SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ SU A
“I think very much so,” he said,
when asked i f the ambassador had
played a role in the visa denial.
“That’s why I think the ambassa-
dor’s n ot there.”
Officials stressed that the deni-
al was made on the merits by
senior State Department officials.
“It was particularly galling that
this guy was trying to come here,”
said o ne official. “The d epartment
said no.”
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]Josh Dawsey contributed to this
report.to get into what transpired after-
wards. But basically, it was looked
into. State took a very serious
approach, and until this day, his
visa has n ot been approved.”
Parnas went on to say that he
believed then-ambassador Yo-
vanovitch had played a role in
denying Shokin his visa — and
that distress over that decision
may have contributed to Giuliani’s
support for efforts to remove her
from her post. In his indictment
last week, prosecutors alleged that
Parnas had advocated for her
ouster at the request of one or
more Ukrainian government offi-
cials.before his arrest, that G iuliani had
first invited Shokin to come to the
United States for a meeting — a
plan that was thwarted when
Shokin learned the United States
would not extend him a visa. In-
stead, Giuliani and Shokin spoke
via Skype in January.
But Parnas said Giuliani had
been upset when Shokin could not
accept his invitation due to the
visa issue.
“He’s been here before. Never
had a problem traveling. All of a
sudden, he g oes, buys a ticket, and
our State Department denies the
visa,” Parnas said. “That’s when
the p roblems began. I’m not goingney said. “A bsolutely, no question
about that. But that’s it, and that’s
why we held up the money.”
Mulvaney backtracked later
that day, s aying there w as n o “quid
pro quo.”
In an interview in late Septem-
ber, a Giuliani associate, Lev Par-
nas, said he had helped connect
Giuliani to Shokin late last year,
after learning that Giuliani was
interested in Ukraine. Parnas was
arrested last week along with a
business partner, Igor Fruman,
and charged with campaign fi-
nance violations.
Parnas said in the interview
with The Post, which took placecluding political appointees — to
achieve political g oals f avorable t o
the president.
Giuliani has figured promi-
nently in a campaign to pressure
Ukraine’s new president, Volod-
ymyr Zelensky, to take actions
that would undermine Biden, a
potential political rival of Trump
in 2020. Those include Trump’s
effort, revealed b y a whistleblower
in a complaint made public last
month, in a July phone call to
cajole Zelensky into reopening a
dormant investigation into a
Ukrainian energy company, Buris-
ma, that Biden’s son, Hunter
Biden, once sat on the board of.
Shokin has aided Giuliani’s ef-
fort, alleging in an affidavit last
month that the reason he was
removed as prosecutor general —
and the reason Biden wanted him
gone — was that he w as investigat-
ing Burisma for corruption.
In fact, U.S. and European offi-
cials have said that the investiga-
tion into Burisma was dormant at
the time of his firing and that
Shokin was generally not pursu-
ing corruption aggressively and
needed to be removed.
Giuliani had also sought the
removal of U. S. ambassador to
Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, who
was recalled in May before her
tour was over. Her ouster outraged
many at the State Department,
and Yovanovitch, who is on leave
at Georgetown, testified last week
that her departure came as a di-
rect result of pressure Trump
placed on the State D epartment.
According to a rough transcript
of Trump’s call with Zelensky,
Trump also p ressed t he Ukrainian
president to look into whether
Ukraine h ad interfered in t he 2016
election — apparently picking up
on a widely discredited theory
pushed by Giuliani that a comput-
er server belonging to the Demo-
cratic Party was in Ukraine.
Trump dangled the prospect of
hundreds of millions of dollars in
military and foreign assistance
and of a White House meeting as
leverage in his conversation with
Zelensky, according to the whis-
tleblower and documents that
have since corroborated the whis-
tleblower’s account.
On Thursday, acting White
House chief of staff Mick Mulva-
ney acknowledged in a news con-
ference that Trump had in fact
withheld nearly $400 million in
aid because he wanted Ukraine to
investigate Democrats.
