Trump retweets purported audio of Biden call with Ukraine
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump retweeted an audio recording that U.S. intelligence officials have described as being part of a Russian campaign to denigrate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
The leaked conversation, purportedly between Biden and former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, dates from Feb. 18, 2016. The excerpt of it retweeted by Trump centers on the ouster of Ukraine’s chief prosecutor, who had previously investigated the owner of a Ukraine energy company where Biden’s son, Hunter, once held a board seat.
By amplifying the recording to his more than 85 million Twitter followers, Trump underscored the ease with which pro-Russian narratives can seep into American public discourse ahead of the 2020 election even after being flagged by intelligence officials as the product of a concerted Russian effort.
Russia has also published disinformation under the guise of legitimate news stories, U.S. officials say, reflecting something of a shift in tactics from 2016, when Russia relied on a social media campaign to sow discord and orchestrated the release of stolen Democratic emails to boost Trump’s candidacy.
The White House did not immediately return a message seeking comment on Monday. But the Biden campaign accused Trump of having “habitually attacked the sovereignty of American elections,” including by “attempting to coerce his Ukrainian counterpart into spreading conclusively-disproved lies.”
In the conversation retweeted Sunday night by Trump, Poroshenko can be heard telling Biden that he had accepted the resignation of prosecutor Viktor Shokin “despite of the fact that we didn’t have any corruption charges, we don’t have any information about him doing something wrong.”
An anti-Biden narrative pushed by Trump and his supporters alleges that Biden, as vice president, pressured Ukraine’s government to fire Shokin because Shokin had led an investigation into Burisma, where Hunter Biden had a paid board seat.
But Biden’s position on Shokin, who was seen as soft on corruption, reflected the position of the U.S. government and was supported by other Western governments and many in Ukraine.