Vice President Mike Pence initially counseled President Donald Trump not to release the memo of his July call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, fretting about the precedent it would set.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Pence got on board with the memo’s release when Trump made up his mind that the optics of holding it back would be worse than making public details from part of the call.
Though Pence insists that the memo exonerates Trump, it clearly lays out an exchange where Trump reminds Zelensky of the U.S.’ financial aid to Ukraine before asking him to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter.
