{"id":10331,"date":"2019-12-11T12:18:47","date_gmt":"2019-12-11T08:48:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/?p=10331"},"modified":"2021-01-21T19:28:36","modified_gmt":"2021-01-21T15:58:36","slug":"rudy-giuliani-and-mek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/posts\/10331","title":{"rendered":"Rudy Giuliani and MEK"},"content":{"rendered":"

Inside Giuliani\u2019s dual roles: Power-broker-for-hire and shadow foreign policy adviser<\/strong><\/p>\n

The president\u2019s personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani was on the phone in late 2018, pressing administration officials about his latest agenda item.
\na man and a woman standing in front of a building: President-elect Donald Trump talks with Rudolph W. Giuliani after a meeting at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey on Nov. 20, 2016.\u00a9 Jabin Botsford\/The Washington Post President-elect Donald Trump talks with Rudolph W. Giuliani after a meeting at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey on Nov. 20, 2016.
\nPresident Trump had nominated a career Foreign Service officer to become the U.S. ambassador to Qatar, a key post in a Middle Eastern country with tricky regional relationships, an important U.S. military installation and vast oil reserves.<\/p>\n\n

Giuliani, who has said he had held a cybersecurity contract with Qatar in 2017 and early 2018, proposed replacing her with someone he said would be a better fit \u2014 Scott W. Taylor, a Trump-supporting former congressman from Virginia defeated in his reelection bid in November 2018, according to people familiar with his outreach.
\nGiuliani\u2019s previously unreported attempts to shape the pick for the U.S. envoy to Qatar is part of an un\u00ador\u00adtho\u00addox foreign policy portfolio he has carved out for himself while also working as a power-broker-for-hire with direct access to the president and top administration officials.
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\nThe dual roles he has embraced is part of what longtime colleagues say has been a transformation of the once-iconic New York mayor into a multimillionaire consultant to powerful figures overseas.
\nIn the three years since Trump took office, Giuliani has expanded his lucrative foreign consulting and legal practice, taking on clients that span the globe, from Turkey to Venezuela to Romania to Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n

Along the way, he also has used his singular perch to try to influence U.S. policy and criminal investigations \u2014 at times pushing the interests of foreign figures who could benefit him financially.
\nIn 2017, Giuliani tried to get Trump and top Cabinet members to make moves sought by Turkey while working as a lawyer for a gold trader from that country with ties to top government officials. This spring, he successfully helped oust U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, a top target of a Ukrainian prosecutor who he considered representing in a six-figure contract. In September, he urged Justice Department officials not to pursue a case against a wealthy Venezuelan energy executive who had hired him as a private attorney.
\nGiuliani has said he separates his private business from the work he does for the president for free. He has said the kind of services he provides his foreign clients does not require registering with the U.S. government as a foreign lobbyist.<\/p>\n\n

