Trump pressured Ukraine president to investigate Bidens

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - U.S. President Donald Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden during a July telephone call, a transcript released by the White House Wednesday reveals.

Trump asks Zelensky during a July 25 conversation to contact Attorney General William Barr and Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal lawyer, to investigate Biden and his son, Hunter.

"There's a lot of talk about Biden's son, 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," Trump said, according to the transcript.

"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," Trump said.

Revelations of a whistle-blower complaint regarding the call and ensuing claims Trump sought to hold up hundreds of millions of dollars in funding in an effort to have Zelensky probe Biden and his son for possible corruption has prompted the House of Representatives to open an impeachment probe into Trump.

If Trump did so it would be an improper use of his office.

The elder Biden was the point person for Ukraine during the Obama administration and sought to have the country crack down on corruption, which included his successful call for the ouster of a Ukrainian prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, which was supported at the time by the international community.

Shokin was reportedly probing Burisma Holdings, a natural gas company whose board the younger Biden joined in 2014, among other cases.

Trump has not offered any evidence to support his claim that the Bidens are corrupt.