Trump call

This is a response to a letter which stated that Trump released the actual transcript of his 7/25/2019 phone conversation with Ukrainian President Zelensky, opposing my statement that the information was incomplete.

The writer rants against Schiff, etc., asks if we believe that Schiff didn’t have the power to demand the actual transcript, and if Trump is sitting on the real transcript, how could I or anyone else possibly know that they released a “phony transcript” (his words, not mine), and what do I have to compare it to?

All these questions were answered by various media, plus during Lot. Col. Vindman’s House impeachment testimony and in “The Impeachment Report.”

Vindman per his N.S.C. duties, was listening in and taking notes on the Trump-Zelensky call. Upon completion, he and his boss N.S.C. Senior Director of Europe and Russia, Tim Morrison, voiced their concern by calling Trump’s

N.S.C. lawyers, who then placed the Trump call’s contents in a highly classified server, I believe, so it would never see the light of day again. Without the August. 12, 2019, whistle blower, it wouldn’t have.

The whistleblower contacted Michael Atkinson, the Intelligence Community’s Inspector General (ICIG), who notified Trump’s N.S.C. lawyers long before Congress was notified.

In the interim many leaks occurred and when Congress was finally notified Schiff and about 300 members requested the actual transcript. Trump “stonewalled” them saying what he and Zelensky discussed didn’t matter, but public pressure intensified, so Trump and his lawyers prepared what he later called the “actual transcript.”

During preparation Vindman noticed that they left out a lot of information which he twice asked them to include they overruled him.

On 9-25-2019, Trump released that incomplete document.

By asking why only I knew these facts, the letter seems to admit that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

Marty Scepan

Palmdale