President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Thursday lashed out at the House impeachment inquiry as a "coup" — and "a very serious crime."
In a tweet, Rudy Guiliani took aim at charges Trump's July 25 call to Ukraine's president presented a quid pro quo — linking congressionally approved military aid to a corruption investigation of Joe Biden and his son.
"The 1st coup failed after 3 investigations found nothing," he tweeted.
It was not clear if he was referencing former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, which Trump continuously derided as a "witch hunt."
"The 2nd coup began in secret," Giuliani continued, referring to the closed-door testimony of witnesses to the House impeachment investigators.
"Based on a very compromised source, who took an innocent conversation that had NO threat, pressure or quid pro quo and deliberately turned it into something it's not."
"A very serious crime!"
It was a whistleblower's report of concerns about the call that triggered the impeachment probe. Trump and his allies have been demanding the anonymous whistleblower be unmasked.
Giuliani is central to a Democratic-led House impeachment inquiry focused on the call in which Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who served as a director of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
In a transcript released Wednesday of testimony by Bill Taylor, the top U.S. envoy in Ukraine, Giuliani was mentioned 68 times. At one point, Taylor spoke of when it became clear a meeting between Zelenskiy and Trump was conditioned on investigations of Burisma and alleged Ukrainian influence in the 2016 elections.
"It was also clear that this condition was driven by the irregular policy channel I had come to understand was guided by Mr. Giuliani," Taylor testified.
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