Rudy Giuliani, personal lawyer to President Trump, reversed course late Friday and said he would not travel to Ukraine after all. Speaking on Fox News late Friday night, Giuliani said he would skip the trip in order to avoid “walking into a group of people that are enemies of the president ... in some cases enemies of the United States.” On Saturday, he told CNN that meeting with Ukraine’s president-elect “would have accomplished little and may be in the hands of those who might misrepresent it.”<doc-sep>WASHINGTON — Facing withering attacks accusing him of seeking foreign assistance for President Trump’s re-election campaign, Rudolph W. Giuliani announced on Friday night that he had canceled a trip to Kiev in which he planned to push the incoming Ukrainian government to press ahead with investigations that he hoped would benefit Mr. Trump. Mr. Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer, explained that he felt as if he was being “set up” by Ukrainians critical of his efforts, and he blamed Democrats for trying to “spin” the trip. “They say I was meddling in the election — ridiculous — but that’s their spin,” he said. Mr. Giuliani said on Thursday that he had hoped to meet in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, with the nation’s president-elect and urge him to pursue inquiries that could yield new information about two matters of intense interest to Mr. Trump. One is the origin of the special counsel’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. The other is the involvement of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s son in a gas company owned by a Ukrainian oligarch. The trip raised the specter of a lawyer for Mr. Trump pressing a foreign government to pursue investigations that his allies hope could help him win re-election. And it comes after Mr. Trump has spent more than half of his term facing scrutiny about whether his 2016 campaign conspired with Ukraine’s hostile neighbor, Russia. Mr. Giuliani had planned to leave on Sunday.<doc-sep>Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s personal attorney, has called off a trip to Ukraine during which he planned to ask the country’s prosecutors to investigate the origins of the Mueller investigation and to look into ties between Hunter Biden, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son, and a Ukrainian oligarch. With respect to Biden, Giuliani was particularly interested in a phone call Joe Biden made while serving as vice president in which he requested Ukraine’s top prosecutor, who had once been tasked with investigating a company Hunter Biden worked for, be removed from office. Giuliani’s decision came amid growing criticism that he was requesting that a foreign state interfere in the 2020 election. A number of polls show Joe Biden is currently the Democratic frontrunner, and he could become Trump’s rival in the next election. A scandal could obviously hurt Biden’s chances not only in a hypothetical general election contest, but in the primary. Democrats and some legal experts were quick to attack Giuliani and his trip. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) called the trip “next level” corruption, and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) said, “We’ve come to a very sorry state when it’s considered okay for an American politician — never mind an attorney for the president — to go and seek foreign intervention in American politics.” I know we’ve become numb to the corruption of this Administration, but this story should be the total focus of the political class today. The President is openly asking a foreign government to investigate his political rival. This is next level. https://t.co/pboUJuCPoj — Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) May 10, 2019 Tim Meyer, an international law expert at Vanderbilt University, told the Washington Post the trip set a shocking precedent. “This is the first instance of which I am aware in which a private lawyer for the president of the United States has, in his own words, ‘meddled’ in a foreign criminal investigation of a third party in order to politically benefit the president.” Ahead of the trip, Giuliani argued for asking for Ukrainian help on Fox News, where he claimed that there was “massive collusion” between Democratic National Committee officials, Clinton campaign representatives, the Obama administration, and Ukrainian politicians, who he said lied about Paul Manafort and Donald Trump. “It’s a big story,” Giuliani said. “It’s a dramatic story and, I guarantee you, Joe Biden will not get to election day without this being investigated. Not because I want to see him investigated, this is collateral to what I was doing.” Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager, was sentenced to a total of 7.5 years in federal prison last March. As Vox’s Andrew Prokop reported at the time: All the charges brought against Manafort by prosecutors related to his past political and lobbying work for Ukraine’s pro-Russian political faction, his finances, or attempting to interfere with the investigation. He has not been charged with any criminal conspiracy to interfere with the 2016 elections. Manafort was subsequently indicted on 16 additional charges in New York, where he is not eligible for a presidential pardon. The origins of a Republican Ukrainian conspiracy theory Giuliani hoped to prove that Ukrainian officials had helped the Clinton campaign in 2016 the same way the Russians helped the Trump campaign. Part of this help supposedly came in the form of documents about Manafort’s Ukrainian ties. Accusations that Ukraine worked on behalf of Clinton have been floated, particularly on the right, following a 2017 report that