The White House has just released a partial readout — which it admits isn’t a full transcript — of a now infamous call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Read the transcript of Trump’s call with Ukraine’s president
A summary of the conversation comes out as Trump is embroiled in an impeachment mess.
Trump is embroiled in a crisis about whether he improperly used his position to try to coerce Zelensky into investigating Trump’s 2020 political opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden — perhaps by withholding military aid to the Eastern European country.
Trump has admitted to discussing Biden with Ukraine, but he maintains that a phone call he had with Zelensky last month was “a very friendly and totally appropriate call.”
To prove his innocence, Trump on Tuesday authorized “the complete, fully declassified and unredacted transcript” of his conversation with the Ukrainian leader. Critics say the transcript won’t really prove anything as it isn’t a verbatim account of their call, and a whistleblower’s complaint — reportedly having to do with Trump’s conduct toward Ukraine — would be a more useful document right now. That may come out later this week.
But for now we have the White House’s version of the call, which may omit certain sections. You can find it below.