But since the start of the administration, his actions have caused persistent alarm among Trump\u2019s advisers, who worry that it is often not clear who Giuliani is representing \u2014 the president, his private clients or his own foreign policy views \u2014 in his meetings at the White House and in foreign cities, according to people familiar with the concerns who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions.
\nThose worries have become acute since Giuliani emerged as a central figure in the Ukraine pressure campaign that is the subject of the House impeachment inquiry \u2014 and the arrests of two of his associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, who assisted him in that effort.
\nFederal prosecutors in New York are scrutinizing Giuliani\u2019s business ties to the men and his consulting business as part of a broad probe, according to people familiar with the investigation.
\nIn several conversations in recent months, Attorney General William P. Barr has counseled Trump in general terms that Giuliani has become a liability and a problem for the administration, according to multiple people familiar with the conversations. In one discussion, the attorney general warned the president that he was not being well-served by his lawyer, one person with knowledge of the episode said.
\nThe Justice Department and the White House declined to comment. Giuliani did not respond to multiple calls and messages seeking his comment. His lawyer declined to comment.
\nGiuliani has assured the president that he is not in legal trouble, according to White House aides. And Trump has so far resisted entreaties to distance himself from the former New York mayor, telling others that he appreciates Giuliani\u2019s combative media appearances on his behalf, according to White House officials and Trump advisers.
\n\u201cHe\u2019s a good man and he\u2019s an honorable guy and he\u2019s a great crime fighter, corruption fighter,\u201d the president said in an interview with Bill O\u2019Reilly last month.
\nLast week, even as the House began drafting articles of impeachment, Giuliani kept up his work abroad on the president\u2019s behalf, swooping into Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian prosecutors who he claims have damaging information about Democrats.
\nBut the federal probe \u2014 being run out of the U.S. attorney\u2019s office in Manhattan that Giuliani once led \u2014 appears to be delving into his foreign entanglements.
\nIn recent weeks, prosecutors subpoenaed a consulting firm founded by former FBI director Louis Freeh, which hired Giuliani to write an August 2018 letter to Romanian officials calling for an amnesty for people prosecuted for corruption, a policy change that would have benefited a Freeh client, according to people familiar with the move. The subpoena has not been previously reported.
\nFreeh\u2019s firm declined to comment, as did a spokesman for the U.S. attorney\u2019s office in Manhattan.
\nThis examination of Giuliani\u2019s activities is based on interviews with more than 25 of his associates, current and former administration officials and other people familiar with his work, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing criminal investigation.
\nIn recent interviews, Giuliani told The Washington Post that questions about his foreign clients are \u201cdiversions by Democrats hoping to shoot the messenger\u201d and an effort to distract from information he is uncovering about the president\u2019s political opponents, such as former vice president Joe Biden.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Swamp Media is going back 20 years to find anything I could have done which they can paint as \u2018wrong,\u2019\u2008\u201d he wrote in a tweet this fall.
\nEmbracing a new lifestyle
\nGiuliani first came to prominence as the mob-fighting U.S. attorney in Manhattan in the 1980s, a position that helped propel him into the New York mayor\u2019s office in 1994. His calm, take-charge leadership during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks brought him international acclaim.
\nGeorge Pataki, Rudy Giuliani are posing for a picture: Then-New York Gov. George Pataki, left, Giuliani, center, and then-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton tour the site of the World Trade Center disaster in New York on Sept. 12, 2001.\u00a9 Robert F. Bukaty\/AP Then-New York Gov. George Pataki, left, Giuliani, center, and then-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton tour the site of the World Trade Center disaster in New York on Sept. 12, 2001.
\nAfter leaving office, he parlayed that fame into a new role as a paid speaker around the world. The money that suddenly began flowing his way was a revelation, according to people who knew him.
\nOne longtime friend recalled that during his travels for speeches abroad, Giuliani learned he could get paid $1 million or more as a consultant to foreign interests. He was stunned \u2014 and enticed, said the friend, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.
\nSoon, Giuliani began living a much more affluent lifestyle, enjoying a house in the Hamptons, premium cigars, fine scotch, first-class travel and a luxury residence in New York. In 2003, he married his third wife, Judith Nathan, in an elaborate ceremony on the lawn of Gracie Mansion attended by 400 guests, including Trump. (The two are now in the midst of a bitter divorce.)
\nBy the time Giuliani ran for president in 2008 \u2014 a bid that started strong but fizzled \u2014 his financial disclosure showed he had made $9.2 million for speeches alone between 2006 and mid-2007, many from domestic companies but also from foreign sponsors and think tanks. He made additional millions through his consulting company and his law firm, Bracewell & Giuliani, the disclosure showed.
\nBut Giuliani\u2019s failed presidential bid left the onetime hero \u201ccast off into the political wilderness again,\u201d said Andrew Kirtzman, a journalist who covered his political rise and wrote a 2001 biography of the former mayor.
\nHe redoubled his efforts to make money, friends and associates noted.
\n\u201cHis values seemed to change,\u201d Kirtzman said. \u201cHe was the least materialistic figure I\u2019d ever covered back in his prosecutorial and mayoral days. His interest was always in power, not money. Then he became a man who was very interested in money.\u201d
\nIn the process, the former prosecutor began to drift away from colleagues he had known for decades, some of whom now express bewilderment at his transformation.
\n\u201cThere was a time when he wouldn\u2019t take dirty money or questionable money or money of dubious origin,\u201d said Ken Frydman, who served as the press secretary for Giuliani\u2019s 1993 mayoral campaign, noting Giuliani was known then for vetting donors especially aggressively. \u201cToday, it seems he\u2019ll take money from anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Trump, Giuliani has always had a stubborn refusal to admit mistakes, Frydman said.
\n\u201cDon\u2019t back down. Don\u2019t apologize,\u201d Frydman said of Giuliani\u2019s philosophy. But he said there is an \u201can intensity\u201d to Giuliani now that goes beyond what he remembers: \u201cHe\u2019s turned on the afterburners. He\u2019s Rudy on steroids.\u201d
\nGiuliani was soon moving in the same social circles as Trump, whom he had known for years in New York, emerging as one of the developer\u2019s most vocal surrogates in the 2016 campaign.
\nRudy Giuliani et al. sitting in front of a crowd: Giuliani arrives a Trump campaign stop in Aston, Pa., on Sept. 13, 2016.\u00a9 Matt McClain\/The Washington Post Giuliani arrives a Trump campaign stop in Aston, Pa., on Sept. 13, 2016.
\nAfter Trump\u2019s surprise victory, Giuliani made clear he wanted to be named secretary of state, according to current and former administration officials. But a team of lawyers vetting potential administration appointees raised red flags about possible conflicts of interest arising from his work overseas, according to the officials.
\nA few weeks after Trump\u2019s election, Giuliani announced that he had taken himself out of the running for the job. On Fox News, he said he planned to pursue his private legal and consulting business \u201cwith even more enthusiasm\u201d than before Trump\u2019s election.<\/p>\n

