The White House has released a memorandum on U.S. President Donald Trump’s July 25 phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The document provides something akin to a transcript of the two leaders’ conversation.
Previously, American media have reported that Trump used the call to pressure Zelensky to investigate former U.S Vice President Joe Biden and his son’s role in Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian oil and gas extraction company. The call was also reportedly the subject of a formal whistleblower complaint against Trump.
Scroll the transcript or find it here.
Trump and his lawyer, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, have advanced several serious accusations against Biden and the Ukrainian government. Most notably, they claimed that, in 2016, Biden pressured Ukraine to fire Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, who was investigating Burisma, in order to protect his son.
As the Kyiv Post has previously reported, the accusations are not backed up by any solid evidence. Shokin was not investigating the younger Biden, and many civil society actors, Ukrainian politicians, and anti-corruption activists had long called for his firing.
Read More: Trump whistleblower scandal, explained from Ukraine
Reports of the phone conversation’s contents have sparked a major controversy in the United States, leading Speaker Nancy Pelosi to announce that the U.S. House of Representatives would initiate a formal impeachment inquiry of Trump.
On Sept. 25, Trump announced that he would publish a full, unredacted transcript of the phone call. However, because such documents are based upon notes taken during calls and no recording devices are present, the memorandum is not a verbatim transcript of the conversation.
