Pushing Ukraine to investigate 2016 election meddling and potential Biden family business conflicts, President Donald Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, acting as a private citizen, is "pretty confident" an investigation will proceed, The New York Times reported.
Giuliani, who has been criticized by President Trump's critics for doing so, told the Times he "strongly urged" Andriy Yermak, a friend of new Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to "just investigate the darn things."
And, after his Yermak interactions as a private citizen – with the U.S. State Department's knowledge – Giuliani has come away "pretty confident they're going to investigate it."
Giuliani did admit the fledgling Zelenskiy administration is in a tough spot investigating the Biden family – presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter's business dealings in the Ukraine – particularly while calling for the investigation into election meddling efforts in Ukraine to try to aid Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign against President Trump.
"When you have a decision like that, you're going to piss off somebody, so you might as well make the right decision, right?" Giuliani told the Times.
Giuliani's own ties to President Trump also might put the Zelenskiy administration in a spot – where it appears to be favoring President Trump by agreeing to conduct the investigation at Giuliani's urging – as a Ukrainian news site wrote "if Ukraine supports the current president and sells out Biden, it would become a cause of deep and irreversible processes which later will circle back on Ukraine in a very unpleasant manner."
"I can't really evaluate that — whether my involvement in it makes it worse or better," Giuliani told the Times. "I can't see how advocating for an investigation of two alleged crimes puts too much pressure on them, other than to do the right thing."