Giuliani pals leveraged GOP access to seek Ukraine gas deal

Two men with close ties to Rudy Giuliani leveraged their political connections to pursue a deal to export natural gas from the U.S. to Ukraine intended to benefit Republican donors and friends of President Donald Trump's family.

The plan centered on replacing the head of Ukraine’s state-owned gas company Naftogaz with its No. 2, Andrew Favorov, in hopes that the dual U.S. Ukraine citizen would be more amenable than his boss to the proposal.

To make that happen, they also pushed to eliminate the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, who was known for fighting corruption.

Favorov, in a series of interviews with The Associated Press in Kyiv, described his dealings with Giuliani’s associates, Soviet-born Florida businessmen Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman. His tale, corroborated with interviews with key witnesses, shows how Parnas and Fruman were able to use their contacts in Republican circles to suggest they had access to the people and money that could make a complex business and geopolitical deal happen.

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