(Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)
The White House delivered a five-page summary of president Donald Trump's controversial conversation with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky that House Democrats and Trump critics are saying is proof Trump should be impeached.
The summary of the whistleblower complaint is a heavily redacted version of the original transcript of the entire 30 minute-long conversation, which came to 11 pages. The original transcript was read in its entirety by select members of the House at a secure room in Congress on Wednesday.
One of the House members that read the entire conversation, Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL), told CNN he found the July 25 conversation between Trump and Zelensky was "deeply disturbing." Other sources cited by media called the conversation "very troubling," "damning" and a "shocking abuse of presidential power."
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, echoed Quigley's comments after reading the document. Schiff said he "found the allegtions deeply disturbing. I found them very credible."
Schiff also thanked the whistleblower for coming forward and described this person as a courageous individual who exposed serious wrongdoing.
It's now also known this as yet unnamed whistleblower invoked other witnesses to Trump's disturbing conduct. The whistleblower identified multiple White House officials that were witness to the phone call and could corroborate his clais.
U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) inspector general Michael Atkinson is said ot have interviewed the whistleblower. Atkinson later concluded Trump might have violated the law by soliciting "foreign campaign donations," a move that created a national-security risk.
The redacted five-page whistleblower summary sent to Congress does confirm Trump leaned on Zelensky to investigate Hunter Biden. The White House version confirmsTrump repeatedly pressed Zelensky to investigate the younger Biden.
According to the summary, Zelensky told Trump about his plan to buy millions of dollars worth of U.S. military equipment. Trump replied by saying he'd like Zelensky to do him a favor.
Trump said there was a lot of talk about Biden's son and he'd like Zelensky to look into it.
Democrats said Trump is shaking-down a foreign government to help his presidential campaign while undermining U.S. national security.
Serhiy Leshchenko, an adviser to Zelensky, revealed Trump's desire for both he and Zelensky to discuss the investigation into Joe Biden was a precondition for their July 25 phone call.
"It was clear that Trump will only have communications if they will discuss the Biden case," said Leshchenko to ABC News. "This issue was raised many times. I know that Ukrainian officials understood."
To Trump's dismay, the phone call with Zelensky triggered the filing by Democrats Tuesday of a formal impeachment inquiry against Trump. Trump, however, continues to insist he did nothing wrong and there was no "quid pro quo" involved in his request.
On Wednesday, Zelensky said he doesn't want to be involved in the U.S. elections.
