CEO of ADL: Seeing a 'blitzkrieg of anti-Jewish' acts across US Dana Bash: This is so telling about where the Republican party is NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 24: Trump Tower stands on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on August 24, 2018 in New York City. Following new allegations over hush money that former Trump attorney Michael Cohen paid to an adult-film actress, the Manhattan district attorneyÕs office in New York City may seek criminal charges against the Trump Organization in the coming days. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Why GOP is standing in the way of Capitol riot investigation WASHINGTON - NOVEMBER 08: US Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner (R-VA) remarks on the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at the US Capitol November 8, 2006 in Washington, DC. Warner said he supports President George W. Bush's nomination of former CIA Director Robert Gates for Secretary of Defense. Warner said he anticipates Gates' confirmation before the end of the year. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), joined by Senate Assistant Minority Leader John Thune (R-SD) (L) and Senate Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO), speaks following a Senate Republican Policy luncheon at the Russell Senate Office Building on May 18, 2021 in Washington, DC. Hear what Matt Gaetz said about Paul Ryan before his speech Former GOP senator: If McConnell said this, 'it's shameful' 'Some people have no shame': Biden calls out GOP lawmakers with list President Donald Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said Wednesday there was nothing illegal about Trump campaign advisers meeting with a Russian lawyer purportedly offering dirt on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. (CNN) — President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani has reversed course and said that he will no longer travel to Ukraine to push for that country to investigate Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden. Giuliani told CNN’s Michael Warren on Saturday that he is not going to meet with Ukraine’s president-elect because “the meeting would have accomplished little and may be in the hands of those who might misrepresent it.” Giuliani, speaking on Fox News late Friday night, said he had decided not to go on the trip to avoid potential “enemies of the President.” “I’m not gonna go,” he said, “because 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.” It wasn’t immediately clear to whom Giuliani was referring. The news came hours after Trump had told Politico in an interview that he planned to speak with Giuliani about the trip. Earlier on Friday, Giuliani had defended going to Ukraine to press the country’s leadership for an investigation into Biden’s call to remove a top Ukrainian official in 2016, when Biden was vice president. Biden called for the removal of the top Ukrainian prosecutor, who at one point had been investigating a Ukrainian natural gas company connected to Biden’s son, Hunter. Within a year of the prosecutor’s removal, Ukraine’s new prosecutor general dismissed the case against the company, Burisma Holdings, a natural gas company controlled by one of Ukraine’s top oligarchs. Other Western governments also called for his ouster, and no evidence has indicated that the move by Biden was inappropriate. The Biden campaign has previously declined to comment further and referred CNN to a statement a spokeswoman provided to The New York Times, which says Biden acted on Ukraine “without any regard for how it would or would not impact” Hunter’s business interests. Giuliani had told CNN earlier Friday that the trip to Ukraine to seek to influence potential investigations would not have been meddling because the 2020 election is more than a year away. Democrats have decried the trip as politically motivated. “I don’t want any favors. I just want this investigated,” Giuliani said. Giuliani had previously told CNN that a “well-regarded investigator” he’s known for years put him in touch last November with current and former Ukrainian officials, who he says he’s interviewed over Skype and in person. In 2017, both the Democratic National Committee and a contractor denied working with Ukrainians. But Giuliani’s story had some holes. According to a report from Bloomberg, the Ukrainian government’s case against Burisma had been “dormant” since 2014, two years before Biden successfully pushed to remove the prosecutor general. Biden was also joined in his anti-corruption push against the prosecutor by numerous leaders in Europe as well as the International Monetary Fund – none of whom had any family ties to Burisma. In the Fox News interview, Giuliani said 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. Trump had told Politico earlier Friday that the trip could have been a “big situation” for the former vice president. Trump did not elaborate in the portion of the interview published by Politico. The President said he hadn’t yet spoken to Giuliani about the trip, but that he was interested in the topic. “I will speak to him about it before he leaves. I’m just curious about that,” Trump said, adding he has “not spoken to (Giuliani) at any great length” on the subject. The President echoed Giuliani’s previous statements that the media is not paying enough attention to the story. “Because he’s a Democrat it’s about 1/100 the size of the fact that if he were a Republican, it would be a lot bigger.” Trump told Politico he has not discussed the potential issue with Attorney General William Barr and has not asked him to start an investigation into the Biden family. But it “certainly it would be an appropriate thing to” discuss with him, Trump said. “Certainly it is a very big issue and we’ll see what happens. I have not spoken to him about it. Would I speak to him about it? I haven’t thought of that. I mean, you’re asking me a question I just haven’t thought of,” Trump said. This story has been updated.<doc-sep>NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer says he is urging Ukraine to open investigations that could benefit Trump politically in the United States. Rudy Giuliani used Twitter on Friday to explain his rationale for traveling to Kiev to push for two investigations. One is the origin of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference. The other is the involvement of 2020 rival Joe Biden’s son in a gas company owned by a Ukrainian oligarch. Giuliani wrote to Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy to “explain to me why Biden shouldn’t be investigated” and accused the Democrats of “interfering.” Explain to me why Biden shouldn’t be investigated if his son got millions from a Russian loving crooked Ukrainian oligarch while He was VP and point man for Ukraine. Ukrainians are investigating and your fellow Dems are interfering. Election is 17 months away.Let’s answer it now https://t.co/FT34kX7Pst — Rudy Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) May 10, 2019 Democrats rushed to denounce Giuliani. Rep. Jerrod Nadler said American politics were in “a sorry state” if the president’s lawyer was seeking foreign interference. Giuliani’s trip was first reported by The New York Times.