WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump asked the president of Ukraine to do him a “favor” and investigate the origins of the Russia probe as well as former vice president Joe Biden, according to a transcript of the July 25 call.



The ask, which came during a 30-minute phone call monitored by other White House officials, came immediately after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Trump for the United States’ defense support and said his country was “almost ready” to buy more US military technology.

Trump then asked Zelensky to do a “favor” and investigate the “whole situation in Ukraine.” Trump made vague references to CrowdStrike, the company hired to investigate the hack of the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 election, and former special counsel Robert Mueller.

When Zelensky agreed, Trump then brought up what he referred to as the “other thing,” saying that it “would be great” if Zelensky could also look into unsubstantiated allegations against Biden — that he used his position to influence an investigation in Ukraine into his son Hunter.

“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 said on the call, appearing to refer to US Attorney General Bill Barr. “Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it… It sounds horrible to me.”

The White House released the transcript on Wednesday morning. The document is styled as a transcript of the call, but includes a warning at the bottom of the first page that it isn't a "verbatim transcript of a discussion." The text was written by staff "assigned to listen and memorialize the conversation in written form as the conversation takes place." Asked if there was an audio recording of the call, a Justice Department official said to ask the White House.

Trump and his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, have argued that Biden tried to use his influence as vice president to sideline an investigation into a Ukrainian company where his son served as a board member, but they have offered no evidence to back up the claim.

Trump has downplayed the significance of his July call with Zelensky and denied there was any quid pro quo. The release of the transcript and explicit references to Biden are unlikely to quiet the political firestorm, however. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced on Tuesday that Democrats would officially launch an impeachment inquiry into Trump; the Ukraine call — and how the administration handled a whistleblower complaint about it — was front and center.

A senior Justice Department official said that the Criminal Division explored whether the July call merited opening a criminal investigation into potential campaign finance violations by the president. The department concluded it did not — that the information discussed on the call didn’t amount to a “thing of value” that could be quantified, which is what the campaign finance laws require.

Here are five key takeaways from the transcript:

Trump directly asked another foreign leader to investigate a political rival

Trump repeatedly used Biden’s name and directly asked Zelensky to investigate him. Although Trump told Zelensky that he would have Attorney General Bill Barr call the Ukrainian leader, Justice Department spokesperson Kerri Kupec said in a statement that Barr didn’t learn about the call until several weeks later, that Trump had never spoken with Barr about investigating Biden or his son, and that Barr has not communicated with Ukrainian officials about Biden or “any other subject.”

Barr did not recuse from the matter — senior DOJ officials stressed on Wednesday that the attorney general was not involved in analyzing whether to open a criminal investigation into the allegations against Trump. The head of the Criminal Division, Brian Benczkowski, made the final call, although Barr has authority over all investigations as the head of the department absent a recusal.

Pelosi said in a statement that the Justice Department had been "complicit in the President’s lawlessness."

Trump also asked the Ukrainian president to help attack the Mueller investigation

The president’s first ask of Zelensky wasn’t about Biden — it was about the Mueller investigation, which by July had already ended. Trump said he wanted to have Barr call Zelensky or his people, adding, “I would like you to get to the bottom of it.”

“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 said on the call.

Trump then referred to Mueller’s public congressional testimony the day before.

“As you saw yesterday, the whole nonsense ended with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller, an incompetent performance, but they say a lot of it started with Ukraine. Whatever you can do, it’s very important that you do it if that’s possible.”

Trump and congressional Republicans have clamored for more information about the origins of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, claiming it was rooted in political bias. Kupec said in a statement Wednesday that US Attorney John Durham is leading a DOJ team that "is separately exploring the extent to which a number of countries, including Ukraine, played a role in the counterintelligence investigation directed at the Trump campaign during the 2016 election."

Trump repeatedly talked about involving his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani

Zelensky was the first one to bring up Giuliani, who is Trump’s personal attorney and is not a government official. The Ukrainian leader told Trump that one of his assistants had spoken with Giuliani “just recently” and that he hoped he’d be able to meet Giuliani on a future visit.

“I just wanted to assure you once again that you have nobody but friends around us,” Zelensky said.

Trump told Zelensky that he wanted Giuliani and Barr to speak with Zelensky.

“Rudy very much knows what’s happening and he is a very capable guy,” Trump said. “If you could speak to him that would be great.”

Zelensky name-dropped Trump’s property

Near the end of the call, Zelensky mentioned that the last time he visited New York — he didn’t say when — he stayed at Trump Tower. Trump is facing multiple lawsuits that accuse him of violating anti-corruption provisions of the US Constitution by continuing to keep his interests in his businesses, even as foreign officials have reportedly said that they’ve patronized those businesses in order to curry favor with the president.

The two presidents repeatedly talked business as Trump asked Zelensky to do him favors

Trump’s first request, about the Russia investigation, came on the heels of Zelensky thanking Trump for the United States’ enforcement of sanctions against Russia and the likelihood that Ukraine would buy more US military technology.

Later in the call, Zelensky also talked about cooperating with the United States on “energy independence.”

“We are buying American oil but I am very hopeful for a future meeting. We will have more time and more opportunities to discuss these opportunities and get to know each other better,” Zelensky told Trump.

Zelensky also frequently called Trump a “great teacher” and parroted his rhetoric during the call. Zelensky said that he had learned a lot from Trump. “We used quite a few of your skills and knowledge and were able to use it as an example for our elections,” Zelensky said.

Zelensky then used a favorite phrase of Trump’s.

“We are trying to work hard because we wanted to drain the swamp here in our country,” Zelensky said. “We brought in many many new people. Not the old politicians, not the typical politicians, because we want to have a new format and a new type of government. You are a great teacher for us and in that.”