WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Wednesday released the following statement after reading the transcript released by the White House of the July 25, 2019 call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky: 

“This transcript is devastating. Within moments of President Zelensky discussing the need for U.S. security aid, Trump asks him to investigate his political opponents. Throughout the call, Trump tells the Ukrainian president to coordinate with his reelection campaign. These are demands that a President of the United States simply cannot make of a foreign leader, and the transcript further underscores the urgent need to get a full, complete accounting of Trump's abuse of his office,” said Murphy. 

Yesterday, Murphy called on the U.S. House of Representatives to begin an impeachment inquiry into the president’s efforts to press a foreign nation into the service of his reelection campaign. Earlier this month, Murphy traveled to Ukraine, Serbia, Kosovo and Germany where he spoke directly with President Zelesnky about this issue. Last month, Murphy blasted the administration’s decision to withhold this aid. In May, following reports that Rudy Giuliani was traveling to Ukraine, Murphy sent a letter to U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch to submit an official congressional inquiry to the Trump administration about why a private citizen was traveling to Ukraine to work with a foreign government in a Trump campaign re-election effort. On Friday, he renewed that request. 

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