betancourt lopez
<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/bill-barr-2649627878/</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 1220</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lev Parnas, a former business associate of Rudy Giuliani, made explosive allegations against outgoing Attorney General Bill Barr in a federal court filing on Tuesday. Parnas, who is under indictment for campaign finance violations and fraud charges, has accused Barr of timing his arrest last fall in order to prevent him from testifying at House impeachment hearings last fall....</font></div><div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In the new filing, Parnas lays out a series of events that he believes Barr helped engineer to secure his silence.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In late September, Parnas received a letter from House investigators asking him to preserve documents and prepare for a deposition. When Parnas told Giuliani about this, he was directed to attorney John Dowd, who had previously represented President Trump in connection with Robert Mueller's investigation of Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chair now serving time in prison. After securing <a href="https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1217219982872010752" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">the president's personal approval</a>, Dowd took Parnas as a client.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">On Oct. 8, a Tuesday, Dowd sent an email to a number of attorneys affiliated with Trump's defense team, calling the president "Boss" and promising that Dowd would "eliminate any doubt" that Parnas and Fruman would answer questions before Congress.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Dowd then sent a letter to House investigators informing them that Parnas and Fruman would not appear for their scheduled deposition on Thursday, Oct. 10.</span></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The next day, Parnas and Fruman were arrested. Two of the attorneys copied on Dowd's email were the same people who had been scheduled to fly with them to Europe. That night, Barr, who had been informed about the indictment in advance, <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/10/why-is-william-barr-meeting-with-rupert-murdoch" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">met</a> Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch for dinner in New York. The attorney general visited the Southern District offices the following morning on what aides described as <a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2019-10-10/donors-arrested-giuliani-ukraine-campaign-finance" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">a "routine" visit</a>.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At the time of the arrest, however, the federal investigation into Parnas was not over, and did not in fact conclude for 11 more months, until a grand jury returned the fraud charges. It is not entirely clear why an immediate arrest was deemed necessary, although Parnas was described as a flight risk — on a trip the president's personal attorney was supposed to make with him.</font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Days after the arrest, Giuliani parted ways with his own attorney, Jon Sale, a prominent Miami lawyer Giuliani said he had retained for impeachment defense. Giuliani previously told Salon that Sale had been the person who first connected him with Parnas in 2018.</span><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> He and Sale also shared a significant client: Venezuelan financier </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Alejandro Betancourt, </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">who was under investigation in a multibillion-dollar money laundering probe and also knew Parnas.</span></b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Within a few weeks of these events, Parnas fired Dowd, after what he later described in a TV interview as a jailhouse loyalty shakedown....</b></font></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="font-size: small;"><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/giuliani-created-2-secret-companies-amid-his-work-in-ukraine-and-we-think-he-only-had-one-client/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/giuliani-created-2-secret-companies-amid-his-work-in-ukraine-and-we-think-he-only-had-one-client/</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s personal attorney, has told Salon that he created two new companies last year amid his work on Trump’s behalf trying to dig up damaging information on Joe Biden in Ukraine. The purpose of the companies, especially that of Giuliani’s brand new one-man law firm — as well as their possible connections to the president — is somewhat unclear.</b></font></div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to New York records, one of the companies, first called Giuliani Media and now known as Giuliani Communications, was created in November, just before Giuliani traveled to Ukraine with a production crew from One America News Network (<b>OAN).