Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has rejected the notion that President Trump employed blackmail in his July 25 phone call with the leader from the White House.
As House Democrats push to move forward with a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump’s call with Zelensky, the Ukrainian president attempted to set the record straight. Zelensky confirmed that Trump did speak to him on July 25 and that the transcript released by the White House was accurate. He rejected, however, the whistleblower complaint’s assertion that he was being coerced into investigating former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, through withheld monetary aid from the United States. “There was no blackmail,” Zelensky said from a Kiev food market. “They blocked this money and nobody asked us [for] anything.”
Zelensky acknowledged that $400 million in military aid from the U.S. had been withheld over concerns of corruption but flatly denied that blackmail or extortion had been a factor in such a decision. That money and aid were later released to Ukraine.
“In order to fulfill his duties to the American people, the Constitution, the executive branch, and all future occupants of the office of the presidency, President Trump and his administration cannot participate in your partisan and unconstitutional inquiry under these circumstances,” the White House wrote in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi released Tuesday.
