Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani published texts on Twitter Thursday that he claims were sent by former U.S. Representative to the Ukraine Kurt Volker and U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, all as part of Giuliani’s attempt to combat the whistleblower’s allegations that the officials were communicating with him to “contain” damage he was doing to U.S.-Ukraine relations.
The lion’s share of the texts appear to show Volker checking in with Giuliani and ascertaining when he’ll next be in the United States.
Crooked Dems not letting Republicans subpoena witnesses and maybe even question witness. This is a Star Chamber, illicit and part of their conspiracy to violate constitutional rights condoned by their media lamb dogs. Kurt did nothing wrong. pic.twitter.com/iaplXBnJ1x
— Rudy Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) October 3, 2019
Others seem a bit more blatantly troublesome for the two men in communication with Giuliani, at least appearing on their face like pretty clear efforts to get Giuliani into touch with Ukrainian officials. However, without much context for the text messages, it’s hard to say for sure why the officials were trying to arrange meetings.
— Rudy Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) October 3, 2019
Volker should not be made a scapegoat. This is second State Department Ambassador obviously as aware and involved in asking me to do it as Kurt. They did nothing wrong. pic.twitter.com/EjixrmVx0I
— Rudy Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) October 3, 2019
Giuliani holds no official government position, so it is not clear why State Department officials would treat him in any diplomatic capacity. In addition, it has become clear that Giuliani was establishing these contacts to encourage a fabricated smear campaign against the Bidens and to craft a narrative about Ukraine interfering with the 2016 election on Hillary Clinton’s behalf (a byproduct of which could be grounds for a pardon for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort).
While Giuliani was publishing these texts on Thursday, Volker was giving a deposition to several House committees behind closed doors.
