Rudy Giuliani was traveling on the dime of private clients -- while doing work for Trump: report

Rudy Giuliani told Daily Beast politics editor Sam Stein that the private clients were the ones behind paying for his international efforts on behalf of President Donald Trump.

During an appearance on MSNBC's "Kasie DC," Stein said he was trying to get to the bottom of who was funding all of the efforts to get Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his family.

"I had to ask Rudy that very question because I was curious who’s funding this stuff," said Stein. "Is it a private client, is it Donald Trump? He has private clients and said that he was traveling to places like Madrid, for instance, on their dime for separate president and just happened to be doing this quasi-diplomatic Ukrainian policy while there. Now, I don’t know if that’s believable or not. But where the money goes does actually raise a number of questions, as Susan noted. And it is something that the lawmakers, at least one lawmaker on the impeachment inquiry told me, is a point of emphasis and inquiry for them. Because they want to know exactly who was funding it for what purpose and whether there was laws violated because of it."

Sunday, Giuliani associate Lev Parnas's lawyer announced that Parnas talked to Ukraine on behalf of Giuliani and Trump, which Giuliani denied.

"Rudy said he categorically did not tell him to say that. That’s not the same as saying he did not say that, which is, you know, stuck out to me," Stein continued. "But I think the bigger picture of what you’re talking about here is for weeks now it’s been abundantly clear that Rudy is getting isolated here."

He explained that multiple witnesses named Giuliani as the "point man" for this effort to extort Ukraine.

"They have testified that Donald Trump would defer to Rudy Giuliani when it came to Ukrainian policy," Stein continued. "And it all leads to a very tricky but inevitable question, which is what will Trump do about Rudy. Will Trump look around and say, 'You know what, the water’s too hot, I got to sacrifice someone, the person who I’m going to is Rudy because Rudy was the point on this. He’s not a government employee; he is a personal attorney and I can just put it all on him.'"

Stein also wondered if Giuliani knows too much to throw him under the bus. A Washington Post piece revealed this week that Republicans are looking to Giuliani as someone who is expendable when working to protect Trump.

Watch the full discussion below: