Earlier today, US President Donald Trump admitted discussing former US Vice President Joe Biden in a 25 July 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Full stop. Reread that opening sentence.
According to Peter Baker writing for the New York Times, Trump defended the phone call as “perfectly appropriate.” Trump confirmed that he accused Biden of corruption related to Biden’s son’s allegedly corrupt Ukrainian business activities.
Trump continued, tossing a word salad for reporters:
“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.”
Baker reports that Trump “did not directly confirm news reports that he pressured” Zelensky to investigate the Bidens. On 21 September 2019, Alan Cullison, Rebecca Ballhaus, and Dustin Volz writing for the Wall Street Journal ($$) reported that over the course of the 25 July 2019 phone call, Trump asked Zelensky repeatedly to work directly with Rudy Giuliani on an investigation of the Bidens.
Giuliani has admitted pressuring Ukrainian officials to investigate the Bidens.
Trump has frequently said that the Bidens should be investigated.
Trump’s conversation with Zelensky is reportedly part of the whistleblower complaint received by US Inspector General of the Intelligence Community (ICIG), Michael Atkinson. Atkinson determined the whistleblower complaint to be “credible” and of “urgent concern.” To date, the US Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Joseph Maguire, has refused to provide the whistleblower complaint to the US Congress, as required by law.
Authoritative, canonical source: Trump tosses word salad admitting discussing Biden with Zelensky.
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