Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor who is now personal lawyer to President Donald Trump, was subpoenaed Monday afternoon by the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, and Oversight and Reform Committees to provide documents related to his alleged pressuring of the Ukrainian government to investigate Hunter Biden, the son of former Vice President Joe Biden.
Hunter's five years on the board of Ukrainian oil giant Burisma Holdings has been the focus of attempts by Trump to torpedo Biden's campaign for president.
"A growing public record indicates that the President, his agent Rudy Giuliani, and others appear to have pressed the Ukrainian government to pursue two politically-motivated investigations," the three committee chairs said in a statement. "The committees have reason to believe that you have information and documents relevant to these matters."
Three associates of Giuliani--Lev Parnas, Igor Fruman, and Semyon "Sam" Kislin--were also subpoenaed Monday.
A scandal over the Ukrainian dealings, centered on a whistleblower's revelation of a phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, has already triggered an impeachment inquiry in the House that could take down the Trump administration. News of Giuliani's subpoena on Monday came within minutes of another bombshell about the scandal: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was on the July call.
Last week, Giuliani delivered an escalatingly erratic series of interviews to a number of news outlets, leading Esquire writer Charlie Pierce to wonder what the future holds:
There is absolutely no telling what Giuliani might say in front of several congressional committees. Giuliani has become a mess, but he's become a mess that has to terrify the folks in the White House. He's the wildest of wild cards and the loosest cannon on the deck. He's also in the middle of everything regarding the extortionate outreach to the government of Ukraine, and in the middle of every scandal flowing into and out of that banana-pants exercise. He's liable to say anything to anyone. If anyone is frightened down to their socks, it's not Adam Schiff or Elijah Cummings. It's the guy whose fate now depends on an erratic former mayor of New York who didn't do anything, except that he did.
On Sunday, the former mayor told ABC journalist George Stephanopoulos that he "wouldn't cooperate" with committee chair Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), though Giuliani did allow he might consider it if Schiff stepped down.
Congressional subpoenas are not subject to conditions set by their receivers.
