TriGlobal abramyan
<div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></font><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: medium;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://archive.thinkprogress.org/rudy-giuliani-armenia-speech-russia-3ef1a9cdff8e/">https://archive.thinkprogress.org/rudy-giuliani-armenia-speech-russia-3ef1a9cdff8e/</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: medium;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.2rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b> Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, raised eyebrows when ThinkProgress <a href="https://archive.thinkprogress.org/why-is-rudy-giuliani-scheduled-to-speak-alongside-a-sanctioned-russian-official-9133667cabbf/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">first reported</a> that he would be speaking alongside a sanctioned Russian official at a panel in Armenia on Tuesday.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.2rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The confusion was only amplified by the actual content of Giuliani’s speech — prompting observers to question why the former New York City mayor would be invited to speak about technology in the first place.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.2rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Giuliani appeared next to sanctioned Russian official Sergei Glazyev, a man <a href="https://archive.thinkprogress.org/how-russia-wooed-american-white-supremacists-and-how-it-fell-apart-8a8cf6e3b814/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">with a history of working closely</a> with some of the U.S.’s most notorious anti-Semites</b>. The pair were on a panel at the Eurasian Week conference, an annual affair dedicated to the future of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), which includes Russia, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, and Belarus</span>.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.2rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/391370561/Program-for-Eurasian-Week-listing-Rudy-Giuliani-alongside-sanctioned-Russian-official-Sergei-Glazyev" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">topic</a> of Giuliani’s panel was “Technological breakthrough and EAEU potential,” a subject on which Giuliani would appear to have little expertise. But that lack of knowledge didn’t stop Giuliani — whom Trump <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/01/12/trump-names-rudy-giuliani-as-cybersecurity-adviser/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">previously named</a> as an adviser on cybersecurity affairs — from speaking for roughly 20 minutes on topics ranging from sharing intelligence to electric grids to the safety of driver-less cars.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.2rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">His lack of expertise on the various topics was immediately apparent to at least one member of the audience.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.2rem;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Giuliani showed up, and they gave him the podium, and he gave a talk on cybersecurity — but quite frankly it was a total bullshit talk,” one attendee, who requested anonymity, told ThinkProgress.</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.2rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Despite Giuliani’s claims that he was in Armenia as a private citizen, both <a href="http://ereforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/ru2018v6.pdf" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">conference material</a> and his own introduction identified him as an adviser to Trump. (Needless to say, Giuliani is the most prominent Trump adviser to now speak alongside a sanctioned Russian official in a supposedly private capacity.) And when he was <a href="https://news.am/eng/news/477359.html#.W88lVKU3bAQ.twitter" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">asked</a> whether the U.S. and EAEU could potentially cooperate in the realm of cybersecurity, Giuliani responded, “I don’t see any risks in sharing secrets on cybersecurity.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.2rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The EAEU, of course, includes Russia, which led hacking and social media interference efforts to support Trump’s campaign and sow division across the U.S. Likewise, the EAEU was <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2014/06/05/vladimir-putins-impotent-eurasian-union/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">initially positioned</a> as the Kremlin’s grand geopolitical project following Vladimir Putin’s return to the presidency in 2012 — although that project <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/armenia/2014-12-26/eurasian-disunion" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">eventually faltered</a> following Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.2rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Despite Giuliani’s nominal role as a cybersecurity adviser to the president, his work on the matter <a href="https://www.cyberscoop.com/rudy-giuliani-cybersecurity-policy-donald-trump/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">appears negligible</a>, and it’s unclear whether he’s accomplished anything of note while in the position — besides flying to Armenia to stand alongside Glazyev.</font></p><div class="related-contentwrapper" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 2rem;"><a href="https://archive.thinkprogress.org/why-is-rudy-giuliani-scheduled-to-speak-alongside-a-sanctioned-russian-official-9133667cabbf/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><div class="related-contentimage" style="box-sizing: inherit; align-self: flex-start; margin: 0px 1rem 0px 0px; width: 171px;"><a href="https://archive.thinkprogress.org/why-is-rudy-giuliani-scheduled-to-speak-alongside-a-sanctioned-russian-official-9133667cabbf/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;"><figure class="postfigure postfigure--format-thumbnail" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; max-width: 100%;"><div class="postthumbnail" style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><picture id="picture-1095071" class="wp-image-1095071 size-full " data-id="1095071"" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><source