New Revelations About Giuliani’s Contact With Ukrainian Officials Blows Up Media’s Narrative

 

The media has spent the last three days in a frenzy over what they hope will become the next Trump administration scandal. And Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani has found himself right at the center of it after his unfortunate interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo.

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The Hill’s John Solomon, a long-time investigative reporter with extensive connections inside the intelligence community, has revealed new information about Rudy Giuliani’s engagement with Ukrainian officials. His sources have also provided a timeline of all communication between them.

Contrary to what the media is reporting, Giuliani did not initiate contact with Ukrainian officials. Instead, Solomon reports that a State Department official, a senior U.S. diplomat, contacted Giuliani in July to ask if he would agree to speak with Andrei Yermak, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s top advisor and attorney. State both encouraged and facilitated this meeting. Solomon writes:

Giuliani met in early August with Yermak on neutral ground — in Spain — before reporting back to State everything that occurred at the meeting.

That debriefing occurred Aug. 11 by phone with two senior U.S. diplomats, one with responsibility for Ukraine and the other with responsibility for the European Union, according to electronic communications records I reviewed and interviews I conducted.

On Friday, Giuliani spoke to Solomon. He confirmed that the State Department asked him to meet with Yermak and said he apprised State officials “every step of the way.”

Giuliani told Solomon, “I didn’t even know who he (Yermak) really was, but they vouched for him. They actually urged me to talk to him because they said he seemed like an honest broker. I reported back to them (the two State officials) what my conversations with Yermak were about. All of this was done at the request of the State Department.”

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And yes, Giuliani did speak with Yermak about former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. But the reason for that was far different than what the media would have us believe.

(Note: Solomon points out that, even if that had been the sole purpose for meeting with him, it would not have been illegal.)

Solomon interviewed over a dozen Ukrainian and U.S. officials and learned that the Ukrainian government had been trying since the summer 2018 to “hand over evidence about the conduct of Americans they believe might be involved in violations of U.S. law during the Obama years.”

The Ukrainians say their efforts to get their allegations to U.S. authorities were thwarted first by the U.S. embassy in Kiev, which failed to issue timely visas allowing them to visit America.

Then the Ukrainians hired a former U.S. attorney — not Giuliani — to hand-deliver the evidence of wrongdoing to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New York, but the federal prosecutors never responded.

What a surprise that the SDNY failed to act on the Ukrainian information.

Solomon interviewed the retired attorney, whom he described as reputable, and he confirmed the story.

The allegations that Ukrainian officials wanted to pass on involved both efforts by the Democratic National Committee to pressure Ukraine to meddle in the 2016 U.S. election as well as Joe Biden’s son’s effort to make money in Ukraine while the former vice president managed U.S.-Ukraine relations, the U.S. attorney told me.

Giuliani learned of this in November 2018 and began to investigate. And why wouldn’t he? In November, the special counsel investigation was still ongoing and it was possible this new information could help in Trump’s defense. In addition, if the Bidens had been involved in questionable activities, the administration had every right to know about it.

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So, although Giuliani did not travel to Ukraine, he began making inquiries. He had planned to visit the country in the summer, but Ukrainian officials leaked word of his plans, likely those from the pro-Hillary Clinton faction. Following the uproar in the press, Giuliani canceled his plans. And he stopped talking to the Ukrainian officials.

Solomon writes that his American and foreign sources told him:

Ukrainian officials worried that the slight of Giuliani might hurt their relations with his most famous client, Trump.

And Trump himself added to the dynamic by encouraging Ukraine’s leaders to work with Giuliani to surface the evidence of alleged wrongdoing that has been floating around for more than two years, my sources said.

It is likely that the State Department’s overture to Giuliani in July was designed to allay fears of a diplomatic slight and to assure the nascent Ukrainian administration that everything would be okay between the two allies.

The belief was that if Zelensky’s top lawyer could talk to Trump’s top lawyer, everything could be patched up, officials explained to me.

Ukrainian officials told Solomon they are privately considering sending their information directly to Congress.

Democrats and the mainstream media have a strong interest in preventing this information from seeing the light of day because it likely involves corruption by pro-Hillary officials and staffers inside the Embassy in Kiev prior to the 2016 election. This activity has been chronicled in Dan Bongino’s book, “Spygate.” It may even include information about the origin and authenticity/inauthenticity of the infamous “black ledger” which “randomly” turned up in August 2016 and forced Paul Manafort to resign from his position as manager of the Trump campaign and marked the beginning of his legal problems.

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If it includes evidence of serious or illegal actions by Hunter Biden while his father served as the Obama administration’s “point man” on Ukraine, it could force Joe Biden out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. That may happen anyway.

The mainstream media, as always, is practicing selective reporting. They are trying to present last week’s developments as a new reason to impeach Trump. And they will be proven wrong. Again.

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