A controversial lawyer at the center of President Donald Trump Ukraine scandal condemned House Democrats and the impeachment inquiry with fiery language, comparing the whistleblowers to political "suicide bombers," and impeachment to "regicide."
Attorney Joseph diGenova joined Trump's personal lawyer and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani on Fox News in an interview with host Laura Ingraham on Tuesday to discuss subpoenas of key players in the impeachment probe and the White House's response.
"What you're seeing is regicide," diGenova told Ingraham during the segment. "This is regicide by another name, fake impeachment. The Democrats in the House want to destroy the president."
A trail of controversy follows diGenova, who is known for pushing conspiracy theories about the Department of Justice and the FBI. He and his wife, Victoria Toensing, who own a firm based in Washington DC, helped Trump communicate with Ukraine, alongside Giuliani, Fox News reported.
During the interview with Ingraham, diGenova pointedly refused to call the whistleblowers by the term, instead resorting to the phrase "suicide bombers," which Ingraham clarified to "political suicide bombers."
Multiple whistleblowers came forward regarding Trump's secret Ukraine call pressuring the president to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden. The call sparked a widely debated impeachment inquiry, deepening the divide between Republicans and Democrats.
Read more: Trump reportedly worked with 2 'off the books' lawyers to pressure Ukraine for damaging information about Joe Biden, in addition to GiulianiAs part of the impeachment probe, House Democrats are allowing the whistleblowers to testify anonymously - an accommodation with which diGenova disagreed.
"These two nonentities are suicide bombers that the Democrats have unleashed on the Democratic process," the attorney told Fox News. "They actually think the American people are going to accept having people testify secretly without anyone knowing who they are, where they worked, what their party affiliation was."
He later pushed the theory that the whistleblowers are "paid Democratic operatives of the Democratic party."
On the impeachment inquiry as a whole, Giuliani echoed the president's notion that it was a witch hunt, citing the Salem Witch trials and how the only time those types of trials were previously used in the Soviet Union. The former New York mayor told Fox News that this impeachment probe is "worse than a witch hunt."
"The witches had it better," Ingraham said.
Giuliani replied, "They had more rights."