<doc-sep>This image was removed due to legal reasons. Rudy Giuliani said he has canceled a trip to Ukraine to seek help from the incoming administration there to target President Donald Trump’s political opponents, including the family of Democratic candidate Joe Biden and people affiliated with Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. Advertisement Giuliani planned to travel to Kiev on Sunday, but as news of the trip made headlines on Friday, the president’s personal lawyer had an abrupt change of heart, claiming the meetings he had planned with incoming President Volodymyr Zelensky were a setup by Democrats. In reality, the former New York mayor’s activities looked a lot like a brazen conspiracy with a foreign government to disrupt U.S. elections and possibly could have led to campaign finance law violations. Trump claimed not to know too much about Giuliani’s plans, despite making several comments this week about the subject of the trip, an investigation into the business interests of Biden’s son, Hunter, and Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, as well as Russian attacks on the 2016 U.S. election. “I have not spoken to him at any great length, but I will,” Trump told Politico, referring to Giuliani. “I will speak to him about it before he leaves.” Yet in the same interview, Trump said Hunter Biden’s links to a Ukrainian energy company owned by an oligarch should be looked into. He also said it would be “appropriate” to discuss the issue with U.S. Attorney General William Barr. “Certainly it would be an appropriate thing to speak to him about, but I have not done that as of yet,” he told Politico. On Thursday, Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that Barr “would want to see this.” Advertisement “It sounds like big stuff, very interesting with Ukraine,” Trump added. At the center of the issue, which is making the rounds on conservative media sites, is the allegation that while vice president, Joe Biden intervened to help oust a prosecutor who was investigating the company with links to Biden’s son. According to Politico, there is no evidence that this happened or that the prosecutor actually was investigating the company in question. Advertisement Trump allies also are claiming that Ukrainian officials worked with pro-Clinton operatives to damage Trump’s campaign, specifically by going after Manafort. Manafort has since been sent to prison for a slew of felonies revealed by the Mueller probe. When Giuliani announced the trip this week, he told The New York Times, “We’re not meddling in an election, we’re meddling in an investigation, which we have a right to do.” Advertisement He added: “There’s nothing illegal about it. Somebody could say it’s improper. And this isn’t foreign policy — I’m asking them to do an investigation that they’re doing already and that other people are telling them to stop. And I’m going to give them reasons why they shouldn’t stop it because that information will be very, very helpful to my client, and may turn out to be helpful to my government.” The reaction by Democrats was prompt and scathing. “First Don Jr.’s ‘I love it’ & now this,” tweeted Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a former state attorney general who now sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Despicable, unpatriotic, & a blatant violation of campaign finance law…My Republican colleagues need to wake up,” he added. Advertisement The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., responded by calling Blumenthal “Da Nang Dick.” Advertisement Rep. Jerry Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, told reporters on Friday, “We have come to a very sorry state when it is considered OK for an American politician, never mind an attorney for the president, to go and seek foreign intervention in American politics.” Advertisement Giuliani, perhaps sensing that conspiracy in plain sight might not be a good idea, switched course on Friday night. On Fox News, he said he had become convinced that Zelensky was surrounded by people who are “enemies” of Trump and “people who are clearly corrupt.” Giuliani also claimed the purpose of the trip wasn’t to influence the 2020 U.S. election. “The reality is, this has nothing to do with the election of 2020,” he said. “If I wanted to meddle in that election, which I don’t, I could have held this for a year and dropped it right before the convention.” Advertisement Then, he said he had decided not to go to Ukraine “because I think I’m walking into a group of people that are enemies of [Trump], in some cases enemies of the United States…” One issue with his latest comments, however, is that Giuliani already had made his intentions clear in a tweet on Friday. “Election is 17 months away. Let’s answer it now,” he tweeted.<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>
The president’s attorney Rudy Giuliani told The New York Times this week that the Trump administration is “meddling” in Ukraine’s investigations. “We’re not meddling in an election, we’re meddling in an investigation, which we have a right to do,” Giuliani said during an interview on Thursday. Subscribe to Observer’s Politics Newsletter Giuliani’s admission comes as he prepares for a trip to Kiev to lobby for an investigation into whether the Ukrainian government aided former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton by releasing opposition research related to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. The president’s attorney added he will also inquire into the business dealings between one of former Vice President Joe Biden’s sons and a gas company owned by a Russian oligarch—which, according to Giuliani, could influence the 2020 election, given Biden’s status as the current Democratic frontrunner. “I guarantee you: Joe Biden will not get to Election Day without this being investigated,” the president’s attorney told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham later on Thursday evening. Despite fending off a two-year investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, Giuliani is confident that traveling to Ukraine to press its president-elect about Democratic figures like Clinton and Biden is not illegal, even though it could benefit the president’s reelection efforts. “There’s nothing illegal about it,” Trump’s attorney told the Times. “Somebody could say it’s improper. And this isn’t foreign policy—I’m asking them to do an investigation that they’re doing already and that other people are telling them to stop. And I’m going to give them reasons why they shouldn’t stop it because that information will be very, very helpful to my client, and may turn out to be helpful to my government.”