srcset="https://i2.wp.com/thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/GettyImages-988068580.jpg?w=1920&crop=0%2C0px%2C100%2C1278px&ssl=1" media="(min-width: 1920px)" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><source srcset="https://i2.wp.com/thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/GettyImages-988068580.jpg?w=1920&crop=0%2C0px%2C100%2C1278px&ssl=1" media="(min-width: 1024px) and (max-width: 1920px)" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><source srcset="https://i2.wp.com/thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/GettyImages-988068580.jpg?w=1024&crop=0%2C0px%2C100%2C682px&ssl=1" media="(min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px)" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><source srcset="https://i2.wp.com/thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/GettyImages-988068580.jpg?w=1024&crop=0%2C0px%2C100%2C682px&ssl=1" media="(min-width: 512px) and (max-width: 1024px)" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><source srcset="https://i2.wp.com/thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/GettyImages-988068580.jpg?w=768&crop=0%2C0px%2C100%2C511px&ssl=1" media="(min-width: 512px) and (max-width: 768px)" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><source srcset="https://i2.wp.com/thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/GettyImages-988068580.jpg?w=512&crop=0%2C0px%2C100%2C341px&ssl=1" media="(max-width: 512px)" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><source srcset="https://i2.wp.com/thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/GettyImages-988068580.jpg?w=768&crop=0%2C0px%2C100%2C511px&ssl=1" media="(max-width: 768px)" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><source srcset="https://i2.wp.com/thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/GettyImages-988068580.jpg?w=3487&crop=0%2C0px%2C100%2C2321px&ssl=1" media="all" style="box-sizing: inherit;">
</source></source></source></source></source></source></source></source></font></picture></div></figure></a></div><div class="related-contentbody" style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 513px;"><h3 class="related-contenttitle" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 2rem; margin: -7px 0px 0.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">[Why is Rudy Giuliani scheduled to speak alongside a sanctioned Russian official?</font></h3><p class="related-contentdek" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5rem; line-height: 1.2;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">In Armenia, Giuliani is spending time with notorious pro-Kremlin figures.]</font></p></div></div><h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 2.75rem; margin: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Giuliani’s partners</font></span></h2><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.2rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">It’s also worth noting who joined Giuliani at the conference: In addition to Glazyev, Giuliani’s company included individuals like </span><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Ar</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">a Abrahamyan</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">, a businessman who has </span><a href="https://eurasianet.org/giuliani-visits-yerevan-for-eurasian-forum" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">previously said</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> that Putin “gives orders and I carry them out,” and others who have vocally defended the Kremlin in the past.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.2rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As Talking Points Memo’s Josh Kovensky <a href="https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-lawyer-rudy-giuliani-headlines-pro-russian-conference-in-armenia" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">noted</a>:</font></p><blockquote style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px 1.5625rem; padding: 0px; position: relative; border-left: 3px solid rgb(87, 87, 206);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.2rem; padding-left: 30px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Giuliani was invited to the event by Russian-Armenian multimillionaire Ara [Abrahamyan], who heads the Union of Armenians of Russia, according to a </span><a href="https://armenpress.am/eng/news/951743/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">local press report</span></a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">. [Abrahamyan], an UNESCO goodwill ambassador, was </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="http://armcongress.am/archives/9277" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">a<b>warded</b></span></a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><b> an order “For merit to the fatherland” by Putin at the Kremlin last year.</b></span></span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.2rem; padding-left: 30px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">[Abrahamyan] sits on the advisory board of TriGlobal Strategic Ventures, a consulting firm the </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/16/us/politics/donald-trump-cabinet-rudy-giuliani.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">New York Times</span></a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> described as “providing image consulting to Russian oligarchs and clients with deep Kremlin ties.”</span></font></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.2rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Another listed speaker, Russian official Georgy Kalamanov, <a href="http://www.mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/-/asset_publisher/cKNonkJE02Bw/content/id/3154928" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">recently offered</a> a full-throated defense of the Kremlin against accusations that Moscow was responsible for the poisoning of Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal in the U.K.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> (For good measure, one of the few </span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Americans at the conference, Daniel Witt, has his own history of <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2016/03/western-whitewashing-of-kazakhstans-election/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">helping whitewash</a> post-Soviet dictatorships.)