How Rudy Giuliani became a central figure in the US whistle-blower complaint into Donald Trump
- US President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer has been engaging with Ukrainian officials for some time to get more information on rival Joe Biden
- A whistle-blower provided details of how Giuliani was involved in Trump’s effort to use the power of his office to ‘solicit interference’ in the 2020 election
In a nine-page document released on Thursday, an intelligence community whistle-blower provided substantial new details about the circumstances of a phone call in which Trump repeatedly spoke of how much the US had aided Ukraine and encouraged new President Volodymyr Zelensky to help investigate political rival Joe Biden and his son.
Accusations of efforts to pressure the leader of a foreign nation to dig for dirt on a potential 2020 Trump rival are now at the heart of an impeachment inquiry. The whistle-blower’s official complaint alleges a concerted White House effort to suppress the transcript of the call, and describes a shadow campaign of foreign policy efforts by Giuliani, who serves as Trump’s personal lawyer, that unnerved some senior administration officials who felt he was circumventing normal channels.
From the perspective of the whistle-blower, Giuliani was a one-man wrecking ball, breaking things in a complex international landscape and leaving actual diplomatic envoys to clean up his “damage”.
From Giuliani’s perspective, those who criticise him are “morons” and he “will be the hero” in this episode, he told The Atlantic magazine.
Giuliani was once called America’s Mayor, the man whose moxie and grace in the death and rubble of September 11 personified his stricken city and won him admiration around a shocked world.
Now he blends a sentiment that was familiar from that time and is familiar again in the world view of Trump himself: You’re with us or against us. If you’re not with me, you’re the enemy – of the president, the people, the country.