The Trump administration has released the much-anticipated transcript summary of the president’s phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, the conversation that is part of the whistleblower complaint at the center of House Democrats’ new impeachment inquiry.
The rough transcript shows Mr. Trump urged Zelensky to probe Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, who sat on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas company.
The document is a summary of the call and not a verbatim transcript. A footnote says it is the record of the notes and recollections of the officers and National Security Council policy staff “assigned to listen and memorialize the conversation in written form.”
- Read the transcript of the call here.
According to the memo, the president said on July 25 call that he would like to find out what happened with “this whole situation with Ukraine,” and he said his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani would be traveling to Ukraine. Zelensky said he would meet with Giuliani when he visited. Giuliani ultimately did not travel to the country.
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Zelensky pledged to Mr. Trump that his new prosecutor would look into the case, and he asked for additional information. Mr. Trump told Zelensky he would have Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr call.
Mr. Trump asked Zelensky to “do us a favor” and “find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine” with regards to Crowdstrike, a cybersecurity company which helped investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election. — Grace Segers, Emily Tillett and Clare Hymes
Updates appear below:
House committee chairs say no “quid pro quo” necessary for impeachment
1:15 p.m.: The Democratic chairs of four House committee issued a joint statement over the president’s call summary, insisting no “quid pro quo” is necessary for impeachment. A key White House talking point obtained by CBS News asserted there was no explicit quid pro quo discussed in the call.
“Let’s be clear: no quid pro quo is required to betray our country,” the leading Democrats wrote. “Trump asked a foreign government to interfere in our elections — that is betrayal enough. The corruption exists whether or not Trump threatened — explicitly or implicitly — that a lack of cooperation could result in withholding military aid.”
The joint statement came from Adam Schiff, chairman of the Intelligence Committee; Jerry Nadler of the Judiciary Committee; Elijah Cummings of the Oversight and Reform Committee; and Eliot Engel of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
“Ukraine depends on the U.S. for economic, military, and diplomatic support — especially in its attempts to push back against Russian aggression — and is particularly vulnerable to pressure from any U.S. president. For a country so reliant on the United States, nothing more was needed,” they continued. –– Kathryn Watson
White House accidentally sends talking points on call summary to congressional Democrats
1:10 p.m.: The White House accidentally sent talking points defending Mr. Trump to congressional Democrats, and then tried to recall the email broadcasting these talking points once it was apparent Democrats had been included on the email.
The document, which was obtained by CBS News and titled “What You Need to Know,” included talking points asserting that “the transcript clearly shows there was no quid pro quo or anything else inappropriate.” The document also said the “real scandal” is “that leaks about a second-hand account of the President’s confidential telephone call with a foreign leader triggered a media frenzy of false accusations against the President.” — Grace Segers
Trump defends himself over Ukraine call
1:00 p.m.: Mr. Trump, when asked about the transcript summary during a meeting with other world leaders, claimed he exerted “no pressure whatsoever” on Ukraine’s president, though in the call summary, the president mentioned no less than four times that the attorney general and Giuliani would be calling Zelensky to discuss the probe of Biden that he was requesting.
He also turned the tables on the Democrats, insisting their conduct is what’s questionable.
“The Democrats, they went down to see the president of Ukraine and they asked him for all sorts of things and ‘don’t go with the Republicans’ and ‘stay with us,’ like it’s a political war. They shouldn’t have done that. That should be an impeachable event.”
The president also took to Twitter to defend himself, tweeting out incomplete snippets of journalists’ quotes on television that in some way backed up his narrative from the call. “You don’t see a direct quid pro quo in this,” Mr. Trump quoted Fox News’ Bret Baier as saying.
In another tweet, Mr. Trump wrote, “Will the Democrats apologize after seeing what was said on the call with the Ukrainian President? They should, a perfect call – got them by surprise!” — Kathryn Watson
Pelosi says Justice Department acted in “rogue fashion”
12:46 p.m.: In a statement responding to the release of the transcript summary, Pelosi said the memorandum “confirms that the President engaged in behavior that undermines the integrity of our elections, the dignity of the office he holds and our national security.”
