WASHINGTON – Rudolf Giuliani, who helped lead the efforts of President Donald J. Trump canceled the results of the 2020 election as his personal lawyer on Thursday abruptly withdrew from a scheduled interview Friday with a House of Representatives committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol after the commission refused to allow him to record the session.
Mr Giuliani has been negotiating with the testimony committee for months and has finally agreed to speak on issues other than his talks with Mr Trump or any other topic he considers to be covered by the privilege of a client lawyer. said his lawyer, Robert J. Church.
Mr Giuliani’s sudden withdrawal threatens what could be a major breakthrough for the investigation. His testimony could include details of interactions with members of Congress and others involved in the plans who were not Mr Giuliani’s clients, Mr Costello said. And since Mr Giuliani has been summoned to testify, the opposition raises the specter of another long-running battle between the commission and a former Trump aide.
The stalemate began when Mr Costello told the committee on Thursday that Mr Giuliani intended to videotape the interview. When the commission’s lawyers refused to allow him to do so, he canceled the meeting, Mr Costello said.
“He is ready to talk about anything that is not privileged,” Mr Costello said. “The only obstacle we had was recording the interview. This tells me that they are more interested in keeping things secret than in getting to the so-called truth. If you are interested in the testimony of the person, why do you disagree? ”
Mr Costello said Mr Giuliani’s testimony had not yet left the table and that he would continue to negotiate with the commission’s lawyers. He said Mr Giuliani, a former mayor of New York, “simply does not trust” members of the committee, in particular Representative Adam B. Schiff, a California Democrat, and believes they will selectively edit his testimony.
“If they change their mind and say, ‘Listen, we’re going to record the interview together,’ then we’ll participate,” Mr Costello said.
A spokesman for the commission, Tim Mulvy, said the commission would consider coercion against Mr Giuliani if he did not change course and comply with the commission’s summons.
“Mr Giuliani had agreed to take part in a rewritten interview with the selected committee. Today he informed the committee’s investigators that he would not appear unless he was allowed to record the interview, which was never an agreed condition.” said Mr. Mulvy. “Mr. Giuliani is an important witness in the plot to overthrow the government and remains on call. If he refuses to comply, the commission will consider all possibilities for implementation. “
The commission questioned more than 970 witnesses and recommended allegations of criminal contempt of Congress against four of Mr Trump’s closest allies who refused to cooperate fully.
Mr Trump’s last chief of staff, Mark Meadows, was referred to the Department of Justice for possible criminal charges after refusing to interview the commission. Another former associate, Stephen K. Bannon, was indicted in November after refusing to provide information to Congressional investigators.
Last month, the House of Representatives voted to recommend criminal disrespect for congressional allegations against Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino Jr., two other close allies of Mr Trump, after the two opposed the commission’s subpoenas.
The Ministry of Justice has not yet taken action on the references to Mr Meadows, Mr Navarro and Mr Scavino.
As a key figure in Mr Trump’s efforts to prevent an election defeat, Mr Giuliani will be able to tell investigators about a series of emergency measures taken last autumn and winter in a bid to retain the losing president.
Among those efforts was a scheme to disrupt the normal work of the Electoral College by persuading lawmakers in the disputed states to produce alternative voter lists showing that Mr Trump had won in states that were actually won by President Biden.
Mr Giuliani also played an important role in reviewing a plan by the Homeland Security to seize voting machines and to verify the data stored in them for alleged evidence of fraud. At Mr Trump’s behest, Mr Giuliani asked a senior Homeland Security official if the department could legally take control of the machines, an idea the officer dropped. Mr Giuliani later opposed an even more explosive proposal by the military to seize the machines.
Mr Giuliani was summoned along with other members of a legal team that called itself an “elite strike force” and filed a number of lawsuits on behalf of Mr Trump in which they uncovered conspiracy theories and made baseless allegations of election fraud. .
The subpoena seeks all the documents Mr Giuliani has had, describing the campaign of pressure he and other Trump allies have launched aimed at government officials, confiscating voting machines, contacting members of Congress, any evidence in support of the conspiracy theories he promotes, and all sorts of arrangements for his fees.
Speaking on January 6, speaking to a crowd of Trump supporters before a mob in support of Trump attacked the Capitol, Mr Giuliani called for a “battle trial”. Later, after the building was under siege, he and Mr. Trump called lawmakers in an attempt to postpone the confirmation of Mr. Biden’s victory.
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