US President Donald Trump repeatedly asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a phone call to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son, a report says.
In the July 25 phone call, Trump told Zelensky nearly eight times to work with his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani on a probe related to Hunter Biden, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
According to The Washington Post, the call took place one day after former special counsel Robert Mueller testified before Congress about the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential elections.
Trump, who also discussed Biden himself with Zelensky during the call, said the focus should be on the former vice president’s ties to Ukraine during his tenure.
When asked by reporters whether he had discussed Biden or his son with the Ukrainian president, Trump did not deny it, but said, “it doesn’t matter what I discuss.”
“But I will say this: Somebody ought to look into Joe Biden's statement, because it was disgraceful,” he added.
Trump and other Republicans have attempted to show Biden as corrupt over his efforts as vice president in 2016 to push Ukraine to dismiss a top prosecutor.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden dismissed Trump’s call for an investigation into his ties to Ukraine amid conservatives’ allegations of misconduct.
“Not one single, credible outlet has given any credibility to his assertion. Not one single one,” Biden told reporters Friday. “So I have no comment except the president should start to be president.”
This comes as Trump has come under scrutiny following a whistleblower complaint that involved Trump making a “promise” to a foreign leader, with The Washington Post and The New York Times later reporting that the incident in question involved Ukraine.
Earlier on Friday, Trump dismissed the whistleblower as “highly partisan and ridiculous,” insisting that the conversation in question was “pitch perfect.”
“The fake news doesn’t look into things like that,” he said. “It’s a disgrace.”
“Keep asking questions and build it up as big as possible so you can have a bigger downfall,” he added.