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| Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images |
President says ‘complete, fully declassified and unredacted transcript’ of conversation with Ukraine’s president will be released Wednesday
President Trump said he ordered the release on Wednesday of the unredacted transcript of his July call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as probes into whether he pressured Ukraine to investigate Democrat Joe Biden intensified on Capitol Hill.
“You will see it was a very friendly and totally appropriate call,” Mr. Trump tweeted on Tuesday. “No pressure and, unlike Joe Biden and his son, NO quid pro quo!”
In that call, Mr. Trump pressured Mr. Zelensky to work with Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, on an investigation into Mr. Biden and his son, The Wall Street Journal previously reported. Mr. Giuliani had met with an official from the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office the previous month to discuss such a probe.
The announcement that the White House will release the transcript of the call came hours before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was set to announce she is directing an impeachment inquiry into Mr. Trump in the wake of reports about his call with Mr. Zelensky, two people familiar with the matter said.
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Mr. Trump has confirmed he brought up Mr. Biden, a 2020 presidential challenger to Mr. Trump, on the call but denied offering any quid pro quo to Mr. Zelensky over U.S. military aid to Ukraine. The Journal reported that Mr. Trump directed his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, to put a hold on the aid about a week before his call with Mr. Zelensky.
On Tuesday, Mr. Trump confirmed that he gave that directive to Mr. Mulvaney, saying he did so over frustration with Europe.
“I said, ‘Hold it up. Let’s get other people to pay,’” Mr. Trump told reporters at the United Nations on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Trump said: “The [Ukraine] funds were paid, fully paid, but my complaint has always been, and I’d withhold again and I’ll continue to withhold, until such time as Europe and other nations contribute to Ukraine.”Read the rest of the story HERE and follow links below to related stories:
Pelosi: Congress needs full Trump-Ukraine complaint, not just call transcript
Schumer: The Ukraine transcript is 'not enough'
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