“Did [Trump] also mention to
me in the past the corruption re-
lated to the DNC server?” Mulva-BY ELLEN NAKASHIMA,
KAROUN DEMIRJIAN AND
ROSALIND S. HELDERMANPresident Trump’s personal
lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani,
pressed the Trump administra-
tion to grant a visa to a former
Ukrainian official who had been
removed from his job because of
concerns he was not aggressively
pursuing corruption cases, ac-
cording to f our U.S. officials famil-
iar with the matter.
But senior State Department
officials denied the visa for Viktor
Shokin, who had been booted as
Ukraine’s top prosecutor in 2016
following pressure from the West,
including from then-Vice Presi-
dent Joe Biden, the International
Monetary Fund a nd t he European
Union, said t he officials who s poke
on the condition of anonymity to
discuss private deliberations.
His visa was denied on corrup-
tion grounds, officials said.
Giuliani requested the visa
around January this year, accord-
ing to the testimony of George P.
Kent, a career diplomat inter-
viewed behind closed doors last
week by three House committees
conducting an impeachment in-
quiry into Trump o ver h is dealings
with Ukraine, said one of the offi-
cials.
“One of the significant aspects
of this was there was no debate
about this anywhere in the Trump
administration,” said the official,
speaking on the condition of ano-
nymity to describe a closed ses-
sion. “Because it came from Giu-
liani, you can imagine it wasn’t
just the desk officer making the
decision.”
Indeed, a second official said,
the decision to reject the visa was
made by “the political leadership”
of the State Department. Giuliani
appealed to the White House, but
the denial was not reversed, Kent
said, according to officials.
An attorney for Kent declined
to comment.
The visa rejection was first re-
ported by CNN o n Friday e vening.
Giuliani told The Washington
Post in a recent interview he was
upset that Shokin couldn’t get a
visa but declined to say whether
he had anything to do with the
effort. “He had people helping
him,” h e said. “I’m not going t o tell
you more than t hat.”
The revelation is the latest re-
flection of how Giuliani has
sought to operate a shadow for-
eign policy from outside the gov-
ernment, attempting to sideline
traditional policymakers — in-
Post r eporter also w as present.
Two speakers credited Trump
with saving their lives; one wom-
an said a letter from Trump re-
vived her on her deathbed, while
another said she was considering
suicide when she saw him appear
on television.
Another speaker, Lucretia
Hughes, recalled seeing as a child a
“Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”
episode on TV that showed a solid-
gold toilet in the Trump home.
“I’m going to sit at your toilet
someday,” s he thought at t he time.
Hughes finished her remarks by
leading the crowd in a chant of
“God! Family! Country! Trump!”
The princess was seated at a
prominent table, with several of
the speakers and the event’s em-
cee. Alice Butler-Short, the found-
er of Virginia Women for Trump,
the for-profit group throwing the
event, asked her to stand and be
recognized after having traveled
so far t o attend.
Butler-Short said the group
does not s eek to make a profit, and
in an interview last week, said
Hend d id n ot mention t he custody
battle. She recalled receiving a
WhatsApp message from Hend’s
assistant before the event, saying
that she wanted to attend. Butler-
Short h ad never heard of t he prin-
cess.
“This sounds kind of suspi-
cious,” Butler-Short said she
thought at the time. Later she
became convinced that Hend real-
ly was royalty. “ Oh G od, I better be
polite,” s he told herself.
More than a month after her
two-day stay at the hotel, Hend
again p ressed G iuliani for h elp.
“Rudy, where are y ou?” s he text-
ed on Aug. 1. “I’m sorry for being
troublesome but t here are no rela-
tions between Qatar and most
Arab states.”
Giuliani was on his way to a
different p art of the world.
“Headed for Madrid,” he texted
back. He was en route, he recently
acknowledged, to press Ukrainian
officials t o investigate Trump’s p o-
litical rivals.
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]Staff writers Karen DeYoung, David A.
Fahrenthold and Tom Hamburger
contributed to this report.right social media. Among them i s
Mohammad Ta whidi, an Austral-
ian Muslim cleric and outspoken
critic of Q atar.
Ta whidi and the princess have
never met. He t old The Post t hat he
appealed to U.S. officials in recent
months — he declined to say to
whom — but was ignored.
Hend said she doesn’t agree
with all the arguments made by
Ta whidi, who calls himself the
“imam of peace.” She is dismayed,
she said, by his frequent accusa-
tions that Muslim political and
religious leaders sponsor terror-
ism. But, she added: “The enemy
of my enemy is my friend.... I’ve
had random people try and help
me.”
Ta whidi’s tweets caught the at-
tention of Emediong Akpabio, a
Nigerian w ho describes himself a s
a human rights activist. Akpabio
launched a n online p etition o n the
princess’s behalf that h as c ollected
several hundred signatures.
In Washington, Giuliani was
not the only influential person to
whom Hend turned for help. A
couple months before staying at
Trump’s h otel, she reached o ut t o a
well-connected lobbyist for a Per-
sian Gulf nation. The lobbyist,
who spoke on the condition of
anonymity because he was not
authorized to discuss the case,
provided The Post with records of
their communications.
Members of the Qatari royal
family “are acting like monsters,”
she t old t he lobbyist, a dding, “ I am
not looking for a scandal or mon-
ey. I just want my baby back.”
But her visit to Washington in
June signaled a new phase in her
search for a powerful political fix-
er. “I didn’t go to Saudi, Kuwait or
Oman,” s he said. “I w ent to the big
boys. I went t o America.”
Hend said she had heard from
acquaintances in diplomatic cir-
cles — she declined to identify
them — that pro-Trump events a re
frequently held at the hotel in the
District. “A t these events you can
meet Republicans and people
from the administration, which is
what happened,” s he said.
The June reception she attend-
ed drew s everal hundred p eople t o
the hotel’s main ballroom on a
Sunday afternoon. Tickets cost be-
tween $150 and $5,000, according
to an online registration page. Aspond to a request for comment.
Giuliani said he never raised
Hend’s c ase w ith Trump, and there
is no indication t he president ever
became aware o f it.
Less than two weeks after she
met Giuliani, Trump hosted the
top Qatari official, Emir Ta mim
bin Hamad al-Thani, at the White
House. The president described
him as a “highly respected man, a
real leader” whose government is
“investing very heavily in our
country.”
In 2 017, t he U AE and t hree other
Arab nations severed relations
with Qatar and imposed a land
and a ir blockade, a lleging t hat Qa-
tar a ided m ilitant Islamist groups.
The United States has sought to
maintain close m ilitary and d iplo-
matic relations with all of these
countries — including Qatar, an
energy-rich nation t hat is home to
a major base for U.S. military oper-
ations in the Middle East.
“There is currently a cold war
happening, and my son is caught
in the middle o f it,” Hend said.
Hend’s trip to the Trump hotel
came after months of her seeking
advocates for h er cause, which has
been championed by some in far-and security firm Giuliani Part-
ners, said Giuliani reached out to
him because he was a registered
Qatari agent. Carbonetti’s firm,
Blueprint Advisors, is paid
$300,000 every three months by
the Embassy of Qatar, according
to lobbying records.
“Rudy called me up a nd s aid she
had a hardship case and asked me
if I would listen to her,” C arbonetti
told The Post. “I did.”
The princess said that, in the
days after she met with Carbonet-
ti, she received a legal summons
related to the custody case that
required her to return immedi-
ately to Doha. She said she sus-
pects Qatari authorities had be-
come aware of her efforts in the
United States, perhaps from her
social media postings, and wanted
to divert her.
“I think they saw the picture,”
she said. “I think that when they
saw I met up with Rudy, it was too
close to home for them.”
The government of Qatar de-
clined to comment for this story.
Efforts to reach Hend’s estranged
husband through the Embassy of
Qatar w ere not successful.
The White House did not re-said.
