Donald Trump ‘pressed Ukrainian leader to investigate Joe Biden’s son’ in call at centre of whistle-blower complaint
- US president was reportedly hoping for political dirt against major rival in 2020 election
- White House said to be blocking Congress from obtaining details of report on US intelligence official’s concerns
The descriptions of the call provide the clearest indication to date that Trump sought to use the influence of his office to prod the leader of a country seeking US financial and diplomatic support to provide material that could aid the president’s re-election.
After spending much of his presidency fending off allegations that he welcomed 2016 campaign help from Russia, Trump now stands accused of soliciting political ammunition from a country next door to Russia.
Trump on Friday repeated his denial that he has done anything untoward in his conversations with world leaders, but he refused to address whether he had raised the issue of a dormant investigation of a company that previously employed the Democratic presidential contender’s son, Hunter Biden.
“It doesn’t matter what I discussed,” said Trump, who criticised journalists for covering the issue. “It’s another media disaster,” Trump said, even though the intelligence community’s inspector general has assessed the whistle-blower complaint as credible and a matter of such urgency that it should be disclosed to the relevant committees in Congress.