Giuliani Confirms the Hit
Rudy Giuliani tells The New Yorker magazine that he "needed Yovanovitch out of the way."
Rudy Giuliani has given some shocking interviews lately. He gave The New York Times details surrounding the departure of former Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch on Monday that confirmed what House investigators had previously surmised from impeachment witnesses — that he fed Trump information about how the ambassador was in the way and Trump took action. Giuliani explained that he provided President Trump with his perspective of the events in Ukraine, specifically how Yovanovitch was hindering his efforts to dig up dirt that could benefit Trump and could be a problem for the Trump administration in their mission to investigate “corruption” in Ukraine.
Giuliani told The New Yorker, "I believed that I needed Yovanovitch out of the way," and went on to confirm that "she was going to make the investigations difficult for everybody." He also detailed his efforts to publicly smear Yovanovitch on TV and through the self-described investigative journalist John Solomon. Given that these admissions are tied up with the actions of Trump, at the center of the impeachment inquiry and that Giuliani is under investigation in New York for his dealings, this stunning admission is particularly surprising.
Giuliani explained that he set in motion the ouster of the former ambassador from her post in Ukraine while utilizing his position as the president’s personal lawyer. Rudy Giuliani confirmed that he gave Trump information about how Yovanovitch “frustrated efforts that could be politically helpful to Mr. Trump” and that he did this “a couple of times.” The investigations that the Trump administration was pursuing at the time directly involved former Vice President Joe Biden and Ukrainians who disseminated documents that damaged Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign.
In his interview, Giuliani also relayed that the president then sent him to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who asked Giuliani for more information about the matter and “within weeks, Ms. Yovanovitch was recalled as ambassador” under the guise that President Trump had lost trust in her.
None of this information is exactly new, but what is shocking is Giuliani’s brazen recount of his involvement with Yovanovitch’s removal and the confirmation that Trump indeed removed her for getting in his way. It would have been simple for the president to exercise his authority and remove the ambassador under one of several legitimate pretenses, but now there is an evidentiary trail of mobster-like behavior where Trump was not merely intent on getting rid of Yovanovitch, he had to ruin her.
Two of Rudy Giuliani’s associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, are currently charged with illegally funneling foreign donations to U.S. political candidates. They allegedly used a shell company to make a $325,000 donation to a SuperPAC called America First Action and they channeled money to prominent Republican Congressmen, like former Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX). In addition to a hefty donation, Parnas and Fruman lobbied Sessions to persuade him to help get rid of Ambassador Yovanovitch. It must have worked because after that meeting, Sessions wrote a letter to the State Department about Yovanovitch that said the ambassador expressed "disdain" for the Trump administration.
The America First Action SuperPAC that was created by Parnas and Fruman also paid Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, nearly a million dollars over the last several years, according to F.E.C. filings. In addition to making payouts to Trump’s campaign manager, Parnas and Fruman used the political fund to distribute foreign money contributions to American politicians who were capable of influencing Trump. For example, Lev Parnas also funneled thousands of foreign dollars to Republican House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) in June of 2018. (See my previous piece from August on all of Parscale’s money connections here: Trump's Campaign Manager and His Wife Got Over $900,000 from Pro-Trump Super PAC)
Prosecutors in Manhattan now allege that Giuliani associate Lev Parnas received a million dollar payoff from a Russian source, made to his wife’s bank account in order to conceal the payment and have asked the court to revoke his bail as he now poses a flight risk. So let’s break this all down: Giuliani sent his Ukrainian henchmen to distribute foreign funds to get prominent Republicans to bend the ear of the president and confirm what Giuliani was already selling. This is all while making sure that Trump’s top guys are handsomely paid and happy. Trump was being pressured from several angles to get rid of Yovanovitch. Possibly, he thought the reports were all independent, thus corroborating what Giuliani was saying. Trump was either just that stupid or he was playing dumb because he was in on it.
Next Trump dispersed his team to go out into the right-wing media and destroy the reputation of Yovanovitch so that he had a justification for suddenly getting rid of a long distinguished diplomat. Cue Donald Trump, Jr. and the Fox News pundits who begin to spin that she is unqualified and inept and needs to be immediately removed.
The Parnas and Fruman bribery-fueled false accusations got repeated and amplified by pundits at Fox News like Laura Ingraham (see above) and Sean Hannity. Then Donald Trump Jr., Jack Pobosiec, and The Hill’s John Solomon also disseminated the false propaganda to help sell the false narrative about Yovanovitch.
Giuliani’s attempts to continue to attack Yovanovitch on outlets like Fox News continued. Yovanovitch told investigators in her deposition that Giuliani attempted to exert authority to override a visa denial for former Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin after U.S. officials determined he was ineligible based on his “known corrupt activities.” In an attempt to help Shokin, Giuliani falsely claimed to the White House and State Department that former Ambassador Yovanovitch was improperly blocking the visa when she had nothing to do with it. She testified that when she reported to State Department officials that this was happening, they did nothing to temper Giuliani’s efforts or inaccuracies. Giuliani has also appeared on Fox News to contradict his statements to The New Yorker and claim that former Ambassador Yovanovitch committed perjury, while under oath before Congress:
One thing is certain — Marie Yovanovitch was under oath under penalty of perjury and Rudy Giuliani has yet to be sworn in with all of his claims that have been disproven at every turn. The behavior of Giuliani in admitting to his part in pushing for Yovanovitch’s removal shows that the Trump administration shows no signs of ending the tactics they’ve employed thus far. Trump has dispersed his most loyal servants including Giuliani, Barr, Nunes and a myriad of men currently facing criminal charges to create the story line that he and Rudy Giuliani have envisioned-and why should Giuliani or Trump stop with these outlandish actions? No one has held them to account for anything they’ve done wrong…yet.
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Amee Vanderpool writes the “Shero” Newsletter and is an attorney, contributor to Playboy Magazine and analyst for BBC radio. She can be reached at avanderpool@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @girlsreallyrule.
I will be honest, I am almost ready to throw in the towel. Every day we learn more about this "mob" administration and nothing happens. There is no knight in shining armor to save the day. The corruption is mind boggling and number of people turning a blind eye is unbelievable! All I can say is I just don't know anymore. It's sad, frightening and sickening.
Keep writing & publishing your summaries of Trump’s dishonesty, duplicity, & cynicism even though he & his henchmen & follows continue to do his bidding. It matters. We cannot lose hope. “Don’t let the bastards ground you down.”