After public backlash from reports of his upcoming trip to Ukraine, Rudy Giuliani cancels the trip. The decision could also be related to his call with Kashyap Patel earlier in the day.
When news broke that Giuliani had scheduled a trip to Ukraine to meet with the team of President Volodymyr Zelensky, Democrats suggested the former mayor may be seeking foreign assistance in Donald Trump’s re-election bid.
The outcry resulted in Zelensky’s team deciding not to meet with Giuliani publicly in the future, which suggests Giuliani didn’t cancel the meeting himself.
Mr. Zelensky’s transition team, not wanting to be seen as taking sides in United States politics, rebuffed a request from Mr. Giuliani for a meeting with the new president, a former adviser to Mr. Zelensky, Serhiy Leshchenko, said in an interview.
“It was clear that the Zelensky team doesn’t want to interfere in American politics,” Mr. Leshchenko said. “They were very angry about this issue.”
Mr. Leshchenko and two other Ukrainians — all of them young, Western-leaning politicians and veterans of the 2014 revolution — said in interviews that Mr. Giuliani’s efforts created the impression that the Trump administration’s willingness to back Mr. Zelensky was linked to his government’s readiness to pursue the investigations sought by Mr. Trump’s allies.
The New York Times
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Photo: Gage Skidmore
