Giuliani Has A New Conspiracy Theory To Mainline Into GOP Bloodstream
The seed of another wacky conspiracy theory is sprouting in Ukraine.
And this time, it purports to implicate both President Barack Obama and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA).
According to a
Tuesday report in the Washington Post, Trump asked Giuliani to brief Trump and GOP Senators about what he was told while in Kyiv last week.
The Ukrainians who met with Giuliani have announced, on their own, what they told the President’s lawyer. What emerges is a new conspiracy theory positing an elaborate scheme involving the Franklin Templeton investment fund, Obama, and Schiff.
It’s not entirely clear when Giuliani will do the briefing. He told the Post that he hoped “to have it done by the end of the week,” while Trumpworld fixture Jason Miller
tweeted that it would be out “a little later than Wednesday.” But if he does, this theory could find its way into the halls of Congress.
While in Kyiv, Giuliani met with a member of Ukrainian parliament named Oleksandr Dubinsky. A former journalist who entered parliament this past summer, Dubinsky is known in Ukraine in part for his ties to
a local oligarch with certain legal issues pending in the U.S.
But Dubinsky, a ferocious poster, uploaded a video last week in which he retells what he claims to have told Giuliani. Part of that has to do with a supposed “investigative commission” that Dubinsky wants to create in Ukraine to investigate his allegations, which focus on the deposed Russia-friendly government of Viktor Yanukovych and on President Volodymyr Zelensky’s predecessor, Petro Poroshenko.
Crucially, Dubinsky says in the video — titled “Meeting with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani” — that “the creation of an investigative commission would be focused on receiving information from the U.S. Justice Department and to attract it to an investigation of these financial frauds that, I repeat, occurred under Yanukovych and Poroshenko.”
In the video, Dubinsky echoed claims made by former Ukrainian general prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko, who initially fed dirt to Giuliani.
The allegation is based on $7 billion in bonds issued by the Ukrainian government and purchased by Franklin Templeton, the investment management company.
Dubinsky and Lutsenko allege that the bonds were actually part of an elaborate scheme to siphon money out of Ukraine and make millions.
Without providing any evidence to support the claim, Dubinsky said in the video that $7 billion that had been stolen from the Ukrainian budget via various corruption schemes was laundered into the U.S. by being used to purchase an equal amount in bonds issued by the Ukrainian government.
Franklin Templeton, Dubinsky said, agreed to take the dirty money and buy the bonds, which came at a 9.5 percent annual yield. The investment manager overseeing the alleged scheme was also one of the Obama campaign’s biggest donors, Dubinsky said.
FEC records do not corroborate the claim.
“A fucking awesome scheme!” Dubinsky exclaimed in the video, adding that he told Giuliani all of the details.
Separately, a spokeswoman for Lutsenko
said that the former general prosecutor told Giuliani in an interview in Budapest that Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch prevented him from conducting an investigation into the $7 billion. Again, Lutsenko has not offered any evidence to support the claim.
Giuliani tweeted last week that Schiff is an investor in Franklin Templeton.
One America News appears to have misreported Schiff’s connection to the investment fund. The right-wing TV network
reported that Schiff received donations from Franklin Templeton; FEC records do not show that.
Rather, Schiff’s own financial disclosures suggest that he received dividends from investments he has with the firm.
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