EXCLUSIVE: Listen to the full 40-minute Rudy Giuliani phone call with a Ukrainian presidential aide
Never-before-heard audio, obtained exclusively by CNN, shows how former President Donald Trump’s longtime adviser Rudy Giuliani relentlessly pressured and coaxed the Ukrainian government in 2019 to investigate baseless conspiracies about then-candidate Joe Biden.
The audio is of a July 2019 phone call between Giuliani, US diplomat Kurt Volker, and Andriy Yermak, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The call was a precursor to Trump’s infamous call with Zelensky, and both conversations later became a central part of Trump’s first impeachment.
During the roughly 40-minute call, Giuliani repeatedly told Yermak that Zelensky should publicly announce investigations into possible corruption by Biden in Ukraine, and into claims that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election to hurt Trump. These separate claims are both untrue.
Giuliani did not respond to CNN’s requests to comment about the new audiotape. In the past, he has said he didn’t do anything wrong in Ukraine and was merely pursuing his client’s best interests. He was Trump’s personal lawyer at the time.
Listen to the full audiotape here:
