Critics of President Trump are trying to lump together a story that he asked the Australian prime minister to assist Attorney General William Barr’s inquiry into the origins of the Robert Mueller investigation with his decision to ask Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to look into Joe and Hunter Biden. But this is a mistake. The episodes are different from each other in two important ways.
The first important difference is that Trump asked Zelensky to “look into” Biden, a leading political rival, for something that is not under investigation in the United States. In contrast, Barr has been quite open about the fact that the Department of Justice has been looking into the origins of the Russia investigation. Due to the international nature of what is being looked at, that investigation requires the cooperation of multiple foreign governments. Though we do not have a transcript of the Australia call, it would be perfectly appropriate for Trump to make sure that Barr gets all the cooperation he needs overseas to conduct a thorough investigation.
The second important difference is that when it came to Ukraine, Trump involved his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, in discussions with a foreign government about investigating a political rival. It is much more difficult to make the case that Trump was acting out of the national interest to rid Ukraine of corruption when he’s dispatching his personal lawyer to look into the case. In May, Giuliani told the New York Times that he was seeking information from Ukraine that “will be very, very helpful to my client, and may turn out to be helpful to my government.”
Now there are various criticisms that can be leveled against Trump for the Australia call. Such as, that in his interactions with foreign leaders, he’s overly prioritizing issues that have implications for him politically. That can also be countered by the legitimate reasons the president would seek cooperation for a DOJ investigation.
But lumping these two calls together only muddies the issue and makes it more difficult to articulate exactly what was so especially egregious about Trump’s call with Zelensky.
