Adam Schiff Shreds Trump’s Ukraine Call in Presser: ‘A Classic Mafia-Like Shakedown of a Foreign Leader’

House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) said the memorandum of Donald Trump’s conversation with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky reveals the president’s “most fundamental betrayal of his oath of office.”

Schiff held a press conference on Wednesday following the release of the memo that shows how Trump asked his Ukrainian counterpart multiple times to work with his allies and launch an investigation on Joe Biden. Schiff found it “shocking” that the administration could think the release was helpful to Trump, saying that the Zelensky conversation was “far more damning than I or many others had imagined.”

“What those notes reflect is a classic mafia-like shakedown of a foreign leader,” Schiff said.

Schiff continued by breaking down the contents of the memo, noting that Trump asked Zelenski for the investigation just days after the U.S. froze about $400 million in military aid to Ukraine. He particularly focused on the portion of the conversation where Zelensky expressed Ukraine’s need for weapons, and Trump grumbled over the lack of reciprocation before he started asking for favors.

“This is how a mafia boss talks. It’s clear that the Ukraine president understands exactly what is expected of him and is making every effort to mollify the president. What adds another layer of depravity to this conversation is the President of the United States then invokes the Attorney General of the United States, as well as his personal lawyer, as emissaries…You cam see why the Department of Justice would want this transcript never to see the light of day. You can see why they have worked so hard to deprive our committee of the whistleblower complaint.”

Schiff concluded by saying that Trump’s attempts to get foreign powers to act “for the illicit purpose of trying to advance his election campaign…is the most fundamental betrayal of his oath of office.”

Watch above, via CNN

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