</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">During that trip, Giuliani interviewed Ukrainian lawmaker Andrii Derkach,</font><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> who was recently sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department as an “active Russian agent,” for material included in a documentary later aired on OAN. Giuliani released his interview with Derkach <a href="https://twitter.com/ScottMStedman/status/1306673051174461440" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">a few months later</a>.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Although the existence of Giuliani Communications has not been previously reported, its creation lines up with <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/11/politics/rudy-giuliani-impeachment-podcast/index.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">reports</a> at the time that Giuliani planned to create a podcast aimed at defending Trump from the impeachment narrative</b>. He eventually launched that podcast, which airs regularly, and has conducted video interviews as well — including the one with Derkach. For unclear reasons, Giuliani changed the company name to Giuliani Communications in March 2020, the same month he released his Derkach interview.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">giuliani’s other new company is his personal law firm, Rudolph W. Giuliani PLLC, which was created in June 2019, according to New York records. The company was first identified in an October 2019 </span><a href="https://rollcall.com/2019/10/31/giuliani-i-never-lobbied-or-represented-foreigners/" target="blank" rel="noopener" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" transition="transition" color="color" s="s" ease="ease" cursor="cursor" pointer="pointer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">report</a><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"> from Roll Call. Giuliani told Salon that he had <b>set up the firm because a client of his wanted money put in escrow.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I didn’t want Giuliani Partners to do it, because I know the ethical rules,” Giuliani said, but declined to name the client or to explain the potential ethical problems further. <b>“I’m just a country lawyer,” he added.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The question is what the client hired Giuliani to do,” Brett Kappel, top authority on lobbying and government ethics law, told Salon. If the client had hired Giuliani to provide legal advice, Kappel explained, or to “represent him in litigation or a negotiation where an exchange of money was contemplated,” then Giuliani would be required to place any funds entrusted to him by the client in an escrow account separate from the law firm’s funds. The former New York mayor’s consulting business,<b> Giuliani Partners, “isn’t a law firm and isn’t subject to the same ethical requirements,” Kappel said.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That raises the intriguing question of why Giuliani had not set up a personal law practice until he got this specific request from this specific client. Although attorneys can represent clients without forming a firm, a PLLC shields the owner from liability.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At the time Giuliani formed his PLLC, he had already been representing Trump as his personal attorney for more than a year. He also claims to have represented Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, with whom he also struck up a business arrangement in 2018. Parnas and Fruman later ran political errands for Giuliani in Ukraine.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On the day Giuliani set up his personal firm, he seemed to have Ukraine on the brain, <a href="https://twitter.com/RudyGiuliani/status/1142085975230898176?s=20" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">tweeting</a>, “New Pres of Ukraine still silent on investigation of Ukrainian interference in 2016 election and alleged Biden bribery of Pres Poroshenko. Time for leadership and investigate both if you want to <b>purge how Ukraine was abused by Hillary and Obama people.”</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That same month, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/amid-ukraine-swirl-giulianis-work-for-candidate-in-dominican-republic-caused-unease/2020/02/19/82794c22-4c21-11ea-9b5c-eac5b16dafaa_story.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">according to</a> the Washington Post, Giuliani began doing consulting work for<b> Luis Abinader, a presidential candidate in the Dominican Republic.</b> It is not clear whether he also did legal work for Abinader.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A few days later, Giuliani he took a trip with Parnas to London that lasted several days, during which </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Giuliani met with</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> Venezuelan financier Alejandro Betancourt,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> who is currently the subject of a <b>major money laundering investigation in the U.S. Giuliani later took on Betancourt as a client, and spoke on his behalf to Justice Department prosecutors in September.