Ukraine interfered in ’16 US poll

London, March 14: When Republican lawmakers this week abruptly cancelled a plan to subpoena a former Ukrainian official in their investigations into the energy firm that hired former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, they said it was to allow more time for senators to receive additional briefings. But a Ukrainian magazine editor said that the target of the subpoena,

Andrii Telizhenko, offered him money to lobby US senators on behalf of proRussian media outlets.

A former Ukrainian diplomat, Telizhenko is an ally of Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and has been an enthusiastic proponent of the debunked theory that Ukraine, and not Russia, interfered in the 2016 US elections.

Telizhenko also backed Republican claims that

Trump’s Democratic rival, Joe Biden, shut down an investigation into the Ukrainian gas company Burisma when his son, Hunter, served on its board. Biden has consistently denied any wrongdoing. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee called off a vote to subpoena Telizhenko earlier this week, amid accusations from Democrats that the investigation was calculated to damage Biden's presidential bid.

Questions also swirled about Telizhenko’s reliability as a witness — the New York Times reported that the FBI had briefed the committee leadership with concerns that he could be spreading Russian disinformation. Telizhenko says he’s victim of a smear campaign and flatly denied he was a “Russian agent”.