A Ukrainian-born US army officer who was listening in on President Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukraine President Volodomyr Zelensky says he tried to correct portions of the reconstructed transcript which note-takers and voice recognition software missed, according to his Tuesday testimony.
Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman said that the two world leaders explicitly mentioned Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian energy company that employed Hunter Biden at the same time his father Joe Biden used his position as Vice President to have the country’s lead prosecutor – who was investigating Burisma – fired.
The note-takers and voice recognition software used during the July 25 call had missed Mr. Zelensky saying the word âBurisma,â but the reconstructed transcript does reference âthe company,â and suggests that the Ukrainian president is aware that it is of great interest to Mr. Trump. –NYT
(Note – the Times lies when they write that “Republicans charge, without evidence, that Mr. Biden was trying to stop an investigation into his son.” In fact, Victor Shokin – the prosecutor Biden had fired – said in a sworn affidavit that he was “forced out because I was leading a wide-range corruption probe into Burisma Holdings, a natural gas firm active in Ukraine, and Joe Bidenâs son, Hunter, was a member of the board of directors.”)
Vindman claims he lodged two complaints over Trump’s efforts to have Biden investigated to no avail, telling lawmakers “I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the U.S. governmentâs support of Ukraine,” adding “This would all undermine U.S. national security.”
Meanwhile, Vindman – who overseas European affairs at the National Security Council, has come under fire after the New York Times reported that he’s has been advising Ukrainian officials on how to deal with Rudy Giuliani.
“While Colonel Vindmanâs concerns were shared by a number of other officials, some of whom have already testified, he was in a unique position. Because he emigrated from Ukraine along with his family when he was a child and is fluent in Ukrainian and Russian, Ukrainian officials sought advice from him about how to deal with Mr. Giuliani, though they typically communicated in English.” –NYT
As a hilarious aside, OANN journalist Jack Posobiec was accused by CNN‘s Oliver Darcy of fabricating the claim that Vindman was advising Ukraine on “Trump’s foreign policy goals,” – saying “The Times reported no such thing.” Filmmaker Mike Cernovich then replied with a screenshot of the original article, clearly disproving Darcy.
“Demand.”? I call B.S! Nowhere was an “Demand” made. This is nothing more or less than one person’s interpretation of a phone call.