Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s ex-lawyer Rudy Giuliani repeatedly pressured President Volodymyr Zelensky’s administration to publicly investigate then-presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter, according to a new audio recording obtained by CNN.
On June 8, CNN revealed the details of a 40-minute call between Giuliani, Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak and U.S. diplomat Kurt Volker, which took place in July 2019.
In the recorded conversation, Giuliani pressed Yermak to investigate Hunter Biden’s business activities in Ukraine and even said that relations between Ukraine and the U.S. would improve if Zelensky helped Trump dig up dirt on his rival in the 2020 presidential election.
“All we need from the President (Zelensky) is to say, I’m gonna put an honest prosecutor in charge, he’s gonna investigate and dig up the evidence, that presently exists and is there any other evidence about involvement of the 2016 election, and then the Biden thing has to be run out… Somebody in Ukraine’s gotta take that seriously,” Giuliani told Yermak, according to the tapes.
“That would clear the air really well,” Giuliani added. “And I think it would make it possible for me to come and make it possible, I think, for me to talk to the President (Trump) to see what I can do about making sure that whatever misunderstandings are put aside … I kinda think that this could be a good thing for having a much better relationship.”
Hunter Biden served on the supervisory board of Burisma, an oil and gas company owned by the former Ukrainian Ecology Minister Mykola Zlochevsky who has been under investigations both in the U.K. and Ukraine for alleged tax evasion, fraud and corruption.
Hunter Biden’s role in Burisma would eventually come to play a central role in a series of unfounded accusations against his father pushed by Ukrainian politicians, right-wing media and Giuliani, who falsely claimed that the elder Biden pressured Ukraine to fire its prosecutor general, Viktor Shokin, in order to derail an investigation into Burisma.
That was mostly untrue. While Biden called for Shokin’s ouster, he was articulating official U.S. government policy and echoing the long-standing demands of Ukrainian civil society, who saw Shokin as an official who hampered corruption investigations. Shokin appeared to have sabotaged the Prosecutor General’s Office investigation into Burisma. And there was never an investigation into Hunter Biden personally.
Giuliani’s call with Yermak preceded the exchange between Trump and Zelensky, which also took place in July 2019.
At the time, Trump asked his counterpart to investigate Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine to spoil his father’s prospects of winning the presidential race in 2020.
The call happened shortly after Trump blocked the release of approved military aid to Ukraine.
A senior official later testified that Trump had made clear the release of this aid was conditional on Ukraine investigating Biden.
After a whistleblower made the Trump-Zelensky call public, Congressional Democrats impeached Trump for abusing power and obstructing Congress. But the former president was not removed from office due to a lack of votes during the Senate trial.
Both Trump and Giuliani deny any wrongdoing.
Giuliani is currently under investigation by the FBI for allegedly lobbying the Trump administration on behalf of Ukrainian officials who were helping him find damaging information about Biden and his family.
According to the U.S. federal law, officials cannot lobby the U.S. government on behalf of foreign officials without registering with the Justice Department, and Giuliani never registered, The New York Times reports.
