ambassador to ukraine at least in part at the request of one or more ukrainian government officials. one key question is how these two men fit into the broader scope of the ukraine impeachment inquiry. today s indictment adding intrigue to what is already known, partisan from and work on giuliani to dig up dirt on joe biden, the same dirt trump brought up in his phone call with the ukrainian president. the same phone call where trump mentioned the ousted ambassador to ukraine, who they were trying to get them to fire because a ukrainian official asked them to. saying in a statement to cnn
war veteran and cnn contributor with a passion on the subject will join me this hour. welcome to the lead. i m jake tapper. we begin with the breaking news. two of rudy giuliani s so-called expert witnesses to find alleged corruption by trump s opponents were arrested today by the u.s. department of justice for, quote, corrupt behavior. led barnas. said his ukrainian operation is to help his client, the president. they were arrested at dulles airport last night holding one-way tickets out of the country, according to two u.s. officials, prompting prosecutors to today unseal this indictment that claims that they were funneling foreign money into u.s. elections, which is, of course, a crime. in may 2018 they funneled
including giuliani, that she was obstructing their efforts to dig up dirt on biden. prosecutors this afternoon said this investigation is not over. reporter: two associates of president trump s personal attorney, rudy giuliani, in court this afternoon, indicted on charges they made political donations to u.s. congressmen while pushing him to help get rid of the u.s. ambassador to ukraine on behalf of at least one ukrainian official, who wanted her gone. that s the same ambassador trump removed from ukraine this year, partially at the behest of rudy giuliani. charged with conspiracy, false statements and funneling foreign mon night u.s. elections. paragraphnas and fruman were arrested at dulles airport at 6:00 p.m. last night as they were about to board an international flight with one-way tickets. two men along with two others also indicted allegedly gave hundreds of thousands of dollars
of representatives, for documents as part of this house impeachment inquiry. and if i can just read exactly what they are calling for, it says recently public reports have raised questions about any role you may have played in conveying or reinforcing the president s stark message to the ukrainian president, the chairman wrote. these reports have raised significant questions about your efforts to press ukrainian officials, to change the management structure at a ukrainian state-owned company to benefit individuals involved with rudy giuliani s push to get ukraine involved in our 2020 election. that s a lot to chew. these two men are accused of funneling this foreign money, $325,000 that they were trying to evade from detection. i don t know if that s foreign money but the $325,000 intended to evade election reporting
which was to fire the u.s. ambassador to ukraine. that s right. and, you know, i understand jay sekulowe s statement saying essentially this has nothing to do with the campaign, the white house, the president. these were the guys working alongside rudy giuliani, sending forth essentially this ukrainian misinformation campaign backed by russian businessmen and funneling it into the white house. ultimately that got the attention of president trump and he embraced that. the ambassador they wanted ousted from ukraine is recalled from her position. she s back. they re trying to interview her in front of the house impeachment committees, they re trying to set that up. these guys were able to get a lot of what they wanted by going through rudy giuliani and getting directly to the president. it is kind of stunning this has been carrying on and the levels they reached with this sort of operation. what s your reaction to this all? it s obviously unsettling to have people breaking the law, el