The whistleblower says his probe of Giuliani's ties to suspected Russian operatives was thwarted.

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.”

  • hogunner@lemmy.world
    1231·
    1 year ago

    Nice to get some high level confirmation but this doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s been paying close attention to Ghouliani for the last 10-20 years. Dude has always been corrupt and doing the bidding of one mobster or another.

    • chaogomu@kbin.social
      61·
      1 year ago

      It was not one mobster or another. He made his name prosecuting the Italian mob so that the Russians could move into NYC.

  • tsonfeir@lemm.eeEnglish
    95·
    1 year ago

    Lol. The entire Republican Party is on the Russian payroll, even if they don’t know it.

    • Slwh47696@lemmy.world
      61·
      1 year ago

      I would be much more surprised if Trump and Co. weren’t all Russian assets

      Pretty wild how all these Republicans hated Russia more than anything else up until the last few years, and now they suddenly love Russia

    • Syldon@feddit.ukEnglish
      4·
      1 year ago

      There is a lot of cooperation between the UK’s Tory party and the Republicans through a group called the national conservative group. There is also a lot of similarities with the stunts being pulled by the Republicans and the Tories with gerrymandering and general corruption of the process in government.

      There has been some very credible links with the Tory party and Russian influence. We have a Russian in the Lords. Johnson performed some actions that were incredibly poorly judged. The Tories fought tooth and nail to stop sanctions being applied to certain Russian oligarchs that had money in the UK. Johnson’s government stopped the electoral commission from investigating Russian influence with the Brexit referendum. He then went further by pulling the electoral commission directly under government control.

      There is now a bad smell about both the Republicans and our Conservatives when it comes to Russian influence. Don’t let Trump slide, make him pay for what he has done, and if that proves to have Russian influence then take everything from him. His kids should not benefit from this.

    • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
      31·
      1 year ago

      Lol, the Russians don’t need to pay them. They have all the compromat they need to keep the GOP in line.

      • tsonfeir@lemm.eeEnglish
        4·
        1 year ago

        Oh yeah they do. I’m sure it’s all child molestation. Like, Trump would fully admit to raping an adult and his base would be like “yeah grab it,” but no one can get away with raping a kid.

        • SilverFlame@lemmy.world
          1·
          1 year ago

          I remember reading court records that detailed settlements he paid out for rape. Some of those little boys were as young as 8 if I recall. I tried looking for the records a few weeks ago and couldn’t find them.

          • tsonfeir@lemm.eeEnglish
            2·
            1 year ago

            I mean, he can’t settle his way out of a criminal charge, and if criminal charges weren’t filed it could have been a shakedown.

            I’m not saying he didn’t do it—but it gets sketchy when there isn’t a criminal charge for something to a kid.

  • NegativeLookBehind@kbin.social
    87·
    1 year ago

    Trump and Giuliani are the high watermark tests. If they don’t spend the rest of their lives in prison cells for committing treason at the highest levels, that’s a clear cut signal that certain people can get away with anything, and that American justice has failed.

  • theodewere@kbin.social
    591·
    1 year ago

    before Rudi was mayor, he was helping clean up the Italian mafia in NYC… the Russian mafia filled a bunch of the vacuum left behind, and Rudi and the Russians have been friends ever since for some reason…

    • n0m4n@lemmy.world
      20·
      1 year ago

      It had been reported that the Russian mafia were feeding information to Giuliani on the Italian mob. It was how Guiliani was able to make his cases, build his reputation to become “America’s mayor”, AND also compromised him to become a Russian asset. The story was reported a long while ago, and I don’t remember which journalist(s) broke the story or who they wrote for, nor their reliability, anymore, but recall them as very highly rated as accurate in their facts.

      • RunningInRVA@lemmy.world
        9·
        1 year ago

        Appreciate that but gonna need some facts to support that one. If nobody is reporting it (other than you) then it is hard to believe, as much as I would like to.

        • theodewere@kbin.social
          42·
          1 year ago

          it is hard to believe

          it’s anything but… in fact it’s really easy to believe about that slimeball piece of shit… when you think about it…

          • googlrr@lemmy.world
            8·
            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
              12·
              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
                2·
                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
                  2·
                  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
                  11·
                  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…

        • n0m4n@lemmy.world
          1·
          1 year ago

          I tried to find my reading, but the post was too long ago for my searches to pull it up. Some supporting facts did turn up. 1 The Russian mob was warring with the Italian mob over turf at the time. 2 No Russians were indicted in NY at the time, though, by my search of records. 3 The KGB were looking for assets, and Giuliani would be a plum target. 4 The KGB’s MO is to find kompromat and keeps its victims ensnared, once they get compromising info. (Spy craft that all sides exploit.) 5 Giuliani needed money, even then, for his lawyer(s) and his first divorce settlement. These do not prove anything, but I find nothing that doesn’t raise more suspicions, either.

  • Rapidcreek@reddthat.com
    55·
    1 year ago

    Wow. Compromising giuliani must have been hard. I mean you need a bottle of vodka and a girl. Where are you going to find that?

    Borat compromised him FFS

  • Techmaster@lemm.ee
    46·
    1 year ago

    I can’t wait to find out that Trump and all his co-conspirators were all involved in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I just have this feeling that they have been involved in planning the whole thing all along, and the plan was for Trump to win a second term so he could allow it to happen or even deploy our military to help Russia. He was literally impeached for extorting Zelenakyy and refusing to send him military aid.

