In July, Buma sent the Senate Judiciary Committee a 22-page statement full of eye-popping allegations, and the document leaked and was first reported last month by Insider (after a conservative blogger had posted it online). According to Buma’s account, Giuliani was used as an asset by a Ukrainian oligarch tied to Russian intelligence and other Russian operatives for a disinformation operation that aimed to discredit Joe Biden and boost Trump in the 2020 presidential race. Moreover, Buma says he was the target of retaliation within the bureau for digging into this.

Buma’s statement highlights Giuliani’s relationship with Pavel Fuks, a wealthy Ukrainian developer, who in 2017 hired Giuliani and paid him $300,000. Fuks once told the New York Times that he had retained Giuliani to lobby in the United States for the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, where Fuks then lived. Giuliani has denied that he was paid to lobby for Kharkiv, insisting he only provided advice regarding security to the city. And Fuks has changed his tune. Through a spokesperson, he told Mother Jones that Giuliani’s work was limited to advising the city.

In his statement, Buma says that the FBI assessed Fuks to be a “co-opted asset” of Russian intelligence services, meaning a person who Russian intelligence used to advance its goals. Buma’s complaint does not name a specific Russian intelligence agency, but a person who spoke to agents involved in this investigation says that the FBI believes Fuks worked for the FSB, the successor to KGB. All this raises the possibility that Giuliani, a former Republican presidential candidate who became a close adviser to Trump, received a large payment directly from a Russian asset.

Buma alleges that Fuks has carried out various tasks for Russian spies, including laundering money for them. Fuks also reportedly paid locals to spray-paint swastikas around Kharkiv in the weeks before Russia’s invasion. Buma says Fuks did so to bolster Vladmir Putin’s claim that the invasion aimed to achieve the “de-Nazification of Ukraine.”

  • googlrr@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    We still gotta see receipts. If it was reported on it will be on the internet. Rudy is a shit bag but we don’t gotta make up stuff if there’s no proof there’s plenty there already for us to go on

    • theodewere@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      but we don’t gotta make up stuff

      you’re making an assumption there, and you know they say about assumptions

      or i don’t know, maybe they don’t say anything bad about assumptions where you’re from

      • googlrr@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I’m making an assumption by asking for some proof? Mate idk what you’re going on about lol

        • Spaceinv8er@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          You’re right my man, we need to see what they’re talking about. Never believe what some random dude just comments online with no reputable source material other than “I read it somewhere, trust me man”.

        • theodewere@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          yeah, you’re assuming it’s made up because YOU don’t have what you call proof, whatever that is… i’m still trying to figure out what receipts you’re imagining… you think they went to Niagara Falls together or something? go get us the proof you need, detective, if you need some more proof… get on those receipts…

          • googlrr@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Man idk what or who you’re arguing against I just wanted to see an article or anything talking about this lol

            • theodewere@kbin.social
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              1 year ago

              i have no doubt your impenetrable ignorance has a stupendous appetite for articles… lol