41ILLUSTRATION
BY
CHRISTINE
CORNELL
THE BOTTOM LINE Giuliani’s many legal risks relate to his
ambiguous role in the Trump administration and whether he acted
as an agent of the government or as a private citizen.of Justice, renewing a demand for an investigation
into Giuliani’s contracts with foreign clients origi-
nally made a year earlier.
At the same time, former prosecutors say,
Giuliani could be in violation of the Logan Act, a
rarely enforced federal statute that forbids private
citizens from conducting unauthorized negotiations
with foreign governments that have disputes with
the U.S. In early May, the State Department unex-
pectedly recalled Marie Yovanovitch, the U.S. ambas-
sador in Kiev, whom Giuliani falsely accused of
helping bring to light secret payments made by the
party of Ukraine’s then-President Viktor Yanukovych
to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
According to a whistleblower complaint made
public on Sept. 26, Giuliani also spent months reach-
ing out to Kiev through back channels in an effort
to persuade officials to dig up dirt on Biden and
his son Hunter, who sat on the board of Ukrainian
natural gas company Burisma Holdings. Giuliani’s
claim, which has been debunked by officials in the
U.S., Ukraine, and European Union, is that Biden
pushed for the ouster of Ukraine’s prosecutor gen-
eral in 2016 to quash a probe into Burisma.
The whistleblower’s allegations principally con-
cern a July 25 phone call between Trump and newly
elected Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
According to a summary of the call released by the
White House, Trump asked Zelenskiy to do him a
“favor” and investigate a conspiracy theory that
fixes blame for interference in the 2016 election
on Ukraine instead of Russia. Then Trump asked
his counterpart to investigate the Bidens, saying
twice that he’d have Giuliani and Attorney General
William Barr follow up. On Oct. 1, Zelenskiy stated
at a press conference that he’d had no contact with
Giuliani by phone or in person.
Giuliani has said his overtures to Ukrainian offi-
cials were sanctioned by the State Department, but
the whistleblower complaint makes the situation
appear otherwise. The document describes efforts
by former U.S. Special Representative to Ukraine
Kurt Volker and Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambas-
sador to the EU, to help Ukrainian officials make
sense of the different messages they were getting
from Giuliani and through official channels.
Volker, who resigned as the investigation into
Trump’s behavior began to gain momentum,
didn’t respond to a request for comment. He was
scheduled to appear before the House Intelligence
Committee to give a deposition on the matter on
Oct. 3, which could help clarify whether Giuliani
was acting on behalf of the government or Trump.
At press time, it wasn’t clear when that testimony
would be made public, if at all.“Whatever Rudy was doing, the question
was, what did Trump know about that, and did
Trump direct it?” says Renato Mariotti, a former
federal prosecutor and frequent presidential
critic. “If Trump directed Rudy’s activities, then
he’s criminally responsible for them.” Trump’s
Justice Department is unlikely to pursue an inves-
tigation of Giuliani, especially given that Barr’s
own conduct is being questioned as part of the
whistleblower complaint.
Giuliani isn’t the first Trump fixer to come under
fire since he’s been in office. His predicament recalls
the one that confronted Michael Cohen, who once
served as Trump’s personal lawyer and factotum.
Cohen’s hush-money payment to adult film actress
Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election served
as the basis for a wide-ranging federal investigation
of his financial records and tax returns, resulting in
multiple felony convictions and a three-year prison
sentence. Cohen eventually flipped on the presi-
dent, testifying before Congress that Trump had
directed him to pay off Daniels. During that unfold-
ing drama, Giuliani became the president’s cudgel
on TV, slamming Cohen as an “incredible liar.”
So far, Giuliani has given no indication that he’ll
abandon the president to save himself. In this, he
may be like another former presidential aide who
once came under fire from Congress, G. Gordon
Liddy. An operative on President Richard Nixon’s
reelection campaign, Liddy refused to testify
before the Senate on his role in the Watergate
break-in. He was eventually convicted of conspir-
acy, burglary, and illegal wiretapping and served
52 months in prison. —Stephanie Baker and Greg
Farrell, with David Voreacos POLITICS kkkk ,