Trump appears to confirm mentioning Biden in Zelensky phone call

U.S President Trump appeared to confirm on Sept. 22
that he mentioned former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter in a
July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky, the washingtonpost.com
news site reported that day. “The conversation I had was largely
congratulatory, was largely (about) corruption, all of the corruption taking
place, was largely (about) the fact that we don’t (want) our people, like Vice
President Biden and his son, creating to the corruption already in the Ukraine.
And Ukraine, Ukraine’s got a lot of problems,” Trump told reporters that
morning. The conflict over Trump’s dealing with Zelensky is the latest political
battleground to emerge between the White House and the Democrat Party, which
has been trying to impeach Trump since his election in 2016.

It remains unclear whether Trump asked Zelensky to
investigate or provide information on the Bidens’ business dealings in Ukraine,
as is widely being speculated in the U.S. mainstream media. A whistleblower
complaint filed by an anonymous intelligence official is being blocked from
disclosure by the acting U.S. National Intelligence Director Joseph Maguire, who
was appointed by Trump in mid-August. Both Maguire and the inspector general,
Michael Atkinson, who has characterized the complaint as “an urgent concern,”
are expected to testify this week at the U.S. Senate intelligence committee,
the washingtonpost.com said.

It’s widely speculated in the U.S. mainstream media
that in speaking with Zelensky, Trump had been seeking compromising information
on Biden ahead of the 2020 presidential elections. Though Biden has been among
the leading candidates of the Democrat Party, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren has
surged in polls in recent weeks. Meanwhile, Trump and his personal attorney,
Rudy Giuliani, have accused Biden of acting inappropriately in 2016 by pushing
Ukraine to oust then-Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, whom Western officials
widely denounced as corrupt, the washingtonpost.com said. The fired prosecutor
had opened an investigation into a Ukrainian natural gas company, Burisma,
whose board members included Hunter Biden, the former vice president’s son.