Contracts show how Giuliani-backed lawyers planned to help fired Ukraine prosecutor get revenge on Biden

Newly revealed contracts obtained by the Daily Beast show that two lawyers backed by Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani explicitly promised to help fired Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin regain his reputation by digging up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden.

A contract written up by attorney Victoria Toensing this past April stated that Shokin would agree to pay Toensing and her husband, fellow attorney Joseph diGenova, $125,000 "for the purpose of collecting evidence regarding [Shokin’s] March 2016 firing as Prosecutor General of Ukraine and the role of then-Vice President Joe Biden in such firing, and presenting such evidence to U.S. and foreign authorities."

Biden directly put pressure on the Ukrainian government to fire Shokin as part of official American policy in Ukraine under the Obama administration. However, Biden's role in Shokin's ouster has raised questions about conflicts of interest given that Hunter Biden at the time was employed by Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

This apparent conflict of interest has been the center of what has so far been a baseless charge that Biden behaved corruptly when he helped push Shokin out the door on the American government's behalf.

President Donald Trump, in his now-infamous phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, specifically asked that his government investigate the Bidens as part of a "favor" to him.