'I would like you to do us a favor.' What Trump and Zelensky said in their July 25 phone call
Jeanine SantucciWASHINGTON -- The White House released a five-page summary on Wednesday of President Donald Trump's July 25 phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In between words upon words of mutual praise are the beginnings of answers to key questions House Democrats have been asking as they move forward with an impeachment inquiry.
Did Trump improperly pressure Zelensky to investigate his political rival, Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter, as Democrats contend? Does the call summary show there was no quid pro quo, as Trump claims?
More:Read the summary of President Trump's call with Ukraine president about Biden
Here, are the most important takeaways from the memo on Trump's conversation with Zelensky:
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It's not really a 'transcript'
When Trump announced he would be releasing details of the phone call, he promised a "complete, fully declassified and unredacted transcript." As it turns out, that's not exactly the case.
At the bottom of the first page of the document, a warning says that the document is a Memorandum of a Telephone Conversation rather than a "verbatim transcript."
Memos like these are written by note-taking staff while they listen in on Trump's phone calls. It's normal for many officials to be on Trump's calls, according to the White House, including interpreters, aides and, of course, note-takers.
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"A number of factors can affect the accuracy of the record," the notice says, including signal interruptions, accents and the quality of real-time interpretation.
This also means the accuracy of the document's contents is subject to human error, and may include gaps or incorrect transcription. At a few points, ellipses may indicate more words were spoken that did not make it in the document or that Trump merely trailed off.
'I would like you to do us a favor though'
Democrats have honed in on one particular exchange in the summary in which Trump asked Zelensky for a favor.
While thanking Trump for the United States' support of Ukraine and sanctions against Russia, Zelensky said, "We are ready to continue to cooperate for the next steps specifically we are almost ready to buy more Javelins [anti-tank missiles] from the United States for defense purposes."
"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 began his reply.
He went on to ask Zelensky to look into details about a company that investigated hacking of the Democratic National Committee prior to the 2016 election that was linked back to Russia.
"We are ready to open a new page on cooperation in relations between the United States and Ukraine," Zelensky said in his response.
Democrats say the exchange indicates pressure by Trump.
Trump and his allies argue there was no "quid pro quo" in the conversation.
Trump has confirmed that he delayed military aid from Ukraine over concerns, he said, that the United States was contributing too much in relation to other European countries. He denied that it was used as leverage for political purposes.
He repeated dismay about Europe's aid to Ukraine in the call.
"I will say that we do a lot for Ukraine. ... Much more than the European countries are doing and they should be helping you more than they are," Trump told Zelensky, according to the summary.
"I wouldn't say that it's reciprocal necessarily because things are happening that are not good but the United States has been very very good to Ukraine," he continued.
Biden's name comes up
It's not until page four that Trump and Zelensky made a reference to Biden by name.
Trump bought up the business surrounding Ukrainian prosecutor general Viktor Shokin, who was looking into an energy company where Biden's son, Hunter Biden, served on the board of directors.
Joe Biden and European allies had been pushing Ukraine to more to tackle corruption and pushed for Shokin's ouster, saying he was not doing enough to root out malfeasance.
There has been no evidence Hunter Biden's relationship with the company influenced Joe Biden's actions with regard to Ukraine policy. The Ukrainian Parliament eventually voted Shokin out.
"I heard you had a prosecutor who was very good and that he was shut down and that's really unfair," Trump said to Zelensky in the transcript summary.
"The other thing, 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 so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great," Trump adds. "Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it... It sounds horrible to me."
Zelensky said he is "knowledgeable about the situation." He also said the next prosecutor general would be backed by him.
They agreed that Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and Attorney General William Barr should call Ukraine officials.
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Your plane is much better than mine
Trump congratulated Zelensky in the call for winning his presidential election, and Zelensky took the opportunity to flatter the U.S. president several times:
- On Zelensky's political win, "We worked a lot but I would like to confess to you that I had an opportunity to learn from you. We used quite a few of your skills and knowledge and were able to use it as an example for our elections..."
- "I think I should run more often so you can call me more often and we can talk over the phone more often," Zelensky said about Trump's congratulatory phone calls.
- On Trump's point that other countries are not sending as much aid to Ukraine, "Yes you are absolutely right. Not only 100%, but actually 1000%..."
- "We can either take my plane and go to Ukraine or we can take your plane, which is probably much better than mine," Zelensky said of a potential Trump visit.
What Trump thinks of all this
Trump maintains that the phone call was "nothing."
"The way you had that built up, that call was going to be the call from hell,” Trump said Wednesday after the call summary was released. "It turned out to be a nothing call.”
Later during a joint appearance with Zelensky, Trump railed against House Democrats for their push for impeachment, saying that Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been swayed by the progressives in her party.
More:Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky on Trump phone call: 'Nobody pushed me'
Zelensky, too, backed up Trump's insistence that there was no pressure implied on the call. He also said that he wanted to stay out of U.S. elections.
"I think you read everything," Zelensky said.
"Nobody pushed me," he added.