In a wild set of interviews with FOX News, Rudy Giuliani claimed he contacted Ukrainian officials at the request of the State Department.
The interview came following a Washington Post report that named Rudy as the lead player in the Ukraine entanglement, which has prompted House Democrats to launch an official impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump. According to a whistleblower complaint, Trump allegedly used U.S. military aid as leverage to pressure Ukraine to dig up dirt on his political rival, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
The WaPo reported: “The former New York mayor appears to have seen Zelensky, a political neophyte elected president of Ukraine in April and sworn in in May, as a potential ally on two political fronts: punishing those Giuliani suspected of playing a role in exposing the Ukraine-related corruption of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and delivering political ammunition against Biden.”
Said one U.S. official to the WaPo: “Rudy — he did all of this. This s—show that we're in — it's him injecting himself into the process.”
“You know who I did at the request of? The State Department,” Giuliani spat in an interview with FOX News' Laura Ingraham. “I never talked to a Ukrainian official until the State Department called me and asked me to do it. And then I reported every conversation back to them. Laura, I'm a pretty good lawyer, just a country lawyer, but it's all right here, right here. The first call was from the State Department.”
Asked why he was asked to get involved rather than the DOJ or the FBI, Giuliani replied: “The FBI's performance in the entire investigation including up to this moment is flawed. Why am I doing it Laura? Can't you figure it out? I'm [Trump's] defense lawyer. I'm defending him. He's my client.”
The Washington Post reported otherwise, that “the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, became a primary Giuliani target.”
The paper added: “Though she was widely respected in the national security community for her efforts to prod Ukraine to take on corruption, Giuliani targeted Yovanovitch with wild accusations including that she played a secret role in exposing [former Trump campaign manager Paul] Manafort and was part of a conspiracy orchestrated by the liberal financier George Soros.”
Said Giuliani to Ingraham: “I was sitting in my office November 2018 and a very prominent investigator… came to me and told me there is a story about the Ukraine and what the Democrats did there that will shock you. And I didn't believe it at first. Biden wasn't involved. It was all about collusion, which by the way is massive, right? And people were paying for it, like George Soros. And the American ambassador was deeply involved. And the FBI agent who was investigating it was deeply involved in it. She is now working for George Soros, the FBI agent is working for George Soros making hundreds of thousands of dollars. She was involved in it back then. In January of 2016, the Obama White House told Ukrainian officials, go dig up dirt on Trump and Manafort. Nancy Pelosi doesn't care about that.”
Later in the show, Giuliani returned to the air to scream at Democrat Chris Hahn, who told Ingraham, “I just heard the president's personal, political attorney say that he was directed by the State Department to go meet with the Ukraine to get evidence on the president's political opponent. … He's making things up. If the Bidens weren't public figures, it would be libelous!”
Giuliani screeched, “I should sue you for libel,” later screaming, “Shut up, moron! Shut up! Shut Up! You don't know what you're talking about. You don't know what you're talking about, idiot!”
And Giuliani was back on FOX & Friends on Wednesday morning, spitting once again, spitting conspiracy theories. Giuliani also said that the transcript of Trump's phone call with Zelensky was read to him.
