Biden advised ex-Ukrainian president against prosecuting political rivals, Manafort alleges

One of the main targets of the Trump-Russia collusion investigation says he witnessed then-Vice President Joe Biden warn former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych against pressing criminal charges against his chief political rival in 2010.

Paul Manafort, who served as former President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign manager and was one of the major figures to be convicted as part of the Robert Mueller probe, was at the time a political consultant for Yanukovych. Appearing on the "Just the News, No Noise" television show on Monday, Manafort described a phone call from Biden to Yanukovych during which the then-vice president issued his warning.

"One of the stories I like to tell about that time is, you know, when Yanukovych won the presidency in 2010, part of the campaign theme, he was campaigning against the former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, who he declared had done a corrupt deal with the Russians... whe[n] Victor Yushchenko was the president," Manafort said. "And Yanukovych, against my advice, had her arrested for the corruption, that even Yuschenko approved of, but I was against it, because I said, you don't do that if you want to have a developing democracy and become part of Europe."

"Well, the very next day, he got a phone call and I was with him, from Vice President Biden, who said to him, that he needed to remove this indictment of the Tymoshenko, because the United States doesn't support governments that go after their political opponents," Manafort went on. "And, of course, the rest is history."

He further highlighted the contrast between Biden's warning to Yanukovych and the Biden Department of Justice's indictments of former President Donald Trump, calling it "the most compelling example I have of the dual system of justice."

"And by the way, Yanukovych had the evidence of Tymoshenko's corruption," he continued. "And even her own president, Viktor Yushchenko, you know, said that what she did was wrong. But that was how she funded her presidential campaign, again, in 2010."

"And so, when you look at that, and then you see what, what Biden is doing in here against Trump, you've got to say, again, you know, there's [two] standards of justice," he concluded.

Former President Donald Trump faces two separate cases from special counsel Jack Smith, who has brought charges against him related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents and his efforts to challenge the 2020 presidential election results. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all counts in both cases and insists that Smith's indictments are part of a broader political witch hunt intended to derail his candidacy for president in 2024.

Manafort ultimately reached a plea deal with special counsel Robert Mueller 2018, though a judge later determined he violated the agreement and he was sentenced to prison. Former President Donald Trump pardoned him in late December of 2020.

Yanukovych, for his part, was ultimately ousted from his post during the 2014 "Revolution of Dignity" in Ukraine. His decision to accept a Russian economic aid package in place of an agreement with the European Union prompted months of protests that ultimately resulted in his flight to Russia. He was tried in absentia and found guilty of treason according to The Guardian. Russian media say that he lives in exile in the Moscow suburb of Bakovka.

Amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, speculation abounded that Moscow intended to reinstate him as the country's president, though that did not occur due to the Russian failure to fully occupy the country.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.