</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.2rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">All told, Giuliani’s speech was an effective capstone to a series of questionable decisions that Trump’s personal lawyer has recently made, including his bizarre <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/28/rudy-giuliani-romania-letter-corruption" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">condemnation</a> of Romania for cracking down on corruption too effectively.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.2rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s unclear if Giuliani was paid to attend the event in Armenia. However, Giuliani has picked up numerous clients as part of his work at Giuliani Security & Safety, his personal consulting firm — clients he’s been only too happy to help, regardless of his position as Trump’s adviser and personal lawyer. Neither Giuliani’s firm nor conference organizers responded to ThinkProgress’s questions.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.2rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For at least one person who attended Giuliani’s speech, the talk was a waste of time.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.2rem;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Maybe he just assumed people in the audience don’t speak fluent English, so he could get away with it,” the conference attendee told ThinkProgress. “Eventually it got to the point where I started to reevaluate my life and think, ‘What the fuck am I doing here, sitting here listening to Rudy Giuliani talk about something he clearly knows nothing about when I have real work to get back to?'”</font></span></p><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
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</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: medium;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.newsweek.com/giuliani-mysterious-ties-russia-former-soviet-union-decades-1215349">https://www.newsweek.com/giuliani-mysterious-ties-russia-former-soviet-union-decades-1215349</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: medium;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
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</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Trump Lawyer Rudy Giuliani's Mysterious Ties to Russia and Former Soviet Union Go Back Decades, Experts Argue</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">BY CRISTINA MAZA ON<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> 11/16/18 </span></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">02:21Who is Rudy Giuliani?</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">WORLD</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">DONALD TRUMP</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">RUSSIA INVESTIGATION</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">GIULIANI</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">While lawyer and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani represents President Donald Trump on matters related to the special counsel's investigation into the Trump campaign's alleged collusion with Russia, Giuliani has maintained his own ties to the Kremlin and its allies.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In the month of October, Giuliani traveled to Armenia at the invitation of a Kremlin-linked businessman to participate in a forum for a Russia-led economic union. That same month, the former New York mayor was also named in a criminal complaint because his former law firm allegedly helped Kazakh fugitives launder stolen money. Both Armenia and Kazakhstan were once part of the Soviet Union, and today their governments, security services and intelligence organizations maintain close ties to Moscow.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>But experts say Giuliani's ties to individuals from the former Soviet Union go back decades—and his lucrative connections to the region have occasionally been intertwined with Trump's.</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">"One of Giuliani's earliest associations was with Semyon 'Sam' Kislin, who donated money to both his 1993 and 1997 campaigns [for mayor] and was appointed by Giuliani to serve on the New York City Mayor's Council of Economic Advisors," Olga Lautman, an investigative reporter who spent three years tracking ties between the Russian mafia and Trump's associates, told Newsweek.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Kislin's website details that the Russian was an active member of the mayor's council until Giuliani left office in 2001.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"According to FBI and Interpol reports, Kislin, a wealthy commodities trader, was using his company to launder money from Russia to the U.S.,</span>" Lautman added.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Giuliani and his representatives did not respond to numerous requests for comment from Newsweek.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Giuliani's former law firm also has longstanding ties to a couple from Kazakhstan who fled their country after being accused of stealing millions.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">On October 8, Viktor <b>Khrapunov,</b> the former mayor of the Kazakh city of Almaty, and his wife, Leila Khrapunova, were found guilty of financial fraud, taking bribes and running a criminal organization. They were sentenced to 17 and 14 years in jail respectively. Law enforcement officials say the couple helped launder around $10 billion stolen from their country.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">It is unlikely, however, that the Khrapunovs will go to prison anytime soon. The couple is avoiding jail time in Switzerland, where it is exceptionally difficult to get an extradition request approved. Lawyers representing the city of Almaty argue that the couple successfully laundered billions of dollars stolen from Kazakhstan in jurisdictions across the U.S. and the world. There are currently court cases pending against them in California and New York.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Court documents allege that the Khrapunovs have deep ties to Trump's former adviser Felix Sater, a Russian-born businessman with a criminal history who claims to have been a CIA informant. In 2013, Sater's development company Bayrock helped the Khrapunovs purchase three condos in Trump Tower Soho and quickly resell the properties.