In his May 10, 2019, letter to President-elect Zelensky, @RudyGiuliani asked for a meeting as "personal counsel" representing Trump "as a private citizen." So his efforts to get dirt on Biden had NOTHING to do with US policy.
This is all the evidence needed to see Rudy's pressure campaign on Zelensky and his aides was a PRIVATE endeavor waged for Trump's PERSONAL benefit.
But it was a private endeavor that leveraged public assets: a White House meeting and, then nearly $400 million in US assistance to Ukraine. That is arguably not legal.
Moreover, Giuliani says that Victoria Toensing, another private attorney, would be attending the meeting. She and her husband, Joe diGenova, were working with conservative columnist John Solomon, who was also trying to dig up Biden dirt.
And soon Toensing/diGenova would be working for Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash, who was under indictment in the US for bribery. (He paid them $1 million to help him get off.)
This all stinks. But this letter on its own blows up the Republican defense that Trump's pressure on Zelensky and the withholding of aid was Trump fulfilling an official duty.
Oh, by the way, the General Accounting Office today said Trump, by withholding the money for Ukraine, violated the law.
