Washington: Update: US President Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at Democrats for opening impeachment proceedings against him, calling the probe into his efforts to get Ukraine to investigate rival Joe Biden a "manufactured crisis."
Trump spoke out following a meeting with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in New York - and shortly after the White House's release of a rough transcript of his July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky.
Referring to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who opened the impeachment inquiry on Tuesday, Trump said, "She is wasting her time on a manufactured crisis."
"All they are talking about is nonsense," he added.
The issue
President Donald Trump told his Ukrainian counterpart to work with the US attorney general to investigate the conduct of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and offered to meet with the foreign leader at the White House after he promised to conduct such an inquiry, according to a newly-released transcript of the call.
Those statements and others in a July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky were so concerning that the intelligence community inspector general thought them a possible violation of campaign finance law. In late August, intelligence officials referred the matter to the Justice Department as a possible crime, but prosecutors concluded last week that the conduct was not criminal, according to senior Justice Department officials.
The administration's disclosures underscore how the president's phone call has consumed the federal government in recent days, and how the White House is now scrambling to defuse the situation by offering more details of what the president said.
White House officials said the transcript does not show the president seeking an investigation of Biden's son in exchange for providing aid to Ukraine. When the president reminds Zelensky of how the US helps Ukraine, Zelensky responds that he appreciates the tough sanctions the US has imposed on Russia.
On Wednesday, the administration released a White House transcript of the call and detailed behind-the-scenes discussions about how to handle the accusations. As public reports emerged about the call and pressure mounted to impeach the president, prosecutors quietly considered whether they should again investigate whether the president committed a crime. They declined to do so.
The call begins with Trump congratulating Zelensky on his election victory, but quickly devolves into the president pressing for an investigation of his political rivals and endorsing an apparent conspiracy theory. He seems to suggest Hillary Clinton's private email server is in Ukraine and asserts that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation started with that country.
"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," Trump says, according to the transcript.
He adds later: "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."
Zelensky replied that "my candidate" for the prosecutor job "will look into the situation, specifically to the company that you mentioned in this issue."
At the outset of the call, Trump also asks for Ukraine's help in finding the location of the Democratic National Committee server that US officials say was hacked by Russian intelligence in the run-up to the 2016 election.
"The server, they say Ukraine has it," Trump says according to the transcript. "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."
The the transcript, in keeping with White House practice, is a memorandum of a telephone conversation and is not a verbatim account of the conversation. The text reflects the notes and memories of officials in the Situation Room. A disclaimer in the transcript warns that a number of factors "can affect the accuracy of the record, including poor telecommunications connections and variations in accent."
Senior Justice Department officials said the director of national intelligence referred the concerns about the call to the Justice Department, after the intelligence community inspector general found that it was a possible violation of campaign finance laws that ban people from soliciting contributions from foreign sources. The inspector general later also referred the matter to the FBI.
Career prosecutors and officials in the Justice Department's criminal division then reviewed the transcript of the call, which they obtained voluntarily from the White House, and determined the facts "could not make out and cannot make out" the appropriate basis for an investigation, a senior Justice Department official said. As part of their reasoning, Justice Department lawyers determined that help with a government investigation could not be considered "a thing of value" under the law.
In a statement, Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said that the Justice Department's criminal division "reviewed the official record of the call and determined, based on the facts and applicable law, that there was no campaign finance violation and that no further action was warranted."
"All relevant components of the Department agreed with this legal conclusion, and the Department has concluded the matter," Kupec said.
Kupec also said that Trump had never spoken with Barr "about having Ukraine investigate anything related to former Vice President Joe Biden or his son," nor had he talked about "anything related to Ukraine" with Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer.
Trump ordered the transcripts released following days of mounting pressure from Congress, and a new groundswell of support among Democrats who favor impeachment. The president's decision followed reports that he pressed Zelensky, to investigate Biden, considered a leading candidate for the Democratic nomination to challenge Trump in 2020, and his son, Hunter Biden.
The July 25 call between Trump and Zelensky has been the subject of intense scrutiny since The Washington Post reported last week that a whistleblower had come forward with concerns about the matter.
Trump has acknowledged publicly that he asked Zelensky to investigate Biden's son, who served on the board of a Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company that came under scrutiny by authorities there. Hunter Biden was not accused of any wrongdoing in the investigation. As vice president, Joe Biden pressured Ukraine to fire its top prosecutor, who Biden and other Western officials said was not sufficiently pursuing corruption cases. At the time, the Ukrainians' investigation was dormant, according to former Ukrainian and US officials.
Trump has denied doing anything improper, but lawmakers have raised concerns about his directive to freeze nearly $400 million in military assistance for Ukraine in the days leading up the phone call with Zelensky.
On Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced she was launching a formal impeachment inquiry, saying "the actions of the Trump presidency have revealed the dishonorable fact of the president's betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security and betrayal of the integrity of our elections."