Expanding foreign practice<\/strong>
\nThe former New York mayor had robust work overseas before Trump took office. His companies, Giuliani Partners and Giuliani Security & Safety, provided security and emergency management consulting to governments in Peru, Chile, Argentina and Ukraine, among others. He gave paid speeches around the world, including to Mujahideen-e-Khalq, or MEK, an Iranian resistance group operating in exile that was listed as a terrorist group by the State Department as recently as 2012.
\nRudy Giuliani et al. standing on a stage in front of a crowd: Giuliani attends a March 2018 ceremony in Albania marking the Iranian new year.\u00a9 Siavosh Hosseini\/Alamy Giuliani attends a March 2018 ceremony in Albania marking the Iranian new year.
\nBut Trump\u2019s election provided Giuliani with a substantially bigger platform \u2014 and newfound access to the top levels of U.S. decision-making.
\nHe became a mainstay at the Trump International Hotel down the street from the White House, where he has spent long evenings meeting friends and potential business partners. When he needs to privately discuss deals, he convenes meetings at some of his favorite cigar bars, including Shelly\u2019s Back Room in Washington and New York\u2019s Grand Havana Room, according to people familiar with the sessions.
\nGiuliani has bragged to other Trump allies that he has made millions of dollars since the president took office, according to people familiar with his comments.
\nHe also has regularly boasted about his access to Trump and the closeness of their friendship, said a senior U.S. official who interacted with Giuliani.<\/p>\n

