Firing of U.S. Ambassador Is at Center of
Giuliani Investigation
Prosecutors want to scrutinize Rudolph W. Giuliani’s
communications with Ukrainian officials about the ouster of the ambassador,
Marie L. Yovanovitch.
By Ben
Protess, William K. Rashbaum and Kenneth P. Vogel
April 29,
2021
Two years
ago, Rudolph W. Giuliani finally got one thing he had been seeking in Ukraine:
The Trump administration removed the U.S. ambassador there, a woman Mr.
Giuliani believed had been obstructing his efforts to dig up dirt on the Biden
family.
It was a
Pyrrhic victory. Mr. Giuliani’s push to oust the ambassador, Marie L.
Yovanovitch, not only became a focus of President Donald J. Trump’s first
impeachment trial, but it has now landed Mr. Giuliani in the cross hairs of a
federal criminal investigation into whether he broke lobbying laws, according
to people with knowledge of the matter.
The
long-running inquiry reached a turning point this week when F.B.I. agents
seized telephones and computers from Mr. Giuliani’s home and office in
Manhattan, the people said. At least one of the warrants was seeking evidence
related to Ms. Yovanovitch and her role as ambassador, the people said.
In
particular, the federal authorities were expected to scour the electronic
devices for communications between Mr. Giuliani and Trump administration
officials about the ambassador before she was recalled in April 2019, one of
the people added.
The warrant
also sought his communications with Ukrainian officials who had butted heads
with Ms. Yovanovitch, including some of the same people who at the time were
helping Mr. Giuliani seek damaging information about President Biden, who was
then a candidate, and his family, the people said.
At issue
for investigators is a key question: Did Mr. Giuliani go after Ms. Yovanovitch
solely on behalf of Mr. Trump, who was his client at the time? Or was he also
doing so on behalf of the Ukrainian officials, who wanted her removed for their
own reasons?
It is a
violation of federal law to lobby the United States government on behalf of
foreign officials without registering with the Justice Department, and Mr.
Giuliani never did so.
Even if the
Ukrainians did not pay Mr. Giuliani, prosecutors could pursue the theory that
they provided assistance by collecting information on the Bidens in exchange
for her removal.
One of the
search warrants for Mr. Giuliani’s phones and computers explicitly stated that
the possible crimes under investigation included violations of the law, the
Foreign Agents Registration Act, according to the people with knowledge of the
matter.
Mr.
Giuliani has long denied that he did work at the behest of the Ukrainians, or
that he accepted any money from them, and he has said that he did not expressly
urge Mr. Trump to fire the ambassador.
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Mr.
Giuliani’s work to oust Ms. Yovanovitch was part of a larger effort to attack
Joseph R. Biden Jr. and tie him to corruption in Ukraine, much of which played
out in public.
But
intelligence officials have long warned that Mr. Giuliani’s work in Ukraine had
become ensnared with Russia’s efforts to spread disinformation about the Biden
family to weaken Mr. Trump’s election rival.
The F.B.I.
stepped up its warnings about Russian disinformation before the 2020 election,
including giving a defensive briefing to Mr. Giuliani, cautioning him that some
of the information he was pushing on the Biden family was tainted by Russian
intelligence’s efforts to spread disinformation, according to a person briefed
on the matter.
The
F.B.I.’s defensive briefings are given by its counterintelligence officials and
are separate from the criminal inquiry of Mr. Giuliani’s activities. The
defensive briefing was reported earlier Thursday by The Washington Post.
But the
warnings to Mr. Giuliani are not surprising. Senior officials had warned Mr.
Trump in late 2019 that Mr. Giuliani was pushing Russian disinformation, and
the intelligence community had warned the American public that Moscow’s
intelligence services were trying to hurt Mr. Biden’s election chances by
spreading information about his family’s work in Ukraine.
On
Wednesday, after F.B.I. agents seized his devices, Mr. Giuliani again denied
any wrongdoing. He said the search warrants demonstrated a “corrupt double
standard” on the part of the Justice Department, which he accused of ignoring
“blatant crimes” by Democrats, including Mr. Biden.
Asked about
the search warrants on Thursday, Mr. Biden told NBC’s “Today” show that he “had
no idea this was underway.” He said he had pledged not to interfere in any
investigation by the Justice Department.
Mr.
Giuliani’s lawyer, Robert J. Costello, said his client had twice offered to
answer prosecutors’ questions, except those regarding Mr. Giuliani’s privileged
communications with the former president.
