Trump getting help pushing Biden-China smears from old allies like Steve Bannon

Even as President Donald Trump's shady phone call with the Ukrainian president threatens him with impeachment, his allies are trying to cook up corruption allegations against Joe Biden's family dealings in China.

The president evidently tied U.S. aid to Ukraine in exchange for damaging information against Biden, rooted in allegations made by conservative writer Peter Scheizer, who's now trying to hype a second line of attack, reported The Daily Beast.

Schweizer, whose 2016 book "Clinton Cash" underpinned Trump campaign claims against the Democratic nominee that were then amplified by foreign trolls, is trying to smear Hunter Biden for doing business in Ukraine and China, and Trump allies like Steve Bannon and anti-Muslim activist Frank Gaffney are working to promote the scheme.

“Joe Biden’s gotta come one hundred percent clean on his relationship and his family’s relationship with the [Chinese Communist Party],” Bannon said at an April conference. “We need to know every piece of involvement that Joe Biden has had with the Chinese Communist Party, the Bank of China and all the financial institutions in China.”

Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani -- who has been deeply involved in the Ukrainian efforts -- has eagerly hyped the China story, although he won't reveal whether he and the president have discussed the matter.

"I’ve done nothing on China but repeat what others have reported but it really looks bad,” Giuliai told the website. “It’s arguably worse than Ukraine."

Schweizer's 2018 book "Secret Empires" tried to link Hunter Biden's investment firm Rosemont Seneca to the vice president's government duties, and Giuliani has boosted the book's claims about a $1.5 billion private equity deal between the firm and the Bank of China.

Biden's campaign insists Schweizer's claims are “a roundly debunked conspiracy theory," and the book does not establish any connection between the vice president's 2013 trip to Beijing and Rosemont's deal.

Hunter Biden's attorneys have said he wasn't even an equity owner when the elder Biden served as vice president, and he has denied conducting any business on that 2013 trip.