Rudy Giuliani says he briefed President Donald Trump „a couple of times“ about rumors that the Marie Yovanovitch, then the US ambassador to Ukraine, was impeding efforts to investigate Trump’s political rivals.

In an interview with The New York Times on Monday night, the president’s personal lawyer said he told the president at the beginning of this year that Yovanovitch was attempting to sabotage Trump on two fronts: by blocking investigations inside Ukraine as well as impeding efforts by Giuliani to target Trump’s rivals in the US. As The Times noted, the claims have been found to be unsubstantiated or misleading.

Giuliani said Trump connected him to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Giuliani said he believed the information he provided led to Yovanovitch’s sudden ouster from her position.

Giuliani’s interview with The Times gives additional insight into how involved Trump was in efforts to push out Yovanovitch, following a report by The New Yorker on Giuliani’s role in helping engineer the plan.

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Rudy Giuliani says he briefed President Donald Trump „a couple of times“ about rumors that Marie Yovanovitch, then the US ambassador to Ukraine, was thwarting efforts to investigate Trump’s political rivals.

The president’s personal lawyer told The New York Times in an interview on Monday night that he passed along information to Trump purporting to show that Yovanovitch had stalled efforts that could have benefitted Trump politically, including investigating former Vice President Joe Biden as well as Ukrainian nationals who distributed documents that led to the resignation of Paul Manafort as the Trump campaign’s chairman.

Giuliani added that he spoke with the president at the beginning of this year and claimed that Yovanovitch was attempting to sabotage Trump on two fronts: by blocking investigations inside Ukraine, as well as impeding efforts by Giuliani to target his rivals in the US.

He also said he communicated „general gossip“ that Yovanovitch had spoken poorly of the president but told The Times that he „did not relay that as fact.“

The Times noted that Giuliani’s claims about Yovanovitch, characterized as a smear campaign during the impeachment hearings into Trump, were „unsubstantiated“ or „taken out of context.“

Still, Giuliani told The Times that after passing along the information, Trump connected Giuliani with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Giuliani said he believed the information he provided helped lead to Yovanovitch’s sudden ouster from her position.

„There’s a lot of reasons to move her,“ Giuliani told The Times, adding that he felt Trump and Pompeo „relied“ on the information he provided on Yovanovitch before she was recalled.

„I just gave them the facts,“ he said. „I mean, did I think she should be recalled? I thought she should have been fired.“

Giuliani’s interview with The Times gives additional insight into how involved Trump was in efforts to oust Yovanovitch from her post, and it follows a detail published by The New Yorker on Monday on Giuliani’s role in helping engineer the plan.

He told The New Yorker’s Adam Entous that he believed he „needed Yovanovitch out of the way“ because she was „going to make the investigations difficult for everybody.“ He even compiled a dossier of conspiracy theories about the Bidens and Yovanovitch that he sent to Pompeo earlier this year.

Giuliani is reportedly the focus of a criminal investigation related to his efforts to undermine Yovanovitch, which may have broken lobbying laws.

Yovanovitch testified in October about Trump and Giuliani’s smear campaign against her in the time leading up to her removal.

Giuliani’s high-profile interviews come just days after the House Judiciary Committee approved articles of impeachment charging President Donald Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress over Ukraine. The House is expected to pass the articles in a vote this week, with the process then moving to the Senate for trial.