‘Can’t Have Quid Pro Quo With No Quo’
The New York Times unwittingly confirmed the veracity of the GOP argument that there could be no quid pro quo because Ukraine did not know the United States had delayed the release of aid for the Eastern European country at the time of the July 25 call.
In an article on Wednesday, the newspaper actually tried to discredit the argument but ended up confirming it instead.
House Democrats pursuing the impeachment inquiry are trying to determine if President Donald Trump abused his power by allegedly coercing Ukraine during the July 25 call to investigate corruption allegations against Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, in exchange for aid.
Echoing the testimony of impeachment inquiry witnesses, the Times acknowledged Wednesday that Ukraine was not aware the United States was withholding aid until days after the July 25 call, in August.
In other words, Trump did not threaten to withhold aid during the infamous conversation between him and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky on July 25.
Zelensky himself has acknowledged that “there was no blackmail” during the call, citing as evidence that he “had no idea the military aid was held up” at the time of his July 25 phone conversation with Trump, the Times conceded.
The Times article is just the latest sign that Democrats and their liberal mainstream media backers are trying to move beyond the July 25 call that triggered the impeachment.
On Wednesday, the newspaper reported:
To Democrats who say that President Trump’s decision to freeze $391 million in military aid was intended to bully Ukraine’s leader into carrying out investigations for Mr. Trump’s political benefit, the president and his allies have had a simple response: There was no quid pro quo because the Ukrainians did not know assistance had been blocked.
…
Word of the aid freeze had gotten to high-level Ukrainian officials by the first week in August, according to interviews and documents obtained by The New York Times. … The communications did not explicitly link the assistance freeze to the push by Mr. Trump and [his private lawyer Rudy] Giuliani for the investigations [into the Bidens].
Impeachment probe evidence provided by former U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker in the form of texts also suggests the Ukrainians did not find out the U.S. had frozen the security assistance until weeks after the call, through an August 28 Politico article based on leaked information.