Senator Ron Johnson recently accepted a packet of information from disgraced former Ukrainian prosecutor Kostiantyn Kulyk, in what appears to be the most recent example of a Russian-backed disinformation campaign targeting Johnson’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
In the files sent to Johnson and exclusively obtained by Forensic News, Kulyk accuses Burisma Holdings’ owner Mykola Zlochevsky of laundering money to Hunter Biden and companies connected to him. Kulyk claims, with no evidence and unidentified Latvian “witnesses” that a Morgan Stanley account connected to Hunter Biden received over $3 million in illicit funds. Kulyk also implores Johnson to hear his testimony along with the testimony of the alleged witnesses.
While the letter to Johnson does not contain specific allegations of misconduct by Joe Biden, Kulyk hints that he has information implicating the former Vice President. Kulyk writes,
[su_quote style=”default” cite=”Kostiantyn Kulyk” class=”fancy-quote”]
This letter does not contain the information about the attempts which I am aware of and aimed at obstructing the investigation into Joe Biden on the part of representatives of the US Embassy in Ukraine, the FBI, a number of politicians and others.
This letter also does not contain the information about other circumstances of illegal actions by Joe Biden, the US Embassy in Ukraine, the FBI and politicians, aimed at causing property damage to a number of Ukrainian businessmen while lobbying the interests of companies that provided financial assistance to the US Democratic Party.
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Austin Altenburg, Communications Director for Senator Johnson’s Committee, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Kulyk compiled a dossier on the Bidens’ in 2019 before being fired in an anti-corruption purge in Ukraine.
President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, in his search for damaging information on the Bidens, met with Kulyk in 2019 and according to the House impeachment report (p. 46), lawyers Victoria Toensing and Joe DiGenova, who briefly represented Trump, signed retainer a retainer agreement with Kulyk and his boss Yuriy Lutsenko. Derek Harvey, a senior aide to Republican Devin Nunes also had a Skype call with Kulyk in March 2019.
The first and last page of the 6-page packet sent to Senator Johnson can be seen below. The middle pages, which were read to Forensic News, included identifying remarks that could reveal the identity of the source who provided them for this publication.
Kulyk is a controversial figure who not only has been accused of corruption himself but has multiple connections to the Russian intelligence services that officials have concluded are waging an election interference campaign to denigrate Joe Biden and help Donald Trump. He has regularly appeared at press conferences with Andrii Derkach, a Ukrainian politician who the United States publicly outed in September as “an active Russian agent for over a decade, maintaining close connections with the Russian Intelligence Services.”
[su_quote style=”default” cite=” the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control” class=”fancy-quote”]
From at least late 2019 through mid-2020, Derkach waged a covert influence campaign centered on cultivating false and unsubstantiated narratives concerning U.S. officials in the upcoming 2020 Presidential Election, spurring corruption investigations in both Ukraine and the United States designed to culminate prior to election day.
Between May and July 2020, Derkach released edited audio tapes and other unsupported information with the intent to discredit U.S. officials, and he levied unsubstantiated allegations against U.S. and international political figures.
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Besides his close working relationship with Derkach – an active Russian agent – Kulyk reportedly remained friends with Yevhen Zhylin, a warlord in eastern Ukraine accused of working for the Russian intelligence services until he was killed in Moscow in 2016. Local Ukrainian media reports said that Kulyk’s car was registered to the Russian warlord’s father.
In text messages released (p. 133) by former Giuliani associate Lev Parnas as part of the impeachment hearings into Donald Trump, Kulyk is treated by his Ukrainian colleagues with skepticism. Yuriy Lutsenko, Kulyk’s former boss in the prosecutor’s office in Ukraine told Parnas that Kulyk was “toxic.” For years, Kulyk worked as Lutsenko’s right-hand-man.
“Keep in mind,” Lutsenko wrote to Parnas, “Ky is very toxic. There are very serious backers behind him in the Russian Federation.”
Contacted by Forensic News, Parnas confirmed that the message referring to “Ky” was indeed a reference to Kulyk. In Ukrainian and Russian, Kulyk’s name – Кулик – begins with Ky.
Apart from his engagement with Senator Johnson’s Committee, Kulyk in recent weeks has filmed a video with a Rudy Giuliani-aligned company detailing the Burisma and Biden allegations. The video, according to a source who has seen it, references Kulyk’s overture to Johnson. Kulyk also makes references to Joe Biden including saying, “a criminal can get much farther with big money and ties to the Vice President of the United States than with big money alone.”
None of Kulyk’s allegations have been substantiated in any way. His close partnership with an active Russian agent, Andrii Derkach, his friendship with a suspected Russian intelligence officer Yevhen Zhylin, and the warning from his boss about his “very serious backers…in the Russian Federation” should make clear that Kulyk’s efforts are part of the Russian government’s efforts in the 2020 election to support Donald Trump.