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Financial analysts say it's likely the purchases were used to launder money.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">It is unclear whether Trump was aware of the purchase or of the origin of the funds used to buy the condos. But Giuliani, Trump's longtime friend and associate, must have been aware that the Khrapunov's money had a dubious provenance. Years earlier, Giuliani's law firm helped establish a company in the Netherlands through which some of the couple's money was funneled.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">On October 22, the New York City-based human rights organization Avaazfiled a complaint asking Dutch courts to investigate two companies that were set up in the Netherlands to launder some of the Khrapunovs' stolen funds.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>The companies are Bayrock B.V., the Dutch subsidiary of Sater's former employer Bayrock Group LLC, and KazBay B.V., another company Bayrock Group opened for the Khrapunovs.</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">KazBay B.V. was registered in 2007 with the assistance of Giuliani's then-law firm Bracewell & Giuliani LLP.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">"Rudy Giuliani's law firm was involved in setting up one of the companies, and there are a bunch of overlapping connections between that company and the other companies connected to the Khrapunovs, like the Switzerland-based company Helvetica Capital S.A.," Emma Ruby-Sachs, deputy director of Avaaz, told Newsweek.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">"One of the concrete connections is that $1.5 million went into KazBay from Bayrock and Helvetica. We also know that the biggest overlap is in the stakeholders and individuals used to set up these companies, and we know there is a connection between this fraud and Felix Sater," Ruby-Sachs added.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Sater, a longtime adviser of President Trump who attempted to help him set up a Trump Tower in Moscow, is named as a beneficiary in the complaint. Giuliani is personally named over a dozen times in the complaint's footnotes.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
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</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>It was not the first time Giuliani and his firm had dealt with Kazakhstan. Bracewell & Giuliani LLP had an office in the country as early as 1997, the same year Khrapunov became mayor of Almaty.</b> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Giuliani's firm used its office in Kazakhstan to collect donations from U.S. expats for the former mayor's failed presidential bid in 2008. During the campaign in 2007, Giuliani threw a fundraising event in Almaty. It's unclear if he ever traveled to the country personally.</span></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Ten years later, Giuliani has been working for Trump, but he has refused to give up his lucrative contracts with foreigners. In June, he traveled to Paris to speak at the annual conference of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MeK), an Iranian opposition group that the U.S. government previously listed as a foreign terrorist organization. People familiar with the matter told Newsweek that the MeK often pays speakers five-figure sums.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">But experts say the former mayor has placed a specific emphasis on cultivating ties with the former Soviet Union, and that he has made numerous trips to the region, including some since Trump took office.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">"In 2004, Giuliani took a trip to Russia and met with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Moscow's then-Mayor Yury Luzhkov, known for his corruption and dealings with Russian organized crime officials, and he unexpectedly made his way to a steel plant near the Kazakh border. Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works was flush with cash and looking for acquisitions in the U.S., and some speculated that Giuliani was eyeing a role as the middleman," Lautman explained to Newsweek.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">[</font><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani speaks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during their meeting in Moscow, on September 9, 2004.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP/GETTY IMAGES]</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Many of Giuliani's trips to the region were organized with the assistance of a murky consulting firm called</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> Tri Global Strategic Ventures. According to the company's website, several people on the company's board have links to the Russian government, including Ara Abramyan</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> the Armenian businessman who invited Giuliani to Armenia last month.</span></b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Tri Global Strategic Ventures did not return requests for comment from Newsweek. A phone number for the company's alleged spokesman Vitaly Pruss led to the voice mailbox of an employee who identified herself as Veronica, but neither Abramyan nor Veronica returned Newsweek's calls.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Last year, Tri Global Strategic Ventures organized a trip for Giuliani to the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, where he met with Kharkiv Mayor Hennadiy Kernes and the oligarch Pavel Fuchs, both of whom were loyal to the Pro-Putin regime of former Ukrainian President Viktor <b>Yanukovych.</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Fuchs, who made his fortune in Moscow's real estate industry, allegedly played a role in the failed attempts to establish a <b>Trump Tower in Moscow</b> around 2008. He is also reportedly under investigation in Ukraine for allegedly<b> attempting to purchase $160 million of the frozen assets of Yanukovych,</b> who fled Ukraine for Russia in 2014 after being ousted by a pro-Western social movement.