Advertisement

‘I just gave them the facts’: Giuliani says Trump ‘relied’ on claims about Yovanovitch

Click to play video: 'Giuliani boasts about role in getting former Ukraine ambassador removed'
Giuliani boasts about role in getting former Ukraine ambassador removed
WATCH: Giuliani boasts about role in getting former Ukraine ambassador removed – Dec 17, 2019

Rudy Giuliani, U.S. President Donald Trump‘s personal lawyer, says he provided the president with information that the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine was impeding investigations that could benefit Trump politically. Within weeks, she was recalled from her post.

In an interview with The New York Times, Giuliani portrayed himself as directly involved in the effort to smear Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, and he provided details indicating Trump’s knowledge of that effort.

Giuliani’s interview, published Tuesday, comes as Trump is facing near-certain impeachment Wednesday by the House for abuse of power over his pressure on Ukraine to announce investigations of Democrats while he was withholding aid to the Eastern European nation.

Giuliani said he passed along information to Trump “a couple of times” about how Yovanovitch had frustrated efforts that could help Trump, including efforts to have Ukraine investigate political rival Joe Biden.

Story continues below advertisement

Trump, in turn, passed the information on to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Giuliani said. Within weeks, Yovanovitch was told Trump had lost trust in her and she was recalled as ambassador.

Trump has said he did nothing wrong and his pressure on Ukraine was aimed at rooting out corruption there.

Click to play video: 'Trump says Giuliani hasn’t said much about Ukraine trip, calls him ‘greatest crime fighter’'
Trump says Giuliani hasn’t said much about Ukraine trip, calls him ‘greatest crime fighter’

Early last year, Giuliani said, he told Trump that Yovanovitch was impeding investigations in Ukraine that could benefit Trump.

For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.

Get breaking National news

For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.
By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

“There’s a lot of reasons to move her,” Giuliani told the Times. He said Trump and Pompeo “relied on” his information, likely leading to Yovanovitch’s ouster last April.

“I just gave them the facts,” Giuliani said. “I mean, did I think she should be recalled? I thought she should have been fired. If I was attorney general, I would have kicked her out. I mean — secretary of state.”

Story continues below advertisement

Testimony in the Trump impeachment inquiry showed that the claims about Yovanovitch were either unsubstantiated or taken out of context.

In the Times interview, Giuliani portrayed himself as directly involved in the effort to derail Yovanovitch’s career. He said he told Trump and Pompeo that Yovanovitch was blocking visas for Ukrainian prosecutors to come to the United States to present evidence that he claimed could be damaging to Biden and his son Hunter Biden, who served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.

“I think I had pointed out to the president a couple of times, I reported to the president, what I had learned about the visa denials,” Giuliani said, as well as claims that she ordered one Ukrainian prosecutor to drop cases.

Click to play video: 'Trump says he wants a trial in impeachment inquiry, defends Giuliani as ‘great crime fighter’'
Trump says he wants a trial in impeachment inquiry, defends Giuliani as ‘great crime fighter’

According to an article published Monday in The New Yorker, Giuliani said that he needed Yovanovitch “out of the way” and that she “was going to make the investigations difficult for everybody.”

Story continues below advertisement

Yovanovitch, testifying in October in defiance of Trump, told House impeachment investigators that the Republican president himself had pressured the State Department to oust her from her post. She said there was a “concerted campaign” against her based on “unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives.”

Click to play video: 'Giuliani says he would like to testify over impeachment inquiry, says Trump did nothing wrong'
Giuliani says he would like to testify over impeachment inquiry, says Trump did nothing wrong

Sponsored content

AdChoices