September 25, 2019

White House Releases Memo on Trump’s Phone Call With Ukrainian President

“I would like you to do us a favor.”

Ting Shen/ZUMA

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President Donald Trump pushed the leader of Ukraine to open an investigation into Joe Biden, according to a memo released by the White House on Wednesday recounting the July 25 telephone call between the two heads of state.

Trump repeatedly urged Volodymyr Zelensky, the newly elected Ukrainian president, to discuss the matter with Attorney General William Barr and Rudy Giuliani, who is Trump’s personal attorney.

“I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it,” Trump told Zelensky, according to the memo, before suggesting that the Ukrainian government should investigate a series of matters related to Trump’s domestic political opponents. “Whatever you can do, it’s very important that you do it if that’s possible.”  He continued to repeatedly reference baseless allegations against Biden.

The release of the document comes one day after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced plans to launch a formal impeachment inquiry.

Trump’s efforts to push for a Ukrainian investigation—which Democrats say amount to the president, yet again, encouraging foreign interference in a US election—first came to light earlier this month after reports surfaced of a whistleblower with knowledge of the phone conversation filed a complaint with the intelligence community’s inspector general. Trump has repeatedly dismissed allegations of malfeasance, claiming that the phone conversation was “perfect.” But the memo’s release on Wednesday appears to contradict that.

 

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And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

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In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

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