In one meeting with a prominent Ukrainian political figure in early 2018, Giuliani was explicit that hiring him would provide a route to the president, according to a person in attendance.
\n\u201cIt was just so clear what he was peddling. He was pushing for business, and his pitch was, \u2018I\u2019m close to the White House, I\u2019m close to Trump. If you want to get in there, I\u2019m your guy,\u2019\u2008\u201d the person said. In that case, the Ukrainian did not hire Giuliani.
\nGiuliani used his access to Trump in 2017 to push for two controversial issues sought by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as The Post has previously reported.
\nEarly that year, he was hired by the legal team of a Turkish-Iranian gold trader, Reza Zarrab, who was charged in New York with violating U.S. sanctions against Iran. The matter was of keen interest to Erdogan, who said Zarrab was a political \u201chostage\u201d of American law enforcement. Giuliani met with the Turkish president on a visit to Istanbul in February 2017 to discuss a possible \u201cstate-to-state resolution in this case,\u201d according to court filings in the Zarrab case.
\nIn the fall of 2017, Giuliani attended an Oval Office meeting where Trump urged then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to consult with Giuliani and craft a diplomatic deal that would involve dropping charges against Giuliani\u2019s client in exchange for concessions from Turkey, such as the release of an American pastor in Turkish custody.
\nPeople familiar with the incident have said Tillerson was shocked at what he viewed as an inappropriate request to intervene in a criminal matter. Tillerson has declined to comment.
\nGiuliani told The Post he sought a prisoner exchange but declined to comment on any private discussions on the topic. He said he did not need to register as a foreign agent for his Turkish advocacy because his only goal was to assist the legal case of his client, Zarrab. Defense attorneys are not required to register as foreign lobbyists when they assist clients in criminal or civil matters.
\nIn late 2017, Zarrab pleaded guilty to orchestrating a multibillion-dollar conspiracy to evade U.S. sanctions against Iran by disguising money transfers so they would appear to be legitimate gold trades. He testified in federal court that the scheme was approved by Erdogan. Turkish officials denied any wrongdoing.
\nThat year, Giuliani also persistently pushed Trump on another top concern of the Turkish president: extraditing exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen back to his home country to face prosecution. State Department and National Security Council officials have argued against such a move, but Trump appeared receptive to the idea, pressing his advisers about Gulen\u2019s status, as The Post previously reported.
\nGiuliani declined to discuss whether he advocated for Gulen\u2019s extradition, writing in a text message earlier this year: \u201ccan\u2019t comment on it that would be complete attorney client privilege but sounds wacky.\u201d
\n\u201cI don\u2019t represent foreign government in front of the U.S. government,\u201d he told The Post earlier this year. \u201cI\u2019ve never registered to lobby.\u201d
\nBut inside the White House, officials were so disturbed by how he was promoting Turkey\u2019s causes with Trump that then-Chief of Staff Reince Priebus pulled Giuliani aside in the West Wing in 2017 and warned him against lobbying for the country, officials said.<\/p>\n

