Giuliani: State Department official should ‘step forward,’ ‘I wasn’t operating on my own’

President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani on Thursday called on Kurt Volker, the U.S. special representative to Ukraine, and other State Department officials to say that they directed Giuliani to meet with Ukrainian officials in the wake of a whistleblower complaint released Thursday on Trump and Giuliani’s contacts with Ukraine.

Giuliani appeared to share text messages from Volker in an appearance on Fox News Thursday night. One encouraged Giuliani to call him to “brief you more about [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky dynamic,” and another “connected” Giuliani with Andriy Yermak, a Zelensky aide.

“He should step forward and explain what he did,” Giuliani told Fox News host Laura Ingraham. “The whistleblower falsely alleges that I was operating on my own. Well, I wasn’t operating on my own.” 

{mosads}“I went to meet Mr. Zelensky’s aide at the request of the State Department,” Giuliani continued.

He said Volker requested that he meet with Yermak just days before the July 25 call between Trump and Zelensky, during which the whistleblower complaint alleges that Trump used his office for political gain by asking Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. 

“I didn’t know Mr. Yermak on July 19, you see it right there, 2019 at 4:48 in the afternoon I got a call from Volker. Volker said ‘Would you meet with him? It would be helpful to us. We really want you to do it.’ ” Giuliani said, referring to the text messages.

“They basically knew everything I was doing,” Giuliani said, telling Ingraham that he told both Volker and U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland.

Ingraham asked Giuliani if he was working as a “kind of a pseudo-government emissary working to ferret out corruption in the Ukraine.”

Giuliani responded that his meetings were part of uncovering “corruption” from Biden, who he says pushed for the dismissal of a Ukrainian prosecutor in 2016 who was looking into a natural gas company on which Hunter Biden served as a board member.

“There’s a reason I’m in the middle of this and it emerges from the corruption of how they tried to hide this for years, including trying to cover up Biden for years,” Giuliani said. “I got this because the FBI wouldn’t take it.” 

“For a year and a half, [Ukrainians] were trying to get these — this information to the FBI but they weren’t interested,” Giuliani said. “They even hired a lawyer in America. They even gave it to several U.S. attorneys.” 

Ingraham also asked about a New York Times report that alleged that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is “unhappy” with Giuliani.

“I’m the legitimate whistleblower,” Giuliani responded. “I have uncovered corruption that this Washington swamp has been covering up effectively for years and his State Department, you know, asked me to do this. So Mike, if you’re unhappy with me, I’m sorry but I accomplished my mission.” 

“I have no idea if he is unhappy with me or not,” Giuliani added. “Frankly, I don’t care. I’m the president’s lawyer!”

New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman tweeted that Pompeo was “angry” with Giuliani Thursday. 

The finger-pointing among administration officials has begun in earnest. Some blaming the WH CoS, others blaming Pompeo, Pompeo angry with Giuliani https://t.co/pu4OghhYEu

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) September 26, 2019