President Donald Trump repeatedly prodded Ukraine's new leader to work with the US attorney general and lawyer Rudy Giuliani to investigate Democratic political rival Joe Biden, according to a rough transcript summarizing the call released Wednesday.
In the call, Trump raised allegations, without citing any evidence, that the former vice president sought to interfere with a Ukrainian prosecutor's investigation of his son Hunter.
"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 said to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
The conversation between the two leaders is one piece of a whistleblower's complaint, which followed the July 25 call. The complaint is central to the formal impeachment inquiry launched Tuesday by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The White House account of the call reveals that Trump was willing to engage a foreign leader to dig up dirt on a political foe and he goes so far as to volunteer his attorney general to help. But Trump appears to stop short in the call of any explicit quid pro quo, such as linking Ukraine's help to American military aid or other assistance.
Days before the call, Trump froze nearly USD 400 million in aid to Ukraine. It was not clear from the summary whether Zelenskiy was aware of that. The president has insisted he did nothing wrong and has denied that any request for help was tied to the aid freeze.
It's illegal under federal law to seek foreign government assistance for US elections.
The release of the rough transcript sets the parameters of the political debate to come. Trump, at the U.N. on Wednesday, dismissed it and said as he often does that's he's the victim of "the single greatest witch hunt in American history."
One example in the summary: Trump says to Zelenskiy, "I would like for you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it."
"I will ask him to call you along with the attorney general." Immediately after saying Giuliani and Barr would be in touch, Trump references Ukraine's economy, saying: "Your economy is going to get better and better I predict. You have a lot of assets. It's a great country."
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