White House Releases Transcript Of Donald Trump’s Call With Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
The White House has released a transcript of President Donald Trump’s telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from July 25, 2019. The conversation has been a hot topic, and centers on the recent whistleblower call currently making headlines.
The transcript, which is reportedly unredacted, can be viewed at the official White House website. A footnote noted that the transcript released by the White House is not a verbatim transcript of the conversation.
In the call, which lasted around 30 minutes, President Trump called to congratulate President Zelensky. At one point, though, after discussing what an excellent relationship the two countries enjoy, Trump asked Zelensky for a favor.
“I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it.”
President Trump went on to ask about the Crowdstrike server and discussed what he called a “poor performance” by Robert Mueller. Zelensky agreed about the importance of the investigation, and he also mentioned that cooperation with the United States remains essential for Ukraine. Trump indicated that he planned to have his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, the former Mayor of New York City, call to discuss the situation with Zelensky.
“The other thing, 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. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it… It sounds horrible to me.”
Zelensky agreed to relaunch an investigation into the matter with his own investigator starting in September, and he asked if Trump would turn over any additional information that he has about the situation to assist in the investigation. Joe Biden is currently one of several Democrats running against Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election. Biden’s son, Hunter Biden is the person that Trump asked Zelensky to look into during the July phone conversation.
The White House released a memo on Wednesday that shows Pres. Trump pushed for Ukraine's president to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son during a July 25 call. pic.twitter.com/3YPQm4ZRY7
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) September 25, 2019
CNBC reported that both Trump and Giuliani accused former Vice President Biden of pressuring Ukraine to fire the prosecutor who investigated Ukrainian gas company, Burisma Holdings, where Hunter Biden held a seat on the board. However, Biden was not the only person who wanted the prosecutor to step down. Other countries also asked the prosecutor to resign. Hunter Biden was not accused of doing anything wrong while working with Burisma Holdings. Additionally, there is no evidence that Joe Biden tried to help out his son when he got involved in calling for the prosecutor’s dismissal.
During the call, the Ukrainian president also mentioned that the last time he visited New York City, he stayed in Trump Tower. They ended the call with invitations to visit each leader’s respective country. President Trump invited Zelensky to call the White House when he’s ready to visit the United States, and President Zelensky extended an invitation to Trump.
While President Trump maintains that the call was “perfect,” Democrats feel that he pressured a foreign country to dig up dirt on a political opponent. This concern led to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to launch an impeachment inquiry into Trump.
