The roots of the current Ukraine scandal can be traced back to the start of Trump’s presidency

Trump insists he is innocent of wrongdoing, but how the president set up his administration has helped lead to the current scandal, writes Chris Stevenson

Trump with his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani (Peter Foley/EPA)

Donald Trump promised a presidency unlike any other and a decent argument to be made that he has offered just that – but he is now reaping the dubious rewards of his freewheeling nature.

Painting himself as being outside the Washington establishment, Trump’s administration was set up in that manner: unguarded and scattergun conversations with world leaders; infighting among White House factions that left leaks a distinct possibility; and a president that could change policy at the drop of a hat.

The Ukraine allegations – almost three years into Trump’s presidency and following at least one other major invention into his conduct, the Mueller inquiry – are a direct result of that early set-up, and a refusal to follow established White House norms.

One of the main points that the Democrat-led impeachment investigation is focusing on, after it was raised by a whistleblower complaint, is where the transcript of a call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky – in which Trump mentioned help with investigating Joe Biden and his son – was allegedly moved to. It is said to have been shifted to a separate system meant for high-risk security information, despite the call allegedly not including any information that merited such a move.

The root of such a move can be traced back to calls with the leaders of Mexico and Australia early in the Trump presidency, according to reports in the Wall Street Journal over the weekend. Both calls in early 2017 were politically damaging to the president, including rubbishing a refugee agreement former president Barack Obama had set up with Australia and Trump calling out “bad hombres” during the call with Mexico.

According to the WSJ report, the Trump administration had used fairly broad distribution lists – much broader than the Obama administration – when it came to sending the contents of Trump’s calls to government departments, but after those early remarks leaked a process was allegedly started to restrict access to such records. In that case it is easy to see how such action could have led to how the Ukraine call was handled.

Such leaks is also said to have fed into Trump’s constant claims that a “deep state” of government officials were seeking to damage his damage from the off. In such a climate the president has repeatedly out his trust in a number of people outside the government and has allowed them to interact with state apparatus.

Trump’s personal lawyer, the former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, is the latest to wield that access. He is mentioned in the call with Zelensky and for months has been seeking to support Trump’s unproven theory that there is something rotten at the heart of the Democrats – and particularly Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden.

When that outside influence rebounds – as it has done this time with Giuliani becoming the current centre of the impeachment investigation – there is fallout. Trump’s envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker is said to have offered his resignation to secretary of state Mike Pompeo after the whistleblower complaint alleged that Volker had helped connect Giuliani to Ukrainian officials.

Trump and Giuliani rage about the “witch hunt” that is being perpetrated against them – insisting they have done nothing wrong – but the spark that created the current scandal can be traced back right to the start of the 45th president’s beginnings in the White House.