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">[RELATED STORIES</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Rudy Giuliani's Mystery Trips Raise Scrutiny</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Giuliani Retweets 'Anti-Christ' Soros Attack</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Rudy Giuliani Says US Will Overthrow Iranian Regime]</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>The website for Tri Global Strategic Venture</b>s is peppered with pictures of Moscow's St. Basil's Cathedral and of Giuliani attending various meetings. Following Giuliani's 2017 trip to Ukraine, which was one of a handful of meetings with Ukrainians that Giuliani and his representatives held in the last year, the company published a press release claiming that "the meeting between the official delegation from the City of Kharkiv, Ukraine and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and John Huvane, CEO of Giuliani Security & Safety, was a success."</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The president's lawyer's company will allegedly help the city of Kharkiv establish a new office for emergency management.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">"The most controversial recent event was Giuliani's trip to Armenia last month at the invitation of Ara Abramyan, an oligarch closely linked to Putin<b>.</b></span><b> Giuliani spoke on a panel at the event alongside Sergei Glazyev, an official sanctioned by the U.S. who is an extremist and is viewed as a possible eventual successor to Putin,"</b> Lautman added.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In an interview with the local press, Giuliani said he was visiting Yerevan, Armenia, as a private citizen and was not representing the U.S. president. Nevertheless, he failed to respond to questions about whether he was paid to appear on the panel with <b>Glazyev, an adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin who was one of the first people sanctioned by former President Barack Obama for Russia's illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.</b></font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"Giuliani also met with Armenia's Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan. But overall, the visit itself seemed to be more about Guiliani's dealings with Russia and Mr. Abramyan than Armenia itself," Grigor Atanesian, an investigative reporter in Armenia, told Newsweek.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">During his panel in Armenia last month, Giuliani lectured the audience about Armenia's ability to protect itself from cyberattacks. The event was part of the annual business forum of the Eurasian Economic Union, a Moscow-led economic bloc that includes Armenia, Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.</font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: medium;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: medium;"><div style="font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/09/rudy-giuliani-has-a-long-shady-history-with-ukraine/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/09/rudy-giuliani-has-a-long-shady-history-with-ukraine/</a></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">mojo</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In </font><span style="font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;">March 2018, Rudy Giuliani</span><span style="font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;"> </span><a href="http://tgsv.net/triglobal-strategic-ventures-announces-successful-trip-for-city-of-kharkiv-representatives-to-new-york-city/" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">met</a><span style="font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;">in Manhattan with a delegation of lawmakers from Kharkiv, a city of 1.4 million in eastern Ukraine. Giuliani, who joined President Donald Trump’s legal team a few weeks later, was at this gathering because, Giuliani says, his security firm</span><span style="font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;"> </span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rudy-giulianis-corrupt-oligarch-ukraine-2018-11" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">agreed</a><span style="font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;">in 2017 to help the city improve its emergency services and seek foreign investment.</span></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;">
</span></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But the deal had a murkier element. Giuliani later <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/01/ukrainian-oligarch-pavel-fuks-scrutinized-by-robert-mueller-was-rudy-giuliani-client/" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">conceded</a> that he wasn’t just working for Kharkiv and that for at least some of the work he was paid by<b> Pavel Fuks</b>, a Kharkiv-born business executive who became a prominent real estate developer in Moscow in the 2000s and who has said that he negotiated directly with Trump between 2004 and 2010 about building a Trump-branded<span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"> </span>tower in Moscow. Fuks was one of several Ukrainians with Russian ties whose attendance at Trump’s presidential inauguration was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/10/us/politics/ukraine-donald-trump-inauguration.html" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">investigated</a> by former special counsel Robert Mueller.</span> So at the start of Trump’s presidency, Giuliani was hobnobbing with at least one Ukrainian player who would be tainted by scandal. </p><div class="incontent-promo" id="incontent_promo_1" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: rgb(242, 243, 239); position: relative; left: -358.156px; height: auto; width: 100vw; margin-bottom: 1rem; clear: both; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;"><section id="mj-incontent-ad-widget-4" class="widget mj-incontent-ad-widget" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="incontent-ad-container" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 1300px; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;" /></section></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Giuliani’s dealings in Ukraine <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/giuliani-pursued-shadow-ukraine-agenda-as-key-foreign-policy-officials-were-sidelined/2019/09/24/ee18aaec-deec-11e9-be96-6adb81821e90_story.html" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">exploded</a> into public view this month, with the revelation that Trump pressured the country’s new president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to work with Giuliani and Attorney General <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/25/william-barr-ukraine-memo-1512255" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">William Barr</a> to dig up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden and information to discredit Mueller’s probe. A complaint filed by an intelligence community whistleblower that triggered this new Trump scandal depicted Giuliani as a Trump henchman prowling Ukraine for negative material Trump could use against Biden. But the former New York mayor’s involvement in Ukraine and other former Soviet bloc countries has been more extensive and even more sketchy than these disclosures indicate.