Five takeaways from transcript of Trump's phone call with Ukrainian president that could spur impeachment probe
The transcript of President Donald Trump's controversial phone call with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been released and it contains damning information which could fuel the impeachment investigation opened into the president on Tuesday.
The transcript of the 30-minute July 25 conversation between the leaders confirmed that Trump asked the Ukrainian president to do him a "favor" and investigate the origins of the Russia investigation and look into his Democratic political rival Joe Biden.
Trump's call with Zelensky came under public scrutiny earlier this month after an intelligence community whistleblower lodged a formal complaint involving Ukraine and a phone call Trump had with a foreign leader where the president made a “promise."
After the release of the report, Trump admitted that he had delayed hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine before the July conversation.
In the call, Ukrainian president thanked Trump for the United States' defense support, saying his country was "almost ready" to purchase more American military technology. The US President then asked Zelensky to do him a "favor" and probe the "whole situation in Ukraine" while referencing CrowdStrike, the firm hired to investigate the Democratic National Committee hack during the 2016 presidential election, and former special counsel Robert Mueller.
After Zelensky agreed to investigate his concerns, Trump mentioned the "other thing," saying that "it would be great" if the Ukrainian leader could look into unsubstantiated allegations against Biden of abuse of power concerning his son Hunter Biden.
With the transcript freshy released, here are five main takeaways which could further propel Trump impeachment investigation:
Investigating Joe Biden
Trump, during the call, continued to prod the newly-elected Ukrainian leader to work with his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and the U.S. attorney general—in an apparent reference to Attorney General William Barr—to investigate his political rival Joe Biden, the Democratic frontrunner of the 2020 presidential elections.
"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," Trump said to Zelenskiy. "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."
Mueller investigation
Trump began his list of requests from Zelensky with a probe into the Mueller investigation. Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller had submitted his report earlier this year on Russia's interference in the 2016 US elections and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Trump, during the phone call, said that he wanted to have the attorney general call the Ukrainian leader or his people, saying: "I would like you to get to the bottom of it.”
“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,” Trump said on the call, and referred to Mueller's public congressional testimony, saying: "As you saw yesterday, the whole nonsense ended with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller, an incompetent performance, but they say a lot of it started with Ukraine. Whatever you can do, it’s very important that you do it if that’s possible."
Involvement of personal lawyer
While Trump sought assistance from the Ukrainian leader, he repeatedly mentioned the name of his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and wanted his involvement in the issues he discussed. Trump told Zelensky that he wanted Guiliani, who is not a government official, and the attorney general to speak with the foreign leader."
"Rudy very much knows what’s happening and he is a very capable guy,” Trump said. “If you could speak to him that would be great." Zelensky, however, was the first to mention Giuliani in their conversation, saying that one of his assistants had spoken with Giuliani “just recently” and that he hoped he would meet Giuliani on a future visit.
"I just wanted to assure you once again that you have nobody but friends around us," Zelensky said.
Stay at Trump's property
Towards the end of the conversation, the Ukrainian leader mentioned that he had stayed at the Trump Tower during his last visit to New York. This comes just days after the news of House Oversight Committee launching a probe into the military making unusual stops at the president's resort.
The committee, which started its probe in April 2019, is investigating whether the layovers at Trump's resort in Scotland pose a conflict of interest for the president and whether the military is assisting to prep up the particular resort, which has been in loss for a while. The US president is currently facing multiple lawsuits, accusing him of violating the US Constitution by continuing to keep an interest in his businesses.
Being 'very, very good' to Ukraine
Trump, at the beginning of the conversation, made it explicitly clear that the United States had been very good to the foreign leader's country. "I will say that we do a lot for Ukraine," Trump said. "We spend a lot of effort and a lot of time."
The US president again repeated his statement of being "very, very good to Ukraine," before suggesting that Ukraine has not reciprocated the goodwill.
"The United States has been very, very good to Ukraine," Trump says. “I wouldn’t say that it’s reciprocal necessarily because things are happening that are not good, but the United States has been very, very good to Ukraine."
Trump's statements here are significant considering that, although he did not directly mention withholding of US aid to Ukraine, his suggestive statements may have led Zelensky to believe that some form of assistance was tied to the request he immediately made after the remark—that of probing the Mueller investigation and Joe Biden.