The White House on Wednesday released a transcript of President Trump’s July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky showing he sought a review of Biden family dealings in the country — but the document does not show Trump explicitly leveraging military aid as part of a quid pro quo, as Democrats have suggested in pressing forward with impeachment.
The document, declassified by Trump a day earlier, indicates that the call – which Trump made from the White House residence — took place July 25 from 9:03 a.m. to 9:33 a.m. A notation on the memo says it does not represent a “verbatim transcript” but is based on “notes and recollections” of those listening and memorializing the call. It is still presented in transcript form.
The memo begins with the president congratulating Zelensky on his election victory, before Trump eventually broaches the subject former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
READ THE UKRAINE CALL MEMO
“There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great,” Trump said in the phone call. “Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it…It sounds horrible to me.”
This refers to Joe Biden, while vice president, urging Ukraine to fire its top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, who was investigating the natural gas firm Burisma Holdings — where Hunter Biden was on the board. Biden has maintained that corruption concerns prompted his intervention.
Trump, in the run-up to the transcript’s release, was accused by Democrats of essentially pressuring a foreign power to investigate a political opponent, as Biden is now a top contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
On Monday, it was reported that Trump had even ordered his staff to freeze nearly $400 million in aid to Ukraine a few days before the phone call with Zelensky, a detail that fueled impeachment calls and led to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to announce a formal impeachment inquiry Tuesday. But the call transcript does not show Trump mentioning the aid as a bargaining chip or otherwise — though Zelensky did appear to reference military aid early in the call, when he thanked Trump for “great support in the area of defense.”
The transcript shows Zelensky eventually suggesting to Trump the Biden matter would be looked into by a new prosecutor. “He or she will look into the situation specifically to the company that you mentioned in this issue, the issue of the investigation of the case is actually the issue to restore the honesty so we will take care of that and we will work on the investigation of the case.”
Trump told Zelensky he wanted his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and Attorney General William Barr to get involved.
“I will have Mr. Giuliani give you call and I’m also going to have Attorney General Barr call and we will get to the bottom of it. I’m sure you will figure it out,” he said.
A Department of Justice spokeswoman, Kerri Kupec, said in a statement that the attorney general was first notified of the president’s conversation with Zelensky several weeks after the call took place “when the Department of Justice learned of a potential referral.”
“The president has not spoken with the Attorney General about having Ukraine investigate anything relating to former Vice President Biden or his son,” Kupec said. “The president has not asked the Attorney General to contact Ukraine- on this or any other matter. The attorney general has not communicated with Ukraine – on this or any other subject. Nor has the Attorney General discussed this matter, or anything related to Ukraine, with Rudy Giuliani.”
Before the transcript was released, Democrats accused Trump of improperly using his office to pressure another country to investigate one of his chief Democratic rivals. Hogan Gidley, a White House spokesman, said during an appearance on Fox News: “There’s no quid pro quo and there’s no pressure.”
Read more at Fox News.