In fact, Trump spoke highly of the U.S. relationship with Ukraine, while chiding Europe's lack of support for the independent nation. Trump's full transcript with Zelensky also reveals that the president is seeking more information from Ukraine with regards to the role of Russian or Ukrainian persons involved in the hacking of the Democratic National Committee's server. His concern is significant, because Democrats accused the president and his campaign of conspiring with Russia. This request actually destroys the Democratic argument.
It is apparent from the conversation that Trump had with Zelensky that he is still seeking information on the origins of the hacking of the DNC and has always vehemently denounced the now debunked Democrat theory that his campaign conspired with Russia.
As for Biden, Trump asked Zelensky if he would speak with his personal attorney Rudy Guilliani and Attorney General William Barr with regard to Biden and his request withhold 1 billion in aid from Ukraine until they fired the top prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who was at the time investigating Biden's son, Hunter Biden. Biden's son role on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings, which he joined as a paid board member in 2014, has come under enormous scrutiny.
During the time, in Vice President Biden was charged with handling Ukraine and his son's firm Rosemont Seneca Partners LLC, "received regular transfers into one of its accounts — usually more than $166,000 a month — from Burisma from spring 2014 through fall 2015, during a period when Vice President Biden was the main U.S. official dealing with Ukraine and its tense relations with Russia," according to an investigation by John Solomon at The Hill.
According to Solomon "the general prosecutor's official file for the Burisma probe — shared with me by senior Ukrainian officials — shows prosecutors identified Hunter Biden, business partner Devon Archer and their firm, Rosemont Seneca, as potential recipients of money."
Biden has stated that the urging of Shokin's dismissal was based on corruption concerns and did not relate to his son.
Comment: Moon of Alabama has a useful summary of these events:
As for the Biden case it was Joe's Biden big mouth that brought the issues back into light. In January 2018 he gave a talk at the Council of Foreign Relations and explained how he directly threatened (video) to withhold money to blackmail the Ukraine into firing a prosecutor general who was seen as corrupt:And I went over, I guess, the 12th, 13th time to Kiev. And I was supposed to announce that there was another billion-dollar loan guarantee. And I had gotten a commitment from Poroshenko and from Yatsenyuk that they would take action against the state prosecutor. And they didn't.Biden did that at a time when his son lobbied for the Ukrainian company Burisma who the prosecutor he wanted fired investigated (or maybe blackmailed):
So they said they had — they were walking out to a press conference. I said, nah, I'm not going to — or, we're not going to give you the billion dollars. They said, you have no authority. You're not the president. The president said — I said, call him. (Laughter.) I said, I'm telling you, you're not getting the billion dollars. I said, you're not getting the billion. I'm going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: I'm leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you're not getting the money. Well, son of a bitch. (Laughter.) He got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time.U.S. banking records show Hunter Biden's American-based firm, Rosemont Seneca Partners LLC, received regular transfers into one of its accounts — usually more than $166,000 a month — from Burisma from spring 2014 through fall 2015, during a period when Vice President Biden was the main U.S. official dealing with Ukraine and its tense relations with Russia.There is no direct evidence that Joe Biden told the Ukrainians to stop the investigation into Burisma. But it was not difficult for the Ukrainians to figure out that ending the investigation into the company that Joe Biden's son worked for would help them with further requests to him.
The general prosecutor's official file for the Burisma probe — shared with me by senior Ukrainian officials — shows prosecutors identified Hunter Biden, business partner Devon Archer and their firm, Rosemont Seneca, as potential recipients of money.
How the Democrats want to construct an impeachment out of this is beyond me.
Trump is the president. Foreign policy is his constitutional prerogative. He used his power to ask the Ukraine to open investigations into two issues. He withheld money but not to achieve that. The Ukrainians did not even know at that time that the money was blocked.
Biden used his power as vice-president to ask the Ukraine to fire a prosecutor he didn't like and who (by chance?) was going after the company which enriched his son. He openly withheld money to achieve his aim.
How will the Democrats explain that what Trump did was wrong or even criminal while insisting that what Joe Biden did was normal business?
They can't.
Democrats have accused Trump of pressuring Ukraine to investigate Biden, his political opponent and stated that Trump's decision earlier before the call to withhold $400 million in aid from Ukraine was being used as a lure for an investigation. But the transcript reveals no such quid pro quo.
Instead, Zelensky appears to have promised Trump that the new Ukrainian prosecutor would be investigating the Ukrainian company Burisma holdings.
Trump asked Zelensky:
"Rudy very much knows what's happening and he is a very capable guy," Trump said. "If you could speak to him that would be great. The former ambassador from the United States, the woman was bad news and the people she was dealing with in the Ukraine were bad news so I just want to let you know that the other thing, there's a lot of talk about Biden's son and 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."He also asked Zelensky to look into the Russian hacking incident into the U.S. Democratic National Committee prior to the 2016 U.S. election.
"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," he said. "I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike...The server, they say Ukraine has it. There are a lot of things that went on, the whole situation..I think you are surrounding yourself with some of the same people. 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. As you say yesterday, that whole nonesense ended with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller, an incompetent performance, but they say a lot of it started with Ukraine. Whatever you can do, it's very important that you do it if that's possible."Click here to read full unredacted version of transcript
Comment: Since the release of the call, Zelensky commented on the controversy: The MSM are losing their minds, naturally. One example: See also: