In the impeachment trial on Thursday, Democratic senators cited reports that President Donald Trump has not paid Rudy Giuliani for his work as his personal attorney. House impeachment manager Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said that what Giuliani was doing in Ukraine has nothing to do with policy. He further called it a “domestic, corrupt political errand” that Giuliani did without payment. He argued that Giuliani’s actions on behalf of the president sent the message that the American presidency is “open for business,” and the entire country pays for it.
In response, Jay Sekulow, one of Trump’s lawyers, dismissed these “open for business” comments, saying that Biden’s actions in Ukraine while his son Hunter was on the board of Burisma should be of greater concern. Sekulow said he found it ironic that Democratic lawmakers would question Trump’s conversations with foreign governments when they themselves sent a letter to the general prosecutor of Ukraine in 2018 raising concerns that the Trump administration would pressure Ukraine into obstructing the Mueller investigation. Senators had a second day to ask questions of the House managers and President Donald Trump’s legal team on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2020. That came after both sides were given three days, respectively, to present their case.
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Counsel, (?) what just came out of the manager’s mouth ‘open for business’. I’ll tell you who is ‘open for business’. You want to know who’s ‘open for business’?
When the Vice President of the United States who was charge by the then President of the United States with developing policies to avoid and assist in removing corruption from Ukraine, and his son was on the board of a company that was under investigation for Ukraine, and you’re concerned about what Rudy Giuliani the President’s lawyer was doing when he was over trying to determine what was going on in Ukraine.
And by the way, it’s a little bit interesting to me, and my colleagues, the deputy White House counsel referred to this. It’s a little bit ironic to me that you’re going to be questioning conversations with foreign governments about investigations when three of you, three members of the Senate, Senator Menedez, Senator Leahy and Senator Durbin, sent a letter that read something, quickly, like this, they wrote the letter to the Prosecutor General of Ukraine. They said they’re advocates, talking about the congressman, they’re strong advocates for a robust and close relationship with Ukraine and we believe that our cooperation should extend to such legal matters regardless of politics, and their concern was ongoing investigations, and whether the Mueller team was getting appropriate responses from Ukraine regarding investigations of what, the President of the United States and you’re asking about whether foreign investigations are appropriate? I think it answers itself.
Thank you, Counsel
