CNN obtains never-before-heard audio of Giuliani pressuring a Ukrainian official

CNN on Monday released never-before-heard audio from a 2019 phone call between Rudy Giuliani (who at the time was former President Donald Trump's personal lawyer), U.S. diplomat Kurt Volker, and Andriy Yermak, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The conversation seemingly set in motion the events that led to Trump's even-more-infamous call with Zelensky, which sparked his first impeachment trial.

BuzzFeed News and Time had previously published some excerpts from the transcript of the Giuliani call, including a moment where he tells Yermak to inform Zelensky that he needed to publicly announce an investigation into possible corruption by President Biden, who was then a candidate for the Democratic nomination. Giuliani's claims about Biden stemmed from baseless conspiracy theories.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.