Sen. Lindsey Graham on Monday predicted that President Trump will disclose more information about a July call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and that doing so would be in the president’s interest.
“I would just urge the president — he’s talking openly about the conversation — to release as much as possible,” Mr. Graham told radio host Hugh Hewitt.
“I believe that President Trump is going to blow you away with his willingness to disclose and be transparent about this phone call, [because] I think he did nothing wrong and he has nothing to hide,” the South Carolina Republican said. “So get ready for some disclosures from the president that I think will exceed every expectation.”
Mr. Trump on Sunday appeared to confirm reports that he discussed former Vice President Joseph R. Biden with Mr. Zelensky, but said he did nothing wrong.
The phone call is reportedly part of a whistleblower complaint that House Democrats are trying to obtain to find out if Mr. Trump threatened to withhold military aid unless Mr. Zelensky agreed to look into the business interests of Hunter Biden, Mr. Biden’s son.
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham would not say on Monday if Mr. Trump would release a transcript of the phone call.
“I do think that perhaps releasing this kind of a transcript could set a bad precedent,” Ms. Grisham said on “Fox and Friends.” “He’s willing to do it, I think, but there’s a lot of other people, lawyers and such, that may have a problem with it. So we’ll see what happens.”
Mr. Graham said he likes Mr. Biden and his family, but that his ties to Ukraine should be investigated.
“If Don Jr. got 15 cents from some foreign entity while Trump was president, it’d be front-page news and we’re talking about a prosecutor being dismissed in the Ukraine, bragging about it, at the same time a member of Biden’s family receiving a substantial amount of money from that part of the world,” he said.
As vice president in 2016, Mr. Biden had threatened to withhold $1 billion in loan guarantees unless Ukrainian leaders dismissed a top prosecutor who had been reportedly eyeing an energy company where Hunter Biden was on the board at the time.
In 2018, Mr. Biden had bragged about the episode during an appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations.
“I looked at them and said, ’I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money.’ Well, son of a bitch. He got fired,” he said then.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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