WASHINGTON — The Trump administration imposed sanctions on Monday towards 7 Ukrainians — such as two who assisted President Trump’s private attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani — for becoming element of what it known as “a Russia-linked foreign influence network” that spread “fraudulent and unsubstantiated allegations” about President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. for the duration of the 2020 campaign.
Mr. Giuliani relied on two of the Ukrainians who had been penalized — Andrii Telizhenko and Kostiantyn H. Kulyk — as he sought to collect damaging data and force government investigations into Mr. Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, linked to Ukraine. That hard work, which had the president’s backing, led to Mr. Trump’s impeachment in 2019 by the Residence of Representatives.
The sanctions announced on Monday stemmed from the Ukrainians’ do the job with Andriy Derkach, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament, who was the target of sanctions by the Treasury Division final 12 months and was accused of becoming a Russian agent and spreading disinformation about Mr. Biden. Mr. Derkach had met with Mr. Giuliani in 2019.
The Ukrainians penalized on Monday had been accused in a statement launched by the Treasury Division of assisting Mr. Derkach “spread misleading and unsubstantiated allegations that present and former U.S. officials engaged in corruption, cash laundering and unlawful political influence in Ukraine.”
The targets of the sanctions also integrated 4 media providers that the Treasury Division stated had been affiliated with Mr. Derkach and had been concerned in his efforts to spread disinformation.
The sanctions are the hottest in a series of techniques taken by the Treasury Division more than the previous couple of many years to punish folks and groups that it accused of involvement in Russia-linked election interference, even as Mr. Trump, an meant beneficiary of the interference, has continued to downplay Russia’s function.
“Russian disinformation campaigns focusing on American citizens are a risk to our democracy,” Steven T. Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, stated in the statement. “The United States will proceed to aggressively defend the integrity of our election techniques and processes.”
Mr. Kulyk had worked in the workplace of Ukraine’s nationwide prosecutor, the place he assisted lead an investigation into a Ukrainian oligarch who owned a gasoline business that had paid Hunter Biden as a board member when his father was serving as vice president and overseeing American relations with Ukraine. Mr. Kulyk talked about the topic with Mr. Giuliani, who was pushing the Ukrainian government to announce an investigation into the Bidens to injury the former vice president’s presidential campaign.
Mr. Kulyk, who has considering the fact that been fired from the prosecutors’ workplace, was accused by the Treasury Division on Monday of forming “an alliance with Derkach to spread false accusations of worldwide corruption.”
Mr. Telizhenko, a political advisor and former official in the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, offered data to Senate Republicans for a report on the Bidens’ do the job in Ukraine, which was launched weeks ahead of Election Day in an obvious hard work to injury the Biden campaign. The report discovered no proof of improper influence or wrongdoing by the former vice president.
Mr. Telizhenko assisted Mr. Giuliani for the duration of the 2020 campaign, arranging meetings with Ukrainians claiming to have damaging data about the Bidens. Mr. Telizhenko assisted system a journey for Mr. Giuliani to Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, in December 2019, for the duration of which Mr. Giuliani met with Mr. Derkach and recorded interviews with him and many others that aired on Mr. Giuliani’s podcast and a particular on the professional-Trump cable channel A single America Information Network.
The Treasury Division appeared to allude to this journey in explaining its sanctions of Mr. Telizhenko, noting in its statement that he “orchestrated meetings in between Derkach and U.S. individuals to enable propagate false claims regarding corruption in Ukraine.” The statement did not explicitly identify Mr. Giuliani or the Bidens, but it asserted that the sanctioned Ukrainians “leveraged U.S. media, U.S.-primarily based social media platforms and influential U.S. persons” in their efforts to spread damaging allegations.
Mr. Giuliani did not react to a request for comment on Monday.
Just after the sanctions towards Mr. Derkach had been announced in September, Mr. Giuliani stated in an interview that he “didn’t do significantly investigation” of Mr. Derkach but had “no motive to feel he is a Russian agent.”
In the interview, Mr. Giuliani stated he knew Mr. Telizhenko “a whole lot superior than I know Derkach,” incorporating he “looked into” Mr. Telizhenko “very cautiously. I imply, seem, I’m not a genius, but I would be shocked if he’s anything at all like a Russian agent.” He extra: “I would vouch for pretty couple of Ukrainians. I’d come rather near to vouching for him. I’m not confident I would absolutely vouch for him, but rather near.”
The sanctions towards Mr. Derkach stemmed from his release of audio recordings of Mr. Biden speaking to Petro O. Poroshenko, the former president of Ukraine. Mr. Trump promoted some of the materials launched by Mr. Derkach, who claimed the recordings exposed corruption, even though the conversations had been generally unremarkable.
Other Ukrainians targeted on Monday had been accused of aiding in the efforts linked to the recordings.
Oleksandr Onyshchenko, a former Ukrainian lawmaker and ally of Mr. Poroshenko, was accused by the Treasury Division of offering the recordings to Mr. Derkach. Mr. Onyshchenko fled Ukraine in 2016 right after becoming accused of fraud and cash laundering.
Oleksandr Dubinsky, a present member of the Ukrainian Parliament, was designated by the Treasury Division for joining Mr. Derkach in information conferences that highlighted the recordings. The Treasury Division stated the information conferences had been “designed to perpetuate” false narratives towards “U.S. presidential candidates and their households.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated in a statement on Monday that the Ukrainian officials dealing with sanctions “have created repeated public statements advancing malicious narratives that U.S. government officials have engaged in corrupt dealings in Ukraine.” He extra, “These efforts and narratives are steady with or in help of Derkach’s goals to influence the 2020 U.S. presidential election.”
Two of the media providers that had been punished — such as NabuLeaks, which posted the recordings of Mr. Biden and Mr. Poroshenko — are owned or managed by Mr. Derkach. The other two, Only Information and Skeptik TOV, are owned by Mr. Derkach’s media manager Petro Zhuravel, who was also penalized by the Treasury Division on Monday.
A variety of Mr. Derkach’s allies had been also targeted. They contain Dmytro Kovalchuk, a member of his media staff, and Anton Simonenko, a near associate who assisted Mr. Derkach hide fiscal assets, in accordance to the Treasury Division.