Rudy Giuliani is giving a paid speech at Kremlin-supported event featuring Putin: report

Rudy Giuliani, attorney to President Donald Trump, has announced that he is canceling his plan to give a paid speech at an upcoming conference funded by the Russian government.

The Washington Post first broke the story of Giuliani's plans, which the former New York mayor had confirmed to the paper. The shocking turn of events was amplified by the fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin himself would be in attendance, and Giuliani would reportedly be on a panel with a man sanctioned by the United States.

After the story broke, Giuliani told multiple reporters that his trip was off.

It was all particularly galling given that Giuliani has been central to the crisis that has amped up calls to impeach the president this week. He spearheaded an effort to convince that Ukrainian government to investigate Joe Biden, a potential 2020 rival of his client. Trump himself furthered this effort in a July 25 phone call with the president of Ukraine, a partial transcript of which was released this week.

Many have argued that the transcript show Trump asking Ukraine to involve itself in the 2020 election. At a minimum, it shows Trump was using his office for personal ends — a clear abuse of power.