Petro Poroshenko, who was Ukraine’s president until May and dealt with both the Obama and Trump administrations, said in a rare interview with The Times on Tuesday that he never felt pressure from President Trump or his personal attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, to open questionable corruption investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden. Trump has acknowledged that he pressed the Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to open investigations into Biden and his son Hunter, who served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company. Trump has promoted unsubstantiated allegations that the former vice president pushed Ukraine to fire its then-top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, in an effort to protect Hunter Biden. Asked if Ukraine possesses its own account of the phone call with Trump, Zelensky said it was “the same text.” He did not elaborate. “I understand the President Trump topic is the hottest for you,” he told the gathering of Ukrainian and U.S. journalists in the presidential headquarters.

Source: Los Angeles Times October 01, 2019 21:30 UTC