The exchange was uncovered as part of a 100-page response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the non-partisan (though Democratic leaning) watchdog group American Oversight. And it binds the Trump White House even tighter to an effort led by Giuliani to commandeer U.S. diplomacy to fit the president’s domestic political agenda.

Around the time that Giuliani was leaning on the office of the president to get him a direct line to the secretary of state, he was also whipping up a smear campaign against the then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch—one that involved a major disinformation operation. In late March, The Wall Street Journal reported, Giuliani gave Mr. Pompeo “a nine-page document dated March 28 that included a detailed timeline of the Bidens’ dealings in Ukraine and allegations of impropriety against Ms. Yovanovitch.” The dossier itself was included in the American Oversight FOIA results.

And this past week, David Holmes, a top staffer at the US Embassy in Ukraine, testified that in March, “the situation at the embassy and in Ukraine changed dramatically.”