President Trump confirmed Saturday that Rudy Giuliani remains on his legal team amid rumors in Washington that the president dropped Giuliani over a federal investigation into his activities.
In an interview on Fox News, Trump told host Jeanine Pirro that Giuliani had his full support despite an ongoing investigation by federal prosecutors in Manhattan into his activities in Ukraine.
{mosads}”There is some confusion as to whether or not you still consider him your attorney. Is he your attorney?” Pirro asked.
“Yes, and he’s a great gentleman, he was a great mayor, one of the greatest, maybe the greatest mayor in the history of New York,” Trump responded. “He was a fantastic prosecutor, I know nothing about him being under investigation…I can’t imagine it.”
“You unquestionably stand behind him in spite of this investigation?” Pirro asked.
“Well, I just don’t know if there is an investigation,” Trump responded, before veering off topic and questioning why investigations into his political enemies were not being conducted.
Trump’s support for Giuliani comes following the publication of a report in The New York Times that indicated Giuliani is under investigation for undercutting Marie Yovanovitch, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, amid his efforts to persuade Ukraine’s president to launch an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden (D).
The White House’s efforts to spark that investigation are central to the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry into the president, which the president has refused to cooperate with while blaming Democrats for creating a partisan process that can’t produce fair results.