Trump says transcript of April call with Ukraine president to be released soon
Trump continues to defend his calls with Zelenskiy as "perfect."
President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he will release a transcript of his first call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy by the end of the week.
Trump said in a tweet, "I will be releasing the transcript of the first, and therefore more important, phone call with the Ukrainian President before week’s end!"
I will be releasing the transcript of the first, and therefore more important, phone call with the Ukrainian President before week’s end! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 12, 2019
Trump spoke briefly on Saturday morning about releasing a transcript of the April call before boarding Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Washington, on his way to Tuscaloosa, Alabama to attend the Louisiana State University vs. Alabama college football game. He told reporters then to expect the transcript of that call with Zelenskiy to be released early this week.
"Now they want to have a transcript of the other call, the second call, and I'm willing to provide that," Trump said. "We’ll probably give it to you on Tuesday."
The president added, "They asked for it. And I'll gladly give it. There's never been a president who's been so transparent."
The White House released a rough transcript of a July phone call with Zelenskiy on Sept. 25 after word got out of a complaint from a whistleblower within the intelligence community. The document included cautionary language saying it was not a verbatim account of the discussion between the two leaders, as some Intelligence Community officials said releasing a full transcript could "undermine" national security
"The text in this document records the notes and recollections of Situation Room duty officers and [National Security Council] policy staff assigned to listen and memorialize the conversation in written form as the conversation takes place," the White House memo said.
The memo included several ellipses raising questions about whether the White House omitted words or phrases.
A White House official testified in a closed-door impeachment hearing that he listened to the call and the rough transcript is missing references to Burisma and to recordings of Biden discussing corruption in Ukraine.
Trump continues to defend his July call with Zelenskiy as "perfect," and has made negative comments about the inquiry, calling it a "hoax."
Public testimonies with the witnesses are also scheduled to begin this week, the House announced on Nov. 6.
ABC News' Ryan Shepard and Steff Thomas contributed to this report.
Editor's note: This story has been updated with President Donald Trump’s latest tweets and corrects to reflect that the White House’s rough transcript of the July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy included ellipses. The original version of the story said information had been redacted.