The transcript is horrible for the president. Right after Zelensky says “we are almost ready to buy more Javelins from the United States for defense purposes,” Trump says “I would like you to do us a favor though” and launches into a request that Zelensky “get to the bottom of” what he called “this whole situation with Ukraine,” before jumping to an attack on the “very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller,” which he blames on “Ukraine.”

Zelensky’s response moves quickly to the fact that one of his assistants “spoke with Mr. Giuliani just recently” and suggests that Giuliani come to Ukraine again. Trump’s response touts how “highly respected” Giuliani is and says he’ll ask Giuliani to call Zelensky “along with the Attorney General” and says that, if Zelensky “could speak to him that would be great.["] Then comes the money shot: “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. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it… It sounds horrible to me.”

Zelensky promises that the next “prosecutor general will be 100% my person, my candidate” and says “he or she will look into the situation, specifically to the company that you mentioned in this issue.” Trump says he’ll have Giuliani and AG Barr call and says “I’m sure you will figure it out.” His closing remarks in that paragraph are chilling: “Your economy is going to get better and better I predict. You have a lot of assets. It’s a great country" like “It’d be a shame if anything happened to it,” though he doesn’t expressly say that. As the call ends, Trump’s exit line is that he’ll “tell Rudy and Attorney General Barr to call.”

The upshot is that the call begins with Ukraine’s president expressing the urgency of getting more United States military equipment “for defense purposes” and our president transitions immediately to saying he’d “like [Zelensky] to do us a favor though,” by which he makes clear that he is requesting help to Giuliani and Barr in going after Biden.