Giuliani defends 'innocent' phone call between Trump and Ukrainian president in WSJ op-ed

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Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer, penned an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal Tuesday defending the president against allegations of wrongdoing in a July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that led to an impeachment inquiry in the House of Representatives.

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Giuliani wrote that Trump’s call with Zelensky was “innocent” and “proper,” and Trump was simply asking him to investigate “allegations of corruption at the highest levels of both governments” when he suggested Zelensky to look into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden's activities in the country.

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He said the push for Zelensky to investigate was simply an “exercise of Mr. Trump’s responsibility as U.S. president.”

Giuliani wrote that Trump and Zelensky discussed alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election, including documents related to Paul Manafort released by a Ukrainian lawmaker and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau that were purportedly meant to hurt Trump’s candidacy.

He added that Trump “briefly” brought up the Bidens’ conduct regarding the Ukrainian oil company Burisma, where Hunter Biden served on the board, and said he thinks the former vice president should be investigated for bribery over allegations of a $900,000 transfer from Burisma to a lobbying firm owned by Hunter Biden “and at the very least both Bidens’ behavior deserves serious scrutiny.”

Giuliani said Trump’s words during the phone call were free of “threat or coercion” and noted that Zelensky said publicly that he didn’t feel any pressure to investigate the Bidens.

“[O]ut of a five-page transcript Mr. Trump spent only six lines on Joe Biden,” Giuliani added.

He wrote that the left’s inability to accept Trump's 2016 win and "fear" of his policies have pushed Democrats into a “frenzy” and the "double standard" of the impeachment inquiry.

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“[I]f the allegations against Joe and Hunter Biden aren’t fully investigated, we won’t have equal justice under the law,” Giuliani concluded.

The first public impeachment hearings will begin Wednesday morning.