</b></span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Giuliani told Salon in a previous phone conversation that Parnas was his client during a trip the two took to Madrid in July 2019, when he met with top Ukrainian foreign policy <b>official Andriy Yermak (who subsequently became chief of staff to President Volodymyr Zelensky</b>). Giuliani made the claim about representing Parnas when he was asked about his meeting with Yermak, explaining that attorney-client privilege barred him from discussing details of their conversations. Parnas’ current attorney has denied that Giuliani was representing Parnas at that time.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Giuliani claims to have done all his work for Trump free of charge, though the president has never publicly acknowledged that. Giuliani’s work on Trump’s behalf ultimately led to the president’s impeachment.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“Trump did not disclose on his financial forms, as required, that he was taking pro bono counsel from Giuliani,”</b> Jordan Libowitz, of the government watchdog Citizens for Ethics in Washington, told Salon. Trump has alleged that “there’s no way of assessing the value of Giuliani’s work,” Libowitz said, “even though it is his responsibility to keep track of it.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Giuliani disclosed the previously unknown companies in a conversation with Salon about another previously unreported company that he created in 2002 and which received taxpayer-backed emergency loans this spring. <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/09/16/invisible-company-owned-by-rudy-giuliani-got-taxpayer-backed-ppp-money--but-where-did-it-go/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Salon’s investigation of the company</a> offered new insight into Giuliani’s arcane business arrangements, which are reportedly <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/federal-subpoenas-seek-information-on-giulianis-consulting-business-11574712722?mod=breakingnews" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">the subject of subpoenas</a> from <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/rudy-giuliani-new-york-trump-997712/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">federal investigators in the<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Southern District of New York</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">.</span> Experts told Salon that the company’s loan application raises questions of bank fraud, a felony.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That SDNY probe is also reportedly investigating whether Giuliani’s activity in Ukraine violated the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA).</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Matt Sanderson, a top FARA law attorney, told Salon that despite reams of reports, and Giuliani’s history of peddling <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/us-intel-repeatedly-warned-about-andriy-derkach-rudy-giulianis-russian-agent-pal?ref=home" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">known Russian disinformation about both Joe Biden and his son Hunter</a>, there isn’t enough public information to determine whether <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Giuliani’s work in Ukraine would qualify him, or OAN, as foreign agents.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We would have to know if anyone acting on behalf of foreign interests, especially someone tied to the government, paid for or directed that work,” Sanderson said.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">OAN, as a U.S. media company, is exempt from registering as an agent. Sanderson, however, pointed to <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/the-disinfomercial-how-larry-king-got-duped-into-starring-in-chinese-propaganda" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">a recent episode</a> involving former CNN host Larry King, who conducted a blatantly unethical interview with Russian journalist Anastasia Dolgova that was filmed in two parts: King’s scripted questions, and then Dolgova’s answers.</font></p><article style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">King’s exposure, Sanderson told ProPublica, might hinge on whether he was “acting in his capacity as a member of the news media,” or was “doing an infomercial where he’s paid specifically to do the interview.” The same might apply here to OAN, Sanderson said.</font><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;" /><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Trump has often <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/04/27/trump-demands-an-alternative-to-fox-news-as-he-accuses-the-network-of-spreading-misinformation/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">spoken glowingly of OAN</a> — which has positioned itself <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/06/09/trump-falsely-suggests-elderly-protester-shoved-by-police-is-antifa-provocateur-who-faked-incident/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">significantly to the right</a> of Fox News and <a href="https://www.salon.com/2017/12/15/oann-alabama-moore/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">has frequently spread even more blatant misinformation</a> — as a preferred <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/08/17/trump-complains-that-fox-news-is-not-watchable-urges-viewers-to-switch-to-fair-and-balanced-oann/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">alternative</a>. The president promoted the network’s Ukraine coverage several times on Twitter, including <a href="https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1205126676906164224" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">a Chanel Rion interview</a> with former Ukrainian prosecutor Yuriy <b>Lutsenko,</b> during which Giuliani was present at the table.