Chris Helgren/Reuters
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a bilateral meeting with Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of the Ukraine Reform Conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, July 2, 2019.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has only been in office a few months and he's already at the center of a scandal that's threatening Donald Trump's presidency.
- A phone call between Trump and Zelensky in late July has been tied to a whistleblower complaint from a US intelligence official.
- Trump in the phone call repeatedly pressured Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a frontrunner in the Democratic presidential race.
- Before entering
politics , Zelensky was a comedian and a TV star. - Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky is not your average politician, and his ascent to high office was anything but typical.
Zelensky is a former comedian and TV star, who had zero prior political experience when he won a landslide victory in Ukraine's presidential election in April.
Just a few months into his tenure, Zelensky is at the center of a scandal in the US involving a phone call between him and President Donald Trump that's led House Democrats to launch a formal impeachment inquiry.
In the call, Trump repeatedly pressured Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, in relation to the latter's ties to a Ukrainian natural gas company.
Trump's call with Zelensky is connected to a whistleblower complaint filed by an intelligence official, but is reportedly only a piece of the puzzle and the complaint pertained to more than a single conversation.