Ukraine transcript reveals Trump felt emboldened by Robert Mueller's 'poor performance' before Congress

A newly revealed transcript shows President Donald Trump referred to special counsel Robert Mueller early in his phone call with the Ukrainian president.

The special counsel had testified the day before the president's July 25 call to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, and Trump seems to feel emboldened after Mueller failed to move the needle on impeachment.

"As you saw yesterday, that whole nonsense ended with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller," Trump tells Zelensky. "An incompetent performance, but they say a lot of it started with Ukraine. Whatever you can do, it's very important that you do it if that's possible."

Zelensky seems to understand what Trump is getting at, and immediately refers to his meetings with the president's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, who had been pressuring Ukraine's government to investigate Hunter Biden, the former U.S. vice president's son.

"I will have Mr. Giuliani call and I am also going to have Attorney General (William) Barr call and we will get to the bottom of it," Trump says. "I'm sure you will figure it out."