Giuliani rips ex-Ukrainian prosecutor for downplaying Biden 'bribery' claims
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Rudy Giuliani on Monday blasted a former Ukrainian prosecutor who pushed back on calls to investigate the Biden family, saying he "corruptly" dismissed a case involving a company where Joe Biden's son served on the board and decrying the media outlets that quoted him.
“I can’t believe how blind our media has become. They are blindly using the prosecutor who corruptly dismissed the cases against Biden’s son and his corrupt company. There was no investigation. Where’s the report?” Giuliani, President Trump's personal attorney, tweeted early Monday. “Use your common sense for those who haven’t lost it. Analyze it.”
BIDEN SEEKS TO BAR GIULIANI FROM TV NEWS, AFTER TRUMP LAWYER ALLEGES POSSIBLE BIDEN CORRUPTION
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Giuliani added: “Bribery is offering anything of value ($1.2 billion critical loan guarantee) in exchange for official action (firing the prosecutor, corrupt or not, who is investigating your son).”
“Bragging Biden admits it,” he continued.” And if you need help on whether he knew about son, plenty to come.”
Giuliani’s tweets are part of a blizzard of statements from Trump's attorney as he defends his role in seeking an investigation of the Biden family's Ukraine dealings. Trump's role in pressing Ukraine to "look into" that issue prompted a full-blown impeachment inquiry last week.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Adding to the firestorm, former Ukrainian prosecutor general Yuri Lutsenko told the Los Angeles Times that he saw no reason to investigate Biden or his son Hunter. Lutsenko said he told Giuliani that the Bidens had not broken any Ukrainian laws to his knowledge and that he would start a probe only after U.S. officials launched their own investigation.
“I said, ‘Let’s put this through prosecutors, not through presidents,’” Lutsenko told The Times. “I told him I could not start an investigation just for the interests of an American official.”
Prosecutor-general of Ukraine Yuri Lutsenko attends a news conference in Kiev, Ukraine, May 30, 2016. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich - D1BETHAMTIAA
Lutsenko was referring to the highly controversial phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in July when Trump sought an investigation into the Bidens.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“I had to tell him how law enforcement functions here,” Lutsenko said, noting that he could not reopen the case just because Trump wanted it.
Lutsenko has reportedly met with Giuliani twice in person. He told the Times that Giuliani was obsessed with potential misconduct by Biden or his son. Lutsenko reportedly told Giuliani that Hunter Biden’s role while his father was the vice president “could be signs of a conflict of interest” but was not illegal.
GIULIANI WAS NOT WORKING ALONE IN BIDEN, UKRAINE PROBE
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}According to the Times, Giuliani stopped contacting Lutsenko last year, but upon the election of Zelensky, he began contacting him again. Lutsenko was removed from his post in August.
Biden has acknowledged that when he was vice president, he successfully pressured Ukraine to fire prosecutor Viktor Shokin who was investigating the natural gas firm Burisma Holdings—where his son Hunter Biden had a highly lucrative role on the board, making tens of thousands of dollars per month. The former vice president threatened to withhold $1 billion of critical U.S. aid if Shokin was not fired.
“Well, son of a b—h, he got fired,” Biden joked at a panel two years after leaving office.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Biden allies maintain he pressured Shokin because of concerns he went easy on corruption. Critics charged that Hunter Biden may have been selling access to his father, who had pushed Ukraine to increase its natural gas production.
Meanwhile, as Giuliani criticized the media for “using” Lutsenko, the Biden campaign has blasted media outlets for giving Giuliani air time. The campaign wrote to NBC News, CBS News, Fox News and CNN to voice “grave concern that you continue to book Rudy Giuliani on your air to spread false, debunked conspiracy theories on behalf of Donald Trump.”
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The campaign requested that if a network chooses to book Giuliani, that they also give “an equivalent amount of time” for “a surrogate for the Biden campaign.”
Responding to the request, Trump 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale tweeted: "Can we request the removal of Democrats on TV that push hoaxes? Wait, but then who would do the interviews?"
Fox News’ Gregg Re and Frank Miles contributed to this report.