After President Trump’s release of a phone call transcript with the Ukrainian President that proved there was no wrongdoing, he says there was a previous call that “nobody knew about,” and may release it as well.
The surprise call came three months before the infamous July 25 conversation that sparked the impeachment inquiry.
“Now they want my first call with the president of Ukraine,” Trump said. “If they want it I will probably give it to them but I don’t like doing it because it sets a bad precedent.”
This announcement came as Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney ignored subpoenas to appear on Capitol Hill Friday.
“I don’t want to give credibility to a corrupt witch hunt,” Trump said. “I’d love to have Mick go up. Frankly, I think he would do great.”
As he left for a trip to Georgia, the President dismissed any significance of testimony that has been released thus far.
Regardless, Democrats are preparing for their first publicly-televised impeachment hearing.
“We are very much looking forward to these witnesses next week raising the right hands going under oath and telling the American people about this shakedown scheme,” said Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA).
Three diplomats who’ve already testified behind closed doors were invited to go public.
Bill Taylor, George Kent, and Marie Yovanovitch will likely be asked to discuss their understanding of events before and after that July 25 call.
Jennifer Williams, an aide to Vice President Mike Pence, testified before the panel on Wednesday. Williams was one of the people listening to the call between Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. Her testimony stretched out over four hours.
Meanwhile, Pence spoke in New Jersey about the phone call transcript and said it’s clear Trump did nothing wrong.
“You know the American people have the transcript of the President’s call and they can see there was no quid pro quo and the president did nothing wrong,” the vice president said. “The President’s focus has been, as my focus was with my meetings with President Zelensky, to support President Zelensky’s efforts to deal with a historic pattern of corruption in Ukraine.”
–Wire Services
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