New proximity to president<\/strong>
\nRudy Giuliani standing in front of a wedding cake: Giuliani and Maria Ryan arrive for a State Dinner with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and President Trump at the White House on Sept. 20.\u00a9 Patrick Semansky\/AP Giuliani and Maria Ryan arrive for a State Dinner with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and President Trump at the White House on Sept. 20.
\nIn April 2018, Giuliani formally joined Trump\u2019s legal team to help him deal with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III\u2019s investigation, a position that required him to talk frequently with the president.
\nWhite House aides fear Giuliani has used his role as the president\u2019s lawyer to promote the interests of private clients, fretting that they do not know who he represents, officials said. His conversations with Trump are protected by attorney-client privilege, meaning even Trump\u2019s closest aides are not briefed on what they discuss.
\nPriebus\u2019s successor, John F. Kelly, tried to limit Giuliani\u2019s reach, scheduling his meetings with Trump at the White House residence, so he would not interact with other White House staff, former administration officials said. Kelly also told others he did not want to be part of calls or meetings with Giuliani, the people said.
\nGiuliani has insisted that he keeps his role as the president\u2019s lawyer separate from the work he does for foreign interests.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve never lobbied him on anything,\u201d Giuliani told The Post earlier this year, referring to Trump.
\nBut he has continued to take on foreign clients, and, behind the scenes, his advocacy on foreign policy issues has not ceased, according to people familiar with his activities.
\nIn the months after Giuliani joined Trump\u2019s legal team, he began discussions with a group interested in influencing U.S. policy in Venezuela.
\nIn the summer of 2018, over cigars and whiskey at New York\u2019s Grand Havana Room, Giuliani met with Parnas and two American business executives with investments in the country seeking his advice on how to open a back channel of communication between Trump and Venezuela\u2019s socialist leader, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, according to people familiar with the gathering.
\nAs part of the previously unreported talks, Giuliani agreed to help find a way to negotiate with Maduro and a diplomatic solution to the political chaos and economic collapse overtaking the country, they said.
\nWeeks later, he told the group that he had met with John Bolton, the president\u2019s national security adviser, to discuss the idea.
\nharles Cooper, an attorney for Bolton, declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Bolton\u2019s distaste for Giuliani\u2019s foreign policy freelancing has emerged during the impeachment inquiry. Former national security official Fiona Hill testified that Bolton warned her not to interact with the president\u2019s lawyer, calling him \u201ca hand grenade that is going to blow everybody up.\u201d
\nAfter a contested election in January, Bolton urged Trump to formally recognize legislative leader Juan Guaid\u00f3 as the country\u2019s leader instead. Maduro has refused to abdicate and the United States imposed stiffer sanctions in response.
\nBy this summer, Giuliani had picked up an important Venezuelan client: energy executive Alejandro Betancourt L\u00f3pez, who hired Giuliani to help him contend with a Justice Department investigation of alleged money laundering and bribery, according to people familiar with the situation.
\nGiuliani stayed at Betancourt\u2019s historic estate outside Madrid in August, when he met with a top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and urged him to open investigations into the 2016 election and Biden\u2019s son Hunter\u2019s work for a Ukrainian gas company , as The Post previously reported.
\nOn Aug. 13, days after returning from Madrid, Giuliani was back at Grand Havana Room, meeting with another potential client: the National Bank of Ukraine, which had taken over a bank once owned by Ukrainian businessman Ihor Kolomoisky, according to a person familiar with the meeting.
\nHe suggested that lawyers with the law firm Quinn Emanuel, which represents the Ukrainian state-owned bank, hire him to wage a public campaign against Kolomoisky, with whom the bank is engaged in a complicated legal battle. Kolomoisky is also considered a political supporter of Zelensky.
\nGiuliani told Bloomberg, which first reported the meeting, that he was approached by the lawyers for the bank to see whether he could help them with a civil suit. He said the timing was not right.
\n\u201cSince representing Trump I have considered and turned down all deals in Ukraine, even those not presenting a conflict,\u201d Giuliani tweeted last week.
\nA spokesman for Quinn Emanuel declined to comment.
\nInterest in Qatar
\nGiuliani\u2019s interest in U.S. foreign policy has often tracked with countries where he has had a financial interest.
\nThat was the case with his efforts to shape the pick for ambassador to Qatar, where he did security consulting work in 2017 and 2018 related to a hacking incident, Giuliani told The Post earlier this year.
\nHe declined to describe the specific work he did but said his contract concluded before he was named Trump\u2019s attorney in April 2018. He said that he did not register as a foreign lobbyist because he never lobbied U.S. officials on behalf of Qatar.
\nThe Qatari Embassy in Washington declined to comment.
\nIn November 2018, Trump nominated Mary Catherine Phee to fill the post of ambassador to Qatar, a key diplomatic job that had been vacant since June 2017. Phee had served as a career diplomat since 1991, including a stint as ambassador to Sudan.<\/p>\n

