President Donald Trump’s nominee to be US ambassador to Russia, John Sullivan, said on Wednesday he had known Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, was involved in a campaign against then-Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch that helped lead to her dismissal.
Sullivan, a deputy Secretary of State, said under questioning by ranking Democratic Senator Bob Menendez at his Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing that he knew Giuliani was involved before he was asked to remove Yovanovitch in May because Trump had lost confidence in her.