The hotly debated transcript of President Trump’s summer phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been released. What it shows – and how impeachable it is - may depend largely on your political persuasion. What’s clear? The impeachment battle lines are drawn.
The transcript released by the White House shows that the President did ask Ukraine's leader to "do us a favor" immediately after he brought up military equipment.
- Trump then asked Volodymyr Zelensky to look into a theory about stolen Democratic emails and the hacked Democratic National Committee server believed to be in Ukraine.
- He later brought up former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, who once worked for a Ukrainian bank. He asked Zelensky to work with Attorney General Bill Barr and his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani. Trump asked if he could look into it.
The July 25th conversation took place a week after the White House had blocked about 400-million-dollars in military aide going to the Ukraine. So what’s not in the transcript? Any promise from Trump to release those funds in exchange for the investigations he asked for. In fact, Trump wraps up the call by suggesting places the two leaders might meet. Read the transcript for yourself HERE.
- Elsewhere in Washington, lawmakers have their hands on the big whistleblower report that prompted a formal House impeachment inquiry into President Trump. We don’t know what’s in that, but the complaint could be released to the public later today. The complaint was filed by an unnamed intelligence officer after a phone call between President Trump and Ukraine's President.
- Meanwhile…President Trump says he’ll release the transcript of another phone call between him and the Ukrainian president. Speaking to reporters at the United Nations, Trump explained the White House transcript released today was from a second conversation. He noted he's being asked "for the first phone conversation" and he'll "release that too if it’s important." Trump explained that he revealed the first transcript because he was "getting such fake news" and he thought "it would be better."
Source:NBC News