Facebook has suspended the account of Ukrainian politician—and alleged Russian agent—Andriy Derkach for election interference activity.
The member of Ukraine’s parliament has been working with President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to gather allegations against former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
In a statement, a Facebook spokesperson told The Daily Beast, “We removed this account and this Page for violating our policy against the use of our platform by people engaged in election-focused influence operations.”
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Derkach was sanctioned by the Treasury Department in September for allegedly acting as an agent of Russian intelligence and being “directly or indirectly engaged in, sponsored, concealed, or otherwise been complicit in foreign interference in an attempt to undermine the upcoming 2020 U.S. presidential election.”
Through his “Nabu Leaks” website, Derkach began spreading leaked recordings of conversations between Vice President Biden and former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko discussing a $1 billion loan to Ukraine and the need to fire an allegedly corrupt former prosecutor. Derkach and a number of Republican politicians have spread unsubstantiated allegations that Biden’s internationally backed pressure on Ukraine to fire its prosecutor general was part of a corruption scheme involving Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company where Hunter Biden sat on the board.
Giuliani has come under increasing scrutiny for his relationship with Derkach, as revelations swirl about the U.S. intelligence community’s concerns that Russian spies may have tried to use the former mayor of New York as a conduit to launder disinformation from Moscow.
Giuliani’s relationship with Derkach blossomed as he traveled around Ukraine in search of dirt on Biden’s son. Giuliani interviewed Derkach for a video series about his Hunter Biden conspiracy theories and recently told The Daily Beast, “The chance that Derkach is a Russian spy is no better than 50/50.”
