Months before President Trump urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son during a July 25 phone call, two associates of Rudy Giuliani reportedly met with Ukraine's previous president and pushed him to announce investigations into the Bidens in exchange for a White House visit. According to The Wall Street Journal, Lev Parnas, Igor Fruman, then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Ukrainian general prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko had a meeting in February at Lutsenko's Kyiv offices. Poroshenko did not end up making any such announcement, but Lutsenko announced he would be investigating the Bidens and election interference the following month. In May, Lutsenko announced that no evidence of wrongdoing was found. A meeting at the White House with the Ukrainian officials reportedly did not follow the discussions.
The Journal also reports the late-February meeting came after Parnas and Fruman met with Giuliani—Trump's personal attorney—and Lutsenko in January in New York. The four men also met in mid-February in Warsaw. Giuliani's lawyer claims his client didn't know about the February meeting. Representatives for Poroshenko and Lutsenko, a lawyer for Parnas, and the White House have not spoken publicly on the matter. Parnas and Fruman have both pleaded not guilty to campaign finance charges, and were allegedly tasked by Giuliani to find dirt on the Bidens in Ukraine.
Read it at Wall Street Journal
