Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed on Wednesday afternoon that he was not pressured by President Donald Trump to launch an investigation into Hunter Biden, former Vice President Joe Biden’s son.
When asked by a reporter if he felt pressured by Trump during a July 25 call between the two leaders, Zelensky replied, “nobody pushed me.”
Q for Zelenskiy: Have you felt any pressure from President Trump to investigate Joe Biden and Hunter Biden?
Ukrainian President Zelenskiy: “I think you read everything. I think you read text.” https://t.co/SzENdgkCCP pic.twitter.com/ho8KOycEI0
— Dan Linden (@DanLinden) September 25, 2019
“I think you read everything,” Zelensky said, referring to the call transcript released by the White House hours earlier.
“We had good phone call. It was normal. We spoke about many things,” Zelensky added, noting that he did not want to be involved in American elections.
After Zelensky’s answer, Trump added “there was no pressure.”
Trump was accused of withholding $391 million in military aid to Ukraine and pressuring Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden and Hunter Biden for political gain.
The call transcript released Wednesday revealed no mention of military aid, and included a single mention of the Bidens in which Trump asked Zelensky to “look into” the matter after initially asking for an investigation into intelligence company Crowdstrike.
“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,” Trump had said during the call.
“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 said. “Whatever you can do, it’s very important that· you. do it if that’s possible.”
After that, Trump mentioned Biden.
“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,” Trump added.
Hunter Biden was reportedly paid $50,000 a month as a board member for a Ukrainian energy company that was being investigated for corruption until Joe Biden admittedly threatened to withhold $1 billion in military aid in exchange for the firing of the prosecutor.
Trump mentioned during the call with Zelensky that Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr would call him, adding “I’m sure you will figure it out.”
On Tuesday, Trump confirmed he withheld the aid in June, but did so before the call took place in July to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, claimed the funds were only paused out of unspecified concerns of corruption in the Ukraine and concerns other European allies weren’t also helping Ukraine. He added that the funds were eventually paid in full and he made no effort to pressure the Ukrainian president.
