A March 12 rally in Florence, S.C. Photo: Sean Rayford/Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday said during an interview that Russian President Vladimir Putin "should release" any information on alleged dealings between Hunter Biden and the widow of a late Moscow mayor.
Flashback: The interview, with far-right television show “Just the News,” is the latest example of Trump pushing unvetted claims about a political rival. Trump was impeached in 2019 for asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to dig up dirt on then-Democratic presidential opponent Joe Biden and his son.
- Trump in 2016 called on Russia to find emails associated with his election opponent Hillary Clinton: “I will tell you this, Russia: If you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” said the then-Republican nominee.
- “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”
In Tuesday's interview, Trump cited the findings of a partisan and highly controversial investigation by Senate Republicans that was published in 2020 and "produced little new evidence of wrongdoing," according to Politico.
The big picture: Trump has previously laid out unfounded claims that the late Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov's widow had donated $3.5 million to a company he claimed is connected to Hunter Biden, per CNN.
- Hunter Biden has denied the allegations and his lawyer has denied he was the owner of the company in question, per CNN.
What he's saying: "She gave him $3.5 million so now I would think Putin would know the answer to that. I think he should release it," Trump said in the interview, which was conducted at Mar-a-Lago.
- "I think we should know that answer."
- Trump himself sought business with Luzhkov in the 1990s, according to Politico.