On Friday, The Inquisitr reported that a Ukraine government official confirmed that Donald Trump was “looking for kompromat” on leading Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden. Meanwhile, other media reports separately revealed that in a July 25 phone call, the president allegedly pressed Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky eight separate times to open an investigation on the former vice president. Now, a news story from one week ago suddenly resurfaced, offering what some commentators believed may complete the picture of what took place during that phone call.

According to an Associated Press report (via ABC News) first published on September 13, Zelensky revealed in a speech last week that not only had the Trump administration released the previously pledged $250 million in military aid to Ukraine, but for reasons that remain unexplained, also threw in an additional $140 million, bringing the total aid package to $390 million.

As The Inquisitr reported on September 6, Trump had been blocking the release of the $250 million even though the sum had already been approved by the Pentagon, leading The Washington Post to accuse the president of attempting to “extort” the 2020 election help from Ukraine. But last week, not only did Trump release the $250 million, but now appears to have sweetened the deal quite substantially.

But the Trump administration announcement of the Ukraine aid package made no mention of the extra $140 million.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed that the Trump administration sent an extra $140 million to his country. Featured image credit: Sean Gallup Getty Images

“There is very credible evidence that the President of the United States gave a foreign power a $140,000,000 bribe to investigate his political opponents,” wrote Forensic News founder and reporter Scott Stedman, via Twitter.

“We can say we have very good relations with the U.S., because now we will get not only $250 million but [an additional] $140 million,” Zelensky said in last week’s speech, as quoted by Radio Free Europe. “When you are waiting for $250 million but then have the possibility to get $390 million, I like this sort of relationship.”

So far, however, no direct evidence has connected the additional $140 million to any agreement by Ukraine to investigate Biden over the dismissal of a prosecutor who was probing an oil company with which Biden’s son Hunter was involved. In fact, Anton Geraschenko — a senior adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, who would be in charge of any investigation into Biden — said on Friday that there was no ongoing investigation into the former vice president, simply because the country’s government had not received a formal request to open one.

In 1998, the United States and Ukraine signed a Mutual Legal Assistance treaty. That treaty designates a specific process through which one country may request an investigation of one of its citizens by the other country’s government. But there has been no indication that the Trump administration has filed or plans to file such a request under the treaty.