Former President Donald Trump told an entirely fictional story on Saturday about how he had supposedly outwitted his Democratic opponents by releasing ā€œthe tapeā€ of theĀ 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that was a key factor inĀ Trumpā€™s first impeachment.

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Facts First:Ā Trumpā€™s story is a complete fabrication. No tape of his call with Zelensky was ever released; Pelosi could not possibly have been angry with her allies after hearing a tape of the call because she has never heard a tape of the call. In fact, as of nearly five years after the July 2019 call, there isĀ noĀ known US recordingĀ of the conversation. What Trumpā€™s White House actually released in September 2019 was aĀ rough written transcriptĀ of the call ā€” whichĀ corroborated, rather than contradicted, aĀ government whistleblowerā€™s central allegationsĀ about what Trump had said.Ā Pelosi spokesperson Aaron Bennett said Sunday that Trumpā€™s story is ā€œfact-free nonsense.ā€