President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani claims that he was in discussions this summer to get involved with another Ukrainian legal dispute, in addition to the others that touched upon his pressure campaign for political dirt on behalf of the President.
Giuliani, according to his claims in Bloomberg report Monday, considered taking on as a client the Ukrainian state-owned bank Privatbank, which is in the midst of a legal war with its former owner, an oligarch with ties to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. For its part, Privatbank claims that it never considered retaining Giuliani.
The oligarch, Igor Kolomoisky, is also the target of a U.S. federal investigation, the Daily Beast reported in April.
After tweeting accusations about Kolomoisky, Giuliani was approached by lawyers in Europe working for Quinn Emanuel, the firm representing Kolomoisky in the civil litigation, according to a person familiar with the deliberations.
This is a test for the Pres.-elect.He already has surrounded himself with some people that are enemies of Pres.Trump. Now this notorious oligarch is said to also have people around him. Kolomoisky should be prosecuted for the threat. Let’s see?It will tell us a lot about control?
— Rudy Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) May 18, 2019
Giuliani met with the legal team twice in August, according to his account to Bloomberg, and reviewed a report that had been conducted on the behalf of Privatbank examining the dealings of Kolomoisky and other oligarchs.
Giuliani and the lawyers ultimately did not come to an agreement for him to pitch in on the civil case, according to the Bloomberg, in part because Giuliani did not have additional information to offer. Giuliani also told Bloomberg that the timing wasn’t right.
A spokesperson for Quinn Emanuel told TPM that the firm had “no comment.”
Privatbank said in an email to Bloomberg that the firm “has not been approached by Mr. Giuliani and has not considered engaging him in any capacity.”
Privatbank was nationalized in 2016, and Kolomoisky is facing allegations of misappropriating funds from his former bank. Kolomoisky’s lawyers have denied the allegations that he laundered money into the U.S.
Before jumping into politics, Zelensky was a comedian whose show was broadcast by a TV station owned by Kolomoisky. Kolomoisky’s name has come up several times in the private interviews of witnesses in the impeachment proceedings, as the witnesses raised concerns about Zelensky’s links to the Ukrainian oligarch.
Days after Zelensky won his election last spring, Kolomisky was approached by the two Soviet-born U.S. citizens who were acting as intermediaries for Giuliani in the pressure campaign. The two men, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were indicted on campaign finance violations in October.
Kolomoisky, according to his account of the meeting to the New York Times, said that Parnas and Fruman were trying to use Kolomoisky to set up a meeting between Zelensky and Giuliani.
“I say, ‘Did you see a sign on the door that says, ‘Meetings with Zelensky arranged here’? Kolomoisky recalled to the New York Times, adding that the intermediaries said, no.
“I said, ‘Well then, you’ve ended up in the wrong place.’”
Update: This story has been updated to include the response of a spokesperson for Quinn Emanuel.
