On Sept 20, it came to light that a whistleblower alleged President Trump of having illicit dealings with Ukraine, involving informal commitments and under the table promises.
On September 26, excerpts from the whistleblower's call were released: "Multiple White House officials with direct knowledge of the call informed me that, after an initial exchange of pleasantries, the President used the remainder of the call to advance his personal interests. Namely, he sought to pressure the Ukrainian leader to take actions to help the President's 2020 reelection bid."
Trump's personal lawyer, stated that he was trying to urge Ukrainian officials to pursue investigations into Mr. Trump's political opponents, including former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his family. Hunter Biden, Joe Biden's son, is on the board of directors of a Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma.
The call also stated that he President pressured Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Biden, sheath Ukrainian and Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential elections by turning over servers used by the Democratic party, and speak with Trump's personal envoys about the matter.
Now, it seems as though the whistleblower had spoken with a staffer for House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) before filing their complaint. Trump is using Schiff as a scapegoat and claiming that he is trying to undermine the White House: "I think it's a scandal that [Schiff] knew before," Trump said.
In his defense, Trump stated: "The only reason that I put (the rough transcript of the call) out, and I did it with the approval with the Ukraine, by the way, otherwise I wouldn't have done it, was because the whistleblower was so dishonest," Trump said, adding: "When a whistleblower takes a very nice, innocent (conversation) ... the whistleblower wrote not that conversation. He wrote a vicious conversation. In other words, he either got it totally wrong, made it up, or the person giving the information to the whistleblower was dishonest."
It also should be noted that the transcript of the September 26 call released by the White House was much less comprehensive, edited to leave out the more incriminating statements. For instance: "I will say that we do a lot for Ukraine. We spend a lot of effort and a lot of time. Much more than the European countries are doing and they should be helping you more than they are...."