Attorney Scott Pilutik wrestles with the news of the day, from a lawyerly perspective…
Impeachment Roundup for Tuesday
1. The New York Times is reporting that Trump was briefed about the whistleblower complaint at the time he released the aid to Ukraine. This was inferable from the timeline, but now people in White House are confirming it. This kind of blows up the White House fabrication that the aid was held back while the President sussed out whether Zelensky was corrupt (which was a post-hoc pretext). Trump released the aid because he got caught.
2. Trump gave an interview and when asked about Rudy Giuliani pretended to not know what Giuliani was up to in Ukraine, signaling that the White House is indeed considering under-bussing Giuliani, and this may be step one. The problem for the White House is the July 25 phone call where Trump explicitly and repeatedly instructs Zelensky to contact Giuliani to follow up on the requested “favors” now at issue in the impeachment inquiry.
3. The House released documents and depositions provided to it by the Office of Management and Budget, which was the agency charged with literally sending the foreign aid to Ukraine. Two OMB officials resigned over this episode, after expressing alarm that the President had withheld aid without providing any basis to withhold that aid.
Also, regarding item #2,
“Mr. Giuliani is a highly respected man. He was the mayor of New York City, a great mayor, and I would like him to call you.”
“Rudy very much knows what’s happening and he is a very capable guy.””I will tell Rudy and Attorney General Barr to call.”
“I will have Mr. Giuliani give you a call and I am also going to have Attorney General Barr call and we will get to the bottom of it.”
“I will personally tell you that one of my assistants spoke with Mr. Giuliani just recently and we are hoping very much that Mr. Giuliani will be able to travel to Ukraine and we will meet once he comes to Ukraine.”
