Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee claimed in their impeachment inquiry report this week that President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani over the summer had contact with a phone number for the White House budget office where military aid to Ukraine was temporarily being withheld. However, Trump administration officials are disputing that finding, saying the phone number presented as evidence for the claim is not linked to that office.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., released the panel’s findings from the months-long impeachment inquiry into Trump on Tuesday before transmitting the report to the House Judiciary Committee for the next phase of the process.
In that report, Democrats provided call logs that appeared to show that on August 8, Giuliani “texted several times with a number associated with the White House.”
The report notes that the committee was unable to identify the specific White House official associated with the phone number, but said that, later, a number associated with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) called Giuliani for a phone discussion that lasted almost 13 minutes.
The report also states that Giuliani called “the OMB number” “several more times” that evening, but did not connect for more than “a few seconds.”
But “the OMB number,” according to the Wall Street Journal was not directly associated with the Office of Management and Budget, and Giuliani, instead, could have been having a call with another part of the White House. The New York Times also reported that “the OMB number” was actually a general White House switchboard number, which makes it difficult to determine who Giuliani was speaking with at the White House.
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