Representing the House committees heading the impeachment inquiry of President Trump, Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff subpoenaed the president’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani on Monday for documents related to his efforts to pressure Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky into investigating the business dealings of Hunter Biden. Giuliani will have until October 15 to comply and give up the “text messages, phone records, and other communications” that could further implicate himself and the president.
But as Schiff, Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel, and Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings note in their letter, Giuliani has kind of already been doing that. “A growing public record, including your own statements, indicates that the president, you, and others appear to have pressed the Ukrainian government to pursue two politically motivated investigations,” the letter states. “For example, on September 19, 2019, you admitted on national television that you personally asked the government of Ukraine to target Vice-President Biden. During an interview on CNN, Chris Cuomo asked you, ‘So, you did ask Ukraine to look into Joe Biden?’ You responded, ‘Of course I did.’ In addition to this stark admission, you stated more recently that you are in possession of evidence … indicating that you were not acting alone and that other Trump administration officials may have been involved in this scheme.”
The president’s personal lawyer joins an increasingly long list of Trump allies and administration officials facing subpoenas or depositions, showing that House Democrats intend to quickly pursue the Ukraine scandal and its cover-up in the impeachment inquiry. On Monday, the House committees also scheduled depositions with three attorneys who have worked with Giuliani on the Ukraine matter: Lev Parnas, Igor Fruman, and Semyon Kislin. On Wednesday, the former ambassador to Ukraine Masha Yovanovitch and Trump’s Ukraine envoy Kurt Volker will sit for depositions; on Friday, Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who reviewed the whistle-blower complaint for the intelligence community, will appear before the House Intelligence Committee in a closed-door session.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has also been subpoenaed; on Monday, it was revealed that he too was on the July 25 call to Zelensky. And speaking with CBS News, Schiff said the House Intelligence Committee has “an agreement that he or she will testify,” referring to the intelligence-officer whistle-blower who broke the scandal open.
