Giuliani will defy congress subpoena

Trump complains about lack of ‘transparency’ in Democrats-led inquiry

Washington — Rudy Giuliani’s attorney informed Congress Tuesday that the former mayor will not comply with the House’s subpoena as part of its impeachment probe, saying “Giuliani will not participate because this appears to be an unconstitutional, baseless, and illegitimate ‘impeachment inquiry.’”

President Donald Trump also complained about a lack of “transparency” in the accelerating Democrats-led impeachment inquiry as House investigators heard from another key State Department official behind closed doors at the Capitol.

George Kent, the deputy assistant secretary of state responsible for Ukraine, met with lawmakers to testify about a campaign by Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, to pressure Ukraine into investigating the president’s political rival, former Vice President and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, and his son Hunter.

In a television interview that aired Tuesday, Hunter Biden conceded that it might have been a mistake to serve on the board of a Ukrainian gas company while his father was vice president, but insisted that he did not have an “ethical lapse.” He accused Giuliani and Trump of pressing “a ridiculous conspiracy” related to his tenure.

House Democrats were scheduled to huddle behind closed doors later Tuesday about the status of the inquiry.

Giuliani tweeted the official letter from his attorney, Jon Sale, a Miami lawyer and one-time law school classmate of Giuliani, to counsel for the House committee overseeing the impeachment probe that says the former mayor won’t comply with congressional subpoenas.

“I will not participate in an illegitimate, unconstitutional, and baseless ‘impeachment inquiry,’” Giuliani wrote in a tweet.

In the letter, Sale said that Giuliani agrees with the reasons White House counsel Pat Cipollone laid out earlier this month in explaining that the White House would not cooperate with Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.