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Giuliani’s interview with Andrii Derkach</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> is no longer available on OAN’s site, and all stories in which “Derkach” is tagged have been removed</span>. OAN president Charles Herring previously told Salon that the network’s website automatically deletes older content, but there are indications that the Derkach material was deliberately removed.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> One story in which his name was misspelled as “Derkash,” for instance, <a href="https://twitter.com/ChristopherJM/status/1306590170133794816" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">was not deleted</a>.</span></b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Giuliani did not reply to Salon’s questions about whether he had charged or expensed any of his Ukraine-related activity on President Trump’s behalf to either Giuliani Communications or Rudolph W. Giuliani PLLC.</font></p></article></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-wealthy-venezuelan-hosted-giuliani-as-he-pursued-ukraine-campaign-then-giuliani-lobbied-the-justice-department-on-his-behalf/2019/11/26/272105a2-0ec5-11ea-b0fc-62cc38411ebb_story.html</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">wapo no lnx</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>
</div><div>A wealthy Venezuelan hosted Giuliani as he pursued Ukraine campaign. Then Giuliani lobbied the Justice Department on his behalf.</div><div>
</div><div>By </div><div>Rosalind S. Helderman, </div><div>Devlin Barrett, </div><div>Matt Zapotosky and </div><div>Tom Hamburger </div><div>
</div><div><b>November 26, 2019 </b></div><div>
</div><div>When Rudolph W. Giuliani went to Mrid in August to confer with a top aide to the Ukrainian president and press for political investigations sought by President Trump, he also met with a previously unidentified client with very different interests.</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>While in Spain, Giuliani stayed at a historic estate belonging to Venezuelan energy executive Alejandro Betancourt López, who h hired Trump’s personal attorney to help him contend with a Justice Department investigation of alleged money laundering and bribery, according to people familiar with the situation.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A month later, Giuliani was one of several lawyers representing Betancourt in Washington. The lawyers met with the chief of the Justice Department’s criminal division and other government attorneys to argue that the<b> wealthy Venezuelan should not face criminal charges as part of a $1.2 billion money-laundering case filed in Florida last year, said the people, who, like others in this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.</b></span></div><div>
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</div><div>Investigators scrutinize Giuliani firm and donations to Trump super PAC as part of bro probe</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>The criminal complaint alleges that top officials of the <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, elite business leers and bankers conspired to steal money from the company and then launder it through Miami real estate purchases and other investment schemes.</span></b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Betancourt is not one of the eight men charged in the case, a group that includes his cousin. But two people familiar with the matter said that he is referred to in the criminal complaint as a uncharged co-conspirator, as previously reported by the Miami Herald.</span></div><div><b>
</b></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Giuliani’s representation of Betancourt — which has not been previously disclosed — is a striking example of how Trump’s lawyer has continued to offer his services to foreign clients with interests before the U.S. government while working on behalf of the president</b>. And it shows how Giuliani — who says he was serving as Trump’s attorney pro bono — <b>has used his work for paying clients to help underwrite his efforts to find political ammunition in Ukraine to benefit the president</b>.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In response to questions about his relationship with Betancourt, Giuliani wrote in a text, “This is attorney client privilege so I will withstand whatever malicious lies or spin you put on it.”</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>Eric Creizman, an attorney for Giuliani, declined to comment.</b></div><div>
</div><div><b>Jon Sale, an attorney for Betancourt</b>, said his client denies any wrongdoing. He declined to comment on Betancourt’s relationship with Giuliani.</div><div>
</div><div>A spokeswoman for the Justice Department declined to comment on the meeting. Justice Department officials were unaware of the Mrid meeting when Giuliani came to meet them, according to a senior Justice Department official who said the topic of Ukraine did not come up in the discussion.</div><div>
</div><div>'The whole package'</div><div>
