'Transcript' not a verbatim record
The document that describes the July conversation between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been widely characterized as a transcript, but that's not quite right.
The "memorandum of telephone conversation" — or "memcon" — resembles a verbatim account, yet memcons are not always word-for-word.
White House conversations have not been audio-recorded since the mid-1970s, when former President Richard Nixon scandalized the practice, said Laurence Pfeiffer, a former senior director of the White House Situation Room during the Obama administration.
Memcons are instead created by a team of notetakers, initially, who contemporaneously record what the president and his guests say. Historically, Pfeiffer said, memcons have been edited only for clarity and accuracy.
But former White House staffers said the Trump administration has been more willing to edit the memos to remove errors or insensitive remarks Trump has made, apparently in an effort to avoid political heat. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Washington Post
