Cartoon by R.J. Matson

Rudy Giuliani Won't Say Why He's in Ukraine and Refuses to Confirm His Location

Newsweek: President Donald Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani has refused to explain why he has traveled to Ukraine this week, even as House investigators pore over his boss's alleged efforts to extort the government in Kiev to interfere in the 2020 elections.

According to The New York Times, Giuliani traveled to Kiev Wednesday to meet with former Ukrainian prosecutors, including Viktor Shokin, whose 2016 firing sits at the heart of corruption conspiracy theories leveled at 2020 Democratic candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden.

The Times reported that Giuliani's latest trip to Ukraine was part of his work on a new pro-Trump documentary series that will be critical of the impeachment investigation into the president. The series is being produced by the right-wing cable channel One America News.

Giuliani has been accused of running the Trump administration's parallel Ukraine strategy, which circumvented and even co-opted State Department officials. The campaign was allegedly designed to boost Trump's political fortunes, even at the expense of U.S. and Ukrainian national security.

Speaking with "America This Week" host Eric Bolling on Wednesday, Giuliani accidentally confirmed his presence in Ukraine though refused to say why he was there.

"Well, I can't really describe it...I can't even confirm it," Giuliani said when asked about his purpose in the country.

"All I can tell you is that I am doing today—all day, and all night maybe—what I've been doing for a year and a half. I'm representing my client as a lawyer."

Any suggestion that he has been involved in wrongdoing in Ukraine is "Democratic garbage," Giuliani claimed, and suggested that the allegations against the president are "false charges, frame-ups."

The impeachment investigation into the president is looking into accusations that Trump froze hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid destined for Ukraine, in an effort to push Kiev into opening a probe into debunked allegations of corruption against Biden.

The president and his allies—including Guiliani—have fiercely denied any wrongdoing, framing the investigation as a partisan ploy to undermine Trump ahead of next year's election.

He later let slip that he was, in fact, in Ukraine. Bolling asked Giuliani whether he was in the country to gather evidence to support claims of innocence, to which the former New York mayor replied, "I am not here to...," before pausing and rewording his response.

"I don't have to defend myself," Giuliani said. "I didn't do anything wrong. I didn't do a darn thing wrong." He described the allegations against him regarding Ukraine as "completely untrue."