</div><div>Giuliani, a former New York mayor and top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, is now under scrutiny by the U.S. attorney’s office he once led, which has filed campaign finance charges against two of his associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman. Investigators are examining Giuliani’s consulting business as part of a bro probe in a raft of possible crimes, including wire fraud and foreign lobbying violations, according to people familiar with the matter.</div><div>
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</div><div>Giuliani is also a key figure in the ongoing House impeachment inquiry into Trump, in which top government officials have testified that the president’s lawyer led a show effort to pressure Ukraine to announce investigations of Trump’s rivals in exchange for a White House meeting.</div><div>
</div><div>Trump h urged U.S. officials hoping to broker a good relationship between him and newly elected Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to work with Giuliani, according to congressional testimony.</div><div>
</div><div>‘Talk to Rudy’: Testimony from diplomats highlights Giuliani’s central role in driving Ukraine policy</div><div>
</div><div><b>On July 25, Trump asked Zelensky to pursue the investigations of Democrats. </b>Days later, Giuliani heed to Mrid to meet with Andriy Yermak, a top aide to Zelensky, to cement the deal, according to Giuliani and congressional testimony.</div><div>
</div><div>Giuliani told The Washington Post in September that Yermak h offered to come to the United States, but he suggested Spain. “I told him I was alrey going to be in Mrid for something else the first weekend in August, so why don’t we just meet there?” he said.</div><div>
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</div><div>The purpose of the Aug. 2 sit-down: to spell out two specific cases Trump wanted Ukraine to pursue, Giuliani told The Post in September.</div><div>
</div><div>One was a probe of a Ukrainian gas tycoon who h former vice president Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden on his board. Another was a claim that Democrats colluded with Ukraine to release information on former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort during the 2016 election.</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>Yermak, according to Giuliani, indicated that the Ukrainians were open to pursuing the investigations.</b> The aide reiterated the Ukrainians’ plea for a meeting with Trump, a summit that would be an important signal to Russia of Washington’s support for Ukraine.</div><div>
</div><div>“I talked to him about the whole package,” Giuliani said.</div><div>
</div><div>After the meeting, Yermak began circulating a draft of a statement the Ukrainians were considering issuing regarding their commitment to investigating corruption, according to text messages released as part of the House inquiry.</div><div>
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</div><div>A private client</div><div>
</div><div><b>One of the main purposes of Giuliani’s travel to Spain was to meet with<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> Betancourt, </span>who has me a fortune in work for the Venezuelan government, according to people familiar with the trip.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Betancourt, a young member of Venezuela’s elite who attended Suffolk University in Boston, co-founded a company that was awarded $1.8 billion in government contracts to build power plants under Venezuela’s former socialist president Hugo Chávez, leading to allegations the company bilked the government, the Wall Street Journal has reported.</span></div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>The company, Derwick Associates, has denied paying bribes to win its contracts and said the contracts reflected the high cost of doing business in the socialist country.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Sale, Betancourt’s attorney, is a longtime friend of Giuliani’s who attended law school with him.</b> He also briefly represented Giuliani as he responded to congressional inquiries regarding Ukraine, sending a letter to House committees explaining that Giuliani would not comply with a subpoena for documents.</span></div><div>
</div><div>Giuliani has defended his work for foreign clients, arguing that their identities and interests are “irrelevant” to his uncompensated efforts for Trump. “My other clients are paying me for the work I do for them. Nobody is paying me for a single thing I’m doing for Donald J. Trump,” he told The Post earlier this year.</div><div>
</div><div>Impeachment inquiry puts new focus on Giuliani’s work for prominent figures in Ukraine</div><div>
</div><div><b>He told the Daily Beast in October that he met Yermak in Madrid because he already planned to be in the Spanish capital for “business and vacation.”</b></div><div>
</div><div>He said it was an example of how the costs of his travel for Trump were covered by separate work he did for private clients.</div><div>
</div><div>“That particular trip has not been reimbursed, but about three-fourths of it would be business and one-fourth would be personal,” he said. “The Trump part would be considered personal because I don’t get paid for representing the president.”</div><div>
