“We do a lot for Ukraine. We spend a lot of effort and a lot of time.”

If you take ‘Ukraine’ out of the above statement, it’s reminiscent of a conversation between a mob boss and an underling in need. 

The underling has either failed to do a job or is in dire straits, coming to his don as a last resort for relief. Either way, the man is sweating bullets as his “father” begins a long lecture about all the organization has done for the soldier and his family.

President Donald Trump ended this part of his lecture by saying “the United States has been very very good to Ukraine.”

The referenced statement appears in the transcript released today by the White House of the conversation between Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. It was released following the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s announcement of a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump last night. 

Their exchange, which occurred in July, sits at the center of a new scandal sweeping the White House, after an unknown whistleblower within the intelligence community filed a complaint last month about the president’s actions.  

Trump said the call was “congratulatory,” against claims he urged Zelensky to investigate Biden. 

But the transcript reveals that he did discuss Biden’s call in 2015 for Ukraine to remove its top prosecutor and asked as a “favor” for a conversation to happen between Attorney General Anthony Bar and Zelensky to “get to the bottom” of Biden’s involvement.

Zelensky also remarked on his visit to the U.S., during which he stayed in a Trump hotel — another point of potential corruption for the president.

Trump also pushed for a conversation between Rudy Giuliani and Zelensky, calling his personal lawyer “a very capable guy.”

Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee compared the transcript to a “classic mob shakedown” on Twitter, with Ukraine answering for its past troubles.

Unsurprisingly, Trump’s other underlings in the Republican Party came to his defense. Sen. Lindsey Graham said there was “nothing there” from the angle of quid pro quo.  

Pelosi reiterated that Trump “will be held accountable.”