Shadowy Oligarch Has a Thing for Giuliani: Report

The media spotlight fell Rudy Giuliani again this week amid fresh accusations and an intriguing foreign-bribery case. Testifying to congressional investigators, diplomat George Kent said Giuliani had pressed the White House and the State Dept. to get a visa for former Ukrainian prosecutor Victor Shokin, CNN reports. Shokin had lost his job after Joe Biden, as vice president, pressured Ukraine to renew its anti-corruption probes. Now Shokin is making claims about Biden's son, Hunter, and says Democrats have coordinated with people in Ukraine. Giuliani talked to him in a January 23 Skype call and apparently failed to get him a visa. Giuliani told CNN he thought Shokin could get dirt on Democrats. In other Giuliani news:

• Associates of a Ukrainian oligarch sought dirt on Joe Biden in order to get Giuliani's help in the oligarch's legal battle against extradition to America, three sources tell Bloomberg. The oligarch, Dmitry Firtash, lives in Vienna and faces US conspiracy charges. Two of his recently hired lawyers are vocally pro-Trump, have worked with Giuliani, and billed Firtash roughly $1 million, including costs for Giuliani associate Lev Parnas as a contact and translator. Parnas is among those arrested last week for allegedly conspiring to break campaign-finance laws. Firtash associates also acquired a statement from Shokin saying Biden had tried to influence Ukraine to help his son.
• Giuliani—who still represents people other than President Trump—met with top Justice Dept. officials a few weeks ago about a foreign-bribery case involving another client, the New York Times reports. It later emerged that Giuliani himself is under investigation for possibly breaking foreign lobbying laws. "I really try very hard to be super-ethical and always legal," he texted when asked about the Justice Dept. meeting. "But I can't publicly defend everything I do because I’m presumed guilty."

(More Rudy Giuliani stories.)