Trump asked Ukraine's president to look into the DNC email hack
President Trump seemingly used his call with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky to target more rivals than just former Vice President Joe Biden.
A rough transcript of their conversation released Wednesday by the White House reveals Trump urged Zelensky to investigate Biden and his son, Hunter, with Attorney General William Barr and Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. It also shows that Trump proposed another collaboration between Barr and Zelensky, this one involving the Democratic National Committee email hack that took place in the summer before the 2016 election.
"I would like you to do us a favor," Trump begins his request. "I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike...," he continues, with the question ending in the same ellipses that follow most of Trump's asks throughout the summarized transcript of the call. Crowdstrike is the firm the DNC hired to investigate the Russian hacking of its email list in 2016, and the same firm the GOP hired after its 2018 midterm email hacks.
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In this case, it seems Trump is referring to the DNC hack, saying "the server, they say Ukraine has it." He goes on to say he'll have Barr call Zelensky so they can "get to the bottom of it" because it's "very important," and Zelensky agrees.
The Justice Department has said Barr knew the conversation happened, but neither Giuliani nor Trump talked to him about contacting anyone in Ukraine, per NPR. Read the whole memorandum here.
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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.
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