Christopher Miller reports:

Andriy Telizhenko, his eyes concealed by dark sunglasses, gabbed away between sips of iced tea and puffs of a fat Nicaraguan cigar on the terrace of a glitzy Kyiv hotel in the July heat. A fan blew cool mist in his direction.

As smoke rolled out of his mouth, so did conspiracy theories. He paused only briefly to greet some of the VIP guests who sauntered in for lunchtime espressos or champagne; their bodyguards watched conspicuously from nearby tables.

Telizhenko, a former Ukrainian diplomat and associate of fellow cigar aficionado Rudy Giuliani, never drifted far from his obsession: Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

For three years, he has worked to help President Donald Trump get reelected by exposing what he perceives to be the corrupt actions of the Bidens in Ukraine. And he said he’s not done.

Telizhenko first emerged on the political scene in 2017, when he was interviewed for a now infamous Politico article in which he alleged that Ukraine had interfered in the 2016 election, a charge that has been debunked.

He has since become a darling of the pro-Trump right-wing media and is part of a ragtag group of Ukrainian operatives working with Giuliani and hoping to help Congressional Republicans in the coming weeks surface damaging details about the Biden family.

The operatives have competing personal and political motives but share important similarities: troubles in their past and ties to Russia. [Continue reading…]