If Rudy Giuliani were just an ordinary lawyer, he’d probably already be in plea negotiations with the prosecutors in the Southern District of New York. His sidekicks, Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas, have already been indicted there, and largely for activities they carried out in concert or simultaneously with the shenanigans they were working on with the former New York City mayor. But Giuliani is the president’s attorney, and that puts a higher bar on any prosecutorial actions against him. Also, while it’s true that the SDNY office is famously independent of Main Justice, they’re not immune to pressure and direction from Attorney General William Barr. Even Congress has shown reluctance to hold Giuliani in contempt for failure to appear.

So, for now, Giuliani is a free man who is acting like he doesn’t have a worry in the world, and he just traveled to Ukraine in pursuit of information he can use to defend the president and smear his enemies. He’s flaunting his privileged position and he’s getting a major assist from Sen. Lindsey Graham.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is inviting Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer, to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee about his recent trip to Ukraine.

Graham, during an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation” set to air on Sunday, said Giuliani could appear before his panel but that it should remain separate from the looming Senate impeachment trial.

“Well, I don’t know what he found, but if he wants to come the Judiciary Committee — Rudy, if you want to come and tell us what you found, I’ll be glad to talk to you. When it comes to impeachment, I want to base my decision on the record assembled in the House,” Graham said…

…Giuliani told The Washington Post that Trump has asked him to brief GOP senators and the Justice Department on his findings. A source told The Wall Street Journal that Giuliani told the president that his Ukraine trip produced “more than you can imagine.”

Graham also added that he did not know what Giuliani has found or “what he was up to when he was in the Ukraine,” but that he was willing to use the Judiciary Committee to look into Hunter Biden and Ukraine.

“We can look at what Rudy’s got and Joe Biden, Hunter Biden and anything else you want to look at after impeachment. But if Rudy wants to come to the Judiciary Committee and testify about what he found, he’s welcome to do so,” Graham added.

Trump and his allies have latched onto Hunter Biden’s connection to Ukraine as the former vice president seeks the Democratic nomination to challenge Trump in 2020. There’s no indication Joe Biden was acting with his son’s interests in mind, and the former vice president has denied any such motivations.

In a normal world, this would be irrational behavior on Sen. Graham’s part. As former National Security Adviser John Bolton put it, Giuliani is a hand grenade who is likely to destroy anyone who gets too close to him. European Union ambassador Gordon Sondland said that Giuliani “fucks up” everything he touches. It’s widely reported that the SDNY is looking to indict Giuliani at any moment. His associate Lev Parnas could become a cooperating witness at any time. In these circumstances, it seems like a terrible idea to announce your intention to call him as a witness before your committee for any purpose other than to account for his criminal activities.

But Graham is living in a world where all the pressure he receives comes from an alternative universe concocted by right-wing charlatans. They want to know why he isn’t doing more to defend President Trump, and if Rudy claims to have exculpatory evidence, then he has to explain why he won’t call him before his committee to deliver it.

So, he says he’s definitely eager to hear from Giuliani, just not until after the impeachment trial. It’s his way of trying to have it both ways, but it satisfies neither side of the political divide. In the real world, people want to know how he could call Giuliani as a credible witness when he has refused to appear before Congress in the impeachment inquiry. In the alternative world, they know that Giuliani’s information needs to come out prior to the trial, not after it has been concluded.

Since this isn’t enough to satisfy the president’s defenders, Graham goes a little further.

Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Saturday that he’s made up his mind that President Trump should be acquitted, dismissed the notion that he has to be a “fair juror” and said he doesn’t see the need for a formal trial in the Senate.

Graham, a staunch defender of the president, made the comments overseas during an interview with CNN International at the Doha Forum in Qatar.

“I think impeachment is going to end quickly in the Senate. I would prefer it to end as quickly as possible,” Graham said. “Use the record that was assembled in the House to pass impeachment articles as your trial record.”

Asked whether it was appropriate for him to share those thoughts given his purported role as a juror in a Senate trial, Graham replied, “Well, I must think so because I’m doing it.”

“I am trying to give a pretty clear signal I have made up my mind. I’m not trying to pretend to be a fair juror here,” he added.

I wouldn’t put a whole lot of stock in it, but a left-leaning poll found last week that Graham, who is up for reelection in 2020, is just two points ahead of Democratic challenger Jamie Harrison. If that is anything close to true, it’s possible that Graham has erred in his decision to put all his energies into protecting against a challenge from his right.

When voters go to the South Carolina polls in November, they’ll know a lot more about Giuliani than people know now. I don’t think that is going to be advantageous to Graham’s reelection chances. His behavior here will be hard to explain to anyone who isn’t blindly in Trump’s camp, and that might not be good enough to keep Graham in office.