Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul contended that President Donald Trump had a legal responsibility to investigate possible corruption committed by former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.
Appearing on Thursday night’s “The Story with Martha MacCallum” during a busy day in the impeachment trial on Capitol Hill, Paul, who made news earlier Thursday by reading a question that had been censored by Chief Justice John Roberts on the Senate floor, cited the “original legislation” providing money to Ukraine as having included a provision to “investigate corruption.”
“Did you think there was anything wrong with the phone call?” asked Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum. “Did you see it as a request for a political favor in the coming election against somebody who is likely running against the president?”
“The original legislation that we gave money to Ukraine said that the president has to investigate corruption,” Paul responded. “And so I think there is a lot of evidence that the Bidens are corrupt and that there was corruption, so he would actually be going against the law if he didn’t investigate the Bidens. I think he did what was completely in compliance with the law and this is just partisanship thing gone amok, and ultimately the Democrats are going to regret they did this because they are making it very, very hard for the country to have anything that we can do together.” (RELATED: Alan Dershowitz Addresses Times Report On Bolton Manuscript In Senate Arguments)
Paul likely was referring to a 1998 treaty signed by former President Bill Clinton with Ukraine that called for “Mutual Legal Assistance” to investigate corruption, a fact Fox News host Jesse Watters brought up during a September debate with fellow “The Five” co-host Juan Williams, arguing that Trump had a “firm legal underpinning” to seek an investigation into the Bidens.