Weeks After Abrupt Cancelation, Giuliani Testifies Before Jan. 6 Panel For Hours

Former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani reportedly testified virtually before the Jan. 6 Select Committee for more than seven hours on Friday, weeks after Giuliani’s abrupt cancelation of his interview with the panel, according to CNN and the New York Times.

But Giuliani and the committee continued to negotiate his appearance before the panel in recent weeks, CNN and the Times reported.

Giuliani’s interview was transcribed and under oath, according to the Times. Giuliani reportedly took a break in the middle of the interview to host his hourlong radio show.

It is unclear what Giuliani disclosed to the committee, following his agreement to speak to the panel about matters outside of his conversations with former President Trump or other topics he viewed as protected by attorney-client privilege.

Giuliani, who spearheaded the former president’s efforts to subvert the 2020 presidential election results, pulled the plug on his testimony before the committee after the panel rejected his last-minute request for an audio and video recording of the session. Giuliani’s attorney, Robert Costello, told the New York Times at the time that his client “simply doesn’t trust” members of the committee because Giuliani believed the panel would alter its records of his sworn testimony.

Giuliani later dropped his objection and agreed to testify before the committee after it threatened to use its “enforcement options,” referring to a potential referral to the Justice Department for criminal contempt of Congress, according to the Times.

Following Giuliani’s move to abruptly cancel his interview with the panel earlier this month, committee spokesperson Tim Mulvey said in a statement that Giuliani remains under subpoena because he is an “important witness to the conspiracy to overthrow the government.” Mulvey said that if Giuliani refuses to comply, the committee would “consider all enforcement options.”

Giuliani was subpoenaed by the committee in January alongside three lawyers who had represented Trump’s campaign: Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell and Boris Epshteyn. The panel’s subpoenas to the group signaled that beyond the violence that ensued during the deadly Capitol insurrection last year, the committee is investigating Trumpworld’s months-long election steal scheme.

Thus far, the committee and the House itself recommended contempt charges for four figures in Trump’s inner circle who continue to defy the panel’s subpoenas: Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, in addition to White House advisers Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino.

Out of the committee’s criminal referrals, Bannon is the only Trump ally who was indicted by the Justice Department.