Ukraine indicts officials linked to efforts to investigate the Bidens

KYIV, Ukraine - Ukrainian police and prosecutors have accused two politicians and a former prosecutor of treason, saying they colluded with a Russian intelligence agency in aiding an effort by lawyer Rudy Giuliani several years ago to tie the Biden family to corruption in Ukraine.

Those accused include Kostyantyn Kulyk, a former Ukrainian deputy prosecutor-general who had drafted a memo in 2019 suggesting Ukraine investigate Hunter Biden, United States President Joe Biden’s son, for his role serving on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.

Also implicated were current member of Ukraine’s Parliament Oleksandr Dubinsky and former member Andrii Derkach, who had publicly advocated for an investigation in Ukraine into Hunter Biden. They had also promoted a spurious theory that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that had meddled in the 2016 presidential election in the United States.

The three were indicted on charges of treason and belonging to a criminal organisation. The charges refer to “information-subversive activities” and focus on actions in 2019 before the US presidential election. They do not say if or when the activity stopped.

In the run-up to the 2020 election in the United States, Giuliani and later president Donald Trump had encouraged Ukrainian officials to follow up on the allegations against Hunter Biden. The effort included a phone call by Trump to President Volodymyr Zelensky in July 2019 urging an investigation into the Bidens, at a time when the Trump administration was withholding military aid for the Ukrainian army.

Critics say that pressure to investigate the Bidens was politically motivated, aimed at harming the elder Biden’s chances against Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

Trump and Giuliani denied that there was anything inappropriate about their contact with Ukrainian officials, with Trump describing his phone call to President Zelensky as “perfect”. The administration said military aid to Ukraine was withheld over concerns about corruption in the Ukrainian government.

The events led to Trump’s first impeachment in the House of Representatives. He was acquitted in the Senate.

Ukrainian media on Tuesday suggested the indictments, too, had a political component for Mr Zelensky: that they were intended to send a signal to Mr Biden now, as his administration is pressing Congress for military assistance to Ukraine, that Kyiv will root out accused Russian agents, including those who had promoted accusations against his family. BLOOMBERG