Here we go again. The latest efforts to discredit President Trump are gaining momentum among House democrats, based on (apparent) pressure from their constituents, and true hatred of Trump (at all costs, with no exceptions), and the latest catalyst: A phone call to the new president of Ukraine… in July. This has resulted in Nancy Pelosi today calling for an impeachment inquiry, under tremendous pressure from her caucus. So, let’s analyze this one a bit, from several sides. This has taken a bit of research from at least 25 sources, to get agreement among them on several facts; there is plenty of fluff to discard, including a completely ridiculous statement by a republican presidential candidate, Bill Weld (who, you ask? There is a history there, going back to the Justice Dept under Reagan, where he was labeled as “conniving”), on one of the peacock networks in the last 36 hours calling out treason, and punishment by death. It should be noted that Lawrence O’Donnell, MSNBC, declared Trump committed treason a few months ago when he supposedly promised Kim Jong Un that he wouldn’t recruit Kim’s family members to be CIA informants. Really?
Okay – so onto what appear to be the facts, as reported by several outlets including CNN, Fox, WSJ, and a few other sources. First, let’s look at the Ukraine call. Trump made this call, with many people on the line listening in. Not one, including the Ukraine foreign minister in a released statement, said there was any pressure, quid pro quo, or otherwise untoward activity or suggestions. However, there was a whistleblower, which has now totally lathered up the left. But yesterday we learned that the whistleblower wasn’t actually ON the call. That’s okay, right – they still read the transcript, right? No. Wrong. As of today, even CNN is reporting that the so-called whistleblower never even had access to or read the transcript. Seriously?
In his typical fashion, Trump has now apparently had enough, and has ordered the complete, unredacted release of the call transcript. This was approved, and even encouraged by not only the White House staff, but also encouraged by the Justice Department. With that announcement, however, the democrats then turned attention to also wanting the complaint from the whistleblower, hoping that will have some additional proof of unscrupulous behavior. And by the way – the money being withheld from Ukraine – that was withheld well before this call happened, and this has happened with every aid package being sent out by the US to every country – Trump wanted to know what it was being used for, what results would they see, and what was the benefit for the US. This was a military aid package, not a humanitarian package. I agree with that level of examination; in fact, I am working directly with organizations right now that are working with USAID to fund projects in other parts of the world, and their statements to me have been consistent: “This administration wants to see results with the money going out; the past administration had virtually no checks and balances on these packages, once the initial pitch was accepted and funded.” And by the way, Obama refused to help the Ukraine with any of this aid while he was in office.
That money was released after Trump received a call from US Senator Dick Durbin to plead the case for Ukraine (Dick also threatened to defund $5B in the pentagon, as reported by the Washington Post); even though Trump wanted Europe to also pitch in, he released it. Trump was reportedly very concerned about whether the new Ukraine president was pro-Russian or pro-Western, before releasing the money. All of this happened over a week before that call. So, let’s all read the call transcript when it comes out, and make decisions from there. Fortunately (?), the Pelosi-led House is way out ahead, as they are already starting inquiries for impeachment with absolutely zero evidence in hand. Great – glad one district in Colorado elected Jason Crow for that. He co-authored an OpEd calling for the inquiry. Nice move Colorado District 6. You are officially contributing to the failure to move forward with anything helpful in Washington.
And through all of this, Joe is Teflon. He was “cleared of wrongdoing” at the time of all of this… by the Obama Whitehouse! Wow. Okay. So, let’s examine the other side of this conversation: The actions by Joe Biden, acting as Vice President, in 2013 and beyond. First, let me state for this record that I really don’t have issues with us putting conditions on aid to other countries. Certainly, those conditions should be non-corrupt in nature, but generally speaking we should ask for some form of return and/or results.
Joe was appointed by President Obama to be the point man for all things Ukraine in 2014 (February), as that country was dealing with rooting out corruption stemming from a long Soviet past. In April of 2014, following a visit by Joe to Ukraine, his son Hunter Biden was named to the board of Burisma, a Ukraine natural gas company, owned by oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky, who, up until at least 2014, was the ecology minister for Ukraine, and as a result was able to direct benefits in terms of contracts, approvals, etc., toward Burisma. This is why the British froze over $23M in Zlochevsky’s assets right before Hunter was named to the board (himself with no prior energy sector experience).
