US federal prosecutors are investigating whether current and former Ukrainian officials interfered in the 2020 US presidential election, the New York Times reports.
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The newspaper cited people with knowledge of the matter as the source of the update.
The criminal investigation will look into whether Ukrainian officials used Rudolph Giuliani to spread misleading claims about current President Joe Biden, the report said. Giuliani was at the time the personal lawyer to former president Donald Trump.
The inquiry into potential election interference began during the final months of the Trump administration, and is being handled by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York, the newspaper reported. It is separate from an ongoing criminal investigation into Giuliani's dealings in Ukraine.
Prosecutors in the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York are probing whether the Ukrainian officials tried to influence the 3 November election by spreading claims of corruption about Biden through a number of channels, including via Giuliani, the newspaper reported. Biden has denied any wrongdoing.
One of the officials being investigated is a Ukrainian member of parliament named Andriy Derkach, the newspaper reported.
The US Treasury Department previously sanctioned Derkach, identifying him as an "active Russian agent for over a decade."
Giuliani, who the New York Times said has not been accused of wrongdoing in this investigation, has previously denied representing any Ukrainians.
The US Attorney's Office and Arthur Aidala, a lawyer for Giuliani, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Giuliani's business dealings with Ukrainian oligarchs while he was working as Trump's lawyer are the subject of a probe by federal prosecutors in Manhattan. Federal agents searched his home and office in April, seizing phones and computers.
Giuliani has denied allegations in that probe, and his lawyers have suggested the investigation is politically motivated.
-Reuters
