A federal judge has ordered the State Department to expand its search for records of communication between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, regarding Ukraine policy, McClatchy reported.
The State Department released a number of records last month documenting contact between the two men. But District Court Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington, D.C., ruled Friday the department arbitrarily limited its search for documents with a cut-off date of Aug. 2, McClatchy reported.
A plaintiff in the case and watchdog American Oversight posted the court filing.
The State Department was given a Jan. 8, 2020 deadline to release all records documenting emails, text messages, call logs and scheduled meetings on Ukraine policy that were dated until Oct. 18.
The court ruled the department had “not adequately justified why its Executive Secretariat used a cut-off date.”
Some key developments regarding U.S. policy toward Ukraine occurred between Aug. 2 and Oct. 18, McClatchy reported.
The move comes after the State Department late last month released documents in response to the request from American Oversight. The documents showed repeated contacts between Pompeo and Giuliani, The Hill noted.