White House opens internal investigation into Trump prank call

Mr Melendez claims the call shows 'how easy it is to infiltrate the White House'

US President Donald Trump speaks to the press aboard Air Force One en route to Bedminster, New Jersey, from Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, US on 29 June 2018 (REUTERS/Eric Thayer)

The White House has opened an investigation into how a comedian managed to prank call Donald Trump on Air Force One.

The call involved comedian John Melendez pretending to be New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez, and being connected to the president for a conversation about immigration and the new nomination for a judge to be placed on the Supreme Court.

Mr Melendez, who recorded the call and published excerpts on his "Stuttering John" podcast claimed that he had been passed to President Trump by his son-in-law Jared Kushner.

The White House office of legislative affairs contacted the office of Mr Menendez and were told that the senator had not requested a call with the president and it should not go through, but it was put through anyway, seemingly leaving Mr Trump's team embarrassed.

An internal investigation is now underway to determine how the call was handled, a senior official told ABC News. The White House did not return a request for comment from The Independent.

The call occurred on Mr Trump's flight back from a rally in North Dakota on Thursday, with Mr Melendez claiming that the call showed "how easy it is to infiltrate the White House.”

According to the recording, Mr Trump told Mr Melendez that he wanted "to take care" of the issue over immigration at the US border - which has been a source of much criticism for the president in recent weeks.

Mr Melendez then seemingly tried to influence the president on his next Supreme Court pick, telling him - as Mr Menendez the senator - that he would support a vote for his pick as long as they weren't “too conservative.”

“Yeah. Well, we will talk to you about it. We're going to probably make a decision, Bob, over the next two weeks,” Mr Trump said.