President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani said he “forced out” former Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, claiming the American diplomat was corrupt for blocking the visa request of a Ukrainian official.
“I didn’t need her out of the way. I forced her out because she’s corrupt,” Giuliani told Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Monday night.
Giuliani told the New Yorker in an earlier interview published Monday that he “needed Yovanovitch out of the way.”
“She was going to make the investigations difficult for everybody,” he said.
Giuliani has been investigating unverified corruption claims against former Vice President Joe Biden. He sought an interview with former Ukrainian prosecutor general Viktor Shokin as he investigated allegations of collusion between the Democrats and Ukraine as well as the claim that Biden pressured Ukraine to drop an investigation into a gas company that employed his son Hunter Biden.
Both Trump and Giuliani claim Biden improperly used his role to pressure Ukraine to fire Shokin in order to protect Hunter from an investigation. Their allegations stem from a 2018 video showing the elder Biden bragging about threatening to hold back $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees if Ukraine did not terminate Shokin from his post.
Shokin was removed in 2016 from his position amid international pressure.
Giuliani claimed he has a document showing “unequivocally” that Yovanovitch committed perjury when she said she turned down a visa for Shokin because of his corrupt past. The State Department actually denied Shokin’s visa because he “had an operation” and hadn’t yet recovered, Giuliani claimed.
George Kent, the deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, told lawmakers that Giuliani asked the State Department earlier this year to grant Shokin a visa to come to the U.S., which the department declined.
Trump referred to Yovanovtich as “bad news” in a July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that sparked a Democrat-led impeachment investigation examining whether Trump conditioned security aid or a possible meeting with Zelensky on an investigation into a political rival.
Yovanovitch testified during the House impeachment hearings that she felt threatened by Giuliani and Trump prior to her removal from the ambassadorship.
