Trump releases Ukraine call transcript

In response to the impeachment inquiry, a transcript has been released of Trump’s phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart.

US President Donald Trump speaks in New York on Tuesday. Picture: AP

The White House released a call transcript in the early hours of Thursday morning (AEST) confirming Donald Trump asked his Ukrainian counterpart to probe his political rival Joe Biden — a day after Democrats seized on the explosive allegation to launch an impeachment process.

“There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that,” Trump told Volodymyr Zelensky in the July 25 call.

• READ THE FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW(mobile users click here)

As Barack Obama’s vice-president, Joe Biden and other Western leaders pressured Ukraine to get rid of the country’s top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, because he was seen as not tough enough on corruption.

“Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it,” Mr Trump said.

In a stunning and controversial move, Democrat house Speaker Nancy Pelosi kickstarted a process that could lead to Mr Trump becoming only the third US president to be impeached ­behind Bill Clinton in 1998 and Andrew Johnson in 1868.

The impeachment move could easily backfire on the Democrats by galvanising Mr Trump’s voting base and giving him a cause to rally support for a second term in office.

“The President must be held accountable, no one is above the law,” Ms Pelosi said as she announced a formal impeachment inquiry against Mr Trump.

“This week the President has admitted to asking the President of the Ukraine to take actions which would benefit him politically,” she said. “The actions of the Trump presidency revealed the dishonourable fact of the President’s betrayal of his oath of ­office, betrayal of our national ­security and betrayal of the integrity of our elections. Therefore, today I am announcing the House of Representatives will move forward with an official impeachment inquiry.”

The surprise move came after Ms Pelosi and moderate Democrats dropped their previous ­opposition to impeachment proceedings following the allegations that Mr Trump improperly pressured Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate his political opponent and Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden. When told of the move at the UN where he was meeting world leaders, an incredulous Mr Trump replied: “They all say that that’s a positive for me for the election.”

An angry President later launched a blizzard of tweets ­accusing the Democrats of “a total witch hunt scam” and “presidential harassment”.

Mr Trump authorised the ­release on Thursday (AEST) of the transcript of his phone call with Mr Zelensky, saying it would prove he did not pressure the Ukrainian President to investigate Mr Biden.

“You will see it was a totally ­appropriate call. NO pressure and, unlike Joe Biden and his son, NO quid pro quo! This is nothing more than a confutation of the Greatest and most Destructive Which Hunt of all time!” Mr Trump tweeted.

The President has been under growing pressure to respond to media reports that he repeatedly pressured Mr Zelensky to investigate Mr Biden and his son Hunter over their activities in Ukraine when Mr Biden was vice-president.

Democrats say Mr Trump has committed an impeachable ­offence if he used his office to ­influence a foreign leader for domestic political advantage.

Mr Trump has confirmed that he held back almost $US400m ($590m) in military aid to Ukraine just before speaking with Mr Zelensky, but has denied that it was a part of a quid pro quo deal.

Instead, he says he held back the money ­because of concerns that the US was contributing much more aid than European nations to Ukraine.

“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 because they’re not doing it,” Mr Trump said.

Meanwhile, the Democrat chairman of the house intelligence committee, Adam Schiff, said the whistleblower who triggered the controversy by filing a complaint about the President’s behaviour wanted to speak with his committee. The Democrats had accused the White House of trying to prevent congress from seeing the complaint by the whistleblower, an unnamed intelligence officer, concerning an alleged “promise” the President had made to a foreign leader. But the White House relented on Wednesday and has agreed to give congress access to the whistleblower by the end of the week.

Fox News has reported the administration will release a document showing the whistleblower had a “political bias” in favour of “a rival candidate” of the President.

Mr Trump’s announcement that he would release the transcript of the phone call came as the Democrats moved decisively ­towards impeachment proceedings for the first time.

Ms Pelosi directed the six house committees to gather ­evidence against the President ­before the Democrats make a final decision on whether to put ­impeachment to a vote on the floor of the house. Even if the house voted to impeach, the ­Republican-controlled Senate would almost certainly vote to ­acquit the President, meaning Mr Trump would keep his job.

Mr Biden said he would call for the President’s impeachment if Mr Trump tried to stonewall attempts by congress to investigate the issue.

With AFP