In new book, Pelosi details 20-minute conversation with Trump ahead of first impeachment

Hours before former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi formally launched the first impeachment investigation into former president Donald Trump in 2019, she received a call from the subject of the probe himself.

Hours before former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi formally launched the first impeachment investigation into former President Donald Trump in 2019, she received a call from the subject of the probe himself. “Why are you doing that?” Trump asked, according to Pelosi in her new book, “The Art of Power.” In the more than 20-minute back-and-forth, Pelosi described Trump as “becoming increasingly whiny by the end” and framed the conversation as “contentious” as the former president defended his actions and Pelosi explained why she planned to move forward with the investigation. Reflecting on the phone call with CNN’s Dana Bash, Pelosi, who rarely shares details from her private conversations, said she included the specifics in the book “because it was the basis for how to go forward. He was saying, ‘It was a perfect call, it was a perfect call.’ And I was saying it was a perfectly clear call, and we will be going forward.” Trump communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement to CNN, “Sounds like Nancy Pelosi continues to prove herself to be a liar and a fraud. Everything that comes out of her mouth is pure garbage, just like that fake title she gives herself because she can’t stop living in the past. What a loser.” In December 2019, the House impeached Trump on a party line vote as the result of a Democratic-led investigation into allegations that Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a phone call to investigate his political rivals while withholding US security assistance and a White House meeting. But he was acquitted in the Senate in February 2020.