Rudy Giuliani received multiple calls from Trump's OMB this year — some just minutes after he'd talked with Lev Parnas
Rudy Giuliani probably can't explain this one away with a butt dial.
Throughout 2019, President Trump's lawyer — who doesn't have a White House job — received multiple calls from the White House's Office of Management and Budget, phone records obtained by the House Intelligence Committee reveal. It's unclear exactly who from the office was calling Giuliani in the specified cases, but the calls did come noticeably close to Giuliani's other communications surrounding Ukraine.
Several calls from the White House and the OMB to Giuliani happened on April 12, 23, and 24, the phone records show, with one OMB call on the 24th lasting more than 13 minutes. And on either side on most of those calls, records show Giuliani received calls from or called Lev Parnas, one of the two indicted operatives he sent to Ukraine to dig up damaging information on the Bidens.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Giuliani received another 13-minute call from the OMB months later, on August 8. He spent several hours calling and texting back and forth with a White House number and the White House situation room, as well as an unknown number, the phone records show.
All of this happened just a day after Ambassador Kurt Volker texted Giuliani about his recent meeting with Ukrainian presidential aide Andriy Yermak and a "visit" they discussed. Volker then received a text from Yermak about a potential "meeting date" — a subject on which Volker said he asked Giuliani to "weigh in."
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.
-
Political cartoons for January 31Cartoons Saturday's political cartoons include congressional spin, Obamacare subsidies, and more
-
Syria’s Kurds: abandoned by their US allyTalking Point Ahmed al-Sharaa’s lightning offensive against Syrian Kurdistan belies his promise to respect the country’s ethnic minorities
-
The ‘mad king’: has Trump finally lost it?Talking Point Rambling speeches, wind turbine obsession, and an ‘unhinged’ letter to Norway’s prime minister have caused concern whether the rest of his term is ‘sustainable’
-
Trump sues IRS for $10B over tax record leaksSpeed Read The president is claiming ‘reputational and financial harm’ from leaks of his tax information between 2018 and 2020
-
Trump, Senate Democrats reach DHS funding dealSpeed Read The deal will fund most of the government through September and the Department of Homeland Security for two weeks
-
Fed holds rates steady, bucking Trump pressureSpeed Read The Federal Reserve voted to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged
-
Judge slams ICE violations amid growing backlashSpeed Read ‘ICE is not a law unto itself,’ said a federal judge after the agency violated at least 96 court orders
-
Rep. Ilhan Omar attacked with unknown liquidSpeed Read This ‘small agitator isn’t going to intimidate me from doing my work’
-
Democrats pledge Noem impeachment if not firedSpeed Read Trump is publicly defending the Homeland Security secretary
-
The billionaires’ wealth tax: a catastrophe for California?Talking Point Peter Thiel and Larry Page preparing to change state residency
-
Hegseth moves to demote Sen. Kelly over videospeed read Retired Navy fighter pilot Mark Kelly appeared in a video reminding military service members that they can ‘refuse illegal orders’
