Despite reportedly playing a key role in Donald Trump’s effort to lean on Ukraine to investigate Democrats, and the fact that two of his Ukrainian sources were indicted by federal prosecutors last week, Rudy Giuliani has made the bold choice, announced Thursday afternoon, that he will not comply with a congressional subpoena on the matter. The ex-mayor has also canned his lawyer, Jon Sale, whose last task was to send a letter to Democrats telling them Giuliani had decided, in his infinite legal wisdom, that they should f–k off.
In the letter to the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation counsel, Sale wrote that the president’s personal lawyer would “adopt” the White House position that the impeachment inquiry is “unconstitutional, baseless, and illegitimate” because Nancy Pelsoi did not hold a full floor vote before launching it. Incidentally, there is no such rule that such a vote must occur before impeachment proceedings can begin, but Trump and his associates are a little rusty re: the Constitution.
Giuliani’s position, like his mental faculties, seems to have shifted over the years. During the Clinton impeachment, he insisted that no one is allowed to avoid complying with subpoenas, including the president, who he said “is not above the law.” Last month, Representatives Adam Schiff, Jerry Nadler, and Elijah Cummings wrote in their request for information that “A growing public record indicates that the president, his agent Rudy Giuliani, and others appear to have pressed the Ukrainian government to pursue two politically-motivated investigations,” noting that Rudy had “admitt[ed] on national television that, while serving as the president’s personal attorney, he asked the government of Ukraine to target former Vice President Joe Biden.” In light of such an insane admission, they added, “The Committees have reason to believe that you have information and documents relevant to these matters.”
Giuliani did leave open the possibility of rehiring his own lawyer, should Democrats enforce the subpoena. “If they decide to do an enforcement, I’ll need someone to go to court with and we’ll figure that out at the time,” a man who probably should’ve been stripped of his legal license some time ago told the New York Daily News on Thursday, when he was slated to attend a Yankees game in the Bronx. “I’m not worried. It’s not authorized what they’re doing in secret. It’s an abomination of due process. I can’t imagine a court would tolerate what they’ve done.”
Other former prosecutors apparently had a different point of view:
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