Ukraine President: Trump Didn’t Try to Blackmail Me For Biden Investigation

The Ukrainian president, whose phone call with Donald Trump is at the heart of impeachment proceedings against the U.S. president, has denied that Trump tried to blackmail him into investigating Joe Biden. Volodymyr Zelensky told the Associated Press on Thursday morning that he only learned after their controversial July phone call that the U.S. had blocked hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to his country. Asked about military aid, Zelensky said “we didn’t speak about this” during the call and that it wasn’t the “theme” of the conversation. He added that there was “no blackmail” during the phone call. A rough White House transcript showed that Trump asked Zelensky to investigate Biden. House Democrats believe Trump was offering a White House meeting and possibly even blocking aid as leverage to secure a probe into his potential 2020 opponent. Zelensky refused to say whether the Ukrainian government has a different version of the transcript or whether the White House version is accurate.