NATIONWIDE — In a July phone conversation, President Donald Trump asked Ukraine's president to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.
The White House on Wednesday released an unclassified, five-page memorandum detailing the 30-minute call.
- White House releases memo of phone call with Ukrainian president
- 5-page memo details 30-minute call that took place July 25
- Memo is at heart of impeachment inquiry announced by House speaker
- SEE BELOW: Read the complete memo here ▼
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The call is central to the impeachment inquiry announced a day earlier by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The president has insisted that he did nothing wrong in the call.
The memo is not a verbatim transcript. A note at the bottom of the first page describes it as "the notes and recollections of Situation Room Duty Officers and NSC (National Security Council) policy staff assigned to listen and memorialize the conversation."
In the call, according to the memo, Trump congratulates Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on his party's victory in the parliamentary elections.
The president then talks about how the U.S. does a lot for Ukraine, more so than other European countries, which Zelenskiy agrees with and mentions that his country was getting ready to buy more Javelin missiles from the U.S.
Trump then requests a couple of favors from Zelenskiy. First, he asks that Ukraine investigate whether the country is the location for "The Server." This is thought to be a reference to claims that Ukraine is the location of the Democratic National Committee server that was hacked by the Russians in 2016.
Then Trump asks about Biden.
"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," the president said, according to the memo.
The request revolved around allegations that the Democratic presidential candidate and former vice president wanted to obstruct the Ukrainian prosecutor's investigation into his son, Hunter. Trump has tried to tie Hunter Biden, and by extension his father, to political corruption in the country.
While his father was heading the Obama administration's diplomatic dealings with Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, Hunter Biden was on the board of directors of a Ukrainian gas company, Burisma Holdings, in 2014.
According to Politifact, there were investigations in Ukraine at the time that were tied to the actual owner of the company.
Biden claimed that he and other Western leaders pressured the government to fire the country's prosecutor, saying he wasn't doing enough to prosecute corruption.
Trump and his allies have said Biden's actions were done to shield his son from prosecution. In the call with Zelenskiy, Trump even says the prosecutor was "treated very badly and he was a very fair prosecutor."
Both Bidens have denied any wrongdoing, and according to Politifact, the prosecutor's successor told Bloomberg in a May 2019 interview that Hunter Biden did not violate any Ukrainian laws.
While Zelenskiy did not acknowledge Trump's urging to have Biden investigated during the July 25 call, he did say that "we are great friends and you Mr. President have friends in our country so we can continue our strategic partnership."
Trump repeatedly told Zelenskiy to work with U.S. Attorney General William Barr and with the president’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, to investigate both issues. He also offered to meet with Zelenskiy at the White House if Ukraine would conduct that inquiry.
The phone conversation is part of a whistleblower complaint by a member of the intelligence community that led to it becoming public and the impeachment inquiry.
Democrats still are not satisfied. This summary is just one part of the complaint they're asking to see. They say Trump was trying to pressure a foreign leader to influence next year's elections.
It has been speculated that Trump withheld almost $400 million in military aid to Ukraine unless Zelenskiy has the Biden family investigated. But Trump denied this, saying he only withheld the money to fight corruption in the Eastern European country. Since 2014, the U.S. has been a strong ally of Ukraine when a new pro-Western government took power and has given the country millions into its armed forces.
Trump Reacts Wednesday at the UN
Trump actually met with Zelenskiy on Wednesday during a series of meetings with world leaders at the United Nations in New York. In an appearance before reporters, Zelenskiy, seated next to Trump, said "nobody pushed" him to get involved in American elections.
"In other words, no pressure," Trump chimed in.
Later in the day, during a U.N. news conference in which he took several questions, Trump reiterated his innocence and implied it was the Democrats who threatened the new Ukrainian president.
"It was a very innocent call," he said of the July conversation. "No push, no pressure, no nothing. It's all a hoax."
Trump again touted his 2016 Electoral College victory and decried the special counsel Robert Mueller investigation into Russian meddling.
"No other president should have to go through what I've gone through," he said.