Rudy Giuliani pressed the Trump administration to grant a visa to the controversial former top prosecutor of Ukraine, a State Department official testified to Congress this week.
George Kent, the deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, told lawmakers that Giuliani asked the State Department in about January to grant the visa to allow Viktor Shokin to come to the U.S., according to CNN.
The agency declined, and Giuliani, who is President Trump’s personal lawyer, asked the White House to have the State Department change its decision. Giuliani ultimately spoke with Shokin via Skype.
The report signals Giuliani’s involvement with the State Department in his Ukraine quest to investigate Joe Biden, a 2020 candidate for president, and his son stretched back earlier than previously known. He did not immediately return a request for comment from the Washington Examiner.
Giuliani sought an interview with Shokin as he investigated allegations of collusion between the Democrats and Ukraine as well as the claim that former Vice President Joe Biden pressured Ukraine to drop an investigation into a gas company that employed his son Hunter Biden. After speaking with Shokin, Giuliani also met with Shokin’s prosecutor general successor, Yuriy Lutsenko, in the U.S. to discuss the claims.
The former New York City mayor has publicly advocated for Ukraine to investigate allegations of corruption related to the Bidens for months, beginning as early as May, both on Twitter and in numerous television appearances and news articles, with a focus on Hunter Biden’s $50,000-per-month position on the board of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company.
Giuliani, who previously told the Washington Examiner “it was certainly understood” within the State Department that he wanted Burisma to be investigated, provided documents that made their way from the State Department to Congress. Among these documents was Giuliani’s write-up of his Skype discussion with Shokin. He wrote that Shokin “believes the current Ambassador Marie L. Yovanovitch,” whom he noted was “close to” Biden, denied Shokin’s visa.
Yovanovitch, who was abruptly recalled earlier this year, testified to House investigators last week that she met Biden on multiple occasions but that neither he nor any previous administration “directly or indirectly” raised the issue of Burisma or Hunter Biden with her. She also denied any political bias against Trump but argued he was duped by former Ukrainian officials who regarded her anti-corruption efforts as a threat.
Trump soured on Yovanovitch due to allegations that she had criticized him personally and had interfered to protect Biden’s son from an investigation by Ukrainian officials. He described her as “bad news” in the July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that lit the fuse on a Democrat-led impeachment inquiry that is examining whether Trump leveraged security aid or a possible meeting with Zelensky to coax an investigation into a political rival.
Giuliani’s Ukraine endeavor appears to have begun back in November 2018, when Giualini says he was contacted by a “well-known investigator” who had him communicate with Lev Parnas, one Giuliani’s associates who was arrested earlier this month.
Both Trump and Giuliani claim Biden improperly used his role as vice president to pressure Ukraine to fire Shokin in order to protect Hunter from an investigation. This stems from a 2018 video showing the elder Biden bragging about threatening to hold back $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees if Ukraine did not terminate Shokin from his post.
Shokin was widely seen by the United States, Europe, and the International Monetary Fund, and inside Ukraine, as a hindrance to fighting corruption. Ukraine’s Parliament removed him in 2016 under international pressure. It has also been reported that the Burisma case was dormant for years before Shokin was fired.
But Giuliani’s notes show Shokin believed the U.S. wanted him to back off when he “attempted to continue the investigations.”
Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, told congressional investigators on Thursday that Trump instructed U.S. diplomats to work with Giuliani. Sondland said he was “disappointed by the president’s direction that we involve Mr. Giuliani” at that meeting but went along with it to accomplish “strengthening U.S.-Ukrainian ties.” He claimed to have not realized “until much later” that Giuliani’s “agenda might have also included an effort to prompt the Ukrainians to investigate Vice President Biden or his son or to involve Ukrainians, directly or indirectly, in the president’s 2020 reelection campaign.”
For his part in the impeachment inquiry, Giuliani defied a subpoena from House Democrats for Ukraine-related documents. But that isn’t the only inquiry looking into him.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have opened an investigation into Giuliani to determine whether he broke lobbying laws with his dealings with Ukraine. Trump defended his lawyer Saturday on Twitter, saying he is being attacked in a “one sided Witch Hunt.” The federal investigation into Giuliani and his business dealings in Ukraine with allegedly corrupt figures also includes a counterintelligence element. Four of his associates, including Parnas, have been indicted on campaign finance-related offenses.
On Thursday, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney defended Trump’s decision to have Giuliani be his unofficial envoy not employed by the U.S. government.
“It’s not illegal. It’s not impeachable. The president gets to use who he wants to use,” he said at a media availability in which he also said Trump used aid as leverage to push Ukrainian officials to launch a politically explosive investigation before walking it back hours later.
