Amid the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump, the net is closing on Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani over financial and legal matters, connected with the campaign for Ukraine’s investigation of Presidential candidate Joe Biden and the Democratic Party.

Sources have confirmed that prosecutors are investigating Giuliani over possible criminal violations with lobbying for foreign interests, and two of the attorney’s associates — Russian-born businessmen Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman — were arrested last week.

Now key details are filling in the story of the 11-month Trump-Giuliani campaign and its connection to the former New York City mayor’s legal practice.

New York Times reporters reveal that Giuliani obtained a meeting with the head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and attorneys in the fraud section. The discussion was about a “very, very sensitive” bribery case involving a foreign client of Giuliani.

Giuliani gave no details while insisting that the case had nothing to do with his legal issues or those of Trump.

But Bloomberg journalists raise the possibility that the foreign client is Dmitry Firtash, an Ukrainian oligarch fighting extradition to the US over conspiracy charges. To get Giuliani’s assistance, Firtash’s associates claimed they had “dirt” on Biden.

Firtash, living in the Austrian capital Vienna, added two of Giuliani’s associates — Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing, fervent Trump supporters — to his legal team in July. DiGenova and Toensing billed Firtash about $1 million for their work, including payments for Lev Parnas as a “translator”.

Parnas in turn paid Giuliani’s legal firm $500,000, purportedly for representation for one of his companies.

TrumpWatch, Day 994: Trump-Ukraine — 2 Giuliani Associates Arrested

The Biden Connection

In early September, Firtash’s associates collected a witness statement from Viktor Shokin, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General dismissed by Parliament in March 2016 for failing to investigate corruption.

The statement put out the unsupported claim that Biden obtained Shokin’s removal to protect Biden’s son Hunter, a board member of Ukraine’s largest private gas company Burisma.

Giuliani — reportedly breaking a promise to Shokin not to make the statement public — spoke about it on cable news and fed it to John Solomon, a reporter for The Hill website.

“This is the affidavit I put out,” Giuliani told Fox TV earlier this month.

The Ukrainian Tycoon and Giuliani’s Men

The US Justice Department claims Firtash, whose built his fortune with natural gas deals, is tied to “Russian organized crime”. He has been charged with bribery of Indian officials to secure titanium that would be sold to the aircraft manufacturer Boeing.

Arrested in Vienna in March 2014, the oligarch posted $174 million in bail and pledged to remain in Austria during extradition proceedings.

After joining Firash’s legal team in July, DiGenova and Toensing pursued material on Biden to argue that the case against their client is political.

Parnas and Fruman were en route to Vienna via Frankfurt, on one-way tickets, when they were arrested at Dulles International Airport near Washington 10 days ago. Giuliani was scheduled to fly to Vienna the following day.

A Visa for Shokin

As a reward for the anti-Biden material, Giuliani asked the State Department and White House to grant a visa to the former prosecutor Shokin, according to career diplomat George Kent.

Kent, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian affairs, spoke with House investigators this week. He said that Giuliani sought the visa around January.

The State Department objected to the request, and Giuliani appealed to the White House. However, an aide to Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney consulted with State and backed the rejection.

Giuliani said he spoke with Shokin by Skype on January 23 about supposed contacts between Democratic Party officials and Ukrainians, and about the allegations against Hunter Biden.