Trump contradicts past denials, admits sending Giuliani to Ukraine

Authored by edition.cnn.com and submitted by cranberryfix

Washington (CNN) Emboldened after his impeachment acquittal, President Donald Trump now openly admits to sending his attorney Rudy Giuliani to Ukraine to find damaging information about his political opponents, even though he strongly denied it during the impeachment inquiry.

The reversal came Thursday in a podcast interview Trump did with journalist Geraldo Rivera, who asked, "Was it strange to send Rudy Giuliani to Ukraine, your personal lawyer? Are you sorry you did that?" Trump responded, "No, not at all," and praised Giuliani's role as a "crime fighter."

"Here's my choice: I deal with the Comeys of the world, or I deal with Rudy," Trump said, referring to former FBI Director James Comey. Trump explained that he has "a very bad taste" of the US intelligence community, because of the Russia investigation, so he turned to Giuliani.

"So when you tell me, why did I use Rudy, and one of the things about Rudy, number one, he was the best prosecutor, you know, one of the best prosecutors, and the best mayor," Trump said. "But also, other presidents had them. FDR had a lawyer who was practically, you know, was totally involved with government. Eisenhower had a lawyer. They all had lawyers."

Trump had previously denied that he sent Giuliani to Ukraine. Asked in November if he directed Giuliani to "do anything" in Ukraine, Trump said, "No, I didn't direct him," but went on to call Giuliani a "great corruption fighter." Giuliani says he's exposing legitimate corruption in Ukraine, even though his claims about former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden have been widely debunked.

Hayes4prez on February 14th, 2020 at 01:16 UTC »

That’s not all he admitted in that interview, he also claimed the four prosecutors who quit did so because they “got caught, by ME”.

He just admitted he intervened in Stone’s trial.

slakmehl on February 14th, 2020 at 01:03 UTC »

"Here's my choice: I deal with the Comeys of the world, or I deal with Rudy," Trump said, referring to former FBI Director James Comey. Trump explained that he has "a very bad taste" of the US intelligence community, because of the Russia investigation, so he turned to Giuliani.

Trump is now personally confirming that he dispatched Rudy on a plot to rig the 2020 election immediately following the entry of Joe Biden into the race:

April 25th: Joe Biden announced his candidacy for President, immediately securing a commanding lead.

Early May: 1-2 weeks later, a plan to rig the election against him was put into motion. Conducted by Giuliani and, now acknowledged to be directed by Trump, who immediately looped in his National Security Advisor, Chief of Staff, and Chief Legal Counsel. The original reporting from NYT on Bolton's manuscript:

President Trump directed John R. Bolton, then his national security adviser, to help with his pressure campaign to extract damaging information on Democrats from Ukrainian officials, according to an unpublished manuscript by Mr. Bolton....Mr. Trump gave the instruction, Mr. Bolton wrote, during an Oval Office conversation in early May that included the acting White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, the president’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani and the White House counsel, Pat A. Cipollone, who is now leading the president’s impeachment defense.

May 9th: Giuliani acknowledges his activities in Ukraine to the New York Times:

“We’re not meddling in an election, we’re meddling in an investigation, which we have a right to do,. There’s nothing illegal about it,” he said. “Somebody could say it’s improper. And this isn’t foreign policy — I’m asking them to do an investigation that they’re doing already and that other people are telling them to stop. And I’m going to give them reasons why they shouldn’t stop it because that information will be very, very helpful to my client, and may turn out to be helpful to my government.”

Bolton's manuscript goes on to show that Trump was directing this scheme in detail through staff other that Giuliani, and was attempting to extort Zelensky from the get go:

Mr. Trump told Mr. Bolton to call Volodymyr Zelensky, who had recently won election as president of Ukraine, to ensure Mr. Zelensky would meet with Mr. Giuliani:

May 10th: Giuliani sends a letter to Zelensky asserting that Trump had explicit "knowledge and consent" of his efforts:

Mr. Parnas’ phone included a screenshot of a previously-undisclosed May 10, 2019, letter from Mr. Giuliani to then-President-elect Zelensky. The one-page letter signed by Mr. Giuliani states, in part:

Dear President-Elect Zelensky:

I am private counsel to President Donald J. Trump. Just to be precise, I represent him as a private citizen, not as President of the United States. This is quite common under American law because the duties and privileges of a President and a private citizen are not the same. Separate representation is usual process.

[…]

However, I have a more specific request. In my capacity as personal counsel to President Trump and with his knowledge and consent, I request a meeting with you on this upcoming Monday, May 13th or Tuesday, May 14th. I will need no more than a half-hour of your time and I will be accompanied by my colleague Victoria Toensing, a distinguished American attorney who is very familiar with this matter.

Mr. Parnas texted a copy of the letter to a close aide to then-President-elect Zelensky shortly after it was drafted.

Mr. Giuliani’s letter makes clear that his trip, which he publicly described at the time as an effort to “meddle in an investigation,” was undertaken with the knowledge and support of President Trump.

And now that impeachment is over, Bolton and Giuliani never even having been called as a witnesses, Trump feels comfortable admitting everything. Because this interview is a flex. Because the ultimate defense of his actions is always the same: "Fuck you. I can do whatever I want".

And he's right. Unless we stop him.

Mayor_Minderbinder on February 14th, 2020 at 00:02 UTC »

And that's why his lawyers will NEVER allow him to testify. Fucking Geraldo got him to admit to it.

Schiff needs to subpoena Rudy. ASAP