Five years and eight months after urging Russia to release damaging information about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump still hopes Russia is listening.
In an interview with right-wing publication Just the News, Mr Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin should release information about a Russian widow’s investment in a company. The Republican claim is linked to Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s younger and only surviving son.
Mr Trump has long claimed Hunter Biden received a $3.5 million payment from Elena Baturina, widow of the late Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, and has suggested – without evidence – that such a payment was intended to to ingratiate himself with the elderly Mr. Biden for corrupt ends.
Mr Trump told Just the News Mr Putin should release information on the matter, which he also attempted to raise in his first debate with Joe Biden.
“She gave him $3.5 million, so now I would think Putin would know the answer to that. I think he should release it,” he said. “I think we should know that answer.”
A report prepared by Senate Republicans in support of Mr Trump’s re-election campaign claimed Hunter Biden received the $3.5 million under a “consulting agreement” through a company called Rosemont Seneca Thorton.
While Hunter Biden was co-founder and CEO of an investment firm called Rosemont Seneca Advisors, his attorney, George Mesires, said Mr Biden had no connection with Rosemont Seneca Thorton and it was not known what connection, if any, between them existed.
Mr Trump has frequently called for foreign aid to harm his perceived political enemies.
In July 2016, he famously asked the Russian government to declassify emails he claimed Ms Clinton had withheld to prevent the discovery of harmful information about her.
At a press conference at his golf resort in Doral, Florida, he said: “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you can find the 30,000 missing emails. I think you’ll probably be mightily rewarded by our Let’s see if that happens.”
Almost three years later, he tried to blackmail Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy into announcing a sham investigation into Hunter Biden’s work as a board member of Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
At the time, Mr. Zelenskyy’s forces were fighting Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, and the newly-elected Ukrainian president called on Mr. Trump to sell Ukraine more Javelin anti-tank missiles to stop Russian tanks.
Mr Trump responded, “I would like you to do us a favour, however,” and urged Mr Zelensky to speak to then-Attorney General Bill Barr about a conspiracy theory that says Joe Biden is corrupting US-EU-backed loans has withheld guarantees that Mr Zelensky’s predecessor would fire then-Attorney General Viktor Shokin for allegedly investigating Hunter Biden.
In reality, then-Vice President Biden was fulfilling the wishes of the Obama administration and the EU and IMF by pushing for the sacking of Mr Shokin, who was widely believed to be corrupt. Mr Trump’s blackmail attempt was later reported to Congress by a whistleblower, leading to the first of his two impeachment trials.
Mr Trump also told Just the News that he still would like more information about Hunter Biden’s work with Burisma. The information he is looking for may not exist, but he complained that none would be provided as Mr Zelensky is unlikely to take any action to harm Joe Biden while the US helps Ukraine repel the unprovoked invasion, which Mr Putin launched last month.
“Well, you won’t get an answer from Ukraine,” he said.