Attorney General William Barr was dismayed to discover President Trump had grouped him in with his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, in a call with Ukraine’s leader in July.
Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Barr, who leads the Justice Department, and Giuliani could help the country investigate Trump’s potential general election rival Joe Biden, according to a transcript of the call released this week.
“I will have Mr. Giuliani give you a call and I am also going to have Attorney General Barr call and we will get to the bottom of it,” Trump told Zelensky.
The Justice Department has insisted Barr was unaware of the call until mid-August and that the president had never told his attorney general to contact Ukraine about any investigation of the former vice president and his son, Hunter.
When Barr learned of the call, he was “surprised and angry” that Trump lumped him in with Giuliani, a person familiar with the attorney general’s thinking told the Associated Press. Giuliani represents Trump’s personal interests and is not employed by the U.S. government.
Some Democrats have demanded that Barr recuse himself from any matters related to the Ukraine investigation because he is named in a whistleblower complaint about the administration’s interactions with Ukraine.
The Justice Department determined that the call and other actions involving Ukraine detailed in the complaint did not constitute a campaign finance violation.
