Trump to Meet Ukraine’s Leader at UN as Congress Probes Talks

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump is planning about a dozen one-on-one meetings with foreign leaders next week at the United Nations General Assembly, but none may be more anticipated than his Wednesday session with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Interest in those talks stems from a whistleblower complaint filed by a U.S. intelligence official after Trump and Zelensky spoke by phone earlier this year. On the call, Trump pressed Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Democratic lawmakers have accused the White House of stonewalling their requests for more information about concerns raised in the complaint, which the Washington Post reported involved an unnamed official raising questions about the president’s dealings with Ukraine.

Trump on Friday said he had done nothing inappropriate in his phone calls with foreign leaders, and dismissed the whistle-blower complaint -- which he said he hadn’t seen -- as “highly partisan.” But the president refused to answer questions about whether he had encouraged Zelensky to investigate Biden, whose son Hunter served on the board of directors of a Ukrainian energy firm.

Democratic lawmakers said the president’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, pressured Ukraine to investigate Biden and his son over their past dealings with the country and suggested that the administration threatened to withhold security assistance to the country.

Trump pressured Ukraine’s president eight times in a July phone call to work with Giuliani on a probe into Biden’s son, but the president didn’t explicitly tie that to the provision of U.S. aid, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter that it didn’t name.

Giuliani said on CNN on Thursday he urged the Ukrainian government to investigate corruption “and I’m proud of it.” He said he didn’t know whether Trump had talked to Ukraine’s president about the issue but even if so “it doesn’t mean a damn” that a president would inquire about evidence of corruption.

‘I Wouldn’t Care’

“I don’t know if he did, and I wouldn’t care if he did,” Giuliani said. “He had every right to do it if he was the president of the United States.”

Ukraine’s prosecutor general said in May that he had no evidence of wrongdoing by Joe Biden or Hunter Biden.

The mystery surrounding the phone call means Wednesday’s meeting at the United Nations will be certain to attract global attention, and renew focus on a controversy that has dominated headlines in Washington.

Trump plans to use the meeting to congratulate Zelensky for anti-corruption and reform efforts, according to a senior administration official who requested anonymity to preview the president’s trip. That focus could provide Trump another opportunity to pitch an investigation into Biden, who is leading the Democratic primary according to public opinion polls.

Religious Freedom

Trump will also seek to discuss trade opportunities, opportunities for energy cooperation, and plans to voice concerns about what he sees as predatory Chinese economic activity in Ukraine, the official said.

The president’s UN schedule includes a number of additional high-profile meetings with world leaders. On Monday, the president will host a forum on religious freedom and meet with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, Polish President Andrzej Duda, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Later in the day, Trump plans to meet with Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

On Tuesday, the president will address the UN General Assembly, in a speech officials say will highlight American values in contrast to authoritarian regimes like Iran. The president is expected to express his concern with what the White House has described as escalating violence from Iran -- including the attack earlier this month on Saudi oil facilities -- during a number of his meetings, a second administration official said.

Boris Johnson

Later on Tuesday, Trump will meet with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is hoping the U.S. president can provide a political boost after a series of votes in the U.K. Parliament scuttled his initial plans for negotiating a quick exit from the European Union. The U.S. president will also meet with Iraqi President Barham Salih and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi later that evening.

It will be the president’s second event with Modi in less than a week, with the two leaders expected to attend a “Howdy, Modi” rally in Texas on Sunday.

In addition to Trump’s meeting on Wednesday with Zelensky, his schedule includes sit-downs with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele. The Trump administration on Friday announced a deal to send asylum seekers on the southern border to El Salvador, in the latest attempt to prevent migrants from entering the U.S. The U.S. also plans to convene a meeting with leaders from across the Western Hemisphere to discuss the political crisis in Venezuela.

Trump will conclude his United Nations trip with a press conference on Wednesday afternoon.

To contact the reporter on this story: Justin Sink in Washington at jsink1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Justin Blum, Laurie Asséo

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