She is known as \u201can old school, talented diplomat\u201d whose \u201cstrong point is the nitty-gritty of bilateral relations,\u201d according to a former senior administration official involved in Middle East policy.
\nScott Taylor, who wrote a 2015 book called \u201cTrust Betrayed: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and the Selling Out of America\u2019s National Security,\u201d had experience in the region and with energy policy. He served as a security contractor for Hunt Oil in Yemen from 2008 to 2010, Taylor told the Virginian-Pilot before his 2016 election. While in Congress, Taylor worked to build ties with Qatar, visiting the country in 2017 and speaking at a Qatari event in Washington in 2018.
\nGiuliani offered to promote Taylor as candidate for the post and help guide him through the process, according to a person familiar with his outreach.
\nDuring a night at a cigar bar in Friendship Heights in December and a lunch meeting the following day at the Trump hotel, Giuliani described a plan to promote Taylor for the job, the person said.
\nDuring the conversations, Giuliani told Taylor that he had done work in Qatar, but it was unclear why he was interested in shaping the ambassador pick.
\nIn subsequent calls to administration officials, Giuliani argued that Taylor would be a better choice than Phee because he would be more supportive of Trump\u2019s agenda, according to multiple people familiar with the conversations.
\nAs the process progressed, Giuliani also told Taylor he had discussed the idea with the president, who had seemed enthusiastic, one person said.
\nWhen asked about his advocacy for Taylor in a November interview, Giuliani laughed and ended the call.<\/p>\n

Reached by phone, Taylor \u2014 who this summer launched a campaign to unseat Sen. Mark R. Warner (D) \u2014 declined to comment on Giuliani\u2019s effort to get him the appointment, saying only, \u201cI had a lot of advocates on that.\u201d
\nThe State Department declined to comment.
\nPhee\u2019s nomination expired when Congress adjourned last year and Trump has not renominated her. He also did not name Taylor, leaving the key job vacant.<\/p>\n

Foreign work under scrutiny<\/strong>
\na group of people standing in the rain holding an umbrella: Lev Parnas arrives at federal court in New York on Dec. 2.\u00a9 Seth Wenig\/AP Lev Parnas arrives at federal court in New York on Dec. 2.
\nThe scope of the ongoing investigation by federal prosecutors in Manhattan is unclear, but the recent subpoena to Freeh\u2019s firm indicates that investigators appear to be drilling into Giuliani\u2019s work abroad.
\nIn August 2018, Giuliani sent a letter to the Romanian president, expressing his concern that \u201cexcesses\u201d by the nation\u2019s anti-corruption agency were resulting in the prosecution of innocent people. Giuliani called for an amnesty for people convicted under the system.<\/p>\n

