Where Can I Read Trump Phone Transcrpit to Ukranie

The House Judiciary Committee members (left to right) Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO), Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA), and Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX) read the transcript of President Trump'due south phone call with Ukraine's President Volodymr Zelensky on September 25, 2019.

Flake Somodevilla/Getty Images

The Trump-Ukraine "transcript," explained

This really looks like evidence of a damning quid pro quo.

By Sep 25, 2019, 1:27pm EDT

Wed morning time the White Firm released an edited summary of President Donald Trump'south phone call with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 25, the telephone call that appears to take inspired the now-famous whistleblower complaint confronting Trump. The document, which reads like a transcript, was widely expected to cast the president's beliefs in a more than flattering light.

Information technology did not. If annihilation, information technology's more evidence for the worst-case scenario: That President Trump was conditioning military assist to Ukraine on the state's willingness to investigate his domestic political enemies.

The House Judiciary Committee members were given copies of the transcript of President Trump'southward phone call with President Volodymr Zelensky on September 25, 2019.

Fleck Somodevilla/Getty Images

In the summary, Zelensky asks Trump for an increase in military aid — specifically, to purchase more than Javelin anti-tank missiles, useful in Ukraine's ongoing conflict with Russian-backed separatists in its east.

Trump responds by saying, "I would like you to do the states a favor though."

The favor turns out to be about two investigations Trump would similar Ukraine to conduct: one most a bizarre and unfounded theory about Ukrainian possession of a Democratic email server, the other about the Biden family unit's allegedly corrupt dealings with a Ukrainian prosecutor.

We previously knew that the president had asked Ukraine to investigate the Bidens considering both the president and his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, admitted information technology. We now know that he also asked Ukraine to investigate the Democratic Party and that he connected it to the question of military assist in their chat.

That's not the entirety of what's bad for Trump in the transcript — there's concerning stuff about Chaser General William Barr as well. Simply the top-line takeaway is that the White Business firm'due south summary is anything but exculpatory.

If Democrats were looking for more fuel for their impeachment fire, they appear to have establish it.

The biggest takeaway from the summary: it sure looks like a quid pro quo

It'south important to note, at the start, that this call summary is non quite a verbatim transcript of what Trump and Zelensky said. Information technology's written like a transcript, with directly quotations assigned to each leader, but it is not an authoritative transcription of an audio recording — as a note on the start page makes clear.

"The text in this certificate records the notes and recollections of Situation Room Duty Officers and NSC policy staff assigned to listen and memorialize the chat in written form as the conversation takes place," it explains. "A number of factors tin can affect the accurateness of the record, including poor telecommunications connections and variations in accent and/or estimation."

So there are likely some errors and omissions, and in that location is at least one pretty notable unclarity in the document I'll point out later on. Only it'south worth treating the parts that are written down every bit, for now, roughly authentic quotations of both Trump and Zelensky.

Ukraine'due south President Volodymyr Zelensky (right) at the headquarters of the United nations on September 25, 2019.

Valery Sharifulin/TASS/Getty Images

The context for the phone call is of import also. According to a Washington Post study, a week before phoning Zelensky, who had merely assumed part, Trump ordered chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to suspend $400 1000000 worth of US military assist to Ukraine (the aid was unlocked in September). And then y'all take a new leader of a country locked in conflict with much more powerful Russian federation speaking to ane of its principal international benefactors, which has recently suspended military assist.

After a few pleasantries early in the phone call, Trump brings up this military aid unprompted. He goes out of his way to compare The states assistance to EU aid to Ukraine. "I will say that we do a lot for Ukraine. Nosotros spend a lot of effort and a lot of fourth dimension," he tells Zelensky. "Much more than the European countries are doing and they should be helping y'all more than they are."

Zelensky agrees, telling Trump "the United States is a much bigger partner than the European Wedlock and I'thou very grateful to y'all for that." This is true, at least when it comes to military aid — which ways Trump really does have leverage here.

The Ukrainian leader then makes a asking for the United states to increment its armed services assistance, specifically past selling his country more than Javelin anti-tank missiles. This is the pivot signal in the summary, so I'yard going to quote information technology in context:

ZELENSKY: I would also like to thank you lot for your dandy back up in the area of defense. We. are set to go along to cooperate for the next steps. Specifically, we are almost. fix to buy more Javelins from the United· States for defence force purposes.

TRUMP: I would like you to exercise the states a favor though because our state has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot nearly it. I would similar you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike ... I guess yous have one of your weal thy people. ... The server, they say Ukraine has it.

The word "though" in Trump's line makes it clear what's going on hither, explicitly connecting the request for assistance to Trump's request for "a favor" later Trump initiated a conversation virtually how of import US aid is for Ukraine. And that favor is investigating "the server."

President Trump attends a multilateral meeting on Venezuela on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, in New York, on September 25, 2019.

Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Now, you might be tempted to think that Trump is request about Hillary Clinton'due south email server. But Trump references CrowdStrike, a California-based cybersecurity business firm, which suggests he's talking about something different. CrowdStrike was the company that linked Russia to the hack of the Autonomous National Commission back in 2016. Trump seems to be floating a conspiracy theory, promulgated by his attorney Rudy Giuliani, that it was actually Ukraine that hacked the Democrats — and so tried to frame Trump and Russia for it.

This contravenes every piece of testify we have on the DNC hack, including the unanimous cess of U.s.a. intelligence agencies that Russia was responsible for it and an indictment from Mueller's team spelling out exactly how information technology happened. Trump besides seems fundamentally confused about how hacking works: the hackers got access to DNC emails, merely did not take the server itself.

