美国国家公共电台 NPR Trump Asked Ukrainian President To Investigate Biden; DOJ Says No Charges

 

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

In that July phone call, President Trump¹ did indeed ask his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate former Vice² President Joe Biden and his son. That's what we learned today from a memo³ of the call released by the White House. NPR justice reporter Ryan Lucas has been covering this story.

Welcome back to the studio.

RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE⁴: Thank you.

CORNISH: Let's start with this essentially⁵ rough transcript⁶. Can you walk us through what's in there?

LUCAS: Right. This is a - it's a five-page memo, documents roughly a 30-minute conversation between Trump and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in July. It's not a verbatim transcript. It is important to say that it's based on notes and recollections of National Security Council staff who listened in and memorialize. The call starts with the usual courtesies. Trump then tells Zelenskiy that the U.S. does a lot for Ukraine, both in terms of money, time, effort, and he says that the U.S. has been very good to the country. The Ukrainian president then says, quote, "we are almost ready to buy more javelins⁷ from the United States for defense⁸ purposes." Javelins are anti-tank missiles. Remember; there is a conflict in Ukraine right now. The next words out of Trump's mouth were these - quote, "I would like you to do us a favor, though, because our country has been through a lot."

CORNISH: So it's a change of topic there.

LUCAS: Change of topic - Trump then talks about a conspiracy⁹ theory about Hillary Clinton's email server being in Ukraine and the need for Zelenskiy to investigate that. And a bit later, he brings up his allegations about Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

CORNISH: This is at the center of this political crisis, essentially. What does Trump say allegedly in this call about Biden?

LUCAS: Well, he tells the Ukrainian president that there are a lot of questions about the Bidens in Ukraine. Trump has alleged¹⁰ that when Biden was vice president, he improperly¹² pushed Ukraine to fire a prosecutor¹³ who had investigated a company that Biden's son sat on the board of. Now, it's important to say that there is no evidence to suggest that the Bidens did anything illegal. In this call, Trump urges Zelenskiy to look into it. And he tells him to work on it with Attorney General William Barr and Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. He says he'll have both of them give Zelenskiy a call.

CORNISH: And I said alleged earlier, but we do know the president has confirmed that he made some of the comments in this call. How unusual is it to have the president instructing a foreign leader to work with the U.S. attorney general - and his private attorney - on investigating what is going to be a political rival?

LUCAS: It is highly unusual. Some would even say that it's improper¹¹. The Justice Department does say that the attorney general didn't know of this phone call with Zelenskiy. It says that Barr has not spoken with President Trump about anything related to Biden or his son. And it also says that Barr has not communicated with Ukraine about Biden or anything else. But we do know that Giuliani has been talking to the Ukrainians about this exact matter. Giuliani told me that he met with a close adviser¹⁴ to the Ukrainian president in early August in Spain. Giuliani says that he gave him information that he had collected on the Bidens. He told the Ukrainian that he thought it should be fully¹⁵ investigated. Giuliani says he didn't dictate¹⁶ what the conclusion of this investigation¹⁷ should be, but he did indeed urge Ukraine to dig into this very Biden matter.

CORNISH: This all started with a whistleblower report to the intelligence community inspector¹⁸ general. And I understand the Justice Department has weighed in, right? They released a document related to this today. What did we learn?

LUCAS: Well, we learned that the inspector general referred this complaint to the Justice Department about this call as a possible campaign finance violation¹⁹. Senior Justice Department officials today said that career prosecutors²⁰ looked into it. They got a copy of the transcript that we saw today. They determined²¹ that there was not evidence to open a criminal investigation. In part, officials say that in order to qualify as a campaign finance violation, it has to be something of value. And a foreign power investigating a political rival is not something you can quantify the value of.

CORNISH: That's NPR's Ryan Lucas.

Thanks for your reporting.

LUCAS: Thank you.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

3 memo   

n.照会，备忘录；便笺；通知书；规章

参考例句：

• Do you want me to send the memo out?您要我把这份备忘录分发出去吗？
• Can you type a memo for me?您能帮我打一份备忘录吗？

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

6 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

7 javelins   

n.标枪( javelin的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The heavy infantry blocks moved forward, throwing javelins just before the clash. 在正面交火之前，庞大的兵团会整体向前移动并投掷标枪。 来自互联网
• Elite mercenaries, originally from Aragon, armed with javelins and light armour. 加泰罗尼亚标枪兵为精锐雇佣部队，最初来自阿拉贡，装备标枪和轻甲。 来自互联网

8 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

9 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。

10 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

11 improper   

adj.不适当的，不合适的，不正确的，不合礼仪的

参考例句：

• Short trousers are improper at a dance.舞会上穿短裤不成体统。
• Laughing and joking are improper at a funeral.葬礼时大笑和开玩笑是不合适的。

12 improperly   

不正确地，不适当地

参考例句：

• Of course it was acting improperly. 这样做就是不对嘛！
• He is trying to improperly influence a witness. 他在试图误导证人。

13 prosecutor   

n.起诉人；检察官，公诉人

参考例句：

• The defender argued down the prosecutor at the court.辩护人在法庭上驳倒了起诉人。
• The prosecutor would tear your testimony to pieces.检查官会把你的证言驳得体无完肤。

14 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

15 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

16 dictate   

v.口授；(使)听写；指令，指示，命令

参考例句：

• It took him a long time to dictate this letter.口述这封信花了他很长时间。
• What right have you to dictate to others?你有什么资格向别人发号施令？

17 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

18 inspector   

n.检查员，监察员，视察员

参考例句：

• The inspector was interested in everything pertaining to the school.视察员对有关学校的一切都感兴趣。
• The inspector was shining a flashlight onto the tickets.查票员打着手电筒查看车票。

19 violation   

n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯

参考例句：

• He roared that was a violation of the rules.他大声说，那是违反规则的。
• He was fined 200 dollars for violation of traffic regulation.他因违反交通规则被罚款200美元。

20 prosecutors   

检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人

参考例句：

• In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方，检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
• You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。

21 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。