Giuliani gave a wild interview saying he 'will be the hero' of the Ukraine scandal

AP Photo/Charles Krupa

Rudy Giuliani.

• Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, gave a wild interview where he said he will "be the hero" of the Ukraine scandal.
• Giuliani was reacting to a whistleblower complaint that frames him as a central figure in Trump's efforts to get Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden, who is one of Trump's 2020 election rivals.
• The former NYC mayor told The Atlantic that "It is impossible that the whistle-blower is a hero and I'm not" and that "If this guy is a whistle-blower, then I'm a whistle-blower too."
• Giuliani alleges that Biden was corrupt in his actions with Ukraine during his vice presidency, but there is no evidence of this.
• Some White House officials also say that they blame Giuliani for the scandal, which has led to impeachment proceedings against Trump, according to The Atlantic. Giuliani called them "a bunch of cowards."
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said he "will be the hero" of the Ukraine scandal that has led to an impeachment inquiry against Trump.

In an interview with The Atlantic's Elaina Plott published Thursday, Giuliani commented on an explosive whistleblower complaint that revealed Trump asked Ukraine's president to investigate election rival Joe Biden. The complain also characterized Giuliani as a "central figure" in Trump "pressuring a foreign president to investigate one of the President's main domestic political rivals."

Giuliani said in the interview: "It is impossible that the whistle-blower is a hero and I'm not. And I will be the hero!"

"These morons - when this is over, I will be the hero."

Plott, who was speaking with Giuliani by phone, said that Giuliani was "very angry" and sounded "out of breath" during moments of the call.

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Trump meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in New York hotel during the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday.

Giuliani alleges the Bidens were corrupt in Ukraine, but the country's prosecutor general said there was no evidence of wrongdoing

Giuliani said that he would be recognized for uncovering what he says is corrupt action from Joe Biden when he was vice president, and his son, Hunter, was on the board of a Ukrainian gas-extraction company. No evidence of such corruption has been found.

Read more: There's a glaring loophole in Trump and Giuliani's allegations of corruption against Joe Biden

"If this guy is a whistle-blower, then I'm a whistle-blower too," Giuliani told The Atlantic. "You should be happy for your country that I uncovered this."

Giuliani and Trump accuse Biden of trying to push out Ukraine's top prosecutor in 2016 because he was investigating Bursima Holdings, which Hunter was then on the board of.

But government officials and Ukrainian anticorruption advocates say that the prosecutor had actually hampered the investigation into the company long before Biden was involved. Biden says that he was trying to lessen corruption in Ukraine.

Ukraine's prosecutor general also said this week that there was no evidence of any wrongdoing on behalf of the Bidens.

Giuliani told The Atlantic that "all his facts" about Biden were "true."

Read more: Giuliani says the whistleblower complaint is 'crap' and that people are 'torturing' him for doing his job as Trump's private attorney

Giuliani said he was contacting Ukrainian officials at the State Department's request, but the agency hasn't commented

Giuliani told Fox News on Tuesday that he had been dealing with Ukrainian officials at the request of the State Department. The State Department has not commented on these claims.

He was responding to a Washington Post report that Giuliani had been dealing with Ukrainian officials in an unusual situation that cut out national security personnel, who were left learning about Giuliani's actions through media reports.

Mike Segar/Reuters

Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump.

Giuliani told The Atlantic that he is looking forward to seeing the State Department "sink themselves" by trying to distance themselves from him.

Read more: Read the full declassified whistleblower complaint about a phone call between Trump and Ukraine's president

He also dismissed that part of the whistleblower complaint that alleged US ambassadors were trying to help Ukraine "understand and respond to the differing messages they were receiving from official US channels on the one hand, and from Mr. Giuliani on the other."

"The State Department is concerned about my activities? I gotta believe [the whistle-blower] is totally out of the loop, or just a liar."

The complaint also alleged that State Department officials - including US special representative for Ukraine negotiations Kurt Volker and US ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland - spoke to Giuliani to try and "contain the damage" to US national security caused by his dealings with Ukraine.

Chris Helgren/Reuters

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a bilateral meeting with Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of the Ukraine Reform Conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, July 2, 2019.

But Giuliani said he had "bunch of friendly text messages reaching out for my help" from State Department officials.

"If they were so concerned about my activities, why did they ask for my help?" he asked.

On Thursday, Giuliani tweeted what he claimed was a message from Volker putting him in touch with someone "very close to President Zelenskyy."

"Why does this text and date render the hearsay so-called whistleblower useless and not credible? If you get even one reason I might recommend you for Law School," he tweeted.

White House officials reportedly blame Giuliani for the scandal

The whistleblower painted a picture of Giuliani trying to gain influence in Ukraine, including trying to contact Zelensky's team after he won the election and that he met with at least one of Zelensky's advisers.

The Atlantic reported that some White House officials are now turning against Giuliani, who is Trump's personal lawyer and not an elected official.

Associated Press

Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump in 2016.

One former senior White House official said that the "entire thing" - the fallout from the call with Ukraine - was "Rudy putting s--- in Trump's head."

A senior House Republican aide also called Giuliani a "moron" to The Atlantic.

Read more: Giuliani claims he got involved in Ukraine only after the State Department asked him to, because he would be better at it than the FBI

Giuliani called them "bunch of cowards" in response during the interview.

"I didn't do anything wrong. The president knows they're a bunch of cowards."

A US official also blamed Giuliani for the scandal to The Washington Post earlier this week: "Rudy - he did all of this," the person said. "This s---show that we're in - it's him injecting himself into the process."

Giuliani also repeated his frequent criticisms of the "deep state," Hilary Clinton, and Barack Obama during the interview.