The White House this morning released a memo detailing Donald Trump’s first call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which the two leaders exchanged congratulations on their respective election victories.

At one point during the May call, Trump mentioned the “great people” from Ukraine who participated in the Miss Universe pageant, which he owned from 1996 to 2015.

“When I owned Miss Universe, they always had great people,” Trump told Zelensky. “Ukraine was always well represented.”

In another instance, Trump falsely told Zelensky that a Ukrainian woman had won Miss Universe.

But no Ukrainian has ever won the competition, despite several making it into the last rounds of the pageant.

Trump timed the release of the call memo to distract from testimony delivered by Marie Yovanovitch, who served as the US ambassador to Ukraine until she was abruptly recalled in May, in today’s public impeachment hearings.

During Trump’s second official call with Zelensky on July 25, 2019, he pressured the Ukrainian leader to investigate his political opponents, a move that provoked Democrats to initiate the impeachment inquiry.

The rough transcript includes none of the implicit threats that Trump made in his infamous June 25 call to Zelensky, in which he asked Zelensky to open investigations into Democratic rivals as a “favor.”

There are a couple of wince-worthy moments, like when Zelensky repeatedly praised Trump as a “great example.”

Zelensky also shamelessly pitched Ukraine as a great destination with beautiful sights.

Republican Rep. Devin Nunes pointedly read the entire rough transcript of the call, apparently in an effort to demonstrate that Trump’s relationship to the Ukrainian leader was friendly and not based on bullying or threats.

But Nunes may have inadvertantly made a Democratic point by focusing attention on Zelensky’s eagerness to win Trump’s support in the form of his attendance at his inauguration in Kiev.

Trump snubbed the event and instead sent a low level delegation led by Energy Secretary Rick Perry and became increasingly dissatisfied with Zelensky’s failure to announce the investigation into Democrats.

Trump eventually ordered aid to Ukraine cut off and pushed him openly for the partisan “favor” two months later.

Just in: @WhiteHouse releases the first call between Zelensky and Trump. Took place before the July call that became the focus of this #impeachment inquiry. #ImpeachingHearings #ImpeachmentDay pic.twitter.com/4Uyb0w0HXO

— Cordelia Lynch (@CordeliaSkyNews) November 15, 2019