“The President has tried to make lawlessness a virtue in America and now is exporting it abroad,” Pelosi also said. “The transcript and the Justice Department’s acting in a rogue fashion in being complicit in the President’s lawlessness confirm the need for an impeachment inquiry. Clearly, the Congress must act.”
She also reiterated a call for the whistleblower who raised concerns about the call with Zelensky to be protected. — Grace Segers
Lindsey Graham describes Trump’s mood as “stunned” regarding impeachment
12:30 p.m.: Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, staunchly defended Mr. Trump over the Ukraine call, and questioned the sanity of anyone who would impeach him over it.
“If you’re looking for a circumstance where the president of the United States was threatening the Ukraine with cutting off aid unless they investigated their political opponent, you would be very disappointed that does not exist,” he told reporters. “So, from my point of view to impeach any president over a phone call like this would be insane.”
The South Carolina senator revealed he had spoken to the president this morning. When asked about Mr. Trump’s mood regarding impeachment, Graham replied he was “stunned more than anything else.”
He said he advised the president to try to govern as Bill Clinton did during his impeachment and work on legislation on guns and on immigration.
He reiterated an invitation he made last night on Fox News to the whistleblower to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee. — Alan He and Emily Tillett
Romney says Trump call was “troubling in the extreme”
12:09 p.m.: One of the few Republicans who has criticized Mr. Trump regarding the Ukraine call is Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney. After the call summary was released, he told reporters, “I did read the transcript. It remains troubling in the extreme. It’s deeply troubling.”
He went on to say “there’s a process that the House is pursuing,” and he noted “the Senate is also looking at the testimony of the whistleblower, so there is an evaluation of gathering more facts.” — Alan He and Grace Segers
Schiff says call notes “far more damning” than he imagined
Even before the call summary was released, House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff told “CBS This Morning” that what President Trump has admitted publicly about his conversation with the Ukrainian president was “damning enough” to justify impeachment proceedings.
11:44 a.m.: After its release, Schiff said he was “shocked” by the notes.
“I’m shocked by the notes of the call … They’re far more damning than I and many others had imagined,” Schiff told reporters after the summary report release.
He added, “It is shocking at another level that the White House would release this — these notes — and felt that somehow this would help the president’s case or cause — because what those notes reflect is a classic mafia-like shakedown of a foreign leader.”
Schiff said that while the president maintains there was no “quid pro quo” discussed in the call, “there’s no quid pro quo necessary to betray your country … Ukraine understood what this president wanted. They knew what they needed to do if it needed military assistance.”
While his committee does not yet have access to the initial whistleblower complaint, Schiff said it’s “telling” that the Justice Department released its opinion on the matter even though the intelligence community inspector general takes issue with it.
“This is Bill Barr’s Justice Department trying to put out misleading spin,” Schiff said
The president’s call is the subject of a whistleblower complaint from the intelligence community that was supposed to be turned over to Schiff’s committee. It has not been submitted because the acting national intelligence director is blocking it.
The anonymous whistleblower has reached out directly to the intelligence committees, according to the whistleblower’s attorneys, and Schiff said Tuesday the whistleblower would like to testify about the complaint. –– Emily Tillett
Trump transcript summary released
10:30 a.m.: The Trump administration has released the much-anticipated transcript summary of President Trump’s phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, after Mr. Trump announced he had authorized publishing the transcript.
In the call the president said that he would like to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine and he said his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani would be traveling to Ukraine. Zelinsky said he would meet with Giuliani when he visited.
Zelinsky pledged that his new prosecutor would look into the case, and he asked Mr. Trump for additional information.
Read the transcript here.
Trump tweets that his conversation with Zelensky was “a perfect call”
9:30 a.m.: Mr. Trump tweeted on Wednesday that his conversation with Zelensky in July was “a perfect call,” and mused whether Democrats would apologize once they saw the transcript of the call.
“Will the Democrats apologize after seeing what was said on the call with the Ukrainian President? They should, a perfect call – got them by surprise!” Mr. Trump wrote.
The call, the whistleblower complaint and the impeachment inquiry
Mr. Trump has admitted he talked about Joe Biden in the July call with Zelensky in the context of fighting “corruption” in the country. Mr. Trump and his allies, in particular personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, have accused Biden of pushing for the ouster of a Ukrainian prosecutor while he was vice president in order to benefit his son. The prosecutor was widely seen as corrupt, and no evidence of wrongdoing by Biden has yet emerged.
