Published on January 23, 2020 at 03:37AM by By CALVIN WOODWARD and HOPE YEN, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump gave a false account Wednesday of some of the circumstances that got him impeached.
As the Senate impeachment trial wrestled with the fate of his presidency, Trump offered distorted statements about how the episode developed. He claimed Ukraine got U.S. military aid early, when the package of assistance at the heart of the impeachment case was conspicuously late.
In a claim easily refuted by the calendar, but often repeated by him nonetheless, Trump said he only released a rough transcript of his phone call with Ukraine's president because a Democrat had misstated the content of the call. In fact, Trump released it before that Democrat gave his account of the call.
The White House, as an institution, joined in the distortion, contending Trump never pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to announce an investigation during their phone conversation. Trump actually devoted much of the call to pressing for such a probe, and witnesses testified he exerted pressure in other ways for such a probe to be declared publicly.
A look at some of Trump's claims from the economic forum in Davos, Switzerland, and statements by others in the matter:
IMPEACHMENT and UKRAINE
TRUMP, on military aid to Ukraine: “Remember this, they got their money and they got it early." — interview Wednesday with Fox Business Network.
TRUMP: “They got their money long before schedule.” — news conference.
THE FACTS: They got the money months late.
Congress approved nearly $400 million in aid to Ukraine in the early months of 2019. U.S. officials involved with the aid learned in the summer that Trump had ordered the assistance to held back, as he pressed Ukraine to announce an investigation of Democrats.
It was released Sept. 11, only after a...
Comments
Post a Comment