President Trump’s Summary Transcript Of Call With Ukraine Released
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Early Wednesday, White House administration released the transcript summary of President Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukraine president, Volodymyr Zelensky. Essentially, the summary transcript released is not word-for-word. Trump authorized release of the transcript after a whistleblower complaint was filed questioning details of the call. Controversy ensued because Director of national intelligence Joseph McGuire refused to hand over the complaint even though federal law requires the complaint to be transmitted to congressional intelligence committees within seven days.
In a memo summarizing the call, President Trump urged the Ukrainian president to have his country open an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. At the time, Hunter was a paid-member on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas company. In May, Ukraine’s current prosecutor said there was no evidence of wrongdoing by the Bidens.
During the July phone call, Trump also refers to American funds that were allotted to assist Ukraine with the conflict it faced with Russia. At the time of the call, Trump was withholding millions of dollars in military assistance. Furthermore, the U.S. Congress had allocated the funds to help the Ukraine in response to Russian violence.
Additionally, Trump suggested an investigation into CrowdStrike, a U.S. cloud-based cyber security firm. CloudStrike was hired to investigate how hackers accessed emails from the Democratic National Committee. CloudStrike concluded their investigation that the emails were stolen by Russian hackers.
The summary transcript release comes just one day after House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, announced a formal impeachment inquiry of Trump.
For the full summary transcript of President Trump’s call with Zelensky please visit NBC News Original Document.
