"An awful lot of people were trying to keep a meeting from happening for the reason that it would not be focused on Ukraine-US relations," an anonymous government source said, as cited by the outlet.
The outlet added that several US officials had recalled the tense meetings on Ukraine that were held among security advisers in the White House in the days preceding the phone call, which made some people fear that Trump would use his conversation with Zelensky to gain political leverage ahead of the presidential election.
According to the outlet, the White House refuted the claims that Trump pressured Zelensky to probe the Biden family and refused to further comment on the allegations.
On Tuesday, Trump authorised the release of the fully declassified transcript of his phone conversation with Zelensky.
Later on, the US House of Representatives announced its intent to move forward with an official impeachment enquiry against Trump, saying that his asking Zelensky to probe Biden was an a breach of his constitutional responsibilities.
Last week, US media reported, citing a whistleblower’s complaint, that during a July phone call with Zelensky, Trump had urged the Ukrainian leader several times to cooperate with a corruption probe into one of the his Democratic opponents in the 2020 election, Joe Biden, specifically any business dealings Biden's son had with a gas company in Ukraine.
