The United States is now in the midst of an impeachment inquiry, one in which Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani plays a central role. But just because he’s spent the past week implicating himself, Trump, the State Department, and everyone else in the White House in an extortion scheme—a scheme where the core feature is putting an allied nation in danger of being overrun by Russia—that doesn’t mean that Giuliani is going to turn down a dollar. Or a ruble. No matter the source.
According to The Washington Post, Giuliani is scheduled to be a “paid speaker at a Kremlin-backed conference” on Tuesday. But he won’t be there without a friendly face he can sit with, because Vladimir Putin will also be on hand with a cadre of top Russian officials.
In his Ukraine exploits, Giuliani has specifically reached out to a member of the former pro-Russian government, the government that was put in place with the help of Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. So it only makes sense that he’s appearing at a conference that is not only directly sponsored by Putin, but whose goal is to set up a Russia-dominated economic bloc that can act as a rival to the European Union.
Giuliani’s appearance will be highlighted by a panel discussion in which Trump’s attorney will share the stage with a Russian adviser who is currently sanctioned by the United States because of his role in the invasion of Ukraine. Donald Trump instructed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to work with Rudy Giuliani if he wanted the help of the United States. But at the same time, Giuliani is working directly with the people who invaded Ukraine, stole Crimea, and are engaged in an active war that has taken thousands of lives. But then, Trump also said he hoped Zelensky would go to Putin and work things out with him.
It’s increasingly critical that the White House release an actual transcript, not just of Trump’s conversation with Zelensky, but of a conversation held on May 3, a call in which Putin has admitted that he and Trump talked about the future of Ukraine. And someone might want to make sure that Rudy Giuliani is only leaving the country to accept Putin’s paycheck—and not an offer of a nice little dacha, safely outside U.S. reach.