Credit: CNN

As the house judiciary committee moves closer to a vote on impeaching the president, Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani traveled to Ukraine to work on a documentary for the pro-Trump network, One America News (OAN).  The documentary recounts various debunked theories that Giuliani and various Trump stooges have been peddling in an attempt to cast doubt on the Democrats’ impeachment narrative. One of the stars of his documentary is Andrii Telizhenko, a former low-ranking Ukrainian Embassy officer.

Telizhenko claimed in 2017 that the Ukranian Embassy in Washington D.C. tried to stop Trump’s presidential campaign, in collusion with the Democrats. He wrote that he was told by Oksana Shulyar, an aide to Ukraine’s U.S. Ambassador Valeriy Chaly, to help DNC consultant Alexandra Chalupa, who was supposedly working against Trump.

Both the Ukrainian embassy and the DNC have denied this narrative.

Trump and Giuliani are now trying to make Telizhenko the Ukraine ambassador to the United States. The New York  Times wrote, “It is unclear whether Mr. Zelensky’s team ever seriously considered Mr. Telizhenko as an ambassador candidate.”

Republican senators and House members have been citing Telizhenko in the impeachment hearings. Lindsey Graham, Ron Johnson, and Chuck Grassley have requested records and interviews with both Chalupa and Telizhenko.

Kyiv Post has debunked at least some of Telizhenko’s claims and backstory. One of his former employers described him as a “crook” who borrowed $5,000 and failed to pay it back. The piece also stated, “Telizhenko’s work at the embassy included protocol issues and monitoring Republican candidates in the 2016 elections — but not Trump.”