Senate

Sekulow vows Bidens, Ukraine will be part of Trump impeachment defense

by Jordain Carney - 01/24/20 4:52 PM ET

Jay Sekulow, a member of President Trump’s legal team, indicated on Friday that the defense will talk about the Bidens, Ukraine and a controversial research dossier as part of their defense.

Sekulow, speaking to reporters, noted a lawyer for then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign funded some of the research for the so-called Steele dossier.

“You should be able to get a sense from what I’m saying right now … that we’re going to rebut and refute, and we’re going to put on an affirmative case tomorrow. But that’s just one, just one issue,” Sekulow told reporters.

Sekulow then turned to the Bidens, questioning why the House managers had mentioned former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden over the past three days.

“For the life of me, they’ve done it, why they opened up the door as wide as a double door on the Hunter Biden, Joe Biden, Burisma issue, I guess that was their way of getting ahead of it. We will address it,” Sekulow continued.

Hunter Biden worked on the board of Burisma while his father served as vice president during the Obama administration. In 2016, Joe Biden pushed for the dismissal of Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin because of concerns he was overlooking corruption in his own office.

There’s no evidence that Joe Biden was acting with his son’s interests in mind, the former vice president has denied doing so and the GOP claims have been debunked by fact checkers.

Kurt Volker, the former U.S. envoy to Ukraine, told House lawmakers that Biden “was representing U.S. policy at the time.”

But Sekulow, on Friday, appeared to reference reports from late last year that State Department officials were worried that Hunter Biden’s work for Burisma represented a conflict of interest given his father’s role as vice president.

“Believe me, you’ll hear about that issue too,” Sekulow said.

The president’s defense team will get to start making its case at 10 a.m. on Saturday, after three days of presentations by House Democrats.

The Senate is expected to be in session from approximately 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. on Saturday. Trump’s team will also be able to make its defense on Monday and Tuesday.

Sekulow declined to say on Friday if the team will use its full 24 hours, but said it would present its case from “10 to one-ish.”

“They said can you proceed for three hours tomorrow and then take the other time you need to present your case,” he said.

Tags Donald Trump Hillary Clinton Jay Sekulow Joe Biden Kurt Volker