Giuliani told The Post at the time that he was hired to send the letter by Freeh\u2019s firm. He declined to say on whose behalf Freeh\u2019s firm was working or how much he was paid.
\nBut Freeh has said he was hired in July 2016 to conduct a review of the conviction of Gabriel \u201cPuiu\u201d Popoviciu, a Romanian real estate executive sentenced to seven years in prison for fraud.
\nPopoviciu originally hired Freeh at the recommendation of Hunter Biden, who had been retained by the Romanian, an attorney for the former vice president\u2019s son, George R. Mesires, confirmed. The New York Times first reported Hunter Biden\u2019s role. A Biden campaign official said Hunter Biden never discussed his Romania work with his father, who actively supported anti-corruption initiatives in the country.
\nGiuliani\u2019s letter to the Romanian president, written on the letterhead of his firm Giuliani Partners, did not mention his relationship to Trump. But it caused an immediate stir in Bucharest, where news organizations highlighted Giuliani\u2019s role as the president\u2019s attorney and questioned whether the letter indicated a shift in U.S. support for the anti-corruption agency.
\nThe State Department tried to distance itself from him. \u201cRudy Giuliani does not speak for the U.S. government on foreign policy,\u201d an official told The Post at the time.
\nGiuliani has repeatedly dismissed questions about the propriety of his foreign work.
\n\u201c5 different organizations are looking at 8 different cases trying to find something wrong. why if I\u2019m not part of a Left Wung [sic] Witchunt for nailing Biden,\u201d he wrote in a recent text message.
\nBut people familiar with the current investigation have said federal prosecutors are exploring a wide range of potential crimes \u2014 including wire fraud and failure to register as a foreign agent \u2014 as they examine Giuliani\u2019s relationship with his two associates, Parnas and Fruman.
\nThe two men were charged in October with campaign finance violations. The allegations do not implicate Giuliani and both have pleaded not guilty.
\nParnas and Fruman were key intermediaries who helped connect Giuliani early this year with Ukrainian officials such as Ukraine\u2019s then-top prosecutor, Yuri Lutsenko, who was offering damaging information about Trump\u2019s political opponents, Giuliani and Parnas have said.
\nGiuliani\u2019s efforts in Ukraine soon merged with official U.S. policy. He pushed White House and State Department officials to issue a visa to a former Ukrainian prosecutor who was blocked from traveling to the United States because of corruption allegations, according to testimony from U.S. officials during the impeachment hearings.
\nAnd he lobbied Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to dismiss the U.S. ambassador, speaking with Pompeo twice by phone and then sending him a packet of material advocating her removal, documents show.
\nDenisse Oller wearing glasses and looking at the camera: Marie Yovanovitch, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, testifies before the House Intelligence Committee last Friday. Yovanovitch \u201cexuded tremendous strength and integrity,\u201d in the opinion of one Georgetown student.\u00a9 Jonathan Ernst\/Reuters Marie Yovanovitch, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, testifies before the House Intelligence Committee last Friday. Yovanovitch \u201cexuded tremendous strength and integrity,\u201d in the opinion of one Georgetown student.<\/p>\n

Yovanovitch was removed from her post in May, the same month Trump directed top U.S. officials working on Ukraine policy to coordinate with his private attorney. By July, Trump was personally involved in the effort, pressing Zelensky by phone to work with Giuliani to open the investigations.
\nGiuliani has insisted he was not paid for the work he did for Trump. But he has acknowledged that in January he considered representing Lutsenko and the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice, writing a draft contract to formalize the deal in which he would have been paid $500,000.
\nHe told the Wall Street Journal that he quickly decided against the arrangement, fearing it could pose a conflict with his representation of the president.
\nLast week, Giuliani traveled to Budapest, where he met with Lutsenko, then traveled to Kyiv, where he met with two members of Ukraine\u2019s parliament who have called for a joint U.S.-Ukrainian parliamentary investigation into the gas company that hired Hunter Biden.
\nDuring the trip, Giuliani indicated he was speaking for the United States, writing on Twitter that until Ukraine investigates the \u201ccriminal conduct\u201d of Biden, it \u201cwill be a major obstacle to the U.S. assisting Ukraine with its anti-corruption efforts.\u201d
\nThe president appeared pleased with his efforts, telling reporters Saturday that Giuliani was going to \u201cmake a report\u201d to the attorney general and Congress.
\n\u201cHe says he has a lot of good information,\u201d Trump said, adding: \u201cI hear he has found plenty.\u201d
\njosh.dawsey@washpost.com
\nrosalind.helderman@washpost.com
\ntom.hamburger@washpost.com
\ndevlin.barrett@washpost.com
\nAnne Gearan, Alice Crites and John Hudson contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

Josh Dawsey, Rosalind Helderman, Tom Hamburger, Devlin Barrett<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Inside Giuliani\u2019s dual roles: Power-broker-for-hire and shadow foreign policy adviser The president\u2019s personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani was on the phone in late 2018, pressing administration officials about his latest…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[642,20],"module":[81],"ctype":[17],"blog":[98],"class_list":["post-10331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mujahedin-khalq-organizations-propaganda-system","tag-paid-advocacy-for-mko","tag-third-view-mek","module-article","ctype-story","blog-washington-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10331"},{"taxonomy":"module","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/module?post=10331"},{"taxonomy":"ctype","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctype?post=10331"},{"taxonomy":"blog","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog?post=10331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}