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</div><div>He told Reuters in September that his expenses “were paid by I assume one client. Since I took two days off I think I paid some of that personally as well.”</div><div>
</div><div>During the trip, Giuliani met with Yermak at a hotel in Mrid, according to people familiar with the trip.</div><div>
</div><div>But he — along with Parnas and Fruman — stayed at an expansive estate belonging to Betancourt on the grounds of an ancient castle once used by Spanish royalty, the people said.</div><div>
</div><div><b>A Betancourt company purchased El Castillo del Alamín in 2011 for nearly 23 million euros, according to the Spanish news outlet El Mundo. It is about an hour southwest of Mrid</b>.</div><div>
</div><div>On Aug. 3, the day after his meeting with Yermak, Giuliani tweeted images of a Spanish village, writing, “South of Mrid are beautiful small towns and lovely countryside and very wonderful people.”</div><div>
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</div><div>South of Mrid are beautiful small towns and lovely countryside and very wonderful people. pic.twitter.com/vrnsNM8aS6</div><div>
</div><div>— Rudy Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) August 3, 2019</div><div>Joseph A. Bondy, an attorney for Parnas, declined to comment. Todd Blanche, an attorney for Fruman, did not respond to a request for comment.</div><div>
</div><div>The Justice Department meeting</div><div>
</div><div>A month later, Giuliani joined a number of lawyers representing Betancourt at a meeting at Justice Department headquarters with Brian Benczkowski, the he of the criminal division, according to people familiar with the session.</div><div>
</div><div>At the time, federal prosecutors in Manhattan were pursuing the case against Giuliani’s associates, Parnas and Fruman.</div><div>
</div><div>When the New York Times reported in October that Giuliani met with the criminal-division chief about one of his clients, the Justice Department said Benczkowski was not aware of the New York case at the time.</div><div>
</div><div>“When Mr. Benczkowski and fraud section lawyers met with Mr. Giuliani, they were not aware of any investigation of Mr. Giuliani’s associates in the Southern District of New York and would not have met with him h they known,” Peter Carr, a department spokesman, said at the time.</div><div>
</div><div>The client who was the subject of the meeting has not been previously reported.</div><div>
</div><div>Giuliani has cast his efforts to dig up damaging information about Democrats in Ukraine as a strategy to assist his client, Trump, but also motivated by a lifelong commitment to fighting corruption.</div><div>
</div><div>“I’ve been doing this for 50 years of my life,” he told conservative brocaster Glenn Beck on Nov. 20. “I’ve never had a complaint. I think people understand that <b>I have a very, very great passion for corruption, </b>and I’ve probably uncovered some of the biggest crimes and disrupted some of the biggest crime organizations in our history.”</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">However, his involvement with the Betancourt case puts him at odds with a long-running effort by federal prosecutors to crack down on corruption in Venezuela.</span></div><div>
</div><div>The United States has been aggressively pursuing bribery, embezzlement and money laundering cases against Venezuela’s elite, arguing the corruption has helped collapse the country’s economy and caused civil unrest.</div><div>
</div><div>Federal prosecutors in Miami have said in court filings that billions have been looted from Venezuela’s state-owned energy company, Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., or PDVSA, which has faced particularly dire economic consequences.</div><div>
</div><div>Betancourt was not named in the July 2018 criminal complaint, but the case’s lead defendant, Francisco Convit Guruceaga, is his cousin and sat on the board of Betancourt’s company. Convit is considered a fugitive by the U.S. government, according to court records.</div><div>
</div><div>While Giuliani’s representation of Betancourt h not been previously disclosed, Venezuela has surfaced as a topic in the House impeachment inquiry.</div><div>
</div><div>In a closed-door deposition given to congressional investigators on Oct. 14, former National Security Council official Fiona Hill alluded to the possibility of a Venezuela tie to the ongoing Ukraine saga.</div><div>
</div><div>“I was told that by the directors working on the Western Hemisphere. I didn’t have a chance to look into this in any way. I was told that the same individuals who h been indicted h been interested at different points in energy investments in Venezuela and that this was quite well known,” she said, referring to Parnas and Fruman, according to a transcript later released.</div><div>
</div><div>She did not detail the information she h been given, only that she h learned the two were “notorious in Florida” and involved with “strange things in Venezuela.”</div><div>
</div><div>“Well, I was extremely concerned that whatever it was that Mr. Giuliani was doing might not be legal, especially after, you know, people h raised with me these two gentlemen, Parnas and Fruman,” she said.</div><div>
</div><div>Josh Dawsey, Aaron Davis, Anne Gearan and Alice Crites contributed to this report.</div><div>
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