Updated 12:51
PM ET, Wed September 25, 2019
President
Donald Trump repeatedly pushed for Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky to
investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter, during a July
25 phone call, according to a transcript of the conversation released
by the White House [and presented below without ads for easy reading. Please
note that in the transcript Zelensky’s name has been misspelled. Also, while it
was tempting, we did not correct spelling or usage. We simply highlighted the
important passages. The green highlighting suggests a smoking gun].
Read the
transcript here:
UNCLASSIFIED
Declassified by order of the President
September 24, 2019
MEMORANDUM OF TELEPHONE CONVERSATION
SUBJECT: Telephone Conversation with
President Zelenskyy of Ukraine
Participants: President Zelenskyy of
Ukraine
Notetakers: The White House Situation
Room
Date, Time July 25, 2019, 9:03-9:33
am EDT
and Place: Residence
The President: Congratulations
on a great victory. We all watched from the United States and you did a
terrific job. The way you came from behind, somebody who wasn’t given much of a
chance, and you ended up winning easily. It’s a fantastic achievement. Congratulations.
President Zelenskyy:
You are absolutely right Mr. President. We did win big and we worked hard for
this. 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 and yes it is true that
these were unique elections. We were in a unique situation that we were able to
achieve a unique success. I’m able to tell you the following; the first time
you called me to congratulate me when I won my presidential election, and the
second time you are now calling me when my party won the parliamentary
election. I think I should run more often so you can call me more often and we
can talk over the phone more often.
The President:
(laughter) That’s a very good idea. I think your country is very happy about
that.
President Zelenskyy:
Well yes, to tell you the truth, we are trying to work hard because we wanted
to drain the swamp here in our country. 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.
The President: Well
it is very nice of you to say that. I will say that we do a lot for Ukraine. We spend a lot of
effort and a lot of time. Much more than the European countries are doing and
they should be helping you more than they are. Germany does almost nothing for
you. All they do is talk and I think it’s something that you should really ask
them about. When I was speaking to Angela Merkel she talks Ukraine, but she doesn’t
do anything. A lot of the European countries are the same way so I think it’s
something you want to look at but the United States has been very very good to
Ukraine. 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.
President Zelenskyy:
Yes you are absolutely right. Not only 100%, but actually 1000% and I can tell
you the following; I did talk to Angela Merkel and I did meet with her I also
met and talked with Macron and I told them that they are not doing quite as
much as they need to be doing on the issues with the sanctions. They are not
enforcing the sanctions. They are not working as much as they should work for
Ukraine. It turns out that even though logically, the European Union should be
our biggest partner but technically the United States is a much bigger partner
than the European Union and I’m very grateful to you for that because the
United States is doing quite a lot for Ukraine. Much more than the European
Union especially when we are talking about sanctions against the Russian
Federation. I would also like to thank you for your great support in the area
of defense. We are ready to continue to cooperate for the next steps
specifically we are almost. ready to buy more Javelins from the United States
for defense purposes.
The President: 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. I would
like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they
say Crowdstrike...
[NOTE: CrowdStrike is the cybersecurity firm that investigated the hack on
the Democratic National Committee in 2016.]
I guess you have one of your wealthy
people... The server, they say Ukraine has it. There are a lot of things that went on, the whole
situation. I think you’re surrounding yourself with some of the same people. I
would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I would
like you to get to the bottom of it. As you saw yesterday, that 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.
President Zelenskyy:
Yes it is very important for me and everything that you just mentioned earlier.
For me as a President, it is very important and we are open for any future
cooperation. We are ready to open a new page on cooperation in relations
between the United States and Ukraine. For that purpose, I just recalled our
ambassador from United States and he will be replaced by a very competent and
very experienced ambassador who will work hard on making sure that our two
nations are getting closer. I would also like and hope to see him having your
trust and your confidence and have personal relations with you so we can
cooperate even more so. I
will personally tell you that one of my assistants spoke with Mr. Giuliani just
recently and we are hoping very much that Mr. Giuliani will be able to travel
to Ukraine and we will meet once he comes to Ukraine. I just wanted to
assure you once again that you have nobody but friends around us. I will make
sure that I surround myself with the best and most experienced people. I also
wanted to tell you that we are friends. We are great friends and you Mr.
