Rudy Giuliani is the gift that keeps giving. From Think Progress in a piece entitle, “Giuliani accidentally reveals the real purpose of Trump’s extraordinary Oval Office meeting”:
Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump’s personal lawyers, made a game attempt to present this Oval Office meeting as legitimate by claiming that Trump called it “in his official capacity as president.” Reached for comment by USA Today, Giuliani insisted that Trump merely “wants to make sure that the relevant members of Congress get a chance to see what they are entitled to see.”
In a separate interview, however, Giuliani made the exact opposite point.
Giuliani told HuffPost that Trump needed the information about the informant before deciding whether to agree to an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller. “We can’t let our guy go in and be questioned without knowing this,” he said.
Of course this is abuse of power …
In other words, according to Giuliani, Trump convened the meeting to gain a strategic advantage in his personal negotiations with the special counsel. Access to information held by investigators is something that would benefit any person of interest in a criminal probe. But in nearly all circumstances it is unavailable unless the person is formally charged. In this case, Trump is attempting to use the powers of the presidency to demand the information.
Moreover, Giuliani isn’t even pretending that Congress would be the sole recipient of this information. Rather, as his personal attorney, Giuliani is admitting Trump called the meeting to better inform his strategy