Former GOP lawmaker Pete Sessions subpoenaed over dealings with Giuliani associates

A grand jury has subpoenaed former Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) for documents about his relationship with President Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani and four Giuliani associates arrested last week on campaign finance charges, according to the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post.

The subpoena concerns documents relating to Giuliani’s business relationships with Ukraine and his role in the removal of Marie Yovanovitch as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, as well as any contacts between Sessions, Giuliani and the four associates, according to the Journal, citing people familiar with the matter. There is no indication Sessions, who is running for Congress, is under investigation.

{mosads}Two of the men arrested last week, Florida businessmen Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, allegedly heavily lobbied an unnamed congressman to have Yovanovitch recalled from her post in Kiev. The donations specified in the indictment align with the pair’s donations to Sessions, who lost his seat in 32nd congressional district last year. He plans to run for a House seat in the 17th district in 2020.

Matt Mackowiak, a spokesman for Sessions, told the Journal the former lawmaker was cooperating with the investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and that he plans on “providing documents to their office related to this matter over the next couple of weeks as requested.”

When reached for comment, Mackowiak referred The Hill to his earlier statement.

Sessions previously denied any “wrongdoing” following Parnas’s and Fruman’s arrests, saying in a statement last week that if he was indeed the unnamed congressman mentioned in the indictment, “I could not have had any knowledge of the scheme described in the indictment or have involvement or coordination of it.”

“I have been friends with Rudy Giuliani for more than 30 years,” Sessions added. “I do not know what his business or legal activities in Ukraine have been.”