The calls from Rudy Giuliani should have been protected by executive privilege. As the president’s lawyer calling the White House, his calls should remain secret. But Adam Schiff got them. How he got them, he won’t say.

House Democrats got others’ calls as well as his, which they used in their House Intelligence Committee impeachment report. Most of the phone calls were made in August. This was around the time Democrats allege Trump was pressuring the Ukrainian president to investigate Joe Biden and his son. Trump would supposedly withhold financial aid if the country didn’t investigate them. 

He Refuses to Say

Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee that started impeachment proceedings, refused to say how he obtained the records. Sources say he subpoenaed them from Verizon and AT&T. They also say he asked for five different numbers.

The Democrats highlighted one nearly 13-minute call between Giuliani and the Office of Management and Budget. That OMB had frozen the aid to Ukraine. That evening, Giuliani received several calls from a number which showed up as “-1.” Phone calls made from White House officials using their office phones are masked in some way. Schiff is now trying to determine whose number that was.

During that evening, Giuliani also made several phone calls to the White House. The calls went to the Situation Room, among other places. The Democrats focused on calls made during the period of time that Giuliani was allegedly trying to persuade the Ukrainian government to investigate Hunter Biden’s extravagantly profitable association with the corrupt Ukraine energy company Burisma.

Spying on a Journalist?

Giuliani was also talking on the phone then to Rep. Devin Nunes, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee. Communications from April show that Giuliani and Nunes talked to Lev Parnas, Giuliani’s indicted Ukrainian associate, and The Hill columnist John Solomon. Solomon wrote a column on April 1 on alleged Ukrainian attempts to sabotage Trump’s presidential campaign. He also wrote about Biden’s attempt to shield the company employing his son from prosecution.

Others listed in the phone records include talk show host Sean Hannity, Trump’s lawyer Jay Sekulow, former Nunes staffer Kash Patel and lawyer Victoria Toensing.

The report refers to Giuliani’s phone calls as part of a “smear campaign.” It was coordinated with “one or more individuals at the White House.” Giuliani blasted the draft report from House Democrats as ignoring “every due process rights held dear by those who appreciate and value fair adjudication.” He told NBC, “Alexander Hamilton is turning over in his grave at Trinity Church.”

Nunes called the release of phone records a “gross abuse of power.” One GOP lawmaker told Byron York at the Washington Examiner that while subpoenaing the records wasn’t illegal, it’s “out of bounds as clearly political retribution.”

Subpoenaing the records of Solomon, a journalist, may have violated the First Amendment. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press First Amendment Handbook says that reporter privilege applies if the people trying to obtain the records are trying to determine the reporter’s confidential sources. Shockingly, mainstream media news organizations are showing very little interest in the fact a powerful government official is using the force of his office to target a journalist. (And yet if President Trump tweets about fake news, these same outlets scream how he is endangering a free press.)

Democrats have shown that they will be ruthless in their quest to impeach Trump. But it’s not going to remove him from office. They are wasting time and resources trying to smear him. These phone records proved nothing. But the seeking of those records shows plenty.

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