Thread by @moscow_project

.@RepJeffries: "The president used his awesome power to help himself and not the American people. He must be held accountable."

@RepJeffries Trump's defenders have tried to claim his actions were on the level.
They weren't. They were a corrupt quid pro quo.

@RepJeffries "An abuse of power occurs when the president exercises his official power to obtain a corrupt personal benefit while ignoring or injuring the national interests."
Withholding a White House meeting is clearly an exercise of that official power.

@RepJeffries .@RepJeffries notes that, as Trump's extortion scheme with the White House meeting played out, Zelensky was preparing for his first meetings with Putin as Ukraine's president—and that few things would strengthen Putin's hand more than seeing Ukraine humiliated by the U.S.

@RepJeffries Ukraine clearly saw the White House meeting as of the utmost importance. They asked about it in every conversation between Zelensky's inauguration and the July 25 phone call—a clear example of the power dynamic that turned Trump's request for a "favor" into a demand.

@RepJeffries Trump's advisers tried to convince him to schedule a White House meeting with Zelensky.
Instead, knowing how much such a meeting meant, he and Giuliani conspired to use it as a means to extort Ukraine to announce the investigations he wanted.

@RepJeffries But in that timeframe, Trump did find time to meet with another leader, one who is actually as corrupt as he claims to believe Ukraine is, one who was actively at war with Ukraine: Putin.

@RepJeffries That White House meeting has still never happened—even after the July 25 call, even after Trump's scheme was revealed, even after Zelensky made it clear in his first face-to-face meeting with Trump just how important it was.
That means the pressure campaign is still going.

@RepJeffries Trump's official emissaries in Ukraine—starting with Kurt Volker—made it clear to Ukrainian officials by July that Trump would not hold a White House meeting until they announced the investigations he wanted.

@RepJeffries On July 10, the demands became as explicit as possible when Sondland directly told Ukrainian officials that Zelensky needed to announce the investigations Trump wanted before he would get his White House meeting.

@RepJeffries "The July 10 meetings confirmed that the scheme to pressure Ukraine and to opening investigations was not a rogue operation but one blessed by senior administration officials at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. As Ambassador Sondland testified, everyone was in the loop."

@RepJeffries As Sondland testified, everyone was in the loop.
The documents we've seen so far show that Trump's top advisers, both inside and outside the administration, knew exactly what Trump was trying to get from Ukraine.

@RepJeffries Why is Trump trying to make sure no more documents become public?
Because every email and text we've seen only makes it clearer that this was an administration-wide extortion scheme.

@RepJeffries "Now we come to July 25, the morning of the infamous phone call. The culmination of a months-long campaign to engineer a corrupt quid pro quo."
The preparations were entirely about making sure both sides understood and executed the quid pro quo.

@RepJeffries When the call happened, Trump was prepared: He asked for the investigations.
Zelensky was prepared: He asked about the White House meeting.
"'Read the transcript,' President Trump says. We have read the transcript, and it is damning evidence of a corrupt quid pro quo."

@RepJeffries "President Trump's message was delivered to either President Zelensky or his top aides on four different occasions in the month of July...So, before that fateful call on July 25, President Zelensky understood exactly what needed to be done: a quid pro quo."

@RepJeffries The pressure campaign continued throughout August, led by Giuliani—who everybody understood was acting directly on Trump's behalf.

@RepJeffries Text messages throughout August show that Trump's "Three Amigos" were actively involved in drafting the announcement for Zelensky to give—and making sure it specified the investigations Trump wanted.

@RepJeffries On August 8—while he was in communication with a top Zelensky aide—Giuliani was in repeated contact with the White House.
Trump has blocked details of those conversations from coming out—"but we know that Rudolph Giuliani frantically called the White House late into the night."

@RepJeffries Pretty soon, Trump's agents began helping Ukrainian officials draft a statement for Zelensky to give.
They all understood the most important thing: specific references to the two investigations Trump wanted announced.

@RepJeffries And when the first draft of Zelensky's statement came back without those references, Volker and Sondland were very clear that it had to be added for Zelensky to get a White House meeting.
And because Zelensky never gave the statement, he never got the White House meeting.