Trump denies threatening Ukraine aid, may release call transcript

U.S. President Trump
denied withholding military aid earmarked for Ukraine to pressure President
Zelensky to cooperate with his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, to investigate whether
Joe Biden protected his son from a probe of his involvement in the Burisma natural
gas firm. Trump indicated he may release the transcript of the contested July
25 phone call a day after characterizing it as “absolutely perfect” when
speaking to reporters at the White House on Sunday morning. The same day, the
White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said Trump is weighing his
options in releasing the transcript of the July 25 phone call. “When foreign
leaders come together to speak, they need to be able to speak candidly. And so
I do think that perhaps releasing this kind of a transcript could set a bad
precedent. He is willing to do it, I think, but there are a lot of people,
lawyers and such, who may have a problem with it,” Grisham told the Fox News
channel.

Also on Sept. 23,
Trump tweeted more denials of any wrongdoing. “Now the Fake News Media says, ‘I
pressured the Ukrainian President at least 8 times during my telephone call
with him.’ This supposedly comes from a so-called whistleblower who they say
doesn’t even have a first hand account of what was said. More Democrat/Crooked
Media con.” In a second tweet, Trump pointed out that Ukrainian Foreign
Minister Vadym Prystaiko said they weren’t pressured at all during the “nice”
call. “Sleepy Joe Biden, on the other hand, forced a tough prosecutor out from
investigating his son’s company by threat of not giving big dollars to Ukraine.
That’s the real story!,” he tweeted.