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Rudy Giuliani,
Front and Center
Congress’s impeachment inquiry into President
Donald Trump is going to look a whole lot like an
investigation of Rudy Giuliani. The president’s per-
sonal lawyer, public attack dog, and shadow dip-
lomat is at the center of the storm brewing over
Trump’s attempt to pry damaging information
about Vice President Joe Biden out of Ukraine.
Whatever happens, Giuliani will play a pivotal role.
Among the questions House Democrats are ask-
ing: What is the extent of Giuliani’s involvement in
Trump’s effort to dig up dirt on a potential polit-
ical rival? Already, House Democrats have called
several of Giuliani’s business partners and gov-
ernment contacts to testify and demanded that
he produce documents related to his communica-
tions with a range of associates in Kiev and within
the U.S. Department of State. “He could claim an
attorney-client privilege and refuse to testify,” says
John Barrett of St. John’s University School of Law.
“And I’m not sure it would be worth the House’s
time and trouble to challenge such claims in court.”
Giuliani has flip-flopped publicly on whether he’ll
cooperate. Reached by phone on Oct. 1, he declined
to comment on whether he’d comply with the sub-
poena. By then he’d also hired his old friend Jon
Sale, an assistant to Watergate Special ProsecutorsTHE BOTTOM LINE While Trump has little reason to fear a mass
Senate desertion, some Republicans in the upper chamber have
been cagey on the subject of impeachment.Kentucky, by 30 points. McConnell’s campaign
has attacked Amy McGrath, his Democratic rival,
for supporting an impeachment inquiry.
Trump’s best protection remains the constitu-
tional requirement that two-thirds of the Senate
vote to remove him from office, rather than the
simple majority it takes to impeach in the House.
No president has ever been removed by Senate
vote—Richard Nixon resigned before he could
be—and for the Senate to do so in this case would
require an almost unimaginable 20 Republican
votes to convict.
Even a few defections, however, could dam-
age the president heading into 2020. The White
House would have to worry the most about sen-
ators like Romney, the 2012 Republican nomi-
nee who ripped Trump’s character in 2016 and,
like some other Republican senators, refused tovote for him. And Trump has little leverage over
long-serving senators planning to retire, such as
Lamar Alexander of Tennessee.
There is some precedent for Republican sen-
ators turning against the president. Earlier this
year, a dozen Senate Republicans, including
Alexander, Collins, and Romney, defied Trump on
his emergency declaration at the border, despite
McConnell’s publicly encouraging them to “vote
for border security.” The opposition was enough to
rebuke Trump, but not enough to override a veto,
making it a relatively safe show of independence. A
vote to remove the president from office would of
course be far more consequential—and potentially
far more politically dangerous. �Steven T. Dennis● The former prosecutor’s actions are at
the heart of the case against TrumpArchibald Cox and Leon Jaworski, to represent him
in the subpoena fight. Sale says he can’t say yet
whether Giuliani will comply. “It’s a complex issue,”
he says. “A lot of potential privileges.”
The crusading prosecutor who took down dirty
financiers and dirtier organized crime lords as a U.S.
attorney in the 1980s and became known briefly as
“America’s Mayor” after the Sept. 11 attacks now
faces several forms of legal jeopardy, all stemming
from his unofficial, ill-defined role within the Trump
administration. Before Giuliani began working as
Trump’s unpaid personal lawyer in the probe into
Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, he was a
prominent Trump campaign surrogate and briefly
thought to be a contender for secretary of state.
As the House barrels ahead with its impeach-
ment inquiry, Senate Democrats have zeroed in on
Giuliani’s private consulting business and whether
he’s broken federal lobbying laws by selling his ser-
vices to foreign leaders, including prominent cli-
ents in Ukraine. Since Trump took office, Giuliani
has earned fees from Ukrainian billionaire Victor
Pinchuk and advised the mayor of the eastern city
of Kharkiv in a contract paid for by Pavel Fuks,
another Ukrainian oligarch. On Sept. 25, seven
Democratic senators wrote to the U.S. Department◼ POLITICS Bloomberg Businessweek October 7, 2019“If Trump
directed
Rudy’s
activities,
then he’s
criminally
responsible
for them”