George Kent: Giuliani’s Efforts to ‘Gin Up Politically-Motivated Investigations’ Were ‘Infecting’ U.S. Engagement With Ukraine

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent publicly reviewed the concerns he held about US policy towards Ukraine in today’s impeachment hearings.

In his closed-door testimony, Kent said he was told by Kurt Volker that Rudy Giuliani “had influence on the President in terms of the way the President thought of Ukraine.”

Today Kent said, “As a general principle, I do not believe the United States should ask other countries to engage in selective politically-associated investigations or prosecutions against opponents of those in power, because such selective actions undermine the rule of law, regardless of the country.”

He addressed Burisma and the concerns he raised, saying, “I raised my concern that Hunter Biden’s status as a board member could create the perception of a conflict of interest. Let me be clear, however, I did not witness any effort by any U.S. official to shield Burisma from scrutiny. In fact, I and other U.S. Officials consistently advocated reinstituting a scuttled investigation of… Burisma’s founder, as well as holding the corrupt prosecutors to close the case to account.”

He also brought up his concerns about Giuliani:

“Over the course of 2018 and 2019 I became increasingly aware of an effort by Rudy Giuliani and others, including his associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, to run a campaign to smear Ambassador Yovanovitch and other officials at the U.S. embassy in Kiev. The chief agitators on the Ukrainian side of this effort were some of those same corrupt prosecutors I’d encountered, particularly Yuriy Lutsenko and Viktor Shokin. They are now peddling false information in or to to extract revenge against those who would expose their misconduct, including U.S. diplomats, Ukrainian anticorruption officials, and reform-minded civil society groups in Ukraine.”

Those efforts, he said, led to Yovanovitch’s ouster and hurt U.S. efforts to engage with the Zelensky administration.

“It became clear to me that Giuliani’s efforts to gin up politically motivated investigations were now infecting U.S. engagement with Ukraine, leveraging President Zelensky’s desire for a White House meeting,” Kent added.

You can watch the above, via Fox News.