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Giuliani held phone call with Maduro amid Venezuela crisis | TheHill

posted onDecember 30, 2019
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Article snippet: MORE was on a phone call with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro last September, amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela.  Giuliani was on the call along with then-Rep. The Washington Post. The development comes as Giuliani has emerged as a key figure in Trump’s alleged solicitation of foreign interference from Ukraine in the 2020 election, the central allegation in his impeachment. Giuliani appears to have again used his private role to play a part in foreign policy with regard to Venezuela.  White House officials did not know why Giuliani was involved on the call with Maduro upon finding out, one former senior administration official told the Post.  “We didn’t know why Rudy was involved at the time,” the person told the Post.  A White House spokesperson was not immediately available for comment. Giuliani did not respond to the Post's request for comment.  Trump had vowed to take a stand against Maduro when he took office. Maduro won with nearly 68 percent of the vote, but his reelection in May was largely rejected by the international community over allegations of fraud and banning of opposition parties.   In January, the U.S. formally recognized Maduro’s rival Juan Guaidó as president of Venezuela.  Sessions was part of the back-channel effort to ease Maduro from power and accepted an invitation from Maduro to visit Caracas to try to negotiate a path to improved relations between the U.S. and Venezuela, the Post reported.  “He was pleased to h... Link to the full article to read more

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