Rudy Giuliani reveals what he discovered on Ukraine trip, alleging U.S. embassy would not stop a corruption scheme funneling money to George Soros - and says he's told all to Donald Trump
By Emily Goodin and Nikki Schwab
Daily Mail
December 22, 2019
Rudy Giuliani has revealed some of what he discovered on his trip to the Ukraine, unraveling a conspiracy theory alleging the U.S. Embassy – led by then-Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch – 'quashed' efforts by Kiev to end a corruption investigation into the disappearance of foreign aid because it was going to a non-governmental organization run by billionaire George Soros.
Giuliani, Donald Trump's personal attorney, unveiled his findings in an interview with Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk for his podcast, a copy of which was obtained by DailyMail.com.
He told Kirk he has told President Trump of his findings.
'I have notified the president of that,' he said in the 30-minute interview, which will be posted online Monday.
The former New York City mayor described how he discovered that back in 2017 an organization he called the 'Ukrainian accounting authority' did a study, found $5.3 billion in foreign aid missing and attempted to investigate it.
He claimed the U.S. - then under the Obama administration - moved to 'quash' the probe.
'All of the sudden, members of the American Embassy, under control of Marie Yovanovitch, I call her Saint Marie Yovanovitch, come and tell them [the Ukrainians] – come and tell them – 'there's no need to do this, we're okay with the spending.'
He added: 'It comes down from the top not to investigate.'
Yovanovitch was appointed ambassador to the Ukraine by President Obama in 2016. Trump recalled her in April 2019 after a smear campaign led by Giuliani.
Giuliani traveled to the Ukraine earlier this month as House Democrats heated up their impeachment investigation into President Trump.
Giuliani went on to explain why the embassy 'quashed' the Ukraine probe about corruption in their government, laying out his unproven allegation that the money was being funneled to non-governmental organizations run by George Soros and his children.
Soros is a frequent topic of conspiracy theories - usually involving his Jewish heritage. He's donated billions to his philanthropic agency, the Open Society Foundations, is a mega-donor to the Democratic Party, and a boogeyman for conservatives.
Giuliani offered no proof of his allegations and he's sought to blame on Soros in previous media appearances - pushing theories the billionaire businessman funded Ukrainian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election.
President Trump and Giuliani have both pushed the unproven theory that it was the Ukraine, and not Russia, that interfered in the 2016 contest. U.S. intelligence agencies found it was Moscow who interfered.
Soros' philanthropy does do work in the Ukraine but his organization has said it does work in all former Soviet bloc countries to help them transition to democracy.
Dailymail.com reached out to Open Society Foundations for comment.
Giuliani, in his interview with Kirk, was insistent it was Soros behind the Ukrainian corruption - with American help.
'The money was being given out to the embassy and you know who it was being given to – not to the government, but the NGOs. Who were the NGOs?' Giuliani said.
'Soros and the children of Soros,' he said dramatically. 'Left wing, further left wing, socialists, anarchists, communists.'
He went on to rail that it was a 'complete corrupt scheme quashed by our embassy.'
Giuliani claimed his findings justified President Trump's July 25 conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
'It totally justifies that first part of his conversation with Zelensky about the unaccountability of the spending of the money. People in the Ukraine told me to thank the president for being the first president to challenge the corruption. They said we need America to challenge the corruption when Obama wouldn't do it and Bush wouldn't do it since you Americans participated in it we thought it was okay with them,' he said.
Giuliani associates also have pushed unproven conspiracy theory involving the Ukraine and Soros but this is the first time the former mayor has laid out specific ties to the U.S. embassy and Yovanovitch, who Giuliani ran a smear campaign to have her removed from her post.
Former Trump deputy National Security Adviser Fiona Hill, in her testimony on Capitol Hill during the impeachment investigation, compared the smear campaign to 'the new Protocols of the Elders of Zion.'
Giuliani has previously asserted - falsely - that Yovanovitch was working for Soros and that Soros' organization fabricated evidence against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort to get him convicted.
Republican lawyer Joseph diGenova, who helped Giuliani with his work in the Ukraine, claimed to Fox News last month that Soros controls parts of the State Department and FBI and of using 'every lever of the United States government' to take over Ukraine.
'Well, there's no doubt that George Soros controls a very large part of the career Foreign Service at the United States State Department. He also controls the activities of FBI agents overseas who work for NGOs, work with NGOs. That was very evident in Ukraine,' he told Lou Dobbs.
'The bottom line is this, George Soros wants to run Ukraine and he's doing everything he can to use every lever of the United States government to make that happen, for business interests, not for good government business,' he added.
Giuliani spoke to Kirk's organization on Thursday at its annual gathering in West Palm Beach, Florida. It's unclear what date the podcast was taped.
Turning Point USA is a conservative nonprofit that hosts gatherings for college students and high schoolers.
In the podcast, former mayor also brought up former Vice President Joe Biden, alleging he and other unnamed Democratic politicians have made millions out of the Ukraine.
'We've got Democratic politicians in this country who have made a fortune – it isn't just Joe Biden,' he said.
'A couple of their sons and husbands have taken in millions and more than millions. This is monetarizing public office and the game is, don't give me the hundred million, give it to my son because that's not on a financial disclosure form. But if you know it's being done for that purpose, it's bribery,' he added.
Trump and Giuliani allege Biden - as vice president - pushed the Ukraine to fire its top prosecutor to help a gas company that had his son Hunter Biden on its board.
Biden denies the charges and pointed out he was following U.S. and international policy.
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