Trump lawyer Sekulow rips Schiff over who paid Giuliani for Ukraine work

One of the lead lawyers representing President Trump erupted in outrage Thursday when Rep. Adam Schiff, the lead impeachment manager for the Democrats answered a question asking who paid Rudy Giuliani for his work in Ukraine by concluding, “The American presidency is open for business.”

“I will tell you who is open for business. You want to know who was open for business?” Trump’s personal lawyer Jay Sekulow answered back.

“When the vice president of the United States was charged 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,” an indignant Sekulow said, referring to then-Vice President Joe Biden spearheading the Obama administration’s corruption efforts in Ukraine when his son, Hunter, was sitting on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma, which had been under investigation.

“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?” Sekulow said in astonishment.

Sekulow said it was “ironic” that Democrats were questioning Trump’s discussion with the Ukrainian president when during special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation three Democratic senators sent a letter in May 2018 to Ukraine’s prosecutor general warning him not to impede the probe.

“And you’re asking about whether foreign investigations are appropriate I think answers itself,” Sekulow said.

He was responding to an answer from Schiff to a question to both sides posed by Democratic Sens. Kamala Harris of California, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Jack Reed of Rhode Island about who was paying Giuliani for his work in Ukraine.

“I don’t know who is paying Rudy Giuliani’s fees. And if he is not being paid by the president to conduct the domestic political errand for which he has devoted so much time, if other clients and paying and subsidizing his work in that respect, it raises profound questions,” Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told the senators.

“The whole country is paying the freight” for Giuliani’s efforts in Ukraine, Schiff said. “There are leaders around the world watching this and saying the American presidency is open for business.”