House Democrats subpoenaed Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani for documents related to his crusade to find dirt on Joe Biden in Ukraine, The New York Times reports.
“Our inquiry includes an investigation of credible allegations that you acted as an agent of the president in a scheme to advance his personal political interests by abusing the power of the office of the president,” the chairmen of three committees wrote in a letter to Giuliani.
Democrats requested documents from Giuliani, as well as three of his associates reported to be part of the Ukraine effort.
The investigators asked Giuliani told turn over all communications and documents going back to January 2017 related to his efforts.
Giuliani associates also targeted:
Democrats also subpoenaed Giuliani associates Lev Parnas, Igor Fruman and Semyon Kislin.
Parnas, a longtime associate of Giuliani, worked with Fruman to gather information in Kiev about the Bidens and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
Parnas and Fruman are executives of an energy firm that donated $325,000 to a pro-Trump super PAC last year.
Giuliani accused Democrats of McCarthy-like tactics in investigating Trump’s pressure on Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election.
“We’re getting really close to, if we haven’t met, the standard of the McCarthy hearings where nobody seems to care about things like attorney-client privilege,” he told The Times.
Democrats warned Giuliani that any refusal to turn over documents would constitute obstruction of their investigation.
“Your failure or refusal to comply with the subpoena, including at the direction or behest of the president or the White House, shall constitute evidence of obstruction of the House’s impeachment inquiry and may be used as an adverse inference against you and the president,” they wrote.
Giuliani invokes attorney privilege:
Giuliani told Sean Hannity that Democrats “seem to forget that I’m a lawyer.”
“If I were defending a terrorist, they’d be going crazy that I was called before a committee,” he said.
“I have received a subpoena signed only by Democrat Chairs who have prejudged this case. It raises significant issues concerning legitimacy and constitutional and legal issues including,inter alia, attorney client and other privileges. It will be given appropriate consideration,” he added on Twitter.
