— Philip Rucker, Carol LeonnigHe didn’t have to; a U.S. diplomat had warned Zelensky’s government that Trump wanted something before releasing the funds. “I would like you to do us a favor though,” Trump added. He asked Zelensky to work with Rudy Giuliani as well as Attorney General Bill Barr to investigate the Bidens and look into an unproven conspiracy theory—which Trump embraced—that his perceived enemies had fabricated evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 election. “I would like you to get to the bottom of it,” Trump said.
Replicated under Fair Use from A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America by Philip Rucker, Carol Leonnig.