Memo details Trump call
In White House release, president pressed Ukraine’s leader for an inquiry into Biden and son
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump pressed Ukraine’s leader to “look into” Democratic rival Joe Biden as well as his grievances from the 2016 election, according to a rough transcript of a summer phone call that is now at the center of Democrats’ impeachment probe into Trump.
Trump repeatedly prodded Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to work with Attorney General William Barr and Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer. At one point in the conversation, Trump said, “I would like for you to do us a favor.”
Trump’s words set the parameters for the debate to come — just
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the fourth impeachment investigation of an American president in the nation’s history. The initial response highlighted the deep divide between the two parties: Democrats said the call amounted to a “shakedown” of a foreign leader, while Trump — backed by the vast majority of Republicans — dismissed it as a “nothing call.”
The call is one part of a whistleblower complaint on the president’s activities. The whistleblower complaint was made available to members and staff of congressional intelligence committees Wednesday, giving lawmakers access to the allegations ahead of testimony Thursday from acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire.
Trump, whose administration had earlier balked at turning over the complaint, said Wednesday that “I fully support transparency on the so-called whistleblower information” and that he had communicated that position to House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
Congress is also seeking an in-person interview with the whistleblower, who remains anonymous.
Trump spent Wednesday meeting with world leaders at the
not expand into other issues Congress had already been investigating.
Pelosi announced the impeachment probe Tuesday after months of resistance to a process she has warned would be divisive for the country and risky for her party. But after viewing the transcript Wednesday, Pelosi declared: Congress must act.”
Trump has all but dared Democrats to move toward impeachment, confident that the specter of an investigation led by the opposition party will bolster rather than diminish his political support.
“It’s a joke. Impeachment, for that?” Trump said during a news conference in New York. He revived the same language he has used for months to deride the now-finished special counsel investigation into election interferUnited Nations, a remarkable TV split screen even for the turbulence of the Trump era. Included on his schedule: a meeting with Zelenskiy.
In a lighthearted appearance before reporters, Zelenskiy said he didn’t want to get involved in American elections, but added, “Nobody pushed me.”
Trump chimed in, “In other words, no pressure.”
The next steps in the impeachment inquiry were still developing a day after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi launched the probe. Moderate Democrats, including some from districts where Trump remains popular, urged the speaker to keep the inquiry to Ukraine and ence, declaring impeachment “a hoax” and the “single greatest witch hunt in American history.”
Republicans largely stood by the president and dismissed the notion that the rough transcript revealed any wrongdoing by Trump.
“I think it was a perfectly appropriate phone call, it was a congratulatory phone call,” said Rep. Liz Cheney, the No. 3 House Republican.
The memo released by the White House was not a verbatim transcript, but was instead based on the records of officials who listened to the call. The conversation took place July 25, one day after special counsel Robert Mueller testified on Capitol Hill about his investigation into Russia’s 2016 election interference.
In the 30-minute call, Trump raised allegations, without citing any evidence, that the former vice president sought to interfere with a Ukrainian prosecutor in regard to Biden’s son Hunter. His words were at once bantering and suggestive, without the kind of explicit language that would lead to a straight-line conclusion about his intent.
As they spoke, Trump encouraged the Ukrainian leader to talk with Giuliani and Barr about Biden and his son, who served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.
“Whatever you can do with the attorney general would be great,” Trump told Zelenskiy, asking for help in investigating Biden. He referred to Giuliani as a “highly respected man” and said, “I will ask him to call you along with the attorney general.”
Immediately after saying they would be in touch, Trump references Ukraine’s economy, saying: “Your economy is going to get better and better I predict. You have a lot of assets. It’s a great country.”
At another point in the conversation, Trump asked Zelenskiy for a favor: his help looking into a cybersecurity firm that investigated the 2016 hack of the Democratic National Committee and determined it was carried out by Russia. Trump has falsely suggested CrowdStrike was owned by a Ukrainian.
In the days before the call, Trump ordered advisers to freeze $400 million in military aid for Ukraine. The aid package does not come up in the conversation with Zelenskiy.
Biden said it was “tragedy” that Trump was willing to “put personal politics above his sacred oath.”