Officials inside the Trump administration are laying President Donald Trump’s perilous political future at the feet of his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who they say conducted a disastrous shadow foreign policy when it came to Ukraine: “Rudy — he did all this…This shitshow that we’re in — it’s him injecting himself in the process.”

According to a new Washington Post story, Giuliani helped to orchestrate a series of incredible events with regard to US relations toward Ukraine, including the sudden removal of the US ambassador, outmaneuvering the president’s National Security Council, and the postponement of nearly $400 million in Congressionally-approved military aid. In addition, the Post reports that State Department officials resorted to following news reports of Giuliani’s movements to try to keep track his foreign policy freelancing.

“As those worries intensified, some senior officials worked behind the scenes to hold off a Trump meeting or call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky out of concern that Trump would use the conversation to press Kiev for damaging information on Trump’s potential rival in the 2020 race, former vice president Joe Biden, and Biden’s son, Hunter,” the Post reports.

Trump has since acknowledged that he did just that on the call.

White House officials denied this narrative to the Post, claiming that Trump’s discussion of Biden during the July 25 call with Zelensky was a general entreaty aimed at rooting out corruption in Ukraine.

Intelligence officials went on to tell the Post that the fallout from Giuliani’s conduct and the subsequent whistleblower complaint — and now, impeachment inquiry — about Trump’s conduct toward Ukraine has torn apart the president’s intelligence and national security team. It has created a toxic, mistrustful atmosphere one anonymous official described as “bloodletting.”

“Rudy — he did all of this,” the Post reports one unnamed US official saying. “This shitshow that we’re in — it’s him injecting himself into the process.”

Photo credit: Alex Wong, Getty Images.

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