President Trump said Saturday the impeachment case against him is groundless because “nothing came out of the conversation” with Ukraine’s president, a phone call at the center of the inquiry.
“It was only a conversation,” the president said of his call on July 25 with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. “Nothing came out of the conversation, except for the relationship with Ukraine.”
House Democrats accuse the president of withholding U.S. military aid to Ukraine while pressing Mr. Zelensky to open investigations that could benefit Mr. Trump politically at home.
But Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House Saturday that nothing resulted from the phone call, and that voters understand the Democrats’ case against him lacks merit.
“People realize it’s a total hoax,” Mr. Trump said. “The people see that it’s just a continuation of this three-year witch [hunt]. They don’t want to see impeachment. Especially in the swing states, they’ve swung our way.”
The House Judiciary Committee will hold another hearing on Monday, aiming to draft articles of impeachment against Mr. Trump for abuse of power and other charges. The White House has said it won’t participate in the “sham” hearings and urged Democrats to stop the proceedings.
The president also said he expects personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, his private emissary in Ukraine who made another trip to the country recently, to submit a report to Attorney General William P. Barr and to Congress about his latest findings there.
Mr. Giuliani has said he was looking into corruption in Ukraine, including alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. election and a sweetheart job for the son of Democratic frontrunner Joseph R. Biden.
“He says he has a lot of good information,” Mr. Trump said. “He has not told me what he found, but I think he wants to go before Congress … and also to the attorney general and the Department of Justice. I hear he has found plenty.”The president said he’s also looking forward to a long-awaited Justice Department inspect general’s report to be released on Monday focusing on the origins of the FBI’s surveillance of his campaign in 2016.
’It’s a horrible thing that took place, and it should never happen to another president,” he said.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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