Trump released a record of the April call on Friday morning, which also appeared at odds with a readout of the call released by the White House to reporters that said Trump had “expressed his commitment" to work with Zelensky to "strengthen democracy, increase prosperity, and root out corruption.”

According to the record, Trump congratulated Zelensky on his election victory but did not mention corruption.

A person familiar with the events preceding and following the call said the NSC news release had been drafted based on the talking points provided to the president — and, because the call occurred on a Sunday, likely wasn’t updated before it went out to reporters.

“In advance of a Presidential call, the National Security Advisor reviews and approves a draft press release prepared by the Directorate and reviewed by NSC Legal and NSC Press Office, which is based on prepared talking points for the call,” this person said.

“Typically, the NSC will update the press release to reflect the topics actually discussed,” the person added. “On April 21, 2019, President Trump did not raise the issue of corruption during the call with President-elect Zelensky, despite the NSC’s recommendation that he do so and specific talking points included in briefing materials addressing that important topic.”

White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said in a statement that the readout in this case was “prepared by the NSC’s Ukraine expert” at the time, Alexander Vindman.

Vindman, who testified earlier this month in the ongoing impeachment inquiry, helped prepare the talking points for the April call that suggested Trump bring up the corruption issue, the source said.

Vindman also prepared talking points for Trump before the July 25 call, according to a transcript of Vindman’s closed-door deposition released last week.

“I drafted read-ahead materials, the talking points,” Vindman said, referring to preparations made for the April 21 call. “All the materials, it goes through a staffing process, and then it gets forwarded from Ambassador Bolton to the President and Executive Secretary.”

Asked whether he put “anything in your talking points about investigations into the 2016 election on the Bidens or Burisma,” Vindman replied, “Absolutely not.”

