Trump claims he exerted "no pressure whatsoever" in released Ukraine call — live updates
President Trump claims he exerted "no pressure whatsoever" over Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the Bidens, as Mr. Trump continues to hold meetings with other world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly after the release of the partial transcript of his July call. In an odd turn of events, one of those world leaders the president is scheduled to meet with Wednesday afternoon is Zelensky.
"The Democrats, they went down to see the president of Ukraine and they asked him for all sorts of things and 'don't go with the Republicans' and 'stay with us', like it's a political war," Mr. Trump said Wednesday. "They shouldn't have done that. That should be an impeachable event."
But Americans can decide for themselves whether Mr Trump exerted pressure over a foreign leader to investigate his political rival.
In the much-anticipated memorandum of the call, Mr. Trump urges Zelensky to look into unsubstantiated claims that former Vice President Joe Biden allegedly tried to stop prosecution that would affect his son. The president, according to the call memo, urged Ukraine to work with his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr on the matter.
The memo, however, is not verbatim, but rather, a summary — causing concern among Trump critics that the administration's records might be incomplete.
"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..." the president said during the call, which took place a day after former special counsel Robert Mueller testified.
Mr. Trump reminded Zelensky separately in the transcript that the U.S. does a lot for Ukraine. The Justice Department insists the transcript shows nothing illegal. The transcript release comes less than a day after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry into the president.