Former Vice President Joe Biden is calling on President Trump to release the transcript of his phone call with the Ukrainian president, which is reportedly the subject of a recent whistleblower complaint.
According to reports, the president repeatedly urged the Ukrainian government to open an investigation into the 2020 Democratic front-runner’s son Hunter Biden during the call in question. He reportedly urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky roughly eight times to work with his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani to investigate Hunter Biden’s ties to an energy company owned by a Ukrainian oligarch.
After saying that “not one single outlet has given any credibility” to the notion that he had pressured the Ukrainian government on behalf of his lobbyist son during his time as vice president, Biden released a new statement Friday evening telling Trump to release the transcript of the call.
“If the reports are true, then there is truly no bottom to President Trump’s willingness to abuse his power and abase our country,” he said. “At minimum, Donald Trump should immediately release the transcript of the call in question, so that the American people can judge for themselves, and direct the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to stop stonewalling and release the whistleblower notification to Congress.”
New: @JoeBiden tells Trump to release the transcript of the call surrounding the whistleblower complaint.
“This behavior is particularly abhorrent because it exploits the foreign policy of our country and undermines our national security for political purposes.” pic.twitter.com/9GzaFFRuMz
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) September 20, 2019
House Democrats are demanding the Trump administration hand over a whistleblower complaint, which is thought to center on Trump’s communications with a foreign leader in which he made a “promise” that involves Ukraine. The acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, however, has so far refused to comply.
Over the past few months, Giuliani has met with and encouraged Ukrainian officials to investigate Hunter Biden’s employment as a board member in 2014 by natural gas firm Burisma Holdings, when Joe Biden was still vice president. The elder Biden raised concerns about a possible conflict of interest when he threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees if Ukraine did not fire its top prosecutor, who had been accused of corruption and was investigating the oligarch who owned the energy company.
Maguire is expected to testify before the House and Senate intelligence panels next week.
