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A4 U.S. NEWS
Monday 23 SepteMber 2019
Trump suggests he raised Biden with Ukraine's president

WASHINGTON (AP) — Presi- efforts to support the new
dent Donald Trump sug- pro-Western government
gested Sunday that he and its pledge to fight cor-
raised former Vice Presi- ruption. The hiring of the
dent Joe Biden and Biden's younger Biden immediate-
son in a summer phone call ly raised concerns that the
with Ukraine's new leader, Ukrainian firm, whose own-
as Democrats pressed for er was a political ally of the
investigations into whether ousted president, was seek-
Trump improperly used his ing to gain influence with
office to try to dig up dam- the Obama administration.
aging information about a Two years later, Joe Biden
political rival. pressured the Ukrainian
Trump told reporters that government to fire the
the July 25 call with Ukrai- prosecutor general, who
nian President Volodymyr was accused by many in
Zelenskiy was "congratu- Ukraine and in the West of
latory" and focused on being soft on corruption.
corruption in the East Eu- Trump has claimed that
ropean nation. In his re- the prosecutor, who had
marks to reporters, he then led an investigation into
raised Biden as an exam- Burisma's owner, "was after"
ple, although there is no President Donald Trump talks with reporters before leaving on Marine One on the South Lawn of Hunter Biden and the vice
evidence of wrongdoing the White House in Washington, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2019. president was trying to pro-
by Biden or his son Hunter, Associated Press tect his son. There is no evi-
who was on the board of a dence of this.
Ukrainian gas company. cratic presidential nomi- about his actions. The in- ment for other alleged Trump insisted he said "ab-
"It was largely the fact that nation, accused Trump of cident is part of a whistle- Trump transgressions, said solutely nothing wrong" in
we don't want our people, making a baseless political blower complaint, but the Sunday that unless Magu- the call to Zelenskiy. He did
like Vice President Biden smear. acting director of national ire provides information to not answer directly when
and his son, creating to the The matter has sparked a intelligence, Joseph Magu- Congress, administration asked whether he would
corruption already in the fierce debate over wheth- ire, has refused to share de- officials "will be entering a release a transcript of the
Ukraine," Trump said as he er Trump misused his of- tails with lawmakers, citing grave new chapter of law- conversation to the public.
left the White House for a fice for political gain and presidential privilege. lessness which will take us After arriving in Texas ,
trip to Texas. whether his administration Democratic House Speak- into a whole new stage of Trump told reporters he will
Biden, who is among the is withholding from Con- er Nancy Pelosi, who has investigation." look into releasing details
front-runners for the Demo- gress critical information resisted calls for impeach- Another impeachment or a transcript of the call,
holdout so far, the chair- but stressed that foreign
man of the House Intel- leaders should feel free
ligence Committee, Rep. to speak frankly with an
Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said American president with-
Sunday on CNN's "State of out fear that the details of
the Union" that "we may their conversations will later
very well have crossed the be disclosed. Trump said
Rubicon here." if Ukraine released its own
A person familiar with the transcript it would be the
matter has told The As- same as his version of the
sociated Press that Trump call.
urged Zelenskiy to inves- Trump and Zelenskiy plan
tigate Hunter Biden. The to meet on the sidelines of
person wasn't authorized the U.N. General Assembly
to discuss the issue publicly later this week.
and spoke on condition of The president has de-
anonymity. scribed the whistleblower
"Ukraine's got a lot of prob- as "partisan" but has ac-
lems," Trump said at the knowledged not knowing
White House. "The new the identity of the intelli-
president is saying that he's gence official who lodged
going to be able to rid the a formal complaint against
country of corruption and I him with the inspector gen-
said that would be a great eral for the intelligence
thing. We had a great con- community.
versation. We had a con- The complaint was based
versation on many things." on a series of events, in-
Hunter Biden was hired by cluding the July 25 call be-
the Ukrainian gas com- tween Trump and Zelenskiy,
pany Burisma Holdings in according to two people
April 2014, two months af- familiar with the matter.
ter Ukraine's Russia-friendly They were not authorized
president was ousted by to discuss the issue by
protesters and as his father name and were granted
was heavily involved in U.S. anonymity.q