I have heard a couple of key Republicans put out the defense of Trump that the witnesses who are saying this affair was directed by Trump are second hand witnesses - that those witnesses were told
by someone else that Trump wanted the military aid and meeting with him contingent on the Ukrainians publicly announcing investigation into Bidens and the weird Democratic server conspiracy crap. I haven't read the transcripts but I think the
somebody else would have to be Giuliani. So, if the "second hand witness" defense of the president becomes one that Republicans rely on, they would essentially be saying it all happened because Giuliani went rogue.
Giuliani won't testify before the American people. What will the Democrats in the House do about that? Will they subpoena him? If they do and he doesn't show up will they ask that the DOJ to charge him for ignoring a lawful Congressional subpoena? If they did, what would Barr do?
Probably Giuliani's lawyers would ask the courts to rule on whether he could be compelled to testify or not and then hope to run out the clock in the courts.
There's a lot of different ways this can go, but with so many arrows pointing toward Giuliani, I can't imagine that he will be able to be sidelined as not important. I think the evidence is going to convincingly show that something really bad happened and open minded people are going to want to know who was the one who ordered the really bad things to happen. I don't see how Giuliani doesn't become a central figure.
I don't think Giuliani is going to rat out Trump because Giuliani is in deep doo-doo legally no matter what. He will probably join the "please pardon me" line (maybe even muscle out Manafort's place in line). But is Giuliani's silence enough for Trump to ride with the "second hand knowledge" defense? With his base, of course, but how about those precious persuadables? Will they buy it?
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/06/2019 04:55PM by Ted King.
