State Department limited release of Pompeo contacts with Giuliani. A judge wants more
A federal judge ordered the State Department on Friday to expand its search for records of communication between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, regarding Ukraine policy.
The State Department released a number of records last month documenting contact between the two men. But Judge Christopher Cooper, on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, ruled on Friday that the department arbitrarily limited its search for documents with a cut-off date of August 2.
The State Department was given a January 8 deadline to release all records documenting emails, text messages, call logs and scheduled meetings on Ukraine policy that were dated until October 18. The court ruled that the department had “not adequately justified why its Executive Secretariat used a cut-off date.”
Some key developments regarding U.S. policy toward Ukraine occurred between August 2 and October 18.
The newly elected government in Kiev began expressing concern over an unexplained White House hold on aid with American diplomats. Trump’s national security adviser at the time, John Bolton, visited Ukraine in late August. And senior intelligence, foreign service and national security officials began raising their own concerns with Trump’s requests of Ukraine through official channels.
The court ruling came on the same day that the House Judiciary Committee approved articles of impeachment alleging that Trump abused the power of the presidency by withholding $391 million in military aid to Ukraine and an Oval Office meeting with the country’s new president, in exchange for investigating a political opponent.
That aid was not released until September 11, raising the possibility that additional information about it may be found in the new records search.
“We know that many of the important developments that are central to the House impeachment inquiry happened in August and early September, including the drafting of the whistleblower’s report,” Dan McGrath, counsel at American Oversight, a watchdog group and the plaintiff in the case, told McClatchy. “The president’s call memorandum [with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky] was released on September 25. So there are a number of important developments.”
Despite not being employed by the State Department, Giuliani worked on Trump’s behalf to coordinate an exchange of official acts for political favors, according to witness testimony before the House. Pompeo has said the president did nothing improper.
The same judge in a separate case has ordered Kurt Volker, Trump’s former special envoy to Ukraine, to produce his calendar entries and texts with Giuliani regarding Ukraine policy by January 10.
The communications of Pompeo and Volker with Giuliani could be released during a Senate impeachment trial.
Pompeo’s connection to the Ukraine matter has complicated his own political future as he considers a run for an open Senate seat in Kansas next year.
The State Department had no immediate comment.
