Trump shamelessly asked Vladimir Putin to release any dirt on Joe Biden’s family, particularly Hunter Biden, the President’s son. The ex-President has a habit of asking the Russians for help.
In an interview with Just the News, Trump allegedly claimed about Hunter’s foreign business dealings and the fact about Biden obtaining a substantial amount of money from Elena Baturina, former wife of the late former mayor of Moscow, asking Putin to provide evidence. There’s no clear proof whether there are any documents as such or if the Kremlin even has access to it.
Trump said, “She gave him $3.5 million, so now I would think Putin would know the answer to that. I think he should release it. I think we should know that answer.”
It is true to some extent that Hunter Biden was handsomely paid for his consulting deadlings in foreign countries, including Ukraine and China, during the time his father, Joe Biden was Vice-President. Apparently, the Justice Department has an on-going investigation into these dealings for the possibility of financial crimes, however, Hunter Biden’s legal team told the NBC News in 2020 that Biden had “no interest” in the firm that received the money, therefore the claim that he was paid $3.5 million is untrue. In fact, in October 2020, Putin once admitted that he was unaware of any business dealings between Biden and Baturina.
Trump though was adamant on his statement and said, “In time, Russia may be willing to give that information.” This action of Trump’s, requesting Putin to release any damaging information on Biden is akin to his actions during his presidential campaign in 2016, when he pleaded with Putin to hack and release Hillary Clinton’s personal emails. He said, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.” This was the beginning of Trump’s effort to gain foreign allies for political assistance.
Afterwards, Trump pressured the Ukrainian government, specifically Volodymyr Zelenskyy to find any dirt on Hunter Biden and Joe Biden, who was then a Democratic presidential nominee, withholding approximately $400 million in US military aid as part of the plan. This led to Trump’s first impeachment. Trump’s comments have come after GOP lawmakers requested Joe Biden to apply more force on punishing Putin for leading an invasion of Ukraine.
Trump also recently praised Putin for the invasion. He said, “I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, ‘This is genius.’ Putin declares a big portion of Ukraine — Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful.” Trump has been embracing Russia since his 2016 presidential campaign, for example, when his campaign apparently played up Democratic emails that were hacked and released by the Russian military. In addition, Trump’s inner circle members met with a Russian spy during the campaign who promised dirt on Clinton.
It didn’t stop there. During the 2020 campaign, Trump’s close allies apparently cooperated with a known Russian spy to market disinformation about Biden and his family, which included the same claims he made in the recent interview.
The clip of Trump’s interview urging Putin was released by a news website founded by John Solomon, a pro-Trump journalist whose previous information about Biden’s ties to Ukraine has been discredited, He told the CNN that the interview was held on Monday at Mar-a-Lago.