CAREFULLY PLACED ELLIPSES

Report: Vindman Testified White House Memo of Trump-Ukraine Call Was Missing Key Phrases

The memo reportedly omitted Trump mentioning recordings of Joe Biden talking about Ukraine corruption.

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a National Security Council official who raised concerns about the Trump administration's efforts to push Ukraine to conduct investigations into political rivals, reportedly told Congress on Tuesday that the White House text of a July 25 call between President Trump and the Ukrainian president was missing certain words and phrases. According to The New York Times, Vindman said the omissions from the call memo included Trump mentioning recordings of former vice president Joe Biden discussing Ukraine corruption and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s explicit mention of Burisma Holdings, the company that had Biden’s son Hunter on its board. Vindman said there are ellipses in the memo that indicate dropped words, and Trump spoke about tapes of Biden where the third ellipsis is placed. Instead of the words “Burisma Holdings,” the memo only mentions “the company.”

Vindman also reportedly told lawmakers that he was given a a copy of the rough transcript to make updates and corrections based on what he heard on the call. He said he tried to make changes to the text to reflect the omissions but that some of his edits disappeared. Vindman said his two corrections about Biden tapes and Burisma Holdings were not made.