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;">The New York meeting and an earlier trip Giuliani trip took to Kharkiv in November 2017 were arranged by TriGlobal Strategic Ventures, the firm <a href="http://tgsv.net/" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">says</a> on its website. TriGlobal, which claims to have offices in New York, Moscow, and Kiev, sells itself as an international business consultancy that does public relations work for clients in Russia and Ukraine. The firm also brags that it has worked with Giuliani since 2004, <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-inc-podcast-rudy-giuliani-mystery-trips-to-russia-armenia-and-ukraine" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">arranging</a> trips for him to former Soviet states. Last October, Giuliani took a break from his work representing Trump to <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/rudy-giuliani-armenia-speech-russia-3ef1a9cdff8e/" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">speak</a> about cybersecurity at a conference <b>TriGlobal organized in Armenia to promote a Russia-led economic bloc, the Eurasian Economic Union</b>. Giuliani appeared at the event alongside a <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Russian official, Sergey Glazyev, who was <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/03/17/fact-sheet-ukraine-related-sanctions" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">sanctioned</a> in March 2014 for his role in the annexation of Crimea</b> and who has been <a href="https://www.jpost.com/International/Putin-adviser-denies-antisemitic-conspiracy-about-Ukraines-new-president-589231" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">accused</a> of <a href="https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/05/07/putin-aide-says-new-ukraine-leader-could-populate-war-torn-region-with-jews-a65509" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">advancing</a> anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about Ukraine, an accusation he’s denied. Giuliani was reportedly invited to a conference by Russian Armenian multimillionaire Ara Abramyan, a member of TriGlobal’s board, who <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-inc-podcast-rudy-giuliani-mystery-trips-to-russia-armenia-and-ukraine" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">reportedly</a> suggested at the time that he expected Giuliani to deliver a message for him to Trump.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">On Friday, the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Washington Post</em> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/giuliani-set-to-make-paid-appearance-next-week-at-kremlin-backed-conference/2019/09/27/a15ab242-e133-11e9-8dc8-498eabc129a0_story.html" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">reported</a> that Giuliani planned to participate in a panel led by Glazyev at the same conference in Armenia this year. Giuliani canceled his plans to attend after the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Post</em>‘s report. He said he decided not to attend after learning that Russian President Vladimir Putin planned to go. “If Putin’s going it’s easy,” he said in a text.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;">These gigs form part of Giuliani’s lucrative post-mayoral career as a roving international security consultant and high-priced lawyer. That career has continued, even after Trump brought Giuliani onto his personal legal team with a mandate to take a combative approach against Mueller’s investigation. Giuliani provides not only pro-bono legal assistance for Trump, but, he says, political advice, and reportedly he acts as somewhat of a personal emissary for the president. All the while, Giuliani has shrugged off questions of whether clients, including foreign interests, are paying him and his firm as he functions as Trump’s consigliere. And he has refused to comprehensively identify his clients. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">He claims that he does not need to register as a foreign agent with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act—which would require him to disclose details of his work for overseas clients—because he does no lobbying in the United States for foreign entities and instead merely provides security advice to any client he has abroad.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>But at least one former client disputes Giuliani’s claims about his work.</b> “I would call him the lobbyist for Kharkiv and Ukraine—this is stated in the contract,” Fuks <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/30/us/politics/ukraine-giuliani-foreign-work.html" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">told</a> the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">New York Times</em> in March. “It is very important for me that such person as Giuliani tells people that we are a good country, that people can do business with us. That’s what we would like to bring to America’s leaders.” Neither Giuliani nor Fuks has made their contract public. Giuliani has declined to say what he and his firm were paid for the work.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Seven Senate Democrats, including Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), <a href="https://www.tomudall.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/FARA%20Letter%20DOJ.pdf" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">pressed</a> the Justice Department this week to investigate whether Giuliani is violating foreign lobbying law. “Like any other American, Mr. Giuliani has legal obligations to report his work on behalf of foreign clients,” they wrote, “and the Department of Justice should not give him preferential treatment or exempt him from his obligation just because he is the President’s personal attorney.”