The rapidly-escalating confrontation between the White House and Congress comes just months after Trump freed himself from the cloud of investigation led by Mueller. Now, he is back in the crosshairs of a resurgent impeachment effort over a fresh allegation of election season misconduct.
"You will see it was a very friendly and totally appropriate call," Trump tweeted shortly before Pelosi's announcement. "No pressure and, unlike Joe Biden and his son, NO quid pro quo! This is nothing more than a continuation of the Greatest and most Destructive Witch Hunt of all time!"
Lawmakers have demanded to see not just the transcript of Trump's call with Zelensky, but the whistleblower complaint as well. Administration officials are discussing the possibility of providing that document to Congress in the coming days.
Here are five key takeaways from Trump's call
Trump asked Zelenskiy to work with his allies on Biden probe
On multiple occasions, Trump said he would have Attorney General William Barr and his own personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, contact Zelenskiy directly. Zelenskiy said one of his assistants had recently spoken with Giuliani and hoped that Giuliani would travel back to Ukraine to meet with him.
The Justice Department said unequivocally that Trump didn't speak to Barr about having Ukraine investigate anything related to Biden, and hasn't asked Barr to contact Ukraine. The department also said Barr hasn't communicated with Ukraine about anything or discussed the matter with Giuliani.
DOJ reviewed whether Trump violated election laws
The Justice Department conducted a criminal review of whether Trump committed a violation of campaign finance laws after receiving a referral from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
The department's criminal division led the review and concluded last week that there was no violation and no further action was warranted, the department said in a statement. It's unclear, however, how thorough the review was.
A Justice Department official who asked to remain anonymous said officials didn't take into consideration that Trump was withholding aid from Ukraine when it analyzed whether the president violated election laws. The department also relied on information from the White House in doing the analysis, the official said.
Trump brought up the 2016 election
In one of the more unusual exchanges, Trump asked Zelenskiy to "do us a favor" and try to find a hacked server belonging to the Democratic National Committee.
The server was hacked as part of Russia's efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election. Trump has associated the server with the investigation into Democrat Hillary Clinton's use of private email, even though the two matters are separate.
Trump had been warned about investigating rivals
Trump's pressure on Ukraine to investigate Biden, his potential rival, brought up echoes of his tactics against past political opponents. He even referenced one episode in the call, blasting Special Counsel Robert Mueller for his probe of Trump over the 2016 election.
The call came one day after Mueller testified before Congress. Trump told Zelenskiy that Mueller's performance was "incompetent."
Zelenskiy told Trump he stayed at Trump Tower
Zelenskiy spent some time flattering Trump during the call. He began by saying he had learned how to win from watching Trump's campaign and that he too wanted to "drain the swamp."
"You are a great teacher for us," ' he said, according to the rough transcript.
Zelenskiy also made sure to talk about Trump's real estate developments, noting that the last time he was in the U.S. he "stayed at the Trump Tower."
White House mistakenly sends Trump-Ukraine talking points to Democrats
In the hours after the release Wednesday of the rough transcript of President Donald Trump's July phone call with Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the White House circulated an email with proposed talking points for Trump's defenders.
Unfortunately for the White House, the email was mistakenly sent to not only Republicans but also Democratic lawmakers and their staffs.
The message, titled, "What you need to know: President Trump's call with President Zelenskyy," was quickly recalled - but not before Democrats took to Twitter to ridicule the White House over the error.
"I would like to thank @WhiteHouse for sending me their talking points on how best to spin the disastrous Trump/Zelensky call in Trump's favor," Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., said in a tweet. "However, I will not be using their spin and will instead stick with the truth. But thanks though."
Another Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Bill Pascrell, N.J., shared the full talking points in a tweet, calling them "complete Orwellian lies and toxic trash."
"But maybe you'd like to read them to appreciate their corruption! Hazmat suit possibly required," he said.
Several Democratic Hill staffers said they had received the talking points as well as a follow-up email recalling the message.
According to the rough transcript of the call, Trump repeatedly said Zelensky should work with Attorney General William Barr or Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani had separately pressed Ukrainian officials to investigate the conduct of former vice president Joe Biden.
Among the talking points distributed by the White House is the claim that there was no quid pro quo and that "what the President actually talked about was entirely proper."
The White House argues that Trump "did not mention Rudy Giuliani or Vice President Biden until after President Zelenskyy had raised Giuliani first." But the email glosses over the fact that Trump did mention Biden of his own accord.
The White House also claims in the email that "the real scandal" is about leaks in the run-up to the release of the rough transcript. And the email claims that the whistleblower complaint "was handled absolutely by the book and it was properly determined that no further action should be taken."
Democrats have maintained that a quid pro quo is not necessary for the president's conduct to be impeachable. They have also pressed for the White House to release the whistleblower complaint to the House and Senate intelligence committees, for the whistleblower to be allowed to testify and for Barr to recuse himself until the matter is resolved.
