Rudy’s trip to Kiev
Giuliani’s travel plans are raising eyebrows.
Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer, is encouraging Ukraine to wade further into sensitive political issues in the United States, seeking to push the incoming government in Kiev to press ahead with investigations that he hopes will benefit Mr. Trump.
Mr. Giuliani said he plans to travel to Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, in the coming days and wants to meet with the nation’s president-elect to urge him to pursue inquiries that allies of the White House contend could yield new information about two matters of intense interest to Mr. Trump.
One is the origin of the special counsel’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. The other is the involvement of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s son in a gas company owned by a Ukrainian oligarch.
Mr. Giuliani’s plans create the remarkable scene of a lawyer for the president of the United States pressing a foreign government to pursue investigations that Mr. Trump’s allies hope could help him in his re-election campaign. And it comes after Mr. Trump spent more than half of his term facing questions about whether his 2016 campaign conspired with a foreign power.
Giuliani, when asked, says it’s perfectly fine, nothing to see here, totally normal.
Mr. Giuliani’s planned trip, which has not been previously reported, is part of a monthslong effort by the former New York mayor and a small group of Trump allies working to build interest in the Ukrainian inquiries. Their motivation is to try to discredit the special counsel’s investigation; undermine the case against Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump’s imprisoned former campaign chairman; and potentially to damage Mr. Biden, the early front-runner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
In other words it’s mob boss shenanigans, but involving a foreign country, with the (implied? explicit?) endorsement of the US president.
A new administration is taking over in June, and Giuliani is hoping to coax them into being Trump’s stooges.
He said his efforts in Ukraine have the full support of Mr. Trump. He declined to say specifically whether he had briefed him on the planned meeting with Mr. Zelensky, but added, “He basically knows what I’m doing, sure, as his lawyer.”
The White House is ignoring questions on the subject.
Trump is sending Giuliani to Ukraine to get its government to help Trump win reelection by hurting Joe Biden’s family. Read that a few times and ask yourself: How is that not an impeachable offense in broad daylight?
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) May 10, 2019
Today, Giuliani admitted to seeking political help from a foreign power. Again.
His defense:
“We’re not meddling in an election, we’re meddling in an investigation … Somebody could say it’s improper. “
Yes. It is. Immoral, unethical, unpatriotic and, now, standard procedure. https://t.co/jDqOtQ9KRS
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) May 10, 2019
Sitting presidents don’t have private emissaries to foreign governments. Ukraine will understand this for what it is – the full weight of the US presidency leaning on it to harm the president’s domestic political opponents. https://t.co/A4Fk3BYxHD
— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) May 10, 2019
And how the hell does Giuliani still have a law license?
— Mimi Rocah (@Mimirocah1) May 10, 2019
The more likely outcome is that Trump becomes their stooge, because he will owe them – big – if they act. Just like he possibly owes the Russians. And who knows who else?
Trump doesn’t pay his debts though. He owes a LOT of people, and banks, but he doesn’t care, he just stiffs them all.
That’s true, but I’m sure his foreign debtors would be more than happy to take their payment from the American people in some form.
Stiffing contractors and banks is one thing, but stiffing Putin carries a health warning.