The Pete Sessions subpoena is tied to his effort to oust Ukraine ambassador, contemporaneous campaign donation

Former Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) has been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury in New York for documents and other information about his interactions with Rudy Giuliani, President Trump's personal lawyer and fixer, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal report. Sessions said he's cooperating with federal prosecutors in Manhattan. How does a Texas congressman who lost his re-election bid last year fit into Trump's Ukraine scandal? A federal indictment unsealed last week provides some clues.

The indictment charges two of Giuliani's associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, with conspiracy and campaign finance violations, including allegedly promising an unidentified congressman an impermissibly high campaign donation as they were seeking his "assistance in causing the U.S. government to remove or recall the then-U.S. ambassador to Ukraine," Marie Yovanovitch.

In May 2018, about the time Parnas and Fruman pledged to raise $20,000 for the congressman, Sessions wrote a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo complaining about Yovanovitch and echoing conservative allegations that she was biased against Trump. Yovanovitch, who testified last week in the House impeachment inquiry, was abruptly recalled to Washington a year later after a concerted campaign by Giuliani, Fox News hosts, and conservative media.

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Sessions said that "at no time did I take any official action" after meeting with Parnas and Fruman, adding that he wrote Pompeo because he had come to believe that Yovanovitch, a cautious career diplomat, was disloyal to Trump. Giuliani has credited Sessions with helping convince Trump that Yovanovitch was untrustworthy.

As New York Times reporter Sharon LaFraniere explains on Tuesday's The Daily podcast, Parnas and Fruman apparently wanted Yovanovitch ousted because her anti-corruption efforts were blocking a gas deal they were pursuing, Ukraine's top prosecutor wanted her gone because she was pushing him to fight corruption inside his office, and Giuliani was pushing for her departure for still-unknown reasons.

The unsealed indictment suggests the investigation is active and ongoing, and Giuliani is the focus. Giuliani denies wrongdoing. There's no evidence Sessions is under investigation.