</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Giuliani conducted other business in Ukraine while working for Kharkiv and Fuks. In June 2017, Giuliani traveled to Kiev where he reportedly <a href="https://intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/ele_schiff_cummings_letter_to_sec_pompeo_on_ukraine.pdf" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">met with</a> then-President Petro<b> Poroshenko, Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko</b>, and other government officials.</span> Giuliani also <a href="https://www.pinchukfund.org/en/news/20207/" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">spoke</a> on “democracy” and the “rule of law” at a conference organized by the foundation of Ukrainian metals magnate, Victor Pinchuk—an oligarch whose 2016 payment of $150,000 to Trump’s charitable foundation drew <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/09/us/politics/trump-mueller-ukraine-victor-pinchuk.html" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">scrutiny</a> from Mueller. Giuliani, who in 2006 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/17/us/politics/17candidates.html?module=inline" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">reported</a> receiving up to $200,000 per <a href="https://www.wsb.com/speakers/rudy-giuliani" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">speech</a>, has declined to say how much he he was paid for that presentation. It’s unclear if these activities had any connection to Giuliani’s deal with Fuks and Kharkiv.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In a text message Thursday, Giuliani said his work in Ukraine in 2017 was unrelated to his recently revealed activity. “My business in Ukraine ended in Dec. 2017,” he wrote. But Giuliani’s involvement in the country continued after he became Trump’s lawyer in April 2018.</span></p><div class="incontent-promo" id="incontent_promo_3" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: rgb(242, 243, 239); position: relative; left: -358.156px; height: auto; width: 100vw; margin-bottom: 1rem; clear: both; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;"><section id="mj-incontent-ad-widget-11" class="widget mj-incontent-ad-widget" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="incontent-ad-container" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 1300px; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;" /></section></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">In May 2018, Ukrainian officials stopped investigating payments to Trump’s former campaign chair Paul Manafort and dropped an offer to assist with Mueller’s prosecution of him.</span> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Ukrainian officials <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/02/world/europe/ukraine-mueller-manafort-missiles.html" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">told</a> the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">New York Times</em> they feared helping Mueller would anger Trump, potentially complicating their purchase from the United States of antitank weapons aimed at deterring Russian aggression. This week Giuliani insisted in a text message to me that he did “not know anything about” that move.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>At some point in 2018—the exact date is unclear—Giuliani began working on Ukraine-related matters with<span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> </span>two Soviet-born American business executives, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman. </b>Giuliani has <a href="https://twitter.com/RudyGiuliani/status/1129761193755910144?s=20" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">said</a> they’re his clients, though his work for them appears indistinguishable from his efforts on Trump’s behalf. In a text message on Monday, Giuliani declined to comment on this work, citing attorney-client privilege. Parnas and Fruman did not respond to inquiries.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>According to a joint <a href="https://www.occrp.org/en/investigations/meet-the-florida-duo-helping-giuliani-dig-dirt-for-trump-in-ukraine" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">investigation</a> by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">BuzzFeed News</em>, it was Parnas and Fruman who first <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/mikesallah/rudy-giuliani-ukraine-trump-parnas-fruman" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">encouraged</a> Giuliani’s effort to dig up dirt on Biden</b>. Both Parnas and Fruman, who live in South Florida, became big GOP donors in 2018, giving at least $576,500 in combined donations over several months. They used the resulting access to powerful Republican figures to promote a plan to sell American liquified gas to Ukraine. In May 2018, the duo dined with the president at the Trump International Hotel and had breakfast in Beverly Hills with Donald Trump Jr. and Tommy Hicks Jr., who later became co-chair of the Republican National Committee, according Facebook posts by Parnas, which he later deleted. It is unclear if Giuliani was helped connect them with Trump.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">According to the OCCRP/<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">BuzzFeed News</em> report, Parnas and Fruman organized a late 2018 Skype call between Giuliani and <b>Viktor Shokin</b>, the prosecutor whose firing was pushed by Biden and many European diplomats in 2016.</span> Shokin was ousted for blocking anti-corruption probes, but Giuliani and Trump have asserted that Biden sought Shokin’s dismissal to protect his son, Hunter Biden, who sat on the board of a Ukrainian gas company, from investigation. There is no evidence to support that claim.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;"><b>But Shokin, not surprisingly, was apparently eager to help smear Biden.