Read: What does Rudy Giuliani’s son do?
The article gives specific examples of Giuliani’s work in the region. In 2004, TriGlobal “arranged to have Mr. Giuliani come to Moscow to meet with the foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, as well as other prominent Russian politicians and business executives … In 2015, also at the company’s behest, Mr. Giuliani agreed to advise the mayor of Kiev, Vitali Klitschko, who has called for more Western support of the Ukrainian government’s efforts to combat Russian separatists.”
House investigators have sought “documents and depositions from two of Giuliani’s current clients, Florida-based business executives who have been pursuing opportunities in Ukraine for a new liquefied-natural-gas venture,” The Washington Post reports, and “records about Giuliani’s past clientele in Ukraine, including Pavel Fuks, a wealthy developer who financed consulting work Giuliani did in 2017 for the city of Kharkiv.”
Fuks appears actively interested in buying access to the Trump administration: According to The New York Times, he paid $200,000 for what he thought was a VIP ticket to Trump’s inauguration, then filed a lawsuit alleging that he was cheated in the deal. “He never received the tickets he said he was promised to an official inaugural ball, to a dinner with incoming cabinet members or to other exclusive events,” the newspaper reported.
Journalists for the foreign publication Censor.net later pressed Giuliani about his consulting work circa 2017. “Many people in Ukraine are wondering about the nature of your connections with Mr. Kernes, the mayor of Kharkiv,” they declared. “Because he does not have an exactly clean reputation in Ukraine. But you visited him in Kharkiv. And we’d like to know what’s connecting you.”
Giuliani replied that his company did a study for Kharkiv; that he visited the city in November 2017 to present recommendations, including the construction of an emergency-management center; and that he met with the mayor and his deputy.
What he said next is especially worth flagging:
Because to build it, as I can imagine, you have to get some money from the national government. And I explained to him why they needed emergency management center and how they work, how emergency management centers work. We’ve done this all over the world. I’ve done security assessments, I’m doing it now. Mostly in South America, Eastern Europe and Middle East. But also in countries all over the world. That’s my business.
In other words, Giuliani described himself as lobbying the national government of Ukraine to direct money in a manner that would benefit his client. That would make influence or leverage over Ukrainian leaders a clear asset in his business. And Trump later pressured Ukraine’s new president to talk with Giuliani.
There’s more. The New York Times reported last week that as Giuliani was trying to unearth damaging information about the Bidens in Ukraine, he simultaneously pursued hundreds of thousands of dollars in business from Ukrainian government officials.