Did I mention that Rosemont Seneca, the “investment firm” owned by Hunter and John Kerry’s stepson, Christopher Heinz (yes – the ketchup family, he is an heir), received in excess of $3.1M from Burisma (mostly in $166K/month payments), while Hunter himself was paid over $50K/month, during most of his tenure at Burisma? As of last April, 2019, Rosemont Seneca’s phone number is no longer in service. This was within weeks of Hunter stepping down from the Burisma BOD.
Taking a step back, let’s also examine Hunter: He was an ensign in the US Navy… at 40 years old. He was granted a direct commission, 3 years beyond maximum age, with waivers approved with significant pressure from his dad and other friends in Washington. He was then granted a second waiver for past drug use. He was subsequently thrown out of the Navy in 2013 at 43 years old, for testing positive for cocaine.
Does any of this sounds Kennedy-esque? Any of it? Look closely at Teddy’s sorted past, not to mention (many) others in the family. Rape trials, murder charges dropped, drug arrests buried and lost, corruption scandals, etc… But they were powerful democrats. They could get away with anything.
Despite all of this, Hunter also traveled with his dad on Air Force 2, to Beijing, in 2013 to meet with several individuals in the government. Within a couple weeks of his return, the Chinese government suddenly gave Hunter’s investment firm (another firm along with Seneca, this one called BHR Partners) $1B in private equity, later increased to $1.5B – yes, billion. This firm was the anchor investor in CNG (China Nuclear Group), which in 2016 would be charged by the US Justice Department for stealing nuclear secrets from the US.
But Hunter’s past has also seen him battled addiction, which it sounds like Joe is firmly in Hunter’s corner to tackle once and for all. In 2016 Hunter turned in a rental car in Arizona, where the police were called by Hertz to remove a crack pipe, a bag with “white powder” inside, Hunter’s driver’s license, a Secret Service business card, and a Delaware Attorney General badge, where Hunter’s late brother, Beau, was the AG years before his death.
Through all of this, we haven’t even talked about Burisma and the Ukraine investigations into its corruption (along with its main owner, Zlochevsky). It appeared that money would flow through Burisma like water in Niagara…or a washing machine. The prosecutor conducting the investigation was, at that time, requesting an interview with Hunter, but this was not yet scheduled. Isn’t it interesting that Joe Biden, in March of 2016, went in front of the Ukraine president and threatened him with pulling $1B in US loan guarantees if he didn’t fire this prosecutor? Joe has gone on camera admitting, in fact bragging about this in 2018, painting it as a corrupt prosecutor he was trying to get rid of. What he failed to mention was that Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin was leading a wide-ranging corruption probe into the natural gas firm Burisma Holdings that employed Biden’s younger son, Hunter, as a board member. U.S. banking records show Hunter Biden’s American-based firm, Rosemont Seneca Partners LLC, received regular transfers into one of its accounts — usually more than $166,000 a month — from Burisma from spring 2014 through fall 2015, during a period when Vice President Biden was the main U.S. official dealing with Ukraine and its tense relations with Russia.
The general prosecutor’s official file for the Burisma probe — shared by senior Ukrainian officials — shows prosecutors identified Hunter Biden, business partner Devon Archer and their firm, Rosemont Seneca, as potential recipients of money.
Shokin revealed that, before he was fired as general prosecutor, he had made “specific plans” for the investigation that “included interrogations and other crime-investigation procedures into all members of the executive board, including Hunter Biden.”
This all makes me ask where the bad actors really are, and does the anti-Trump hysteria make those bad actors “disappear” in the mist, in the anti-Trump voters’ eyes? Once people actually look at the facts of the actions of Joe using his office as a bully leverage point, Obama’s supporting of it by appointing Joe, the financial benefits to Joe’s family private foundation (which I didn’t even go into), the financial benefits to his son, and all of the associated activities and actors involved, could they wipe off the layer of apathy and admit that perhaps, maybe just perhaps, bad guys aren’t always Trump? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
