Government

And Now Ukraine Is Trying To Get Rudy Giuliani Disbarred

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“If I get an official request from SDNY or any other non-partisan effort, such as potential disbarment of Rudy Giuliani, I would be open to helping them,” Igor Novikov, a former adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, told Time. “That is because I believe Mayor Giuliani’s actions in Ukraine threatened our national security. It is our responsibility to make sure that any effort to drag our country into our allies’ domestic politics does not go unpunished.”

Which is convenient, since the New York State Bar Association is already looking to give Rudy the boot for his role in the Capitol riot. And while this wouldn’t result in disbarment, New York State Senate Judiciary Chair Brad Hoylman said last month that he’d be “filing a formal complaint with the Appellate Division of the Unified Court System asking them to consider revoking Rudy Giuliani’s license to practice law in New York due to rampant and egregious violations of the Rules of Professional Conduct related to his participation in a scheme to unlawfully overturn the results of a free and fair election and his complicity in inflaming a violent coup attempt on our seat of federal government.”

Maybe Sen. Hoylman and the NYSBA should add another phase to their investigations, because the Ukrainian government is more than ready to talk about Giuliani’s efforts to conscript it in the 45th President’s smear campaign against Joe Biden during the 2020 election. Check out Zelensky’s face when Axios’ Jonathan Swan asked if he was “a little bit” angry with President Trump.

“A little bit?” he laughed incredulously?

Apparently, a lot. Which is why accounts of Giuliani’s pressure campaign to get the Ukrainians to announce an investigation of Joe Biden and his son Hunter — not just to undertake the investigation, they had to announce it publicly — are now appearing in so many media outlets.

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“I have no interest in anybody not telling the truth or exaggerating. It isn’t about political favor,” Giuliani said on a July 22, 2019 call to the presidential headquarters in Kyiv, Ukraine, adding later. “You shouldn’t feel terrible. All we need from the President is to say, ‘I’m putting an honest prosecutor [on these investigations], and he will dig up the evidence that presently exists.’”

“Let these investigations go forward. Get someone to investigate this,” the president’s pro bono attorney urged, repeatedly warning the government officials to “Be careful” because “For our country’s sake and your country’s sake, we [need to] get all these facts straight.”

And in case that threat was insufficiently clear, the president himself laid it out directly in his own “perfect, perfect phone call” three days later when he asked President Zelensky to “do us a favor, though.” No announcement, no defense aid.

We all remember what happened next: the whistleblower complaint; the first impeachment; revelations about Giuliani’s questionable relationship with Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two businessmen under indictment for tax and campaign finance schemes; and investigations of Giuliani for violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

According to Time, Ukrainian officials are already helping the Justice Department with that last one.

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At least two Ukrainian officials have told TIME that they already discussed Giuliani with SDNY investigators. “It was weird,” says one, describing a visit in 2019 to their Manhattan offices, which Giuliani led before becoming mayor of New York City. “There I am to give testimony against Giuliani, and [hanging on the wall] they’ve got these pictures of him shaking hands with people.”

Weird? Yeah, maybe “a little.” But not as weird as the president’s lawyer holding a press conference in a landscaper’s parking lot across from a crematorium and a sex shop to hype nonsensical claims about election fraud.

Giuliani has a ready response to all this, though.

Would an attorney of such obvious perspicacity and discretion commit a crime, much less an ethical breach that would merit disbarment?

“I’m not stupid,” Giuliani insisted on his January 14 radio show. “I don’t want to get in trouble. And I have a high sense of ethics, personally. I hate it when people attack my integrity.”

Case closed!

Exclusive: Ukraine Releases ‘Shock’ Call With Giuliani As Trump’s Second Impeachment Trial Begins [Time]

Elizabeth Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.;

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