a Ukrainian American contractor with the Democratic National Committee (DNC) passed along information about Manafort from Ukrainian officials to members of the Clinton campaign. That contractor, Alexandra Chalupa, told CNN she did give the DNC information about Manafort, but only what she knew about the man from her work as an activist. “When it was announced that the Trump campaign hired Manafort, many Ukrainian Americans were alarmed and concerned it was an early signal that Putin was trying to influence the US election,” Chalupa said. “At that time, I flagged for the DNC the significance of his hire based on information in the public domain.” A number of DNC officials involved in opposition research have disputed the claim that the Clinton campaign ever reached out to Ukraine, as have representatives from the country itself. Nevertheless, Giuliani believes there is more to the story. “All I want the Ukrainian government to do is investigate, and don’t let these people buffalo you,” the president’s lawyer said on Fox. Giuliani also believes Joe Biden may have acted inappropriately while serving as vice president. In 2016, Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion from Ukraine unless the country made some anti-corruption reforms, including removing Ukraine’s top prosecutor, from office. As Bloomberg’s Stephanie Baker and Daryna Krasnolutska reported, the threat was made in part to aid a UK investigation into money laundering by Mykola Zlochevsky, the head of Burisma Holdings. The former vice president’s son, Hunter Biden, joined Burisma’s board in 2014; in that role, he was reportedly paid $50,000 a month. The UK’s investigation into Zlochevsky was underway by the time Hunter Biden joined his company, and Ukraine began an investigation into the mogul shortly after the UK launched its inquiry. According to an official Bloomberg spoke with, and documents Baker and Krasnolutska reviewed, both investigations into Zlochevsky had been halted by the time Joe Biden made his call. A British court unfroze the mogul’s assets in 2015 after prosecutors struggled to make their case against him; they blamed a lack of cooperation from their Ukrainian counterparts. The Ukrainian investigation, which was being handled by the office of the country’s prosecutor general, was put on hold in 2014. Viktor Shokin, who at the start of the investigation was a deputy prosecutor in the office, and who had become prosecutor general by the time Biden made his call, has been accused by subordinates of blocking the investigation into Zlochevsky. He has also been accused of corruption.<doc-sep>President Trump Donald TrumpTrump lashes out after grand jury seated for New York criminal probe Schumer tees up vote on Jan. 6 commission bill Senators struggle to save Jan. 6 commission MORE's attorney Rudy Giuliani Rudy GiulianiContent of Biden's agenda trumps Republican complaints about process Trump claims 'absolute immunity' from Swalwell lawsuit over Jan. 6 riot Michael Cohen predicts Trump will turn on family after revelation of criminal probe MORE changed course late Friday, declaring he would no longer go on a planned trip to Ukraine to press for an investigation into Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. Giuliani announced the decision Friday night during an appearance on Fox News. "I'm not gonna go," he said before blaming Democrats for trying to "spin" the trip. "I think I'm walking into a group of people that are enemies of the president, in some cases enemies of the United States, and in one case an already convicted person who has been found to be involved in assisting the Democrats with the 2016 election," Giuliani said without clarifying to whom he was referring. ADVERTISEMENT The news came hours after Trump told Politico in an interview that he planned to speak with Giuliani about his trip and the investigation. "I will speak to him about it before he leaves. I’m just curious about that," he told the outlet, saying that he has "not spoken to him at any great length" about the trip. Giuliani first revealed his plans to travel to Ukraine in an interview with The New York Times on Thursday. The president's lawyer said he hoped to meet in the nation's capital, Kiev, to ask the country's president-elect to pursue inquiries that could yield new information about the origin of the Russia investigation and former Vice President Biden Joe BidenAmerican held in Russia contracts COVID-19 after denied vaccine Biden defends waiving sanctions against Nord Stream Senators struggle to save Jan. 6 commission MORE's past influence in the country. The Times reported that the meeting's goal was to try to undermine the credibility of special counsel Robert Mueller's probe and the case against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Trump's allies are also reportedly seeking information that could hurt Biden, who has been a clear front-runner in recent polls for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Giuliani last week called for an investigation into Biden after the Times reported that Biden allegedly threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees in 2016 unless Ukraine removed a top prosecutor, who was later voted out. Biden’s son Hunter was a board member of an energy company that the prosecutor had been looking into, according to the newspaper. Democrats on Capitol Hill lambasted Giuliani over the proposed trip, accusing him of seeking aid from a foreign government. