Colonel Alexander Vindman testifies that the “transcript” of Donald Trump’s Ukraine phone call was sanitized
We already know that when Donald Trump released a “transcript” of his phone call with the President of Ukraine, it wasn’t a transcript. We know this because it said at the bottom of every page that it was just a summarized memo of the phone call. Now, thanks to the testimony of Colonel Alexander Vindman, we also know that it was a dishonestly summarized memo.
Colonel Vindman told the House impeachment inquiry today that he listened to the Trump-Ukraine phone call and that he took his own notes, according to Olivia Beavers of The Hill. When Vindman then saw the official phone call summary, he spotted a couple ways in which it was needlessly generic, such as saying “company” in place of “Burisma.” Vindman recommended edits to make the call summary more accurate, but these edits were rejected.
This alone proves that the phone call “transcript” released by Donald Trump and his White House was dishonestly sanitized to make it less damning for Trump, and that efforts to restore its accuracy were rejected. This demonstrates consciousness of guilt on the part of those who finalized and approved the transcript.
Moreover, because Colonel Vindman heard the phone call himself, he’s testifying right now about what Trump actually said to Ukraine. In addition, he took notes which – once obtained from the White House by court order – will corroborate his testimony.