The
warrants do not accuse Mr. Giuliani of wrongdoing, but they underscore his
legal peril: They indicate a judge has found that investigators have probable
cause to believe that a crime was committed and that the search would turn up
evidence of that crime.
The
investigation grew out of a case against two Soviet-born businessmen, who had
helped Mr. Giuliani search for damaging information about Mr. Biden and his
son, Hunter. At the time, Hunter Biden served on the board of an energy company
that did business in Ukraine.
In 2019,
the businessmen, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were charged in Manhattan, along
with two others, with unrelated campaign finance crimes. A trial is scheduled
for October.
In the
Giuliani investigation, the federal prosecutors have focused on the steps he
took against Ms. Yovanovitch. Mr. Giuliani has acknowledged that he provided
Mr. Trump with detailed information about his claim that she was impeding
investigations that could benefit Mr. Trump, and that Mr. Trump put him in
touch with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
After a few
aborted attempts to remove her, Ms. Yovanovitch was ultimately recalled as
ambassador in late April 2019 and was told that the White House had lost trust
in her.
Mr.
Giuliani said in an interview in late 2019 that he believed the information he
had provided the Trump administration did contribute to Ms. Yovanovitch’s
dismissal. “You’d have to ask them,” he said of the Trump officials. “But they
relied on it.” He added he never explicitly requested that she be fired.
The
prosecutors have also examined Mr. Giuliani’s relationship with the Ukrainians
who had conflicts with Ms. Yovanovitch, according to the people with knowledge
of the matter. While ambassador, Ms. Yovanovitch had taken aim at corruption in
Ukraine, earning her quite a few enemies.
The
investigation has zeroed in on one of her opponents, Yuriy Lutsenko, the top
prosecutor in Ukraine at the time, the people said. At least one of the search
warrants for Mr. Giuliani’s devices mentioned Mr. Lutsenko and some of his
associates, including one who helped introduce him to Mr. Giuliani.
The
relationship had the potential to become symbiotic.
Mr.
Lutsenko wanted Ms. Yovanovitch removed, and as the personal lawyer to the
president, Mr. Giuliani was positioned to help. Mr. Giuliani wanted negative
information about the Bidens, and as the top prosecutor in Ukraine, Mr.
Lutsenko would have had the authority to announce an investigation into Hunter
Biden’s dealings with the energy company. Mr. Giuliani also saw Ms. Yovanovitch
as insufficiently loyal to the president, and as an impediment to the
investigations.
Mr.
Lutsenko hinted at a potential quid pro quo in text messages that became public
during the impeachment trial. In March 2019, Mr. Lutsenko wrote in a Russian
language text message to Mr. Parnas that he had found evidence that could be
damaging to the Bidens. Then he added, “And you can’t even bring down one
idiot,” in an apparent reference to Ms. Yovanovitch, followed by a frowny-face
emoji.
Around that
same time, Mr. Giuliani was in negotiations to also represent Mr. Lutsenko or
his agency, The New York Times has previously reported. Draft retainer
agreements called for Mr. Giuliani to receive hundreds of thousands of dollars
to help the Ukrainian government recover money it believed had been stolen and
stashed overseas.
Mr.
Giuliani signed one of the retainer agreements, but he said he ultimately did
not take on the work, because his representation of Mr. Trump at the same time
could constitute a conflict of interest.
When Ms.
Yovanovitch testified during Mr. Trump’s impeachment hearings in late 2019, she
told lawmakers that she had only minimal contact with Mr. Giuliani during her
tenure as ambassador.
“I do not
know Mr. Giuliani’s motives for attacking me,” she said. “But individuals who
have been named in the press who have contact with Mr. Giuliani may well have
believed that their personal and financial ambitions were stymied by our
anti-corruption policy in Ukraine.”
Julian E.
Barnes contributed reporting.
Ben Protess
is an investigative reporter covering the federal government, law enforcement
and various criminal investigations into former President Trump and his allies.
@benprotess
William K.
Rashbaum is a senior writer on the Metro desk, where he covers political and
municipal corruption, courts, terrorism and broader law enforcement topics. He
was a part of the team awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news.
@WRashbaum • Facebook
Ken Vogel
covers the confluence of money, politics and influence from Washington. He is
also the author of “Big Money: 2.5 Billion Dollars, One Suspicious Vehicle, and
a Pimp — on the Trail of the Ultra-Rich Hijacking American Politics.” @kenvogel
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