Where’s Rudy? He’s Reportedly in Ukraine, Meeting With Controversial Ex-Prosecutors For a New TV Show
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Though Rudy Giuliani remains under intense scrutiny in the impeachment inquiry over the Ukraine scandal, that’s apparently not stopping him from traveling to Ukraine to advance his efforts on Donald Trump’s behalf.
The New York Times reports that the president’s lawyer travelled to Budapest and Kiev this week to interview a number of controversial Ukrainian former officials. Giuliani said on Tuesday that he was developing a project with the far-right One America News Network, and the Times now says Giuliani’s trip “was organized around the filming of a multipart television series” where he’ll be featured on OANN.
“Mr. Giuliani is using the trip, which has not been previously reported, to help prepare more episodes of a documentary series for a conservative television outlet promoting his pro-Trump, anti-impeachment narrative,” Ken Vogel reports. “Mr. Giuliani’s trip has generated concern in some quarters of the State Department, coming amid scrutiny of his work with American diplomats earlier this year on the pressure campaign. His trip to Budapest and Kyiv suggests that he is unbowed by the intense scrutiny that has enveloped him and his associates.”
Giuliani remains under fire for his involvement in the Ukraine quid pro quo effort, and the report of his travels comes a day after call logs revealed that he and his indicted associate, Lev Parnas, had multiple phone conversations with House Intelligence Ranking Republican Devin Nunes. The Times reports that in Giuliani’s travels, he met with former Ukrainian prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko and former Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin.
When Joe Biden was vice-president, he called for Shokin to be fired over international accusations of the prosecutor’s corruption. Shokin claims Biden forced him out of his job, and Republicans have connected that to Burisma, a company that employed Hunter Biden in its board — though Shokin allowed that investigation to go cold.
Lutsenko, whose claims were amplified by John Solomon, is a central figure in the smear campaign against Marie Yovanovitch. Lutsenko has claimed that the former ambassador once gave him a “do-not-prosecute list,” but he eventually admitted that there was no such thing, and he’s currently facing abuse of power allegations.
