process rather than a criminal one. The Department of Justice under his administration declined to pursue charges, and after leaving office, Trump was not directly prosecuted for actions tied to the Ukraine affair, though he later faced unrelated criminal investigations. The affair deepened partisan divisions, highlighted the challenges of holding a president accountable when their party controls Congress, and fueled debates about executive power and immunity. While Trump’s acquittal spared him legal penalties, the episode remains a significant case study in the limits of constitutional checks on presidential authority, particularly in an era of intense political polarization.