Rudy Giuliani Doubles Down On Ambassador To Ukraine: She ‘Needed To Be Removed’
Rudy Giuliani on Tuesday insisted that Marie Yovanovitch “needed to be removed” from her post as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine — his latest in a series of public statements about the top U.S. diplomat in the country.
“Yovanovitch needed to be removed for many reasons most critical she was denying visas to Ukrainians who wanted to come to US and explain Dem corruption in Ukraine,” Giuliani, President Donald Trump‘s personal attorney, wrote on Twitter. “She was OBSTRUCTING JUSTICE and that’s not the only thing she was doing. She at minimum enabled Ukrainian collusion.”
In another tweet on Tuesday, Giuliani claimed that he obtained new “documentary evidence” proving that Yovanovitch perjured herself during congressional testimony before House impeachment investigators.
Giuliani’s claims follow an interview with The New York Times published late Monday in which he said Yovanovitch blocked visas for Ukrainian prosecutors to come to the U.S. to present evidence to him and federal authorities. Giuliani claimed that evidence would be damaging to leading 2020 Democratic candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter.
Giuliani told The New York Times that he had “pointed out to the president a couple of times” what he had learned about the visa denials for those prosecutors, which may have led to Yovanovitch’s firing. Giuliani stated he did not recommend to Trump or Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that she be fired.
The newest claims appear to be an effort to soften statements Giuliani made to The New Yorker in an interview published earlier on Monday, as previously reported by The Inquisitr. In it, he said he needed Yovanovitch “out of the way” because “she was going to make the investigations [into the Bidens] difficult for everybody.”
The investigations into the Bidens are at the heart of the Democrats’ articles of impeachment against Trump, for which a full House vote is expected on Wednesday.
House Democrats argue that Trump abused the power of his office by withholding aid to Ukraine in an attempt to pressure the country into announcing an investigation into Biden and his son. Democrats are also charging Trump with obstruction of Congress over the administration’s effort to block evidence and witnesses from testifying as part of the House’s impeachment inquiry, which was announced in September.
Yovanovitch testified in a public impeachment hearing that Giuliani helped lead a smear campaign against her.
During her testimony, Trump took to Twitter to disparage the career diplomat, who had served the U.S. for 33 years.
“Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad…It is the US president’s absolute right to appoint ambassadors,” he wrote, according to The Guardian.
