THREAD: Through the Ukraine scandal, there's been a persistent question about the rush to get Zelensky to playball and whether similar efforts occurred before Zelensky took office. @JoshKovensky unearthed new evidence that confirms just that. talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/poro…
2/ As has been long suspected, the Trump Team thought they had a deal with Zelensky's predecessor Petro Poroshenko. Zelensky's election upset the plan and upended months of work by Giuliani, Trump and Co. In fact, a month before the Ukraine election in March 2019, Giuliani's ...
3/ henchman Parnas had arranged an interview between Poroshenko and John Solomon in which Poroshenko was going to announce investigations into the Bidens much as was demanded later from Zelensky. In exchange, Poroshenko wld get a White House state visit and a strong ...
4/ endorsement from President Trump which Poroshenko hoped would salvage his flagging reelection campaign. A time and date were set. Solomon prepared a list of questions that Poroshenko would answer. But at the last minute Poroshenko pulled out, apparently finding the level ...
5/ of intervention in the US election more than they felt they could provide. As Poroshenko's ally Lutsenko put it in a text to Parnas days later, "I'm ready to screw your competitor [Biden], but you just want more." Poroshenko went down to a landslide defeat a month later.
6/ The texts, question lists, and interviews Kovensky uncovered makes it clear the pressure campaign began under the previous President and seemingly bore fruit, including the decision to cease cooperation with the Mueller investigation and end investigations into Paul Manafort.
