Ukraine isn't the only place where Rudy Giuliani stepped in to conduct his own shadow diplomacy that was notably at odds with official U.S. policy. Venezuela also attracted the attention of Donald Trump's personal lawyer, who sat in on a call in September 2018 with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom Giuliani hoped to ease from power through back-channel negotiations. Also on the call was then-Rep. Pete Sessions, who later played a role in helping Giuliani oust career diplomat Marie Yovanovitch from her post as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. In the case of Maduro, Giuliani and Sessions were working against the formal U.S. policy supported by then-national security adviser John Bolton of taking a more muscular approach to wresting power from Maduro through heavy sanctions.
When White House officials discovered that Giuliani was on the call, it created confusion within the administration. “We didn't know why Rudy was involved at the time," a former senior administration official told The Washington Post.
Giuliani's involvement appears to have been tied to private business interests in the region. Harry Sargeant III, the chief executive of a Florida-based global energy and shipping company, was a big proponent of developing a back channel to Maduro rather than forcing him from office through sanctions. Sargeant thought such an adversarial stance would have what he called "profoundly negative effects" on both U.S. business interests and Venezuela's humanitarian crisis.
Sessions, who is currently running for Congress in another Texas district, accepted Maduro's back-channel invitation to meet in Caracas in order to ease relations in part because of his constituents' interests in Venezuela's energy sector. “He was pleased to help with this back-channel mission, which was coordinated with the highest levels of the U.S. State Department,” Sessions spokesperson Matt Mackowiak told the Post.
The highest levels of the U.S. State Department? That's interesting, since it wasn't official U.S. policy, and the State Department won't comment on the "back-channel mission." Ya know who else isn't commenting on the whole the episode? Giuliani, Bolton's lawyer, and the White House.
As a reminder, Maduro was nearly forced from power earlier this year, but then claimed his military had disrupted a Trump-led coup d'état attempt. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asserted that Maduro had nearly escaped the country via plane, but the Russians convinced him to remain. The Russians denied Pompeo's claim. Maduro remains in power today, running an increasingly repressive regime amid economic chaos in the country.
One former White House official made clear that, at least as a matter of official policy, the White House wasn't pleased by the efforts of Sessions and Giuliani. “There was absolutely no interest or appetite for negotiations,” said the former White House official. “We generally did not welcome efforts like this one. It wasn’t consistent with our policy goals. We saw it as a nuisance and a distraction.”
Just another instance where Giuliani mucked up official U.S. policy, likely to his personal benefit and perhaps with Trump's blessing—but frankly, who knows? It does, however, seem safe to say at this point that we have absolutely no idea just how far and in how many places Giuliani's influence intruded on U.S. foreign policy.