Trump Ukraine Scandal: White House Accidentally Sent Talking Points To House Democrats On Zelensky Call

The White House made a major flub Wednesday when it emailed talking points about President Trump's controversial call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Democrats in the House of Representatives. The message was intended just for Republicans so that they could present a defense to the public as the transcript of the Trump-Zelensky call was released.

The email, which was sent by Tori Symonds, special assistant to the president and director of communications, said that "press reports have given currency to flat-out falsehoods in the call" and "what the President talked about was entirely popular."

The email was sent out at 11:21 a.m. ET, with Symonds trying to "recall" the message 40 minutes later at 12:01 p.m.

Trump had been planning his defense strategy of his July call with Zelensky, with some Republicans going to the White House this morning to view a rough transcript before it was released to the public.

The transcript showed that Trump had asked Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden and his son as a favor. Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced Tuesday that she was launching an impeachment inquiry into Trump, over concerns that Trump is asking a foreign government to dig up compromising information on his domestic political rival.

Days prior to the call, Trump had withheld about $400 million in military aid to Ukraine, with critics seeing the money as leverage that Trump is using to push Zelensky to investigate Biden in a quid pro quo arrangement.

Trump has said that the scandal is a "witch hunt" and that it is "presidential harassment."