State Department obliged to publish correspondence to Ukraine

On October 23, a U.S. court ordered the Department of State to release documents related to the situation around Ukraine, including correspondence between Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and US President’s lawyer Rudolf Giuliani, over the next 30 days. This is stated in a widespread ruling of the judge of the metropolitan district of Columbia Christopher Cooper.

The contact information of the Washington administration and the Ukrainian authorities was requested at the beginning of the month by the American Oversight human rights organization, filing a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Cooper also decided that representatives of the organization should meet with foreign policy officials to discuss ways to narrow down the amount of documentation requested. He also agreed that the information was of public interest.

American Oversight, in particular, requested documents related to contacts of Giuliani and representatives of the Ukrainian authorities regarding the son of former US Vice President Joseph Biden, as well as materials on the recall of the American ambassador to Kiev Marie Yovanovitch.