At the time, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was personally lobbying Trump to get the charges dropped. In an April phone call, Trump told Erdogan that William Barr and Steven Mnuchin would handle the issue, the people said. Bolton at the time reportedly told a Turkish official, Ibrahim Kalin, to stop raising the issue with Trump because he wouldn’t personally deal with it. The ZTE matter has also raised eyebrows and prompted allies to question Trump’s actions. The concern is that Trump is disregarding that process and undercutting prosecutors, especially when dealing with autocratic foreign leaders.

Source: Washington Post January 28, 2020 16:28 UTC