Trump retweets purported audio of Biden call with Poroshenko
President Donald Trump has 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, published earlier by MP Andriy Derkach, The Washington Post said.
The leaked conversation, purportedly between Biden and former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, dates from Feb. 18, 2016, also known as "Derkach's records," has been retweeted by Trump, the ezine says.
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 (Burisma) where Biden's son, Hunter, once held a board seat, The Washington Post said.
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."
Earlier, Ukrainian MP Derkach released audio materials with voices similar to those of Poroshenko and Biden, which may indicate Biden's influence on the fifth president of Ukraine. Among the topics discussed were the increase in tariffs by 100% instead of 75%, the dismissal of Prosecutor General Shokin in exchange for loan guarantees worth $1 billion, the conversation of people with voices similar to those of Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin, etc.