Federal prosecutors are investigating Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani (pictured) over his maneuvers in Ukraine, amid an impeachment spurred by Trump-Giuliani efforts for Ukrainian investigations of Presidential candidate Joe Biden and the Democratic Party.

Investigators are examining whether Giuliani broke lobbying laws, said “two people familiar with the inquiry”. They said the attorney’s efforts to undermine the US Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch — removed in May on the orders of Trump — are part of the inquiry.

On Wednesday night, two associates of Giuliani — instrumental in the attorney’s efforts since last November for the Ukrainian investigations —were arrested on campaign finance violations, including a contribution to a Congressman who wrote a letter denouncing Yovanovitch.

Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman were detained at Dulles Airport in Washington, hours after they met Giuliani. They held one-way tickets via Frankfurt, Germany to Vienna, Austria — where Giuliani was also scheduled to fly on Thursday.

Giuliani has said that he, Parnas, and Fruman worked with Ukrainian officials to collect information about Yovanovitch, former Vice President Biden, and Biden’s son Hunter, who was on the board of Ukraine’s largest private gas company. Giuliani sent the material to US Government officials and pro-Trump columnist John Solomon, who published the unsupported allegations on The Hill site.

Giuliani said that prosecutors cannot charge him with foreign lobbying disclosure violations because he was acting on behalf of Trump, not the Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko.

Under pressure for not investigating corruption, Lutsenko approached Giuliani last November with fabricated information, including a faked “Do Not Prosecute” list which he said was drawn up by Yovanovitch.

“Look, you can try to contort anything into anything, but if they have any degree of objectivity or fairness, it would be kind of ridiculous to say I was doing it on Lutsenko’s behalf when I was representing the President of the United States,” Giuliani said.

He claimed he was unaware of any investigation into his affairs.

Trump tried to separate himself from Giuliani on Friday, saying he was uncertain if Giuliani still represented him: “I spoke to him yesterday quickly. He is a very good attorney and he has been my attorney.”

Giuliani said he still represents Trump.

Ambassdor Yovanovitch: “Trump Pressure to Remove Me”

Defying State Department pressure — possibly from Trump’s ally Secretary of State Mike Pompeo — Yovanovitch spoke with House impeachment investigators on Friday.

She said Trump had pressed for her removal for months, even though the State Department believed she had “done nothing wrong.”

In her opening statement, Yovanovitch said that, after being asked in early March to extend her stay in Kiev until 2020, she was abruptly told in late April to return to Washington “on the next plane”. Deputy Secretary of State John Secretary explained that “the Department had been under pressure from the President to remove me
since the Summer of 2018”. Sullivan assured her that she had “done nothing wrong”.

Yovanovitch, who has served as Ambassador to Armenia and Kyrgyzstan as well as Ukraine, summarized:

Although I understand that I served at the pleasure of the President, I was nevertheless incredulous that the US Government chose to remove an Ambassador based, as best as I can tell, on unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives….

Our efforts were intended, and evidently succeeded, in thwarting corrupt interests in Ukraine, who fought back by selling baseless conspiracy theories to anyone who would listen. Sadly, someone was listening, and our nation is the worse off for that.

Rep. Sean Maloney said Yovanovitch was visibly upset during her “gripping and emotional account of abuse of power by the President”, including the attacks and conspiracy theories raised against her.

Yovanovitch’s appearance pushed back against White House efforts, supported by Pompeo, to defy House subpoenas of witnesses and documents. Last week, the Secretary of State accused the House committees of “bullying” personnel to testify. Rep. Adam Schiff, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, responded with a warning to Pompeo not to intimidate potential witnesses.

When the Department objected to Yovanovitch’s testifying, the House committees responded with a subpoena to ensure her appearance.

Rep. Tom Malinowski said on Friday, “I think [Yovanovitch] has set a very powerful and courageous example.”

The former US envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker — who assisted Giuliani in setting up meetings with Ukrainian officials and drafting a statement announcing an investigation of Biden and the Democrats — spoke with House investigators. US Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland, who worked with Volker on the effort, cancelled an appearance this week but said that he will comply with a subpoena and testify on Thursday.

House committees are also scheduled to speak next week with Fiona Hill, the former National Security Council senior director for Europe, and George Kent, a senior State Department official with responsibility for Ukraine.

The White House continued its pressure on Yovanovitch on Friday. In talking points circulated to Republican legislators, it warned that she had appeared without State Department lawyers: “There is serious danger that she could breach her obligations as a current employee not to reveal such information without authorization.”