</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Parnas claims that he and Fruman put Giuliani in touch with Shokin’s replacement, Yuriy Lutsenko, late last year. Giuliani and Lutsenko met in New York in January 2018 and in Poland in February, according to the OCCRP/<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">BuzzFeed News</em> report. Giuliani <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/in-gambit-for-trump-giuliani-engaged-parade-of-ukrainian-prosecutors/2019/09/26/4d3dc72e-e072-11e9-8fd3-d943b4ed57e0_story.html" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">told</a> the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Washington Post</em> that he has met with five current and former Ukrainian prosecutors overall, including Shokin and Lutsenko, since last year. </span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;"><b>Shortly after their get-togethers, Lutsenko and Giuliani began pushing allegations in the US media about Biden and claiming Ukrainian officials interfered in the 2016 election to help the Hillary Clinton campaign. </b>Many of these claims ended up in articles written by <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Hill</em> opinion writer John Solomon, whose reports were amplified by Fox News and other conservative media and by Trump—but his reports have largely been<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/how-a-conservative-columnist-helped-push-a-flawed-ukraine-narrative/2019/09/26/1654026e-dee7-11e9-8dc8-498eabc129a0_story.html" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">debunked</a><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">.</em> Ukrainian anti-corruption activists <a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/05/10/rumors-joe-biden-scandal-ukraine-absolute-nonsense-reformer-says/" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">claim</a> Shokin and Lutsenko were promoting phony accusations, and Lutsenko later <a href="https://thebabel.net/texts/28898-genprokuror-yuriy-lucenko-ne-idet-v-otstavku-vot-chto-on-rasskazal-nam-o-konfliktah-s-poslom-ssha-i-glavoy-nabu-dele-burisma-plenkah-rozenblata-i-istochnikah-korrupcii-bolshoe-intervyu" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">withdrew</a> <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-16/ukraine-prosecutor-says-no-evidence-of-wrongdoing-by-bidens" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">many</a> of his claims. Daria Kaleniuk, the head of a Ukrainian anti-corruption group, <a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/09/22/reporters-stop-helping-donald-trump-spread-lies-joe-biden-ukraine/" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">contends</a> that Lutsenko issued allegations to please Trump in a bid to keep his job. </span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“I was investigating, going back to last year, complaints that the Ukrainian people, several people in Ukraine, knew about a tremendous amount of collusion between Ukrainian officials, and Hillary Clinton, and the Democratic National Committee,” Giuliani <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/09/20/trump-has-been-openly-trying-leverage-ukraine-his-political-benefit-months/" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">claimed</a> last week on CNN. These<b> accusations promoted by Giuliani have been embraced by Trump’s Justice Department and Attorney General William Barr.</b></span><b> On Wednesday, the Justice Department said that a probe initiated by Barr and run by a US attorney, John Durham, is “exploring the extent to which a number of countries, including Ukraine, played a role in the counterintelligence investigation directed at the Trump campaign during the 2016 election.” </b>(The nature of this probe is unclear. Ukraine was not involved in the initiation of the FBI’s investigation of the Russian attack on the 2016 election and the interactions between the Trump campaign and Russia.) </p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">According to the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Washington Post</em>, since Zelensky took office in May, Giuliani has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/giuliani-pursued-shadow-ukraine-agenda-as-key-foreign-policy-officials-were-sidelined/2019/09/24/ee18aaec-deec-11e9-be96-6adb81821e90_story.html?wpisrc=al_news__alert-national--alert-world--alert-politics&wpmk=1" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">sidelined</a> the State Department and helped force the firing of the US ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, whom he accused, seemingly without evidence, of “collusion” and of “working for” liberal financier George Soros. Trump’s request that Zelensky help Giuliani unearth negative information on Biden has received lots of attention. Zelensky agreeing to do so has received less notice. According to the whistleblower’s complaint, Giuliani met with a Zelenksy adviser on August 2 in Madrid to follow up on “cases” discussed in the July 25 phone call.</span></p><div class="incontent-promo" id="incontent_promo_5" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: rgb(242, 243, 239); position: relative; left: -358.156px; height: auto; width: 100vw; margin-bottom: 1rem; clear: both; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;"><section id="mj-incontent-ad-widget-10" class="widget mj-incontent-ad-widget" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="incontent-ad-container" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 1300px; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;" /></section></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Giuliani’s role, particularly his work in Ukraine in 2017 and 2018, has not been fully explained. The whistleblower <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6430345/20190812-Whistleblower-Complaint-Unclass.pdf" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">complaint</a> alleges that Giuliani has been “a central figure” in Trump’s covert effort to use his power to press Ukraine to help tilt the 2020 election in his favor. An unnamed US official quoted by the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Post</em> made a similar claim: “<b>Rudy—he did all of this,” the official <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/giuliani-pursued-shadow-ukraine-agenda-as-key-foreign-policy-officials-were-sidelined/2019/09/24/ee18aaec-deec-11e9-be96-6adb81821e90_story.html" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">said</a>. “This shitshow that we’re in—it’s him injecting himself into the process.”</b></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Asked about his work in Ukraine, Giuliani, in a series of texts, called the issue “bull distraction.” Not enough is publicly known yet to back up Giuliani’s this-is-a-distraction defense, or to assess whether Giuliani’s actions in Ukraine will ultimately help Trump or cause him more difficulty in a scandal that has led to an impeachment inquiry. </p><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div>