The transcript of President Donald Trump's controversial call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is sparking questions about what might have been left out, The Washington Post is reporting.
Trump said Wednesday the call was transcribed "word-for-word, comma-for-comma."
But White House officials had previously portrayed the document as a summary that closely tracked the July 25 call, according to the newspaper.
The Post interviewed current and former U.S. officials who noted several elements indicate the document was handled in an unusual way:
- The repeated use of ellipses — punctuation indicating certain information has been deleted for clarity or other reasons. Those officials say that traditionally, ellipses have not been used in summaries of presidential calls. The White House, however, has said the ellipses do not indicate missing words, but refer to a trailing off of a voice or a pause.
- The transcript of the 30-minute call with Zelenskiy, includes fewer than 2,000 words, or roughly 65 words per minute. The call included interpreters because Zelenskiy spoke Ukrainian and Trump spoke English. By comparison, a transcript of a 24-minute call with Australian Prime Minster Malcolm Turnball, in which both participants spoke English, was about 3,200 words, or about 133 words per minute.
- The record of the call with Zelenskiy was labeled "MEMORANDUM OF TELEPHONE CONVERSATION." However, the Post noted, it lacked a tracking number that would normally indicate who has seen it for review and editing.
"I thought to myself," said one former government official. "This didn't go through the normal process."
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