President have friends in our country so we can continue our strategic
partnership. I also plan to surround myself with great people and in addition
to that investigation, I guarantee as the President of Ukraine that all the
investigations will be done openly and candidly. That I can assure you.
The President:
Good because I heard you had a prosecutor who was very good and he was shut
down and that’s really unfair. A lot of people are talking about that, the way
they shut your very good prosecutor down and you had some very bad people
involved. Mr. Giuliani is
a highly respected man. He was the mayor of New York City, a great mayor, and I
would like him to call you. I will ask him to call you along with the
Attorney General. Rudy very much knows what’s happening and he is a very
capable guy. If you could speak to him that would be great. The former
ambassador from the United States, the woman, was bad news and the people she
was dealing with in the Ukraine were bad news so I just want to let you know
that. 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. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the
prosecution so if you can look into it... It sounds horrible to me.
[NOTE: The apparent smoking gun.]
President Zelenskyy:
I wanted to tell you about the prosecutor. First of all, I understand and I’m
knowledgeable about the situation. Since we have won the absolute majority in
our Parliament, the next prosecutor general will be 100% my person, my
candidate, who will be approved, by the parliament and will start as a new
prosecutor in September. He or she will look into the situation, specifically
to the company that you mentioned in this issue. The issue of the investigation
of the case is actually the issue of making sure to restore the honesty so we
will take care of that and will work on the investigation of the case. On top
of that, I would kindly ask you if you have any additional information that you
can provide to us, it would be very helpful for the investigation to make sure
that we administer justice in our country with regard to the Ambassador to the
United States from Ukraine as far as I recall her name was Ivanovich. It was
great that you were the first one who told me that she was a bad ambassador
because I agree with you 100%. Her attitude towards me was far from the best as
she admired the previous President and she was on his side. She would not
accept me as a new President well enough.
The President:
Well, she’s going to go through some things. I will have Mr. Giuliani give you a call and I am also
going to have Attorney General Barr call and we will get to the bottom of it. I’m
sure you will figure it out. I heard the prosecutor was treated very badly and
he was a very fair prosecutor so good luck with everything. Your economy
is going to get better and better I predict. You have a lot of assets. It’s a
great country. I have many Ukrainian friends, their incredible people.
President Zelenskyy:
I would like to tell you that I also have quite a few Ukrainian friends
that live in the United States. Actually last time I traveled to the United States, I stayed in New
York near Central Park and I stayed at the Trump Tower. I will talk to
them and I hope to see them again in the future. I also wanted to thank you for
your invitation to visit the United States, specifically Washington DC. On the other hand, I also want
to ensure you that we will be very serious about the case and will work on the
investigation. As to the economy, there is much potential for our two
countries and one of the issues that is very important for Ukraine is energy
independence. I believe we can be very successful and cooperating on energy
independence with United States. We are already working on cooperation. 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. I would like to thank you very much for your support.
The President:
Good. Well, thank you very
much and I appreciate that. I will tell Rudy and Attorney General Barr to call.
Thank you. Whenever you would like to come to the White House, feel free to
call. Give us a date and we’ll work that out. I look forward to seeing you.
President Zelenskyy:
Thank you very much. I would be very happy to come and would be happy to
meet with you personally and get to know you better. I am looking forward to our
meeting and I also would like to invite you to visit Ukraine and come to the
city of Kyiv which is a beautiful city. We have a beautiful country which would
welcome you. On the other hand, I believe that on September 1 we will be in
Poland and we can meet in Poland hopefully. After that, it might be a very good
idea for you to travel to Ukraine. We can either take my plane and go to
Ukraine or we can take your plane, which is probably much better than mine.
The President:
Okay, we can work that out. I look forward to seeing you in Washington and
maybe in Poland because I think we are going to be there at that time.
President Zelenskyy:
Thank you very much Mr. President.
The President:
Congratulations on a fantastic job you’ve done. The whole world was watching. I’m
not sure it was so much of an upset but congratulations.
President Zelenskyy:
Thank you Mr. President bye-bye.
- - End of conversation - -
Sources: