Those accused include Kostyantyn Kulyk, a former Ukrainian deputy prosecutor general who had drafted a memo in 2019 suggesting Ukraine investigate Hunter Biden, US President Joe Biden\u2019s son, for his role serving on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.<\/p>\n
Also implicated were a current member of Ukraine\u2019s parliament, Oleksandr Dubinsky, and a former member, Andrii Derkach, who had publicly advocated for an investigation in Ukraine into Hunter Biden. They had also promoted a spurious theory that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that had meddled in the 2016 presidential election in the United States.<\/p>\n
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Rudy Giuliani was charged alongside Donald Trump and 17 others accused of scheming to subvert the will of Georgia voters to keep the Republican president in the White House.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Fulton County SHeriff\u2019s Office<\/cite><\/p>\n The three were charged with treason and belonging to a criminal organisation. The charges refer to \u201cinformation-subversive activities\u201d and focus on actions in 2019 before the US presidential election. They do not say if or when the activity stopped.<\/p>\n In the run-up to the 2020 election in the United States, Giuliani who served as Donald Trump\u2019s lawyer, had encouraged Ukrainian officials to follow up on the allegations against Hunter Biden. The effort included a phone call by Trump to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in July 2019 urging an investigation into the Bidens, at a time when the Trump administration was withholding military aid for the Ukrainian army.<\/p>\n President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden in June.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AP<\/cite><\/p>\n Critics say that pressure to investigate the Bidens was politically motivated, aimed at harming the elder Biden\u2019s chances against Trump in the 2020 presidential election.<\/p>\n Trump and Giuliani denied that there was anything inappropriate about their contact with Ukrainian officials, with Trump describing his phone call to Zelensky as \u201cperfect\u201d. The administration said military aid to Ukraine was withheld over concerns about corruption in the Ukrainian government.<\/p>\n The events led to Trump\u2019s first impeachment in the House of Representatives. He was acquitted in the Senate.<\/p>\n Ukrainian media on Wednesday (AEDT) suggested the charges, too, had a political component for Zelensky: that they were intended to send a signal to Biden now, as his administration is pressing Congress for military assistance to Ukraine, that Kyiv will root out accused Russian agents, including those who had promoted accusations against his family.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n