planned as the 11th hour gets under way on this thanksgiving eve wednesday night? well, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. day 1,042 of this trump administration. new information continuing to swirl tonight around rudy giuliani after he was found to be conducting some sort of foreign policy while not remotely connected to the u.s. government. the new york times and washington post are reporting giuliani was pursuing business in ukraine while pushing for investigations that could have benefited president trump. the post reports giuliani negotiated to represent ukraine s top prosecutor for at least 200 grand. giuliani began negotiations with yuri lutsenko about a possible agreement in february. in the agreement giuliani s company would receive payment to represent lutsenko as the ukrainian so the to recover assets he believed had been stolen from the government in
kiev. the post also reports agreements were never executed and there is no indication giuliani was paid. giuliani for his part told the wall street journal today he was in talks with ukraine but it was for even more money than that. giuliani said lults enko asked him to represent both the ukrainian ministry of justice and lutsenko personally on two matters. the journal goes on to report giuliani said he subsequently drew up two retainer agreements for a total of about 500 large and gave them to lutsenko. the next day giuliani decided he couldn t represent lutsenko personally because he believed doing so would pose a conflict with his representation of the president. giuliani said he declined the ministry of justice contract and was never paid a penny for that. on sunday giuliani denied any financial interests in ukraine. i have no financial interest in the ukraine. i m not going to financially
profit from anything that i know of in the ukraine. as we mentioned here last night, according to reports from nbc news, abc news, and the washington post, giuliani has either done consulting work, delivered speeches, or represented clients or governments in at least 19 foreign countries. there are their flags. back in september giuliani insisted that his contacts with ukraine were solely at the request of our state department. i never talked to a ukrainian official until the state department called me and asked me to do it. and then i reported every conversation back to them. it s all here. right here. the first call from the state department. meanwhile, the washington post tonight is also reporting about another important impeachment witness. according to the paper, there are new questions about a phone conversation that gordon sondland said he had with the president on september 9. remember, sondland testified that during the call the president said he wanted no quid
here. remember, since he admitted that trump repaid michael cohen for the stormy daniels hush money payment he has been causing problems for this white house. but trump tore a variety of reasons seems to every time he s asked about him seems to call him the greatest mayor that new york city ever had and a great lawyer, and it might just be that he s too close to lose at this point for trump. but there s no signs he s doing the usual i barely know him shtick with giuliani. katie benner, people were surprised at the kind of supplicant the attorney general turned into. but then the subject of spying came up. people were stunned by the answer. i want to play the exchange. we ll talk about it on the other side. i think spying on a political campaign is a big deal. you re not suggesting, though, that spying occurred? i don t well, i guess you
top. and everybody knows it. spying. surveillan surveillance. trying for an overthrow. that kind of thing. here for our lead-off discussion on this thanksgiving eve, annie karni, white house reporter with the new york times. katie benner, justice department reporter with the new york times. and jonathan allen, our own nbc news national political reporter. good evening and welcome to you all. annie, what reporting have you on the current state of the trump-giuliani friendship, relationship for starters? well, there s two prongs to it. trump himself seems to be standing by giuliani for now while the rest of the white house basically has wanted him thrown under the bus as long as he s been on the bus. i mean, he s been causing problems they really view him more as a friend who s freelancing. that s the way they view it. than a real defense lawyer who s part of an overarching strategy