Ukraine Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko addresses lawmakers, Kyiv, Ukraine, February 6, 2019 (Sergii Kharchenko/NurPhoto/Getty)

Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko reportedly lured Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani into pursuit of an investigation — unsupported by evidence — into Democratic rival Joe Biden.

The effort by Giuliani since November 2018, on behalf of Trump, has culminated in an impeachment inquiry after a formal complaint over a late July call from Trump to Ukraine’s new President Volodymyr Lutsenko. In the call, Trump repeatedly seeks the investigation of Biden and implicitly links it to his suspension of military aid to Ukraine, which he ordered days earlier.

See also EA on RTE, Monocle 24, LBC, and talkRADIO: Evidence Mounts of Trump Pressure on Ukraine Over Biden
TrumpWatch, Day 981: House Committees Subpoena Pompeo Over Trump-Ukraine-Biden

After weeks of trying to block information to Congress and to the public, the White House was pushed last week into the release of the transcript and a redacted version of the complaint — made on August 12 by the CIA liaison with the White House on Ukraine, with testimony by multiple White House officials.

The revelations have been compounded by further information about Giuliani’s 10-month mission, with meetings in five countries with current and former Ukrainian officials, to dig up political “dirt” on Biden.

The Prosecutor, Giuliani, and Trump

According to the Guardian, drawing on “a law enforcement source familiar with the Giuliani-Lutsenko connection”, the Ukraine prosecutor — under pressure to resign because of corruption allegations — approached Trump’s attorney in November 2018.

Giuliani has told Fox News that he was approached by a “very significant distinguished investigator”, without naming Lutsenko. The US intelligence official’s complaint says Giuliani met Lutsenko at least twice: in New York in January and in Warsaw the following month.

The Guardian’s source said, “[Lutsenko] strongly needed some political ally, he believed that Giuliani could convey specific messages to Trump, and he created this message to become more interesting to the American establishment.”

The source said Lutsenko invented a “don’t prosecute” list which he claimed was given to him by US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.

Giuliani subsequently claimed, with no evidence, that the “don’t prosecute” list was part of a liberal anti-Trump conspiracy including Yovanovitch and bankrolled by the philanthropist George Soros.

The State Department said the list was an “outright fabrication”, but Trump officials removed Ambassador Yovanovitch from her post in May, as the Zelenskiy Government took office and Giuliani sought leverage and further meetings.

Giuliani also pursued other unsupported conspiracy theories: that 1) Ukraine and not Russia was the location of the server which hacked the Democratic National Committee in 2016 and 2) anti-Trump activists doctored records of Trump’s campaign manager Paul Manafort, with long-time consultancy ties to pro-Russian Ukraine politicians and businesses, to incriminate him.

Manafort’s own records corroborated the Ukrainian documents. He was convicted of multiple financial, tax, and fraud charges and is serving a 7 1/2-year prison sentence.

In his call with Zelenskiy, Trump asked for investigation of the “Ukraine server” conspiracy theory — whose effect was to cover up Russia’s interference in the 2016 election — as well as of Biden.

Lutsenko told the US outlet NBC on Friday that he had known Giuliani for “many years” and had spoken with him “maybe 10 times”. He said they discussed the Bidens and “about our system, about some of our law enforcement divisions and possibilities to cooperate”.

Bidens “Never The Subjects of This Investigation”

In May, Lutsenko backed away from the conspiracy theory that Biden obtained the dismissal of his predecessor, Viktor Shokin, to shut down an investigation into Ukraine’s largest gas company Burisma and Biden’s son Hunter, who was on the board.

The prosecutor said that there was no evidence of legal violations by either Joe or Hunter Biden.

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine said on Friday that inquiries of Burisma were of the 2010-2012 period, before Hunter Biden joined the board in 2014. The Guardian’s source reiterated, “Mr Biden and his son were never the subjects of this investigation” into Burisma.

But, defying Lutsenko’s reversal, Giuliani persisted with his efforts and the meetings with Ukrainian officials. Trying to appease the Trump camp, President Zelenskiy’s aide Andriy Yermak saw Trump’s Giuliani in early August, just after the Trump-Zelenskiy call.

Giuliani said he told Yermak, with reference to the Bidens, “Just investigate the darn things”.

Meanwhile, Kurt Volker, the US Special Envoy to Ukraine, and Gordon Sondland, the Ambassador to EU, traveled to Kiev to ensure that Giuliani’s efforts did not compromise American foreign and military policy.

Volker resigned on Friday. The House Intelligence Committee is seeking depositions from him, Ambassador Yovanovitch, and two other State Department personnel this week.