Trump "personal lawyer" Rudy Giuliani has now declared that he won't be complying with congressional subpoenas in the ongoing House impeachment inquiry. His precise justification for this stance is murky, as is his ending caveat: "If they enforce it then we will see what happens," he told ABC News.
Giuliani also confirmed that he has parted ways with the lawyer advising him on these things, Jon Sale. It's not known if the two decisions are (cough) related, but Sale's last act on behalf of Giuliani appears to be a letter to the House conveying Giuliani's refusal.
Just to be clear here, Giuliani is looking increasingly likely to end up in prison at the end of this Ukrainian mess, and for crimes uncannily like those of Trump ex-campaign chair Paul Manafort: an offer to work for Donald Trump "for free" that, behind the scenes, actually served as an avenue for influencing Trump and Trump's inner circle on behalf of his real paying clients, foreign criminals. Defying a congressional subpoena of documents pertaining to a presidential impeachment inquiry will only add to those troubles.
But Giuliani also met with Donald Trump over the weekend, and it is almost certain that the Ukrainian crisis was the central topic of the conversation. Did Trump himself order Giuliani to refuse the House subpoena? Did he dangle the prospect of a pardon if Rudy did so, akin to his prior claims that he would pardon immigration officials who violated laws in order to enforce his desired border policy?
Or does Rudy simply think that showing House investigators the documents in question would put him in prison for a damn long time?