How a Ukrainian oligarch wanted by U.S. authorities helped Giuliani attack Biden
In their effort to discredit President Donald Trump’s perceived enemies, close allies of the President have received key documents and information from a Ukrainian oligarch wanted in the U.S. on corruption charges, according to five people directly involved in this effort and two other people familiar with it.
Asked about his ties to the Firtash legal team, Giuliani wrote in a text message to TIME on Tuesday: “I do not represent Mr. Firtash and I have never met him.” He did not reply to requests for further comment. Firtash has established close ties to the former mayor of New York City in part by recruiting several of Giuliani’s associates. In July the oligarch hired two lawyers who have been helping Giuliani in his campaign to discredit Trump’s critics: Victoria Toensing and Joseph DiGenova, a married couple Trump considered hiring in 2018 as part of his private legal team.
But the lawyers spent much of the interview talking about one of their favorite topics: the alleged abuses of the special counsel’s office. They claimed that one of Mueller’s top deputies in the special counsel investigation, Andrew Weissmann, offered to drop the bribery case against Firtash in 2017 in exchange for testimony that could be damaging to President Trump. This, they claimed, would amount to suborning perjury.
“I was forced to leave office, under direct and intense pressure from Joe Biden and the U.S. Administration,” in order to stop that investigation, Shokin said in the affidavit, which was notarized in Kiev on Sept. 4. By the time the Department of Justice publicly referred to him in 2017 as a senior associate of the Russian mob, Firtash had been under investigation in the U.S. for more than a decade, according to interviews with his investigators.
With additional loans from Russian state banks, Firtash then bought up factories across Ukraine, especially in the chemicals and fertilizer industries, which helped make him an important powerbroker. In the presidential elections of 2010, he backed the Kremlin’s preferred candidate, Viktor Yanukovych, and urged his factory bosses across the country to help get out the vote. “People weren’t voting for him,” Firtash recalled of those elections in his interview with TIME. “They were voting for us.
Firtash has insisted the charges are politically motivated, part of an American effort to keep him out of Ukrainian politics. Since he was released on bail in Vienna in 2014–after paying a bond of $174 million–Firtash hired a formidable team of lawyers to stop his extradition from Vienna to Chicago. Among them is Michael Chertoff, the former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, as well as a former Austrian Justice Minister.
Since 2017, Toensing and DiGenova have been among Trump’s most avid defenders on cable news in the fight against the Mueller investigation and other probes. Most recently, DiGenova called the impeachment inquiry “regicide by another name” during a Fox News appearance on Oct. 8, and referred to the intelligence-community whistleblowers as “suicide bombers.”
Deutschland Neuesten Nachrichten, Deutschland Schlagzeilen
Similar News:Sie können auch ähnliche Nachrichten wie diese lesen, die wir aus anderen Nachrichtenquellen gesammelt haben.
Giuliani says he has 'nothing to do with' oligarch at edges of Trump-Ukraine affairPresident Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani denied being involved with a Ukrainian oligarch whose ethical issues have dovetailed with the ongoing impeachment inquiry into the president.
Weiterlesen »
Joe Biden Sticks Up For Son in Debate: Hunter ‘Did Nothing Wrong’Biden said Trump is attacking him because he’s afraid to face him in the general election.
Weiterlesen »
Democratic front-runner Biden has less campaign cash than top rivalsFormer U.S. Vice President Joe Biden had $9 million in his campaign bank account...
Weiterlesen »
Hunter Biden Defends Ukraine Work on ‘GMA,’ Says Donald Trump’s Attacks Are “Ridiculous” Conspiracy TheoriesJoe Biden’s son Hunter, in an interview on ABC’s Good Morning America, denied doing anything improper when he joined the board of a Ukrainian gas company while he father was vice presid…
Weiterlesen »
Exclusive: U.S. carried out secret cyber strike on Iran in wake of Saudi oil attack - officialsThe United States carried out a secret cyber operation against Iran in the wake of the Sept. 14 attacks on Saudi Arabia&39;s oil facilities, which Washington and Riyadh blame on Tehran, two U.S. officials have told Reuters. One of the officials said the strike affected physical hardware, but did not
Weiterlesen »
Giuliani Urged Trump To Expel Turkish Cleric Erdogan Wants Back In Turkey: ReportThe Turkish president has demanded the U.S. extradite Fethullah Gulen, who Erdogan has accused of plotting a coup against him.
Weiterlesen »