Trump ordered Yovanovitch removed from her post later that month. “Please don’t tell anyone I can’t get the crooked Ambassador fired or I did three times and she’s still there.”
“Boy, I am so powerful I can intimidate the entire Ukrainian government,” Giuliani told Lev Parnas, an associate who was serving as a liaison to Ukrainian officials. The search warrant application included an excerpt from a 2019 text exchange in which Giuliani expressed frustration about his lack of progress, at the time, in ousting Yovanovitch as ambassador. A message seeking comment was left Tuesday with Giuliani’s spokesperson. Giuliani has said he also never lobbied the Trump administration on Lutsenko’s behalf. In their search warrant application, they cited bank records and other information showing he’d gone from having about $1.2 million in the bank and $40,000 in credit card debt in January 2018 to about $288,000 in cash and $110,000 credit debt in February 2019. Prosecutors noted that the proposed $200,000 retainer was never paid, but federal agents wrote that they believed Giuliani’s worsening finances may have motivated him to consider the deal. Secondly, the application said, Giuliani wanted Lutsenko’s help launching an investigation that might hurt Trump’s Democratic rival, Joe Biden.īoth Lutsenko and Giuliani have previously denied there was anything inappropriate about their interactions.
