‘NEVER RECEIVED A PENNY’

Giuliani Explored Business Deals With Ukrainian Officials While Pushing for Biden Probe: NYT

He prepared and signed at least one retainer agreement with a Ukrainian official, according to The New York Times.

President Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, was pressuring Ukraine’s government to dig up damaging information about Trump’s chief political rivals, while simultaneously pursuing financial contracts with the country’s officials, The New York Times reports. Giuliani reportedly signed at least one retainer agreement after his discussions with Ukrainian officials, but insists he never received any money. In an interview with the Times on Wednesday, the president’s personal lawyer said that he rejected the proposal from a Ukrainian official to hire him personally and wrote off the prospect of working with the Ukrainian government in another capacity. “I thought that would be too complicated,” Mr. Giuliani told the Times. “I never received a penny.” According to Washington Post sources familiar with the discussions, Giuliani was in negotiations with Yuri Lutsenko, Ukraine’s top prosecutor, to represent him for at least $200,000, but the agreement was never executed.

The former New York mayor is under scrutiny by House impeachment investigators who are looking into a pressure campaign by the Trump administration that aimed to push Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. Two of Giuliani’s associates involved in the Trump-Ukraine pressure campaign, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were arrested and indicted on campaign finance violations in October.