Rudy Giuliani says he was read aloud the transcript of Trump's call with the Ukrainian president before it was released

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Rudy Giuliani says he was read aloud the transcript of Trump's call with the Ukrainian president before it was released

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Rudy Giuliani on Fox & Friends on Wednesday morning.

Screenshot/Fox News

Rudy Giuliani on Fox & Friends on Wednesday morning.

  • President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, told the hosts of "Fox and Friends" on Wednesday morning that he was read the transcript of a call between Trump and the Ukrainian president before it was publicly released. 
  • During the call, Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to open an investigation into corruption allegations against former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.
  • Trump mentioned Giuliani multiple times, telling Zelensky that he would have Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr reach out to Ukraine to work together on the investigation into the Bidens. 
  • "Rudy very much knows what's happening and he is a very capable guy," Trump told Zelensky. "I will have Mr. Giuliani give you a call and I am also going to have Attorney General Barr call and we will get to the bottom of it."
  • As a non-government actor, Giuliani's involvement in foreign affairs concerning Ukraine is highly unusual.
  • The Justice Department said Wednesday that Barr and Trump have never discussed working with Ukraine to investigate the Bidens and that the attorney general had never spoken with Giuliani about "anything related to Ukraine."
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, told the hosts of "Fox and Friends" on Wednesday morning that he was read the transcript of a call between Trump and the Ukrainian president - the alleged substance of which has sparked an impeachment inquiry - before it was publicly released by the White House. 

During the July 25th call, a memo of which the White House released Wednesday, Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to open an investigation into corruption allegations against former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.

During his call with Zelensky, Trump told the Ukrainian president to work with Giuliani on the investigation into the Bidens. Trump mentioned his personal attorney several times throughout the call, according to the memo, which is not a verbatim transcript. 

"Rudy very much knows what's happening and he is a very capable guy," Trump said, adding later, "I will have Mr. Giuliani give you a call and I am also going to have Attorney General Barr call and we will get to the bottom of it. I'm sure you will figure it out."

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Read more: Trump just released a memo of his call with the Ukrainian president that led to an impeachment inquiry

Towards the end of the call, Trump again said, "I will tell Rudy and Attorney General Barr to call." 

As a non-government actor, Giuliani's involvement in foreign affairs concerning Ukraine is highly unusual. Giuliani's alleged efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens may indicate the personal nature of Trump's requests of the Eastern European nation. 

"Did you read the transcript?" Fox host Brian Kilmeade asked Giuliani on Wednesday morning, hours before the memo was released.  

"Uh, let's say it was read to me," Giuliani replied. 

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The Justice Department said Wednesday that Barr and Trump have never discussed working with Ukraine to investigate the Bidens and that the attorney general had never spoken with Giuliani about "anything related to Ukraine."

An intelligence agency official filed an unusual whistle-blower complaint in August concerning the president's dealings with Ukraine. But after the inspector general determined the complaint was "credible" and "urgent," Trump's acting Director of National Intelligence refused to turn the report over to Congress - a potentially illegal move.

During his Wednesday Fox and Friends appearance, Giuliani called the allegations that Trump violated campaign finance law when he asked Ukraine to interfere in the election "a complete sham," "a joke," and a "political hit job."

"The conclusion is this is a political hit job," he said. "This isn't a whistle-blower."

Giuliani and the Fox hosts spent most of the interview discussing Giuliani's claims that Biden bribed officials in Ukraine to halt investigations into Burisma, a gas company Hunter Biden served on the board of.

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"What did Obama know and when did he know it?" he asked. 

Giuliani insisted that Trump's conversation with Zelensky was an "appropriate, perfectly legitimate, and a completely authorized communication."

In another Fox News interview on Tuesday night, Giuliani claimed that he only became involved in US-Ukrainian relations after the State Department asked him to intervene. 

"I never talked to an Ukrainian official until the State Department called me and asked me to do it," he told Fox host Laura Ingraham. "And then I reported to every conversation back to them." 

Democratic leadership on Tuesday announced it would begin an impeachment inquiry into allegations that Trump illegally pressured Ukraine to intervene in the US election by asking it to investigate his political opponent.

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