Five Moments In Donald Trump's Phone Call To Ukraine That Could Fuel The Impeachment Investigation

[Roland99]

Five Moments In Donald Trump’s Phone Call To Ukraine That Could Fuel The Impeachment Investigation
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/amphtml/zoetillman/trump-ukraine-call-transcript-biden-impeachment

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 reviewed by BuzzFeed News.

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.

Link to tweet

Andrew C Laufer, Esq
@lauferlaw
Prima Facie abuse of power and possibly a violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Absolutely a basis for impeachment. I’m guessing Trump et al’s response to this will be Yeah, I did it... so what...”.

Link to tweet

…
Zoe Tillman
✔
@ZoeTillman
BREAKING: Trump explicitly asked the Ukrainian president to investigate Joe Biden, saying it "would be great," according to a transcript of the July call.

Here are five key moments from the call likely to fuel the impeachment

[underpants]

1. "Frankly, it's very hard to determine what he's talking about"

Reporter on MSNBC reading the transcript from his phone. He paused and said the above.

We are going to get to see 5 pages on the stream of unconsciousness of Trump’s mind.

[uponit7771]

2. +1, the MSM is trying to spin this as grey right now

[underpants]

4. He didn't mean it as gray - he meant it as HE's A LOON

[Hortensis]

7. A federal prosecutor says this is by far the most common form

of corruption: When a government official has the power to fulfill another party's request and in that position of power asks the other party for something.

If the ask is intended to extort, that ask or suggestion alone constitutes a crime.

No quid pro quo need ever be mentioned, agreed to, or delivered. Either the same prosecutor or another (the other day) also named 3 probable felonies identified from what we believed to have been Trump's request.

[Roland99]

3. The five key moments...

Trump directly asked another foreign leader to investigate a political rival

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



Trump repeatedly talked about involving his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani

Zelensky name-dropped Trump’s property

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

[uponit7771]

5. +1

[marybourg]

6. NPR isn't having any trouble understanding

what was said. It's very bad for tRump.