Letter-writer Kathleen Bollinger (“Biden’s actions in Ukraine should be examined,” Dec. 26, TribLIVE) seems to be unaware of facts already established.
President Trump is running an ad in which Joe Biden brags that he called for the firing of Viktor Shokin in exchange for the United States releasing $1 billion to Ukraine. The Obama administration, our allies and the International Monetary Fund all called for Shokin’s ouster before they released aid to Ukraine. This was not because Shokin was too aggressive at fighting corruption, but because he was not aggressive at all. This was our foreign policy, and everyone in Congress and the State Department was aware of it.
The phone call that led to Trump’s impeachment appears to have been purely for Trump’s political gain, not for fighting corruption. A new Ukrainian president had just been elected on an anti-corruption platform. Our State Department and intelligence community had confirmed that Ukraine had cleaned up its act and there was no reason for money to be withheld.
In 2019, Congress, the director of national intelligence and State Department diplomats were never in the loop for withholding money from Ukraine because Rudy Giuliani and Trump were diverging from diplomatic channels and engaging in smearing a political opponent. The president’s men were implicated during the impeachment hearings by a political appointee of Trump. The president’s men have been told not to testify under oath, and documents have been denied. If Trump has exculpatory evidence, he should provide it. If he is innocent, he should encourage everyone surrounding him to testify.
Renalda Arndt
South Huntington