Key to Giuliani’s plan, according to the Post, was getting rid of Marie Yovanovitch, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. He targeted her with baseless accusations, including one about her playing a “secret role in exposing Manafort,” and another involving her being part of a conspiracy orchestrated by conservative bogeyman George Soros. Though she retained the respect of the national-security community, Yovanovitch was ousted on May 9. (She declined to comment to the Post.) Days later, Giuliani reportedly appeared determined to grab an unsanctioned role for himself, announcing that he would be traveling to Ukraine “to push for investigations” that would “be very, very helpful to my client, and may turn out to be helpful to my government.” The trip was ultimately canceled after a backlash, but the ex-mayor later met with a senior aide to Zelensky in Madrid, where he is said to have pressed the issue of Ukraine probing Biden.

Over the summer, as rumors swirled that hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Ukraine was being “mysteriously impeded,” concern among officials reportedly began to intensify. While the question of leverage was never openly discussed, participants in NSC meetings reportedly began to believe the president was “withholding the aid until [Ukraine] gave him something on Biden or Manafort.” Per the Post, it was at this point that some officials began to worry about a call between Trump and Zelensky, knowing that it would be difficult for Trump—who has no impulse control or sense of right and wrong, and loves soliciting foreign election meddling—to restrain himself from urging Ukraine to probe Biden.

Which, of course, is exactly what happened. And now, thanks to the release of an official rough readout of the July 25 call, we know the lengths to which Trump not only pressured Ukraine on Biden, tying the ask to military aid (Zelensky: “I would also like to thank you for your great support in the area of defense” Trump: “I would like you to do us a favor”), but tried to get the country to follow the baseless accusations of Giuliani. Sayeth Trump:

Mr. Giuliani is a highly respected man. He was the mayor of New York City, a great mayor, and I would like him to call you. I will ask him to call you along with the Attorney General. Rudy very much knows what’s happening and he is a very capable guy. If you could speak to him that would be great. The former ambassador from the United States, the woman, was bad news and the people she was dealing with in the Ukraine were bad news so I just want to let you know that. The other thing, there’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it...it sounds horrible to me.

Meanwhile, last night on Fox News, Giuliani insisted that anyone suggesting any sort of wrongdoing on his part, or the part of the president, is an idiot who needs to shut his or her trap:

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