President Donald Trump

Following the public testimony of nine witness in the ongoing impeachment inquiry, President Donald Trump said he wanted a trial and sounded convinced he would walk away vindicated.

“I think it’s very hard for them to impeach you if they have absolutely nothing,” Trump said as part of a phone-in interview with Fox News on Friday.

“I want a trial,” the president said suddenly, but declined to answer follow up questions on this comment.

The president spent a large chunk of his nearly one-hour interview bashing several key witnesses and claiming he did not know others, even Gordon Sondland.

Sondland donated 1 million dollars to Trump’s political campaign and then became ambassador to the EU.

Trump slammed Adam Schiff, the Democratic lawmaker leading the inquiry, as “corrupt,” “shifty,” and a “nut job.”

He accused Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi of being “crazy as a bedbug.”

The president also seemed hurt the ousted ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, had allegedly declined to hang his picture at the embassy in Kiev. “This was not an angel, this woman,” he said.

Even as his role becomes ever more controversial in the Ukraine affair, Trump defended his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, calling him a “great crime fighter” as he explained why he used a private envoy to conduct diplomacy with Ukraine.

Giuliani’s own statements as well as the testimonies from multiple witnesses have shown that he was keen for Ukraine to investigate Trump’s political rival Joe Biden.

The president is accused of abusing his power to get a foreign government to dig up dirt on his domestic political competitor. (dpa/NAN)