Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal attorney, is urging Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden, raising questions about whether Donald Trump would pressure his attorney general to do the same.
President Donald Trump told POLITICO on Friday that it would be “appropriate” for him to speak to Attorney General Bill Barr about launching an investigation into his potential 2020 rival, Joe Biden, or his son, Hunter.
The question of whether Trump could pressure Barr to probe Biden is coming under scrutiny after Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal attorney, said he would be traveling to Ukraine to urge the incoming government there to look at Hunter Biden’s involvement with a Ukrainian energy company that has reportedly been in prosecutors’ crosshairs. The efforts appear to be part of a broader campaign by Trump’s allies to damage the former Democratic vice president’s White House campaign and have raised questions about whether Trump’s team is trying to enlist a foreign government to aid the president’s re-election bid.
“Certainly it would be an appropriate thing to speak to him about, but I have not done that as of yet. … It could be a very big situation,” Trump said in a 15-minute telephone interview on Friday afternoon, which stemmed from POLITICO’s inquiries for a separate story.
Barr also drew attention during his recent congressional testimony when he demurred on a question about whether anybody in the White House had ever suggested that he launch an investigation.
The two Bidens’ connections to Ukraine have become a subject of deep interest among the president’s political allies, who charge that Biden as vice president pressured the Ukrainian government to oust a prosecutor in order to benefit his son. The Ukrainian prosecutor had reportedly faced allegations of ignoring corruption among Ukraine’s business and political elite. No evidence has emerged that Joe Biden was acting to assist his son, and it is not clear that the official was probing the company at the time.
The New York Times earlier this month reported on Giuliani’s efforts to investigate and publicize the issue.
The president argued that the alleged conflict of interest, or appearance thereof, was not mushrooming into an all-out scandal because Biden is a Democrat.
“Because he’s a Democrat,” Trump said, the report had about “one-hundredth” the impact as it would have if he “were a Republican.”
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Trump told POLITICO on Friday that it would be “appropriate” for him to speak to Attorney General Bill Barr about launching an investigation into his potential 2020 rival, Joe Bidenhttps://t.co/f3FGEBoRA4
— POLITICO (@politico) May 11, 2019
— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahNRO) May 11, 2019
Seems to me this should/would be something of a red line for Barr (and I'm not a Barr basher) given his stated opposition to using the criminal justice system for political purposes. https://t.co/MZ3ozvQ5Rv
— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahNRO) May 11, 2019
In 2016, a reporter asked me about some of the worst-case scenarios that a Trump presidency might bring.
"Trump could direct the Department of Justice to investigate his political opponents," I said, among other things.
The reporter looked at me like I was insane. https://t.co/ALjx0JOW4S
— Yascha Mounk (@Yascha_Mounk) May 11, 2019
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