Ex-Ukraine Ambassador Yovanovitch swats down Giuliani -- tells Congress she never intervened in corruption probes
In her opening statement, Marie Yovanovitch said she wasn't sure why Rudy Giuliani went after her. According to her statements to Congress behind closed doors, she said that she never tried to interfere in President Donald Trump's conspiracy against former Vice President Joe Biden and his family.
During her testimony, she said she didn't know Giuliani's motives but that the anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine could have "stymied" the Giuliani attempts to score lucrative contracts. She denied that she was personally involved in barring any probes into corruption because their anti-corruption efforts were such a serious part of their work for Ukraine.
According to NBC News reporter Ken Dilanian, it was clear the men were doing business with Ukraine at the same time they were trying to uncover dirt on Joe.
"This is essentially the government saying these people were corrupt," Dilanian said about Giuliani's associates. "That means there was corruption at the heart of Rudy Giuliani’s inquiry in Ukraine to try to get the Ukrainians to investigate Joe Biden, to dig up dirt on Donald Trump’s political opponent. Trump is pressing Ukraine to do this, and so is Rudy Giuliani, and he’s in business with these now accused criminals."
He went on to wonder if crimes were being committed in the course of Giuliani's efforts to score a natural gas deal in Ukraine and change the board of the gas company. He called it a kind of "mixing of personal profit motive" with digging up dirt on the Biden family.
Watch the report below: