White House Releases Summary Of Trump's Call With Ukraine's President

The White House released a summary of US President Donald Trump ’s phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday, but had yet to release a copy of the whistleblower complaint that set the ordeal in motion.

The release comes three days after Trump confirmed his political opponent Joe Biden was a subject of the conversation with Zelensky. Given the Trump administration’s history of editing  documents, it’s not a guarantee that this release tells the full story of the two world leaders’ phone call.

The White House reportedly plans to release the whistleblower complaint and the related inspector general’s report to Congress this week as well, outlets reported. Trump initially resisted giving his approval for this. 

The move comes amid a series of bombshell reports claiming Trump asked a foreign power to investigate the former vice president, one of his prime rivals in the 2020 election, and may be guilty of a criminal violation in doing so.

The unfolding scandal, which originated as a whistleblower complaint in August, prompted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to call for a formal impeachment probe on Tuesday after months of her pushing back on calls from other Democrats to do so. 

Several House committees have also started investigating whether Trump delayed more than $250 million in aid to Ukraine as he allegedly pressed Zelensky to look into Joe Biden.

Trump has dismissed all concerns.

“The conversation I had was largely congratulatory, with largely corruption, all of the corruption taking place and largely the fact that we don’t want our people like Vice President Biden and his son creating to the corruption already in the Ukraine,” Trump told reporters at the White House when the reports broke.

Trump was referring to his rival’s son Hunter Biden, who worked with Ukrainian energy company Burisma while his father was still serving under President Barack Obama in 2016. However, the pair has not been accused of legal wrongdoing related to that work.

Trump, meanwhile, claims the former vice president called for the removal of a notoriously corrupt prosecutor in Ukraine in 2014 in order to impede an investigation into the company his son was working with. However, Ukrainian authorities have cleared  Joe Biden of any wrongdoing in the case, and the record shows members of the Obama administration did in fact support Ukrainian officials’ criminal investigations.

Read the call summary: