Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, claims he has a safeguard in case the Trump administration throws him under a Ukrainian-sized bus.
During an interview on Thursday with CNN, Giuliani denied a whistleblower’s allegations that he had played a major role in Trump’s pressure campaign to convince Ukraine to dig up dirt on Joe Biden, as well as the whistleblower complaint’s accusation that U.S. officials had spoken to Giuliani in an attempt to “contain the damage” the former mayor was inflicting on U.S.-Ukraine relations.
Giuliani claimed that “at no time” did the State Department give him such a warning, adding that he supposedly has a “nice little trail” of texts from U.S. diplomat for Ukraine Kurt Volker to back him up.
Giuliani also repeated his claim that the State Department had approved of all his communications with Ukraine–and that he had five or six more texts in his back pocket as proof.
“I’m going to use them to protect myself if and when I need them,” he told CNN.
The lawyer bemoaned his situation in wake of the ongoing scandal, saying he “should be as sympathetic as a whistleblower.”
Giuliani has repeatedly insisted that the State Department encouraged his contacts with the Ukrainian government, saying that the department had asked him to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s top aide.
The State Department confirmed that Volker put Giuliani in direct contact with the aide “at Presidential Advisor Andriy Yermak’s request,” but said that Giuliani “does not speak on behalf of the U.S. Government.” And the whistleblower complaint indicated that State Department officials were not happy with Giuliani’s attempts to get Ukrainian officials to investigate Biden.