She a lleges that, one day in 2017,
he pulled their son out of school
and took him to Doha, the Qatari
capital, without her permission.
Hend traveled there and has been
reunited with the child, now 11,
but has not been permitted to
leave the country with him, she
said. A legal action she brought is
ongoing, she said.
“Mr. Giuliani, an important
lawyer, is currently helping me
regain custody of my son,” she
wrote on Instagram in June, post-
ing a picture of herself with Giu-
liani in the hotel lobby. “He is
currently the lawyer for #Presi-
dentTrump and is helping me end
this # UnfairBattle.”
The princess told The Post that
Giuliani boasted of his past work
in Doha but told her that, because
he represented the president, he
was n o longer doing business with
Qatari clients. Giuliani arranged
for her to meet a lawyer in New
York City as well as a longtime
friend and former business part-
ner, lobbyist To ny Carbonetti, she
said.
Hend said that she met with
Giuliani again at t he Plaza Hotel in
New York City a nd t hat she c ontin-
ued to press him for help after her
return to Doha.
Giuliani said in an interview
that he initially thought Hend
could be a paying client but con-
cluded after talking with her that
he could n ot help. Giuliani s aid the
lawyer, whom he did not identify,
told him he c ould not either.
“It was a total sob story,” Giu-
liani said. “I never lobbied the
government on her behalf or m ade
a dollar off of it.”
He said his past work for Qatar
was part of a cybersecurity matter
that involved “solving a hack.” Giu-
liani has continued to represent
other foreign clients since becom-
ing Trump’s attorney last year,
breaking from long-standing pro-
tocols.
Several days after s he left Wash-
ington, Carbonetti met Hend at
the Baccarat Hotel in New York
City. He said he did not contact
anyone in the U.S. government on
her b ehalf a nd was not p aid by her.
He said he “passed her case off” to
the Q atari Embassy.
Carbonetti, w ho was once man-
aging director of the consultingBY DALTON BENNETT,
BETH REINHARD
AND JOSH DAWSEYFor two years, the Emirati prin-
cess had been battling her es-
tranged husband in Qatari courts
for c ustody o f their young son. She
was running out of options. So, on
the a dvice of f riends “in diplomat-
ic circles,” Princess Hend Al Qas-
semi traveled from Dubai to a
place where she thought she
might have a chance encounter
with a powerful American official
who could help: The Trump Inter-
national Hotel.
Hend a rrived in Washington o n
June 22, a date she chose to co-
incide with an event a Virginia
women’s group was throwing to
celebrate President Trump’s b irth-
day. There, in the hotel lobby, she
spotted none other than Rudolph
W. Giuliani, personal attorney to
the p resident o f the United S tates.
“Lo and behold, there I was at
the right place at the right time
and met the right people,” Hend
said in a telephone interview with
The Washington Post. “Had I not
been there, I wouldn’t have met
Rudy.”
The previously untold story of
the princess in Washington is the
latest example of foreign interests
seeking access to the administra-
tion by turning to the president’s
lawyer. It is also a vivid illustration
of how the Trump hotel is per-
ceived by some abroad as a portal
to American power — and of how,
in some cases, it can be exactly that.
Foreign diplomats, lobbyists,
political appointees and aspiring
Republican o fficeholders — all a re
regulars in a daily spectacle of
Washington influence at 1100
Pennsylvania Ave. Hend is not a
professional in that world but be-
lieved, correctly, that she could
have the ear of a confidant to the
president i f she j ust showed up.
In Hend’s telling, her custody
case is caught in the political
crosscurrents of Qatar and the
United Arab Emirates, two Per-
sian Gulf nations that broke off
relations two years a go. Hend said
she i s a member of the r oyal family
in Sharjah, one of the emirates,
and she says her estranged hus-
band is a cousin of the emir of
Qatar. Their divorce is recognized
in her country but not in his, she
Arabian princess details encounter with Giuliani at Trump hotel in D.C.
Giuliani pushed for former Ukrainian prosecutor to get a visa, officials say
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