In August, an anonymous member of the intelligence community filed a whistleblower complaint with the intelligence community inspector general, who determined it constituted an “urgent concern” requiring congressional notification under federal law. However, after consulting with the Justice Department and White House, the acting director of national intelligence came to a different conclusion, and has refused to provide the complaint to congressional committees.
Pelosi announced Tuesday the House of Representatives would move forward with an official impeachment inquiry. This marks just the fourth time in American history a president has faced a viable threat of impeachment.
The speaker has long resisted calls from many progressive lawmakers to initiate impeachment proceedings against the president, but Democrats appear to have reached a breaking point over the administration’s refusal to hand over a whistleblower complaint related to Mr. Trump’s interaction with a foreign leader.
“This week, the president has admitted to asking the president of Ukraine to take actions which would benefit him politically,” Pelosi said. “The actions of the Trump presidency revealed dishonorable facts of the president’s betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of national security and betrayal of the integrity of our elections.”
Pelosi said the administration’s refusal to provide the complaint was a “violation of the law” that “undermine[s] both our national security and our intelligence.”
One after another on Monday and Tuesday, Democrats from conservative and moderate House districts who had been resisting previous calls for impeachment came out in favor of initiating impeachment proceedings, citing concerns over Mr. Trump’s potential pressuring of a foreign leader to investigate a domestic political opponent.
The president directed his acting chief of staff to hold off on releasing nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine shortly before the call in July, according to a senior administration official with direct knowledge of the administration’s actions.
Mr. Trump, who is in New York for the opening of the United Nations General Assembly, reacted angrily to Pelosi’s statement, calling it a “total Witch Hunt!”
“You will see it was a very friendly and totally appropriate call. No pressure and, unlike Joe Biden and his son, NO quid pro quo!” the president tweeted Tuesday afternoon.
That concession, however, did nothing to temper Democrats’ demands for the complaint itself. Congressman Adam Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said the whistleblower wants to testify before the committee, and wrote a letter to attorneys representing the individual to request a voluntary interview on Thursday. — Stefan Becket
Whistleblower wants to talk to Congress directly, lawyer says
The anonymous whistleblower intends to reach out directly to the intelligence committees, according to the whistleblower’s attorneys, who wrote to the acting director of national intelligence (DNI) seeking guidance about how to do so securely.
In a letter released Tuesday, attorney Andrew Bakaj wrote to the DNI in accordance with federal statute to provide “formal notice of our intent to contact the congressional intelligence committees directly.” He requested “direction on doing so in accordance with appropriate security practices.”
In a response letter, Jason Klitenic, general counsel for the DNI, said the office was “consulting with other Executive Branch stakeholders” and would provide guidance soon.
“Please know that the DNI’s highest priority is ensuring that the women and men of the Intelligence Community have everything they need to carry out their mission in support of our nation’s security,” Klitenic wrote. “This includes supporting the rights of whistleblowers to provide information to Congress.”
Klitenic wrote the office has “every reason to believe that your client — our IC colleague — has acted in good faith and fully complied with the law.”
The White House and the intelligence community are discussing ways to allow the whistleblower who made the complaint last month to share information with Congress, CBS News learned.
The House Intelligence Committee sent a letter to Department of Justice Tuesday night objecting to the way in which it appears to have arrived at the conclusion that the complaint falls outside the DNI’s jurisdiction and is requesting documents underlying that conclusion. — Stefan Becket
Senate unanimously passes resolution demanding whistleblower complaint
The Republican-led Senate unanimously passed a resolution Wednesday calling on the acting director of national intelligence to provide the whistleblower complaint to the intelligence committees.
The administration has so far refused to provide the complaint to Congress, saying the report does not constitute an “urgent concern” requiring congressional notification.
The upper chamber adopted the resolution introduced by Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer by voice vote on Tuesday afternoon.
The resolution says the House and Senate Intelligence Committees “should be allowed to evaluate the complaint in a deliberate and bipartisan manner consistent with applicable statutes and processes in order to safeguard classified and sensitive information.” — Stefan Becket
