Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky may have said publicly that he never felt pressured by Donald Trump to investigate the Bidens, but privately he was fretting over it and U.S. officials learned of his anxiety early on. New reporting from the Associated Press adds a another element to the outlet's previous revelation that Zelensky and his top aides met in early May to strategize about how to handle Trump's push. Now the AP writes that U.S. diplomats learned of that meeting around the time it took place. Then-Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch and other U.S. embassy staff received a briefing on the session from an American who attended it. Amos Hochstein, who sits on the board of Ukraine's state-owned gas company Naftogaz, informed Yovanovitch of the meeting shortly after it took place. He separately told two U.S. Embassy officials, Suriya Jayanti and Joseph Pennington, of Zelensky's unease surrounding inserting Ukraine in a matter that might affect the 2020 U.S. elections. Pennington and Jayanti—who in a separate matter reportedly overheard a key cell conversation between Ambassador Gordon Sondland and Trump—both took notes on the briefing from Hockstein.
The contemporaneous notes taken by Jayanti and Pennington were also viewed by other officials within the State Department. Zelensky apparently attempted to disguise the focus of the May 7 meeting where he sought advice on Trump's ask by billing it as a strategy session on energy concerns.
The notes by U.S. officials completely blunt the argument by Trump and his Republican allies that Zelensky didn't feel pressured to open the investigations into the Bidens. In fact, quite the opposite. Zelensky knew exactly what Trump wanted before he was even sworn into office on May 20 and he was already grappling with how to please Trump without getting Ukraine involved in the partisanship currently dominating U.S. politics.