The announcement, first made in a series of tweets by the South Carolina Republican and Trump supporter, came as Giuliani has become targeted in House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry. He has also continued to act as one of the president’s staunchest defenders.
The impeachment proceedings began after revelations from a whistleblower complaint last month revealed that Trump pressured his foreign counterpart in Ukraine to investigate a potential political opponent—former Vice President Joe Biden and his son—for their involvement in a Ukrainian gas company. Accusations of wrongdoing by the Bidens have not been substantiated, leading Democrats to say Giuliani has been pushing conspiracy theories.
Republicans have sought to pivot the scandal’s focus away from Trump’s efforts to get other nations’ help in the presidential election and are instead focusing on the alleged wrongdoing by Biden and his son of using their influence for personal gain. That strategy is evident in Graham’s invitation to Giuliani. The whistleblower’s complaint also said Giuliani was a “central figure” in Trump’s attempt to get a Ukrainian investigation into the Bidens, and Giuliani has conceded that he pushed Ukrainian officials to do as such.
“I have heard on numerous occasions disturbing allegations by Rudy Giuliani about corruption in Ukraine and the many improprieties surrounding the firing of former Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin,” Graham wrote on Twitter. “Given the House of Representatives’ behavior, it is time for the Senate to inquire about corruption and other improprieties involving Ukraine. Therefore I will offer to Mr. Giuliani the opportunity to come before the Senate Judiciary Committee to inform the Committee of his concerns.”
It is not yet clear whether Giuliani will accept or whether his testimony would be conducted in a public or private setting.
Democrats did, however, applaud the move to invite the outspoken Trump attorney. The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), said she and her colleagues “have plenty of questions” for him and “welcome the opportunity to question Rudy Giuliani under oath about his role in seeking the Ukrainian government’s assistance to investigate one of the president’s political rivals.”
Text messages between top U.S. diplomats that were released by the House Intelligence Committee have corroborated the whistleblower’s claim that Giuliani was involved in Trump’s push to have Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky investigate the Bidens. Democrats have alleged there was a quid pro quo involved, pointing to hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid that was withheld for months without a specified reason.
The invitation from Graham to Giuliani came as the Trump administration blocked a key witness, U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, from testifying Tuesday behind closed doors to lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff said that the move amounted to “strong evidence of corruption” and that the State Department was preventing Sondland from releasing “text messages or emails on a personal device” that are relevant to Democrats’ investigation of Ukraine and the whistleblower complaint. Schiff and other Democratic House chairmen said they intended to subpoena Sondland to compel his deposition.
