President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani said in an NPR interview Tuesday that the administration should continue investigating former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden after the Senate impeachment trial concludes.
The Senate will vote on a verdict Wednesday, though it’s widely expected senators will vote to acquit the president.
Giuliani, who has a history of advising the president, said he’d welcome a continued investigation into Biden in Ukraine.
“Absolutely, 100 percent,” Giuliani told NPR’s Steve Inskeep.
“I would have no problem with him doing it. In fact, I’d have a problem with him not doing it. I think he would be saying that Joe Biden can get away with selling out the United States, making us a fool in the Ukraine,” he added.
At the center of impeachment are allegations that Trump leveraged nearly $400 million in U.S. military aid to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens.
The president’s defense team claims the aid was held to investigate corruption in Ukraine, a known U.S. ally.
Trump alleges that the former vice president used his office during the Obama administration to remove Viktor Shokin, a top Ukrainian prosecutor at the time. The president suggested during the infamous July 25 phone call that Joe Biden encouraged the prosecutor’s ouster to benefit his son, who served on the board of a state-owned Ukrainian gas company at the time. However, this allegation has been debunked.
Democratic House impeachment managers have argued during the trial that failing to hold the president accountable for his actions enables him to continue what they deem is an abuse of power.
Giuliani, who is not a U.S. official or officeholder, plays a unique role in Trump’s alleged dealings in Ukraine.
The lawyer’s indicted associate Lev Parnas provided materials to the House Intelligence Committee tying Giuliani to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
He also provided a video of Trump allegedly dismissing ousted U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch after Parnas suggested that she supported Trump’s impeachment.
Parnas has offered to provide more materials to the committee and testify before the Senate, but the chamber voted to proceed with the trial without hearing from witnesses or accepting further documents.
Last week, former national security adviser John Bolton released a manuscript of his unpublished memoir to The New York Times, in which he reportedly alleges that Trump personally told him to encourage Ukraine’s president to meet with Giuliani. The meeting never took place, but Giuliani told NPR that the request was completely lawful.
Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) have made statements caveating their decisions to vote against witnesses and acquit Trump. They have said they believe the accusations against him to be true but don’t find them to warrant his removal from office.
“Lamar is wrong, and Lamar is a good friend of mine, and he’s a fine man except he doesn’t know all the facts,” Giuliani told NPR. “[He] only knows half the facts, a lot of them distorted.”