Report: Giuliani “Unwitting” Ally of Russian Interference Effort
While the new bombshell intelligence report released on Tuesday was making headlines regarding the effort led by Vladimir Putin to interfere in both the 2016 and 2020 elections, deeper details began emerging on Wednesday about Donald Trump’s many enablers and their participation in the Russian disinformation campaign.
The report pegs Trump’s lawyer, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, as an “unwitting” ally in the Russians’ effort to influence the outcome of the election. Giuliani sought dirt on Biden from unvetted sources in Ukraine and elsewhere. And a slew of right-wing media outlets, including Fox, OAN, Newsmax, and others, amplified and disseminated the anti-Biden propaganda Giuliani collected.
Giuliani also spent months pushing the narrative that Joe Biden’s son Hunter had engaged in dubious activity while serving on the board of a Ukrainian energy company. This claim was fact-checked over and over again, particularly as Trump faced impeachment for his efforts to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to announce an investigation of the Bidens. At no point did credible evidence emerge to suggest that the claims being pushed by Giuliani and Trump were accurate. Giuliani, who often seemed to be giving more information than he should have every time he appeared on TV, continued to hammer on the allegations, repeatedly insisting that he had provided or would provide evidence to prove wrongdoing.
People keep saying Russian intel agents reached out to Giuliani who supposedly people claim was "unwitting" to attack our elections. Has anyone looked into the fact that Trump reached out to Russian intel agents (his mafia associates) via Giuliani/Manafort?
— Olga Lautman 🧙🏼♀️🎃 (@OlgaNYC1211) March 17, 2021
Giuliani associate Lev Parnas has often indicated that the former Mayor was anything but “unwitting” when it came to his efforts for Trump.
Trump and @RudyGiuliani demanded disinformation about @JoeBiden and didn’t care wear it came from!@DevinNunes and @SenRonJohnson pushed that disinformation through the halls of Congress!@jsolomonReports and @seanhannity disseminated the disinformation to the American people! https://t.co/ThbCqgJqeW
— Lev Parnas (@levparnas) March 17, 2021
Even after the second impeachment investigation of Trump was underway, Giuliani returned to Ukraine with a crew from the pro-Trump network One America News to film an interview with those he claimed had evidence of Biden’s wrongdoing.
I'm sorry, but calling Rudy Giuliani an unwitting ally in Russia's effort to rig the 2020 election for Trump — it's like calling Timothy McVeigh an unwitting accomplice in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.
— Bill Madden (he/him/él) (@maddenifico) March 17, 2021
Giuliani kept pushing the bad intel he was receiving from his source, Andriy Derkach, into the fall. The Treasury Department then sanctioned Derkach, whom they classified as an “active Russian agent”, for attempting to influence the 2020 presidential election.
Unwitting?
"Unwitting" pic.twitter.com/WD8wvZbL9t
— Alamo_On_The_Rise 😷🇺🇲 (@AlamoOnTheRise) March 17, 2021