On April 7, Kelly Degnan, the US Ambassador to Georgia, met with Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili. Following the meeting, Kelly Degnan answered questions from journalists. 

When questioned about the topics covered at the meeting and if the US State Department's sanctions on Georgian judges had been brought up, she said, "It is always extremely beneficial and helpful to talk with the Speaker about the problems we are working on together. We have worked together extremely effectively on judicial reform for years and look forward to maintaining that, so we came today to discuss new methods for the US to help Parliament's legal reform issues."

She hoped that Georgia would hear favorably from the EU in December, noting that two of the 12 requirements for EU candidacy are judicial reform and the battle against corruption. However, she emphasized that there is still more work to do, as stated in the Venice Commission judgment from March. 

The US Ambassador replied that she does not know what phone calls were implied when asked about the GD representatives' belligerent attitude following the introduction of sanctions, the claims of spying, and the continued second-front rhetoric. The Ambassador emphasized that the second front discussion was entirely wrong. Degnan said that, on the contrary, the US is extremely sensitive to the position that Georgia is in, with 20% of the land seized by the aggressor, Russia, saying there is no reason why the US would wish to put Georgia in danger. Furthermore, she said it is alarming to hear these conspiracy ideas repeated and even echoed by members of the ruling party, especially when they know that it is 100% wrong.

Commenting on the meeting and referring to the State Department’s decision, Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili said: "Ambassador said that this is not a sanction, this is a visa restriction." He also said that the conversation touched upon the evidence behind the State Department’s decision. According to him, Kelly Degnan reiterated that the evidence was largely gathered through publicly available sources. He added: "However, we did not receive any additional information as to what specific information the decision was based on. 

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