Trump Attorney Sekulow on Ukraine Saga: ‘We Went Through a War with Bob Mueller and We Won — This Is a Skirmish’

Monday on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” Jay Sekulow, an attorney for President Donald Trump, offered viewers several reasons to be skeptical of the current controversy involving Trump and allegations he pressured Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden.

Sekulow offered a timeline that showed changes to the whistleblower rules days before then-President Barack Obama left office. He also predicted Trump would emerge on the winning in this “skirmish.”

Partial transcript as follows:

HANNITY: Jay Sekulow joins us. He is the president’s attorney and he is also the chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice.

So, I read the transcript —

JAY SEKULOW, PRESIDENT TRUMP’S ATTORNEY: Yes.

HANNITY: — and they are having a pleasant conversation.

Ukraine is at the heart of all of this. The president says we need you to get to the bottom of election interference on the 2016 election.

SEKULOW: Right.

Yes, let me give you a little — I think it’s important for everybody to understand. Let’s remember how this starts.

Days before President Trump is sworn into office, days before he’s sworn into office, there is a change in intelligence information sharing. For eight years, the Obama administration was quite satisfied with it going to just three agencies. With about ten days left, before the transition to a new president, they switched that and allowed it to go to 18 agencies.

James Comey also has planted over at the White House and agent from the FBI dual assigned, going back and forth between the FBI and the White House. What was that person’s job?

Then we have the leaks. Let’s talk about these leaks for a moment. You’ve got conversations starting in the early part of the administration that were leaked by intelligence officials, public conversation — private conversations released to the public. That’s called crime.

Then, you have it continuing. Continuing even this afternoon. We’re getting more information.

So, now, the president of the United States, on phone calls with other heads of states, now has to understand that his phone calls are likely to be leaked to the press. Why are they doing this? Could it be they are doing this because there’s an investigation of the investigators going on by Mr. Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut? Could that be the reason that this is all happening?

Could it also be the reason, Sean — and this is how I look at this. You look at what is the rule, regulation, statute that was violated in the conversation that the president had with the president of Ukraine? None. Nothing.

Where was the collusion with Russia? Did not exist. Where was the obstruction? Did not happen.

Now, it’s Ukraine. Well, then, it was, first, it was quid pro quo, but then there was no quid pro quo. Then it was a cover-up except the transcript had already been released.

So, you know this is? This is an attempt, a lame one, I have to say, from the Democratic Party right now to placate their leading left-wing people that are actually running this party it appears.

But you know who is suffering from this? The president’s governing, he’s doing his job — the American people. We do.

That the president would be put into a situation where he now has to worry about conversations that he is having with world leaders being leaked to the press. That is not good for our constitutional republic. So, what’s at stake here is the very constitutional balance.

So, what does Adam Schiff do? He doesn’t read the transcript. Why didn’t he read it? Because there’s nothing to it. There’s no problem.

What does he do instead? He comes up with a dramatic presentation, a reenactment not based on the actual script. When he had the actual script, because the White House released it.

So, what is this? This is a fraud being perpetrated on the American people. And now, we have a pattern and a practice of intelligence officers, people assigned to intelligence agencies, leaking conversations of the president of the United States with heads of state.

You know what it puts at (ph)? It puts the entire constitutional framework at risk, and shame on them for what they’re doing but here’s what’s going to happen, Sean. We will find out exactly who’s doing what, how it was being handled. Did it start with that initial executive order by President Obama at the end of his administration? What is happening now, we’re going to get to the bottom of it.

And so, what did they try to do today? They try to subpoena the lawyer. Rudy Giuliani, the president’s counsel, my colleague. Nonsense.

The information contained in the subpoena is protected by attorney-client privilege. It’s outrageous what they’re trying to do. I think it’s also interesting that they didn’t subpoena him to testify. They just want documents.

They don’t want him to testify because you know what the truth is? He has more information than they do, and you don’t put up a witness that has more information than you do. So, I think this is the whole — this entire matter as a put up on the people and I think that the American people I know are smarter than that, they know exactly what’s going on here.

And I will tell you this. I’ve dealt with this with the press all weekend. This — how is the White House going to react? How’s the president’s private counsel going to react?

You know what? We went through a war with Bob Mueller and we won. This is a skirmish.

We don’t need a war room. We just we need to respond as appropriate, we will. This will be handled. That’s it.

HANNITY: Jay Sekulow, thank you for joining us.

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor