In what has become a familiar pattern, former President Donald Trump once again asked for help from a foreign leader in uncovering potential dirt to try and infect a political enemy.
Trump, who was impeached in 2019 for asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to do Trump a “favor” by investigating Joe Biden’s son Hunter, said Right-wing TV presenter John Solomon In an interview published Tuesday, he said he wanted Russian President Vladimir Putin to shed light on unverified reports that Biden’s son received $3.5 million in wire transfers from Yelena Baturina, the wife of the former Moscow mayor.
“I gave him $3.5 million, so now I think Putin will know the answer to that,” Trump told Solomon. “I think he should fire it. I think we should know that answer.”
How did the mayor of Moscow, his wife, give the Biden family three and a half million dollars? He completed. I think Putin is now probably ready to give that answer. I’m sure he knows.”
In a presidential debate with Biden during the 2020 campaign, Trump exploited the claim, which appeared in a US Senate Homeland Security Committee report written by the then-Republican majority but not verified.
During the debate, Biden said of the $3.5 million wire transfer allegations “simply not true.”
While Trump has long sought foreign assistance in exposing alleged trade wrongdoing by Hunter Biden, the president’s son remains the center of a federal tax investigation. The New York Times reports that although he has paid his outstanding tax obligations related to his business dealings with foreign countries, he is subject to Grand jury investigation underway.
After Hunter Biden learned in 2020 that he was subject to a federal investigation, he said in a statement that “a professional and objective review of these matters will establish that I handled my affairs lawfully and appropriately.”
Whether it is intended seriously or ironically, Trump’s outreach to Putin’s government isn’t new either. During the 2016 presidential election, Trump implied that Russian hackers had broken into a server of the Democratic National Committee and stole sensitive materials, confusing the event with Hillary Clinton deleting 33,000 personal emails from her private server.
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you can find the 30,000 missing emails,” Trump said at a press conference on July 27, 2016. “I think our press will probably be rewarded very hard.”
The FBI has refused to bring charges against Clinton in the matter, despite Trump’s pledge to do so if elected president He will appoint a special prosecutor To investigate deleted emails, he didn’t.
at Parade in Georgia over the weekend As for the candidates in the battlefield state he endorsed in mid-term 2022, Trump has indicated he is considering another presidential bid in 2024, saying, “We may have to do it again.”