All Washington is astonished that Trump, about to be impeached for putting the arm on Ukraine, sent his personal shyster back to Kyiv to do it some more. But remember that Trump thinks there’s nothing wrong with doing that, because he just knows Joe Biden was corruptly interfering in Ukraine’s legal system, if he can just get the evidence — and that, in his mind, will get him off the hook on impeachment. So off goes Rudy to the Big U to talk to the people Who Must Know. And now Trump is saying Rudy found some really good sh!t and he’s going to dump it on Congress.
President Trump said his personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani planned to issue a report to the Justice Department and Congress detailing what he’d learned from his investigations in Ukraine.
Trump claimed not to know what Giuliani was doing in Ukraine this week or what he found out while there, but he asserted that Giuliani says “he has a lot of good information.”
“He’s going to make a report, I think to the attorney general and to Congress,” Trump told reporters Saturday outside the White House. “He says he has a lot of good information. I have not spoken to him about that information yet.”
(There’s a good dKos diary on the rec list right now on how Trump has a history of claiming that his “investigators” have uncovered really hot dirt and how they never deliver. I’m posting this to look at a different angle.)
The issue is, what does it mean that Giuliani will “report to Congress”? I think it means that, no matter how he does it or whether it goes to the House or the Senate, the Democrats are going to use this to force him to testify under oath. (No, they won’t waste time on the courts; they’ll just refuse to look at the “evidence” unless he delivers it in person.) And once he’s in the witness chair, they will carve him into pieces so small it will be hard to find them with a microscope. I have confidence that the Speaker, along with Schiff and Nadler, have already worked out a game plan.
For that matter, if Rudy just releases the report to the public and then goes on any news program (even Fox News, which can’t stand him any more), there will be a vivisection.
Trump thinks he’s untouchable and that extends to his sidekick. I think he’s about to get another shock.
Sunday, Dec 8, 2019 · 2:29:05 AM +00:00 · Dan K
Update: About two hours ago, Politico published its version of this story, which more clearly quotes Trump saying Giuliani wants to actually testify:
President Donald Trump on Saturday said his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani wants to testify before congressional impeachment investigators about his most recent trip to Ukraine.
“He has not told me what he found, but I think he wants to go before Congress,” Trump said to reporters at the White House before a trip to Florida. “I hear he has found plenty.”