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler Jerrold (Jerry) Lewis NadlerMcGahn to testify next week before closed-door House panel over longtime subpoena fight McGahn to sit for closed-door interview with House Democrats House to consider anti-Asian hate crimes bill, protections for pregnant workers this month MORE (D-N.Y.) slammed the move, saying, "We've come to a very sorry state when it's considered OK for an American politician, never mind an attorney for the president, to go and seek foreign intervention in American politics." In a tweet, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff Adam Bennett SchiffSchiff: Marjorie Taylor Greene's actions 'a sign of the greater rot in her party' Sunday shows - Cheney removal, CDC guidance reverberate Schiff: Biden administration needs to 'push harder' to stop violence in Mideast MORE (D-Calif.) called the plan "immoral, unethical, unpatriotic and, now, standard procedure." Giuliani added to Fox News on Friday that he won't go to Ukraine "in order to remove any political suggestion." "I will step back and I'll just watch it unfold," he said. The news comes after Mueller earlier this year concluded his probe into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election. Mueller did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired with Russia, though he detailed extensive contacts between Trump associates and Russian figures. Democrats are pushing for an unredacted version of the Mueller report, over which Trump has exerted executive privilege. The House Judiciary Committee voted this week to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over Mueller's unredacted report and the underlying evidence.<doc-sep>
Rudy Giuliani previously said he was planning to leave for Ukraine on Sunday and return Wednesday. But by late Friday, he had canceled his trip. | Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images White House Giuliani cancels Ukraine trip amid political meddling charges Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, announced late Friday that he was canceling an upcoming trip to Ukraine after he came under criticism for saying he planned to talk to the country’s new leaders about investigations that could boost President Donald Trump politically. Giuliani had said he was planning to meet with Ukraine’s president-elect, Volodymyr Zelensky, to encourage him to look into Hunter Biden’s involvement with a Ukrainian energy company and Joe Biden’s attempts as vice president to oust a Ukrainian prosecutor accused of ignoring corruption among the country’s elite. But the move came under attack from Democrats and former law enforcement officials who accused Giuliani of trying to pressure a foreign government to target Biden, who's running for president, ahead of the 2020 election. Giuliani also said he hoped to discuss a Ukrainian investigation into the origins of the FBI probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election. “Today, Giuliani admitted to seeking political help from a foreign power. Again,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff wrote on Twitter. The former New York City mayor told POLITICO he was planning to leave Sunday and return Wednesday. But late Friday, Giuliani said he had canceled his trip, explaining his change of plans in a text message that the original offer for a meeting was a “set up” orchestrated by “several vocal critics” of Trump who are advising Ukraine’s new president-elect. “Only got name yesterday and told pres elect is in hands of avowed enemies of Pres Trump,” Giuliani wrote. “Useless meeting.” “It is all part of one large conspiracy that has a two or three parts to it. … So I’ve decided I’m not going to go because I’m walking into a group of people that are enemies of the president,” Giuliani said on Fox News Friday night. On Saturday morning, Giuliani sought to further explain his decision in another text message to POLITICO. “I concluded that the President elect is being advised by people who were very vocal opponents of President Trump and peculiarly vocal supporters of Hillary Clinton,” he said, offering no evidence for his claim. In a telephone interview with POLITICO on Friday, Trump said he didn’t know much about Giuliani’s planned trip to Ukraine, but wanted to speak with him about it. “I have not spoken to him at any great length, but I will,” Trump said in the interview. “I will speak to him about it before he leaves.” Separately, the president said he felt it “would be an appropriate thing” to speak to Attorney General Bill Barr about launching an investigation into Biden, or his son, Hunter, over their actions in Ukraine. But the president said he has not done so. Still, the comment was swiftly rebuked as a trampling of the long-held norms that the White House does not influence Justice Department decisions. The Bidens’ connections to Ukraine have become a subject of deep interest among the president’s political allies, who charge that Biden as vice president during the Obama administration pressured the Ukrainian government to oust a prosecutor in order to benefit his son. No evidence has emerged that Joe Biden was acting to assist his son, and it is not clear that the official was even probing the Hunter Biden-linked company at the time. The Biden campaign declined to comment, but has previously said that Biden acted properly as vice president and only learned of his son’s role with the Ukrainian company through news reports. Hunter Biden has also previously said he has no connection to the investigation of the company, Burisma Holdings. The New York Times earlier this week reported that prosecutors for the outgoing Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, had opened investigations into the origins of the Russia probe and the Ukrainian energy company, which Hunter Biden at one time did work for. The status of the investigations under the incoming Ukrainian president is unclear.