This archive report was first published on 17 December 2019.
Giuliani's Role in Ukraine Ambassador's Ouster Detailed ¶
President Trump's personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, revealed details about his involvement in the recall of the US ambassador to Ukraine, Marie L. Yovanovitch, in an interview with The New York Times on December 16, 2019.
Giuliani stated that he provided President Trump with detailed information about how Ambassador Yovanovitch was impeding investigations that could benefit Trump, setting in motion her recall from her post.
According to Giuliani, he passed along to Trump 'a couple of times' accounts about how Ambassador Yovanovitch had frustrated efforts that could be politically helpful to Trump. These included investigations involving former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Ukrainians who disseminated documents that damaged Trump's 2016 campaign.
The president in turn connected Giuliani with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who asked for more information, Giuliani said. Within weeks, Ambassador Yovanovitch was recalled as ambassador at the end of April and was told that Trump had lost trust in her.
Giuliani's account provided additional detail about the president's knowledge of and involvement in one element of a pressure campaign against Ukraine. The House prepared for a vote on Wednesday to impeach Trump, with articles of impeachment accusing the president of abusing the power of his office to push Ukraine to help him politically and of obstructing Congress by blocking testimony from key officials.
Giuliani told the president and Pompeo that Ambassador Yovanovitch was blocking visas for Ukrainian prosecutors to come to the United States to present evidence to him — and also to federal authorities — that he claimed could be damaging to Biden and his son Hunter Biden, and to Ukrainians who distributed documents that led to the resignation of Trump's 2016 campaign chairman, Paul Manafort.
Giuliani also claimed, based on his own interviews with those prosecutors, that Ambassador Yovanovitch had sought to block investigations in Ukraine. And he relayed vague claims that she had been bad-mouthing the president.
Giuliani's claims about Ambassador Yovanovitch were either unsubstantiated or were taken out of context, according to testimony in the impeachment proceedings and other information.
