In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal published the day before House Democrats began their public impeachment hearings, former NYC Mayor and current attorney for President Trump, Rudy Giuliani, slammed the investigation as an “unprecedented” abuse of power on the part of Congress.
Giuliani insisted that the Democrats are trying to turn the president’s “innocent” interactions with Ukraine officials into evidence of wrongdoing, despite having limited evidence for their claims.
“The manner in which Rep. Adam Schiff and Speaker Nancy Pelosi are conducting this impeachment investigation is unprecedented, constitutionally questionable, and an affront to American fair play,” Giuliani wrote. “In an ideal America, politicians would be held to the same standard regardless of party, and this inquiry would be over. But the left’s inability to accept the results of the 2016 election and fear of Mr. Trump’s policy agenda have driven the Democrats into a frenzy.”
In mentioning the 2016 election, Giuliani offered an inadvertent preview of Rep. Devin Nunes’ opening statement during Wednesday’s hearings, where the California Republican reminded viewers that this was the Democrats’ second attempt to throw Trump out of office. The first being their tireless argument that President Trump had colluded with the Russians to cheat his way into the White House. As Nunes noted in his statement, the minute that hoax fizzled out on national television, the Democrats turned to this “low-rent sequel”: The Ukraine scandal.
But in his op-ed, Giuliani insisted that there was nothing wrong with Trump’s interactions with Ukraine, much less impeachable.
“The conversation my client, President Donald J. Trump, had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 25 was innocent,” he wrote. “During a congratulatory call, the newly elected Mr. Zelensky brought up the need to ‘drain the swamp’ in his country. Rooting out corruption was one of Mr. Zelensky’s campaign pledges, and Mr. Trump asked him to investigate allegations of corruption at the highest levels of both governments. It was a matter of serious mutual concern.
“Moreover, Mr. Trump requested that Ukraine root out corruption; he didn’t demand it,” Giuliani continued. “His words were cordial, agreeable and free of any element of threat or coercion. Mr. Trump offered nothing in return to Ukraine for cleaning up corruption.”
The transcript, of course, confirms every word of what Giuliani is saying. So the best Democrats have are a bunch of witnesses who will testify about what they *thought* the president wanted, whether they heard it through the grapevine or, like William Taylor, read about it in some random New York Times story.
These hearings are a farce, and if the public actually watches them (instead of being spoon-fed the biased highlights by the media), Americans will soon realize just how desperate the Democrats have become.
