Perhaps Donald Trump’s personal attorney wants to send a message. Or maybe he’s just trolling Democrats. Or, perhaps there is no method to his madness. Nevertheless, Rudy Giuliani is making his presence known in Kyiv.
Giuliani has made what The Washington Post calls an “audacious” trip to Ukraine. The Post writes there “are many who many believe [Giuliani] is partly responsible for leading Trump on the path to his likely impeachment.”
Current and former officials in Washington expressed astonishment at how Giuliani — apparently on behalf of the president — seemed to be mocking impeachment investigators, if not the very idea that either he or his client should answer any articles of impeachment.
“It’s unbelievable to me the open way in which the administration and Giuliani are still pursuing this,” said Jeffrey Edmonds, who served as Russia director at the White House National Security Council under both Barack Obama and Trump. “It is a way of . . . asserting that everything that we’re doing is perfectly normal, perfectly fine and we’re going to keep doing it.”
The Daily Beast reports senior Trump administration officials learned of Giuliani’s latest trip from news accounts.
Many of them expressed exasperation at the thought of Giuliani—himself reportedly in the crosshairs of federal investigators—continuing to cause headaches for the White House. Others feared he would cause tangible damage to U.S. foreign policy.
“I do not see why [any] lawyer would see this as serving the best interests of their client,” said a senior White House official. “Especially now.”
