Report: Trump involved Pence in Ukraine pressure campaign

Mike Pence.
(Image credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

On multiple occasions, President Trump involved Vice President Mike Pence in his attempts to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into launching an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, U.S. officials told The Washington Post.

Trump brought up the Bidens several times during his July 25 phone call with Zelensky, and officials said Keith Kellogg, Pence's national security adviser, was listening in on the conversation. In May, Trump ordered Pence not to attend Zelensky's inauguration, and in early September, he had Pence inform Zelensky that U.S. aid "was still being withheld while demanding more aggressive action on corruption," the Post reports. The Ukrainians, the Post says, "probably understood action on corruption to include the investigation" of the Bidens.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.