The White House on Wednesday released a transcript of President Trump’s July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky showing him seeking a review of Biden family dealings in the country – but the document does not show Trump leveraging military aid as part of a quid-pro-quo, as Democrats have suggested in pressing forward with impeachment.
The transcript, declassified by Trump a day earlier, indicates the call – which Trump made from the White House residence — took place July 25 from 9:03 a.m. to 9:33 a.m. It 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.
“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.”
That refers to Joe Biden, while vice president, urging Ukraine to fire its top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, while Shokin was investigating the natural gas firm Burisma Holdings — where Hunter Biden was on the board. Biden has maintained that corruption concerns prompted his intervention.
https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1176879927976714241?s=20
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 leading to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announcing a formal impeachment inquiry Tuesday. But the call transcript does not include any mention of the aid, as a bargaining chip or otherwise.
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The transcript shows Zelensky 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.”
The president told Zelensky he wanted his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and Attorney General Bill 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 if it. I’m sure you will figure it out,” he said.
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. Trump has denied wrongdoing and has repeatedly referred to the impeachment push as a partisan “witchhunt.”
“Will the Democrats apologize after seeing what was said on the call with the Ukrainian President? They should, a perfect call – got them by surprise!” the president tweeted Wednesday.
Will the Democrats apologize after seeing what was said on the call with the Ukrainian President? They should, a perfect call – got them by surprise!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 25, 2019
The Trump-Zelensky conversation led to a whistleblower complaint against the president, provoking an avalanche of impeachment calls from Democrats.
DOJ spokesperson Kerri Kupec made the following statement on Wednesday:
“In August, the Department of Justice was referred a matter relating to a letter the Director of National Intelligence had received from the Inspector General for the Intelligence Community regarding a purported whistleblower complaint. The Inspector General’s letter cited a conversation between the President and Ukrainian President Zelensky as a potential violation of federal campaign finance law, while acknowledging that neither the Inspector General nor the complainant had firsthand knowledge of the conversation. Relying on established procedures set forth in the Justice Manual, the Department’s Criminal Division reviewed the official record of the call and determined, based on the facts and applicable law, that there was no campaign finance violation and that no further action was warranted. All relevant components of the Department agreed with this legal conclusion, and the Department has concluded the matter.”
https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1176883317645422592?s=20
(AP)
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21 Responses
The biggest NOTHING BURGER to date from the FAKE EVIL MEDIA and Democrats
haim vemafet beyad halashon
careful what you say
Stupid Democrats can not make up their minds: Either Trump is Russian spy or Ukrainian one? He can not be both.
I think this so called “whistle blower” affair was Trump’s sting operation in order to entrapped hysterical Democrats and in the process to expose Biden’s corruption.
I really wish people would stop calling this a transcript. It is not. It is a summary memo purportedly made by people in the room during the call. With impeachment hearings beginning we will actually be able to read the true transcription of the conversation at some point. The only interesting thing about this memo is it’s pretty apparent that again the president is thinking about himself first rather than the good of our democracy.
Except that if the reason Biden wanted to get rid of that prosecutor to protect his kid and leveraged US money, that would’ve been impeachable and should make him unelectable. The tables may have just turned, big time.
HA HA HA I CANT STOP LAUGHING. THE HOLE IN THE BAGEL THEY GOT😂🤣🥯😛. HA HA TRUMP 2020!! KEEP AMERICA GREET !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The whistleblower needs to testify to Congress. Trump has already admitted wrongdoing with this.
Amil Zola, i see you got your talking points from Democrats. No matter how you spin it, you and Democrats look foolish now. I feel your pain, especially after two strikes, first Muller Report and now this. I suggest you take some anti depressants.
rEtARD, the only one who admitted wrongdoing in Ukraine affair is Joe Biden, who on video openly bragged about blackmailing Ukrainian government with $1B US loan guarantees in order to fire Ukrainian AG investigating his son’s corruption.
Isnt it amazing how each side can pick what they want to hear or see and use it as proof! Same after the russian probe report..everyone takes what they want…
This is NOT a transcript, it is a summary, it says so right on the document. If this is what the degenerate lying adulterer is calling the transcript he said he was releasing, it’s another one of his lies of obstruction.
So for the Democrats to exploit this, they have to destroy the candidate who has the best chance of defeating Trump. And it isn’t even illegal for an American president to ask about a foreign corruption investigation.
If Trump is a chess player, a move like this would make him a grandmaster.
concerrned mom, there no THERE there, unless you are a Democrat. As Joe Biden said: “We accept truth, they accepts facts”
Weeks prior to Biden’s effort to remove the Prosecutor, the IMF, the World Bank, the EU and several major commercial banks said they would terminate all loans to the Ukraine unless this prosecutor was removed. By the time Biden raised the issue, it was a moot point since Ukraine was a risk of being cut off from international financial assistance.
This is the usual Trump response to everything when he is caught engaging in this garbage…point the finger at your opponents….”the real crook was Hillary with her emails, Obama, anyone but ME”….
Exactly concerned mom
Everyone is biased one way or another
The hypocrisy of the Democrats is pathetic. If Biden (and Obama) used financial leverage to remove an investigator from ending the Biden cash cow ($100s of thousands for his son in the Ukraine, and eventually 1.5 billion from China), their legacies are criminal. Hillary’s dossier on Trump, is also criminal, as are her email servers and the funding of the Clinton foundation through political favoritism. Now, because they are desperate to revenge her loss, and the despicable strategy of impeachment for the contrived Russian / Trump conspiracy, they falsely enlarge an appropriate inquiry, into the basis of a new impeachment effort. They remind me of the countries that criticize Israel when it provides emergency medical services to Syrians, or disaster impacted areas, by accusing the Israeli’s of organ harvesting, or helping ISIS. When the agenda is ANTI-Trump, it blocks their senses. The Democrats are losing their grip on reality, and the need to be just. Their own criminals are far more severe, unrepentant, and yet they continue to project their faults on others.
I’m not surprised Mr. Trump would do and say these things. What amazes me is that he allowed the summary/transcript to be published. It plainly shows that he requested the representative of a foreign power to do something to aid his election campaign. It’s illegal.
But much worse, it’s stupid. He should have been fighting tooth and nail to keep this conversation under cover. At the very least he could have invoked executive privilege. Yet, he puts it on the front page of every major newspaper in the world. (Even “Channel News Asia” in Singapore had this on their front page.) Why? Is he self-destructive? Is he tired of being president?
I have been saying for some time that Mr. Trump has serious neurological/medical problems, and this is a major boost to that theory. It’s the worst possible judgment – the worst possible thing at the worst possible time. At least Nixon tried to stonewall. Trump has tried that in the past. Why not now? He should be removed from office, not just because of his questionable actions and policies, but because he is becoming mentally incompetent. Does he have to have another stroke (serious this time) or be diagnosed with early Alzheimer’s Disease? We have no good mechanism for dealing with a president who has this kind of serious problem, and it’s going to have consequences not just domestically but internationally as well.
The part of the summery just above that pictured has Trump saying he’ll have his personal lawyer Rudy Guiliani call the Ukrainian President. That’s mixing Trump’s personal legal masters with foreign government affairs which is wrong.
Congress has been given the actual whistleblower report and from the little that’s leaked out it doesn’t look good for Trump.
If the republicans think Biden has done something wrong why doesn’t one of the GOP controlled Senate committees subpoena him to testify?
what i find mind boggeling is that ANY president cannot make a phone call without others listening in ? thats nuts
MEE YISHAFEL UMI YAROOOOOOOM