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Trump Vows To Release Ukraine Transcript Amid Impeachment Crescendo In D.C.
By: Tamara Keith | NPR
Posted on:
Updated at 2:37 p.m. ET
President Trump vowed on Tuesday that he would release a transcript of his phone call from earlier this year with Ukraine’s president as Democrats appeared close to a flashpoint on impeaching him.
Trump tweeted that he would release a “complete, fully declassified and unredacted transcript of my phone conversation with President Zelensky of Ukraine.”
I am currently at the United Nations representing our Country, but have authorized the release tomorrow of the complete, fully declassified and unredacted transcript of my phone conversation with President Zelensky of Ukraine….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 24, 2019
This will prove it was a “totally appropriate call,” he wrote. He says the transcript will be released Wednesday.
“I am currently at the United Nations representing our country, but have authorized the release tomorrow of the complete, fully declassified and unredacted transcript of my phone conversation with President Zelensky of Ukraine.
You will see it was a very friendly and totally appropriate call. No pressure and, unlike Joe Biden and his son, NO quid pro quo! This is nothing more than a continuation of the greatest and most destructive witch hunt of all time!”
Trump’s vow followed a wave of condemnation from Democrats about what they called his potential abuse of office.
Trump has acknowledged discussing former Vice President Joe Biden with Zelensky earlier this summer. That reportedly followed his decision to suspend military assistance to Ukraine. Trump has insisted that there was never a “quid pro quo” for holding aid to Ukraine.
One question the transcript could answer is whether Trump leaned on Zelensky to investigate Biden’s son, Hunter, who once sat on the board of a Ukrainian gas company, in order to gin up material that could help Trump against Biden in the presidential election.
Trump has gone back and forth about whether he might release the transcript, saying on one hand that it might clear up the Ukraine affair but on the other hand he was worried about the precedent it might set.
Trump also has said it was a “perfect” call, mostly congratulatory about Zelensky’s election, and that it contained nothing “inappropriate,” because the president was mindful about the number of U.S. officials and others who might hear it or be briefed on its contents.
At the same time, Trump acknowledged on Tuesday that he had suspended U.S. assistance to Ukraine before the phone call. The reason the president gave in New York City on Tuesday was that he wanted European governments to give more support to Ukraine’s government.
The European Union’s mission to the United States responded on Tuesday that its governments have given more than 15 billion to Ukraine since Russia’s incursions there in 2014, which began the latest phase of support from the West for Kyiv.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
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