President Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Zelensky did not discuss any political issues in their phone call in April, according to a memo detailing the conversation released by the White House on Friday. According to the memorandum, President Trump congratulated Zelensky on his victory in the election and invited him to visit the White House.
JUST IN: White House releases transcript of Trump’s first call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. pic.twitter.com/0vdFYanjsN
— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) November 15, 2019
The document notes that this is not a verbatim transcript of the discussion and is based on the notes and recollections of the Situation Room Duty officers and NSC policy staff.
US President Donald Trump previously said that he intended to release the transcript of his second phone call with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday.
Impeachment Inquiry
In September, US House Democrats launched an impeachment probe into a whistleblower complaint that claimed Trump might have abused the power of his office by allegedly pressuring Zelensky during a 25 July phone call to investigate potential corrupt activities by former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Trump allegedly threatened to withhold $400 million in US military aid to Ukraine.
The US president characterised the impeachment inquiry as yet another political witchhunt by Democrats to reverse the result of the 2016 presidential election.