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 »
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:
May 9th: Giuliani acknowledges his activities in Ukraine to the New York Times: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:
May 10th: Giuliani sends a letter to Zelensky asserting that Trump had explicit "knowledge and consent" of his efforts: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