With Roger Stone Down, Federal Prosecutors Set Sights on Rudy Giuliani
Luis Miguel
Federal prosecutors have plans to interview an executive with Ukraine’s state-owned gas firm Naftogaz as part of its investigation of Rudy Giuliani (shown) and two of his foreign-born business associates.
Andrew Favorov, director of the integrated gas division at Naftogaz, confirmed that he is slated to voluntarily sit down with the U.S. Justice Department as prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York look into Giuliani, the former mayor of New York who is currently serving as President Trump’s personal attorney.
In particular, the probe seeks to determine whether Giuliani failed to register as a foreign agent, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Last month, Giuliani associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman were arrested in Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C., while attempting to board a flight to Vienna, Austria.
Parnas’ company has paid Giuliani hundreds of thousands of dollars for business and legal advice. According to AP, both Parnas and Fruman worked with Giuliani to push for an investigation into the Bidens’ dealings in Ukraine and wanted to use donations to lobby U.S. politicians to oust former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.
The two men were indicted on charges of conspiracy, making false statements, and falsification of records for allegedly using straw donations to disguise contributions and exceed donation limits.
They are also accused of having helped a Russian national funnel “$1-2 million” into the American political system to promote his recreational marijuana business.
According to two people Favorov briefed on the details, Parnas and Fruman met with the Naftogaz executive in March while the dual U.
S.-Russian citizen was attending an energy conference in Texas.
The Giuliani associates told Favorov they had flown in from Florida on a private jet to recruit him as a partner in a venture to export 100 tanker shipments a year of U.S. liquefied gas into Ukraine, where Naftogaz is the largest distributor.
Parnas suggested supporting Favorov to replace Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolyev and reportedly told Favorov that President Trump was planning to replace Yovanovitch with an ambassador more amenable to their business interests.
Giuliani has described Parnas and Fruman as clients but denied involvement in their efforts to strike a gas deal in Ukraine.
Favorov lawyer Lanny Breuer told AP News:
The Department of Justice has requested an interview. He has agreed and will voluntarily sit down with the government attorneys. At this time, it would not be appropriate to comment further.
That federal prosecutors are interested in interviewing Favorov suggests they are looking beyond Giuliani’s involvement in the Biden-Ukraine situation that is the focus of Democrats’ impeachment inquiry and are conducting a broader probe into the dealings of the man known as “America’s Mayor.”
An investigation into whether Giuliani failed to register as a foreign agent for past work is reminiscent of one-time Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who was indicted at the request of Special Counsel Robert Mueller and eventually sentenced to nearly 7 ½ years in prison—in part, for failing to register as a foreign agent.
It also brings to mind last week’s conviction of longtime Trump ally and Republican political operative Roger Stone, who was found guilty on seven counts that included making false statements to Congress.
Stone’s conviction came even though the Mueller probe that his arrest resulted from ended in May without establishing a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians.
Is Giuliani next on the list of the president’s allies to be taken down by the federal investigative establishment?
Democrats and the media have zeroed in on the president’s attorney due to his role in the Biden-Ukraine question. In a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, President Trump encouraged the foreign leader to talk with Giuliani about looking into the dealings of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, with the natural gas company Burisma.
“Rudy very much knows what’s happening and he is a very capable guy. If you could speak with him that would be great,” the president said during the call.
Giuliani has frequently spoken in public on allegations of corruption against Joe Biden, including that he was paid $900,000 in lobbying fees by Burisma.
For his part, President Trump has stated publicly that he will continue to stand with his lawyer and longtime friend.
“So now they are after the legendary ‘crime buster’ and greatest Mayor in the history of NYC, Rudy Giuliani,” he tweeted last month. “He may seem a little rough around the edges sometimes, but he is also a great guy and wonderful lawyer. Such a one sided Witch Hunt going on in USA. Deep State. Shameful!”
Photo of Rudy Giuliani: Gage Skidmore
Luis Miguel is a writer whose journalistic endeavors shed light on the Deep State, the immigration crisis, and the enemies of freedom.
Follow his exploits on Facebook, Twitter, Bitchute, and at luisantoniomiguel.com.
Pence, Perry, Pompeo All Reject Sondland’s Claims During Impeachment Testimony
This article was sourced from The Federalist
Vice President Mike Pence, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo each categorically denied EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland’s claims that the three White House officials were aware of Trump’s alleged efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens in a quid pro quo for military aid.
During testimony delivered to the House Intelligence Committee Wednesday on day four of the Democrats’ latest round of partisan impeachment hearings, Sondland said he informed each, Pence, Perry, and Pompeo that the ambassador raised concerns about the president withholding aid to Ukraine as part of a quid pro quo to investigate the Biden family, the central issue at the heart of the Democratic impeachment inquiry.
“I mentioned to Vice President Pence before the meetings with the Ukrainians that I had concerns that the delay in [US military aid to Ukraine] had become tied to the issue of investigations,” Sondland told lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
The vice president’s office however, denied the conversation ever took place.
“The vice president never had a conversation with Gordon Sondland about investigating the Bidens, Burisma, or the conditional release of financial aid to Ukraine based on potential investigations,” said Pence Chief of Staff Marc Short in a statement.
“Multiple witnesses have testified under oath that Vice President Pence never raised Hunter Biden, former Vice President Joe Biden, Crowdstrike, Burisma, or investigations in any conversation with Ukrainians or President Zelensky before, during, or after the September 1 meeting in Poland,” Short pointed out.
Energy Secretary Perry also pushed back on Sondland’s assertion that he too, was informed of an apparent quid pro quo being put in place by Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani.
“Ambassador Sondland’s testimony today misrepresented both Secretary Perry’s interaction with Rudy Giuliani and direction the Secretary received from President Trump,” an Energy Department spokesperson said in a statement.
“As previously stated, Secretary Perry spoke to Rudy Giuliani only once at the President’s request. No one else was on that call. At no point before, during or after that phone call did the words ‘Biden’ or ‘Burisma’ ever come up in the presence of Secretary Perry.”
Pompeo’s team also issued a statement rejecting Sondland’s accusations.
“Gordon Sondland never told Secretary Pompeo that he believed the president was linking aid to investigations of political opponents.
Any suggestion to the contrary is flat out false,” State Department Spokesperson Morgan Ortagus.
Sondland’s testimony before the committee was paraded by Democrats and the media as the most damning testimony to date, where Sondland implicated a wider range of White House officials to include Pence, Perry, and Pompeo as complicit in Trump’s alleged scheme to conspire with a foreign leader to investigate political opponents at home.
However, Sondland also testified Trump was very clear with the ambassador that Trump wanted no quid pro quo with Ukraine.
During a candid conversation with President Trump on what the president wanted from Ukraine, Sondland told lawmakers that Trump explicitly said “I want nothing.
I want no quid pro quo.