U.S. releases memo of Trump's call with Ukrainian president

The U.S. Justice Department has released a memo of President Donald Trump's call with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after the U.S. House of Representatives launched a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump on Tuesday.

Trump told the Ukrainian president, "If you can look into it … it sounds horrible to me." Trump was talking about unsubstantiated allegations that former vice president Joe Biden sought to interfere with a Ukrainian prosecutor's investigation of his son, Hunter.

Trump also confirmed that he ordered his staff to freeze nearly 400 million U.S. dollars in aid to Ukraine a few days before the call.

The conversation between Trump and Ukraine's president is just one piece of a whistleblower's complaint made in mid-August. The complaint is central to the impeachment inquiry announced by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

"The actions of the Trump presidency revealed a dishonorable fact of the president's betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security and betrayal of the integrity of our elections," Pelosi said on Tuesday.

While the president said, he did nothing wrong.

What's Biden's role?

Trump and his supporters, led by personal lawyer Giuliani, allege that as vice president, Joe Biden pressured Ukraine to dismiss a prosecutor responsible for a criminal investigation involving Burisima Holdings, a company Hunter Biden sat on the board of.

Giuliani claims that in 2016 the then vice president threatened to withhold 1 billion U.S. dollars in loan guarantees to force the sacking of prosecutor Viktor Shokin to protect his son.

Biden denies any impropriety, and no evidence has emerged that he acted improperly. He did call for the removal of Shokin, who was accused of taking bribes but as part of an international alliance.

(With input from AP, Reuters)