But Trump seems to exist request Zelensky to investigate the DNC emails anyway, presumably considering information technology would make him await expert politically and let him to suggest the Democrats were part of a conspiracy that's out to get him.

That'south non the total extent of Trump'due south "favor." He also asks Zelensky to look into Hunter Biden's concern dealings with a Ukrainian company, too equally totally unsubstantiated allegations that Joe Biden was corruptly working to shield his son from prosecution:

The other thing, at that place's a lot of talk near Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out most that so whatever you can practice with the Attorney Full general would exist great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you tin look into it ... It sounds horrible to me.

The situation stems from Hunter Biden's work with Burisma Holdings, a visitor endemic past a controversial and peradventure corrupt Ukrainian oligarch. The accusation is that Joe Biden attempted to get the Ukrainian prosecutor general fired in club to protect Burisma and his son from investigation. There is, still, no reason to believe this. Joe Biden did attempt to get the prosecutor general fired, but that was the result of the prosecutor'southward own involvement in corruption; in that location is no evidence he was investigating Burisma at the fourth dimension. Hunter Biden's dealings with Burisma were arguably unethical, but there is no reason to believe that they were illegal or that his father did anything incorrect.

Nosotros already knew that Trump had requested Zelensky to investigate this phantom Biden conspiracy. But in context of the transcript, his use of the phrase "the other affair" makes it part of the same "favor" every bit investigating the server hack. Information technology's all part of the same request, the one that Trump has seemed to link to US armed services assistance to Ukraine — which he had conveniently suspended just one week prior to the telephone call.

Taken in context, what we accept here most clearly reads every bit a quid pro quo, with Trump offering policy favors if Zelensky helps him politically.

Leading upward to the readout's release, the situation looked bad for Trump, with the president openly admitting prior to its publication that he tried to get a foreign leader to investigate ane of his leading political opponents, potentially compromising the integrity of the 2020 election. Now it seems similar he wasn't but requesting Zelensky investigate Biden; it looks similar he was unsubtly trying to strong-arm him into doing it by leveraging US military assistance.

Another big reason this telephone call is a bad look — and how information technology could get worse

While the evidence of the quid pro quo is the principal takeaway from the call summary, it'due south hardly the only troubling part of the document.

Near the end, when discussing the situation involving Biden and a Ukrainian prosecutor, Trump tells Zelensky to expect calls both from Rudy Giuliani, his personal lawyer, and US Attorney Full general William Barr:

I volition have Mr. Giuliani give you a telephone call and I am also going to have Chaser General Barr call and we will become to· the bottom of it. I'one thousand certain you will figure it out. I heard the prosecutor was treated very badly and he was a very fair prosecutor and then good luck with everything.

The Giuliani part is corrupt but no surprise: We've known that Giuliani was running a kind of shadow Ukraine policy aimed at securing Ukrainian assistance in Trump'due south reelection bid. The really centre-popping chemical element hither is the reference to Attorney General Barr.

The chaser general is supposed to be the chief police force enforcement officer of the United states, accountable to the president but not his personal lawyer. They are at one time a member of the administration and a cheque on it.

Attorney General William Barr spends his second 24-hour interval on Capitol Hill speaking with congressional members about gun legislation on September 18, 2019.

Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Telephone call via Getty Images

Barr has proven himself to have difficulty with this dual role — most notably, when he repeatedly attempted to spin the Mueller report's findings in the president's favor earlier its release, misleading the American public about its findings. This phone telephone call suggests that Barr may as well be involved in Trump's scheme for abusing his powers of office for political proceeds. If and then, that would be a major new scandal in its own right.

The call'south references to Barr are relatively brief; we don't really know the extent of his interest in this situation. But there are already calls for Barr to recuse himself from any interest in investigating Trump's behave, and Democrats are all but certain to investigate the total extent of Barr's part in all of this.

This isn't the only tantalizingly unclear point in the White House summary. Remember, this is an edited account and not a verbatim transcription — which means information technology's possible the White Business firm omitted some passages that are even more devastating to the president.

For instance, look at 1 of the crucial lines from the section almost Biden: "Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution then if you lot tin can wait into information technology ... It sounds horrible to me." Those ellipses are the White House's, non mine. It's possible they denote a intermission; it's equally possible they denote that Trump said something in between those two sentences that the White House would rather not reveal.

The indicate, and so, is that we're only at the beginning stages of agreement what was happening here. If the evidence is already this bad, information technology'southward possible it could get worse. With Democrats pursuing an impeachment inquiry over Ukraine that spans six dissimilar Business firm committees, each with subpoena power, more facts could well come out.

But the biggest takeaway here is that in some ways, we don't really need more than facts. We already know that the president's behavior, in this case, is deeply inappropriate and decadent.

President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence confer during the United Nations Climate Activeness Summit, on September 23, 2019.

Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images

Nosotros know that the president asked for investigations into his political opponents and politically helpful conspiracy theories, essentially calling for a strange power to interfere with the conduct of the 2020 ballot. Nosotros know that at that place he at least strongly implied that he would exist workout an important policy decision on Ukraine's compliance here, suggesting that he'south willing to abuse his powers of part for political reward.

I've said it earlier, and I'll say it once again: If this isn't impeachable, I don't know what is.

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Source: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/9/25/20883420/full-transcript-trump-ukraine-zelensky-white-house

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