Photo via Gage Skidmore/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
June 8, 2021, 1:09 pm*
A previously unreleased audio recording of Rudy Giuliani discussing what sounds like a textbook case of quid pro quo with Ukraine officials in 2019 has been obtained by CNN and released to the public, supporting the arguments that led to Donald Trump’s first impeachment. The audio, which totals over 42 minutes, contains bits in which Giuliani appears to offer access to Trump and forgiveness for some kind of past transgression in exchange for Ukraine announcing an investigation into the Bidens as Joe was already likely to become Trump’s 2020 presidential rival.
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“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,” Giuliani says.
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“I think [an investigation] would make it possible … for me to talk to the President [Trump] to see what I can do about making sure that whatever misunderstandings are put aside,” he added. “I kinda think that this could be a good thing for having a much better relationship.”
According to an analysis by CNN, Giuliani “relentlessly pressured” Ukraine officials to launch this Trumped-up investigation as they attempted to create hysteria around Hunter Biden’s foreign dealings and a conspiracy theory around a laptop back in the U.S. This happened prior to the call between Trump and Zelensky that was the center of the original impeachment case that seemed to both threaten the enforcement of sanctions on Ukraine as well as suggest that the U.S. could buy missiles from the nation, with Trump uttering the fatal line: “I would like you to do us a favor, though.”
Giuliani’s call certainly seems to reinforce the accusations that this was heavily hinting at a quid pro quo, even if Trump did not utter those exact words and in spite of him repeatedly insisting to U.S. media that “I want nothing” and that there was “no quid pro quo.” Trump barking these lines ultimately failed to prevent his first impeachment, though the Republican-controlled senate kept him in office. At least, until he was handily voted out in 2020.
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The audio is also a blow to Giuliani himself, who is battling an active criminal investigation into the possible violation of lobbying laws while trying to dig up dirt on the Bidens and reportedly beginning to fall deep into debt from legal fees, allegedly forcing him to peddle My Pillow products in his weird conspiracy videos.
Earlier in the call, Giuliani rambles on about the various right-wing conspiracy theories on the Bidens to U.S. diplomat Kurt Volker, who has been labeled as untrustworthy by other diplomats. Even Volker, however, tried to warn Giuliani that the Ukraine officials he was getting his supposed information on the Bidens from were unreliable and that their claims were “simply not credible.”
Giuliani also repeated the tired antisemitic conspiracy theory that Jewish billionaire George Soros was behind everything.
“Another one was involved with (George) Soros … Soros apparently is behind a lot of this,” he said.
Three days later, Trump was on the phone with Zelensky.
*First Published: June 8, 2021, 1:07 pm
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