When Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, started his quest to gather political dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden, he just happened to home in on two Ukrainian oligarchs facing legal trouble in the U.S.
Dmytro Firtash, who is closely tied to the Kremlin, was facing federal bribery and racketeering charges in the U.S. Ihor Kolomoisky, among Ukraine's wealthiest men, was reported by the Daily Beast to be under scrutiny by the FBI for money laundering. According to The New York Times, their legal issues made Firtash and Kolomoisky prime targets in the eyes of Giuliani, who sought to leverage their vulnerabilities in order to get help with his domestic political errand for Trump.
The Times interviewed both oligarchs and, in each case, they said that Giuliani had sent now-indicted Soviet-born businessmen Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman as his emissaries. "One of Mr. Giuliani’s associates has described offering the oligarch help with his Justice Department problems — if Mr. Firtash hired two lawyers who were close to President Trump and were already working with Mr. Giuliani on his dirt-digging mission," writes the Times. The offer came in late June, and Parnas' lawyer confirmed the meeting and said that it took place at the direction of Giuliani. The lawyers Firtash ultimately hired, to the tune of $1.2 million so far, were Victoria Toensing and Joseph diGenova, frequent Fox News guests and Trump defenders. Parnas got a "referral fee." For their part, Toensing and diGenova met directly with Attorney General William Barr to make an appeal for Firtash, but their pitch came in mid-August, after the whistleblower complaint concerning Trump's July 25 call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Giuliani's efforts in Ukraine had already begun to blow up with the Justice Department. Barr reportedly told the legal duo they would have to take their pitch to Chicago, where the charges had been filed.
In his interview with the Times, Firtash said he did not have any dirt on the Bidens and had not funded any research into the matter. “Without my will and desire,” he said, “I was sucked into this internal U.S. fight.”
Giuliani first declined to comment on the matter, but then denied part of the claim. “I don’t think I can comment,” Giuliani said originally, later adding, “I did not tell Parnas to do anything with Firtash.”
Kolomoisky disposed of Giuliani's advance much more quickly. Giuliani apparently set his sights on Kolomoisky after the failed reelection bid of then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, with whom Giuliani had been making progress. But with the election of Volodymyr Zelensky, Giuliani needed a way in and viewed Kolomoisky—who has helped fund the fight against pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine—as a potential conduit. So Parnas and Fruman flew to Tel Aviv to meet with Kolomoisky under the pretense of pitching some sort of energy deal. Once Kolomoisky understood what they were really after, he quickly showed them the door.
Giuliani took the failure as an opportunity to hit back, with the Times reporting, “After the Kolomoisky meeting’s unsuccessful end, Mr. Giuliani tweeted about the Daily Beast article and gave an interview to a Ukrainian journalist. Mr. Zelensky, he warned, ‘must cleanse himself from hangers-on from his past and from criminal oligarchs — Ihor Kolomoisky and others.’”
Because that's the way Rudy G. rolls.
The entire Times piece is worth the read.