  • nkat2112@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    341·
    1 year ago

    Now, for some quotes not included in the post above:

    Ukraine has sanctioned Fuks, and it is reportedly investigating him for fraud and tax evasion. Fuks now lives in London, according to recent media reports.

    Nice!

    In his statement, Buma says that he developed suspicions that Giuliani, through his relationship with Fuks, was “compromised by the RIS,” meaning the Russian Intelligence Services. That is a striking claim—an allegation that Russian spies may have obtained influence over a top adviser to the US president.

    But I guess we all suspected as much. It’s still shocking to see it.

    Buma reveals in his statement that he also probed whether Russian operatives or assets were involved in a 2020 Giuliani effort to make a film about Hunter Biden’s business activities in Ukraine and elsewhere.

    Oh, no. Let’s find out how that went, shall we?

    The anti-Biden film was to include commentary from Konstantin Kulyk, a former Ukrainian prosecutor who Treasury sanctioned in 2021 for working with Derkach to spread “fraudulent and unsubstantiated allegations” about Biden. That is, this project was to feature information from sources who the US government later deemed were connected to a disinformation campaign linked to Russian intelligence.

    D’oh!

    Giuliani played a key role in trying to line up investors for the movie.

    Hehe

    The investors Giuliani did help find were two brothers, David and Kable Munger, who own a large blueberry producing company in California and have donated generously to GOP candidates.

    Ok, so they got funding.

    The movie never came close to being made, and people involved in the endeavor told Mother Jones the project was disorganized and incompetently managed.

    I can laugh my rear off, but really, I shouldn’t be surprised. What a clown show - MAGAs shivving MAGAs:

    The Mungers recently sued two GOP activists involved in producing the film, Tim Yale and George Dickson, along with a company they formed. Giuliani was not named as a defendant in the suit.

    The Mungers say that Giuliani helped persuade them to invest $1 million by saying that they would receive a share of the film’s profits. The brothers also claim that Yale and Dickson told them the movie would be “more profitable than Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11.”

    Oh, really? They were going to out-do Mr. Moore?

    Giuliani, Dickson, and Yale also said, according to the Mungers’ lawsuit, that they possessed “smoking guns” revealing Joe Biden was corrupt.

    Smoking guns, folks, smoking guns!

    Giuliani and his colleagues possessed no such material. The Mungers allege that Dickson and Yale stole their investment.

    Ruh-oh! There was no smoking gun - not even one.

    Giuliani, according to the lawsuit, was paid $300,000 for his participation in the film project. A lawyer and a spokesperson for Giuliani did not respond to requests for comment.

    Of course not.

    The icing on the cake for me, if I may say, is the following paragraph:

    Buma’s revelations may only be the start. A source familiar with his work tells Mother Jones that other potential FBI whistleblowers who participated in the investigation involving Giuliani have consulted the same lawyer as Buma and might meet with congressional investigators in coming weeks. That attorney, Scott Horton, declined to comment.

  • FoundTheVegan@kbin.social
    30·
    1 year ago

    In a headline that isn’t surprising, I find the most suprsing-thats-not-suprising thing is…

    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.”

  • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.worldEnglish
    231·
    1 year ago

    Remember when little donnie, the lying liars networks, the Republicans, the “centrists”, a whole lot of the “liberal media” (lol) and even some supposed leftists were gaslighting and proclaiming that the Russia thing was a “hoax”?

    How long will they keep that up, by the way?

    • CryptoRoberto@sh.itjust.works
      121·
      1 year ago

      There was so much evidence. I really didn’t get the amount of denial. Trumps been linked to Russia for decades in his business dealings.

    • spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works
      7·
      1 year ago

      Why would they stop? Just last week a user here who has his own sub (filled with Russian propaganda videos) commented on the “Russia hoax.” Of course this idiot knows nothing and doesn’t care about the reality of it, just like all of his room temperature IQ friends.

      • TechyDad@lemmy.world
        3·
        1 year ago

        They call it a hoax because, like any conspiracy theorist, they deem that any evidence against their theory is faked or part of the conspiracy. If the conspiracy is “we never landed on the moon,” then any evidence showing that we did was “planted by NASA to fool the gullible.”

        In the case of Trump’s Russia connections, the conspiracy theorists (who claim that it’s all a hoax), simply label any evidence as “part of the Deep State hoax.” Once that evidence is explained away like so, they can continue to believe that there’s no evidence and it’s all a hoax.

        At this point, Trump could appear on TV with Putin himself and admit to working with Russia to undermine the US and a significant number of right wingers would declare that video faked. Another portion would declare it true, but somehow come to the conclusion that this is actually helping America and that Trump is really playing 12D chess to outmaneuver Putin.

    • mriguy@lemmy.world
      6·
      1 year ago

      How long will they keep that up, by the way?

      For fucking ever. They never retreat and never apologize.

      • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Oppo research is standard operation procedure, so not sure how that is relevant. Also, what part was disproved?

        • Chocrates@lemmy.world
          1·
          1 year ago

          I thought most of the Steele Dossier was inaccurate in the fullness of time? No issue with oppo research that is just part of politics

  • Sanctus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    18·
    1 year ago

    Is this suprising to anyone? Its clear as day a lot of the GOP is compromised by Russian interests.

  • Grant_M@lemmy.caEnglish
    171·
    1 year ago

    Back in the 80s. Rudy cleared out the American mob to make way for his Russian mob associates.

  • LiquidMastering@lemmy.worldEnglish
    151·
    1 year ago

    What city in a foreign country would hire Ghouliani to provide ideas for “updating security”? That seems like the dumbest excuse for a payoff ever.