A major new report from the Washington Post has revealed a months-long campaign by Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani to "exploit the U.S. relationship" with Ukraine in order to benefit President Donald Trump.
The report outlines a series of startling actions that occurred starting earlier this year that included "the abrupt removal of the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, the circumvention of senior officials on the National Security Council, and the suspension of hundreds of millions of dollars of aid administered by the Defense and State departments."
According to the report, Giuliani's efforts to get Ukraine to help the president by investigating potential Democratic rival Joe Biden caused significant infighting from inside the president's national security team. Things got so serious that officials tried to delay a call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for fear that Trump would press for dirt on Biden.
"An awful lot of people were trying to keep a meeting from happening for the reason that it would not be focused on Ukraine-U.S. relations," one former official tells the Post.
Giuliani's conduct is also part of the official intelligence community whistleblower complaint against the president, as the Post reports that "officials familiar with its contents said that it includes references to other developments tied to the president, including efforts by Giuliani to insert himself into U.S.-Ukrainian relations."
One U.S. official described Giuliani's role in explicit terms.
"Rudy — he did all of this,” the official said. “This sh*tshow that we’re in — it’s him injecting himself into the process."
