Mike Bloomberg pollster was ‘simultaneously on the payroll’ of Ukrainian oligarch: report

Billionaire former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg was paying a top advisor who was also likely on the payroll of a Ukrainian oligarch, according to an analysis of a new public filing by New York Times reporter Ken Vogel.

"Mike Bloomberg’s presidential pollster has ended his years-long representation of a Ukrainian oligarch briefly scrutinized by U.S. law enforcement during its investigation into Russian election-meddling," The Daily Beast reported on Tuesday.

"Pollster and pundit Doug Schoen told The Daily Beast on Tuesday that he has signed on to work on the former New York mayor’s 2020 Democratic presidential bid. In anticipation of that role, he said, he terminated a contract with billionaire investor Victor Pinchuk," The Beast reported. "Schoen’s work with Bloomberg predated his formal launch this past Sunday. An aide to the one-time mayor said that Schoen had done polling for them in anticipation of a presidential announcement in addition to his three successful mayoral runs."

Vogel looked at the timeline established by a new filing.

"Special counsel Robert Mueller briefly probed Pinchuk’s 2015 payment to the Donald J. Trump Foundation for a televised speech that Trump gave at the Ukrainian’s annual Yalta European Strategy conference," The Beast explained.

"Pinchuk’s name has also surfaced in the context of the ongoing impeachment inquiry against President Trump," The Beast noted. "Two years after Trump’s 2015 speech, Rudy Giuliani, who now serves as the president’s personal attorney, traveled to Kyiv to address Pinchuk’s foundation. While there, he met with then-Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko and a top prosecutor in the country, Yuriy Lutsenko, who peddled baseless conspiracy theories, subsequently relayed by Giuliani, at the center of the impeachment inquiry."

"Pinchuk isn’t the only former client of Schoen’s whose work creates tantalizing and complicated political implications for Bloomberg’s run. Schoen also has done work for Trump himself, back when the president was in the real estate business and not electoral politics. Schoen advised Trump on a 150-story commercial and residential project that was to be dubbed 'Trump City' but never actually materialized," The Beast added.