Transcript shows Trump pressed Ukraine leader to look into Biden

President Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to work with his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and expressed hope that he “can look into” former Vice President Joe Biden’s role in the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor, according to a five-page transcript of the call released by the White House on Wednesday.

“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," Trump tells Zelensky in the July 25 call.

"Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it... It sounds horrible to me,” Trump says.

Biden’s name is mentioned twice on the call, according to the document, which is titled formally as a “memorandum of telephone conversation.” The document makes clear it is not a verbatim transcript of the conversation.

The White House released the transcript a day after House Democrats formally launched an impeachment inquiry into the president that was triggered by his dealings with Ukraine.

Democrats are concerned that Trump pressured a foreign government to look into a political opponent, and that he may have used U.S. military aide as leverage.

The president had vowed to released a transcript of the conversation and said it would make clear that he did nothing wrong, but the pages released by the White House seemed likely to give some arguments to Democrats.

The conversation between Trump and Zelensky also sparked a whistleblower complaint within the administration. Lawmakers have yet to see that complaint.

The Justice Department released a statement shortly after the White House released the transcript, saying that Attorney General William Barr, who is also mentioned on the call, was first notified of Trump’s conversation with Zelensky “several weeks” after it took place.