President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani early Monday accused Ukraine of laundering $3 million to Joe Biden’s son Hunter and questioned how former President Barack Obama could have allowed it to happen.
”NEW FACT: One $3 million payment to Biden’s son from Ukraine to Latvia to Cyprus to US,” Giuliani wrote on Twitter at 2:22 a.m.
“When Prosecutor asked Cyprus for amount going to son, he was told US embassy (Obama’s) instructed them not to provide the amount. Prosecutor getting too close to son and Biden had him fired.”
The former mayor has been on the offensive as he defends Trump from accusations included in a whistleblower’s report that the president repeatedly pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to cooperate with Giuliani and investigate allegations of corruption against Hunter.
The Wall Street Journal reported on the whistleblower on Friday.
”If Dem party doesn’t call for investigation of Bidens’ millions from Ukraine and billions from China, they will own it. Bidens’ made big money selling public office,” Giuliani said in another posting.
“How could Obama have allowed this to happen? Will Dems continue to condone and enable this kind pay-for-play?”
Giuliani said there would be “4 or 5 big disclosures” but did not mention how he knew about the money laundering accusations or provide any evidence to back them up.
Biden, as vice president, told Ukraine in 2016 that the US was considering canceling $1 billion in loan guarantees unless it got rid of top prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who had been accused of slow-walking a number of corruption probes.
But Shokin, who was voted out of office by Ukraine’s parliament, was looking into Burisma Holding, an energy company that gave Hunter a seat on its board.
Burisma paid Hunter as much as $50,000 a month.
Shokin’s replacement, Yuri Lutsenko, continued the investigation into Burisma and concluded there was no evidence of wrongdoing by Joe Biden or his son.
Biden called on Trump to release a transcript of his call with Zelensky and said the president was abusing his power to smear him because “he knows I will beat him like a drum.”
Trump, speaking to reporters Sunday, acknowledged that he spoke to Zelensky about Biden, but only in the context of warning about corruption in the country.
It was “largely the fact that we don’t want our people like vice president and his son [contributing] to the corruption already in Ukraine,” he said.
But Trump said he did not pressure the Ukrainian leader and did not offer a quid pro quo.