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Judge orders State Department to release Ukraine records in 30 days

By Zachary Cohen, CNN
Updated 1911 GMT (0311 HKT) October 23, 2019
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/23/politics/judge-orders-state-department-to-release-ukraine-records/index.html

Washington (CNN)A federal judge Wednesday gave the State Department 30 days to release Ukraine-related records, including communications between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.

In response to an emergency motion from the watchdog group American Oversight, Judge Christopher Cooper ordered lawyers for the group and the State Department to come together to narrow the scope of the documents in the request -- eliminating those that would likely be exempt from release -- and produce documents in the next 30 days.

Cooper said that he could not think of a third party exemption that would prevent the release of correspondence between Giuliani and top State Department officials regarding Ukraine.

"The judge zeroed in on communications with Rudy Giuliani to be most subject to public disclosure. Why? Because he doesn't work for the government," American Oversight Executive Director Austin Evers told reporters after the hearing.

Earlier this month, American Oversight filed a lawsuit and asked for a preliminary injunction to compel the State Department to begin rapidly processing and releasing senior officials' correspondence with Giuliani and other communications about efforts to pressure the Ukrainian government to open a political investigation. The lawsuit also sought the release of records related to the recall of US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.

This story is breaking and will be updated.

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/23/politics/judge-orders-state-department-to-release-ukraine-records/index.html