Rudy Giuliani, who’s spent the last two weeks on a mind-bending media blitz, added another wild TV appearance to the list Tuesday night. On Laura Ingraham’s Fox News show, President Trump’s personal lawyer threatened to sue congressional Democrats for investigating Trump and the whistle-blower complaint related to his July phone call with Ukraine’s president.
“I had a couple of talks with civil rights lawyers and a constitutional lawyer today and here’s what they’re recommending: That we should bring a lawsuit on behalf of the president and several of the people in the administration, maybe even myself as a lawyer, against members of the Congress individually, for violating constitutional rights, violating civil rights,” Giuliani told a clearly confused Ingraham. He went on to accuse congressional Democrats of violating Trump’s constitutional right to conduct U.S. foreign policy.
“They’re calling foreign leaders,” he said. “They are going to foreign capitals.”
When Ingraham reminded Giuliani that members of Congress cannot be sued for things they say on the House floor, he insisted that they can be sued for a “conspiracy to violate civil rights,” provided it happened off the House floor. Neither mentioned the pesky tradition of checks and balances that gives Congress the authority to conduct oversight of the executive branch.
Giuliani, whose hopeless devotion to Trump continues in the face of private ridicule from the commander-in-chief, also suggested suing Congress for “trying to violate attorney-client privilege.” And for launching a “totally illicit impeachment proceeding.” And, in an unexpected twist for the guy representing Trump, for obstructing justice.
At one point, Ingraham attempted to steer the conversation to more comfortable ground and began smearing the media for being “aggressively incurious about Hunter Biden and Joe Biden.” Giuliani interrupted her: “Can we go back to my lawsuit?”
He wasn’t even done after going off the air. Late Tuesday, The Atlantic’s White House correspondent, Elaina Plott, tweeted a text exchange with Giuliani in which he said he was looking at a “jaw suit to end lawless action.” Who does he plan to sue? “The swamp.”
