Is this story still the ‘discredited conspiracy theory’ Schiff claims it is? There’s now an Obama-donor tie-in.
The corruption in Burisma may have gone even deeper than we imagined.
The entire impeachment proceedings hinge on the question of Burisma, and our two parties have very different understandings of the facts of the case.
Democrat rhetoric will insist that the ‘real’ motive for taking an interest in Burisma and Ukranian corruption surrounding the 2016 election was to ‘damage his opponents’.
Republicans will respond to that by pointing to a Politico story acknowledging that there was cooperation between Ukranian officials and the Democrats in the attempt to undercut Trump’s 2016 campaign. They will point to the fact that Biden bragged about holding $1Billion dollars of America aid money as leverage (#QuidProJoe) unless a Ukranian official was fired that same day… and it ‘just so happened’ that Biden’s son worked on the board of the same company that was being investigated by said Ukranian official for corruption-related offenses.
There was direct contact between representatives of Burisma and the Obama administration right around the time of that firing. And the investigation into Burisma was conveniently shelved.
There is disagreement about whether Biden was right to want the firing of that particular prosecutor. But the involvement of his son and a corruption investigation that ‘went away’ is noteworthy, especially with John Solomon having acquired primary source documents confirming the connections between Burisma, Biden, his son and DC.
The Obama-appointed diplomat even acknowledged Hunter’s employment with Burisma being one of the ‘prep questions’ she had been given in her confirmation hearings. So even Obama’s people knew it was an issue.
With all that interest in Burisma, the Democrats will he happy to learn that real corruption has been uncovered, right? (Hardly.)
Do you remember what it was Trump said he wanted from Zelensky?
Like we covered in this story, Jim Jordan got Sondland to say it in plain English:
“You said to the President of the United States, what do you want from Ukraine. The president: I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo. I want Zalensky to do the right thing. I want him to do what he ran on. What’d he run on Ambassador Sonland?” (Sondland: Transparency) “And dealing with corruption, right? (Sondland: That’s right)
And now it looks like we’re getting that transparency. An audit of a company whose founder has already been flagged for corruption shouldn’t seem unreasonable, should it? Especially when it discovers millions of dollars that have been embezzled from the Ukranian government?
Nothing in that search, you will notice, ‘targets a political enemy’. What did that Ukranian audit discover about this sketchy company?
First, here’s how the Blaze reported it in straightforward language:
A Ukrainian member of parliament said Wednesday that Hunter Biden and his partners with Burisma received $16.5 million in illegal funds obtained by a Ukrainian crime family and laundered through another country, according to Interfax.
Ukrainian MP Andriy Derkach said at a news conference that Biden and his colleagues took millions of dollars that really belonged to the Ukrainian people.
“The [prosecutor general’s office] document once again confirms the data I had previously published on Burisma and international corruption,” Derkach said. “According to Zlochevsky’s suspicion notice, Biden and partners received their $16.5 million for their services to Burisma. Biden received funds not due to the successful activity of Burisma or for brilliant business decisions or recommendations. This is the money of Ukrainian citizens. The funds were obtained by criminal means. That’s what they say in the PGO.”
…”According to the investigation, Zlochevsky was directly involved in the withdrawal of funds by the Yanukovych ‘family’,” Derkach said. “They laundered the funds of Yanukovych through three companies in Latvia.”
The money was then allegedly paid to Hunter Biden, Aleksander Kwasniewski, Alan Apter, and Devon Archer.
Source: The Blaze
Here’s Reuters:
After he took office in late August, Ryaboshapka launched a wide-ranging audit of criminal cases to see whether they had been conducted properly. Thirteen of them relate to Burisma founder Mykola Zlochevsky, Ryaboshapka told reporters at a briefing on Wednesday.
Burisma did not respond to a request for comment.
Ryaboshapka’s predecessors oversaw a series of investigations into Zlochevsky, a multimillionaire former minister of ecology and natural resources. The allegations concern tax violations, money-laundering and licences given to Burisma during the period where Zlochevsky was a minister.
Ryaboshapka said Zlochevsky was now suspected of the “theft of government funds on an especially large scale,” but did not provide evidence or details.
Ryaboshapka was speaking after being asked about a document from the general prosecutor’s office that was leaked at a separate press conference by three lawmakers earlier on Wednesday.
The document, only part of which was visible, showed Kulyk suspected Zlochevsky of offences including using his official position to embezzle 800 million hryvnias ($33 million) of money belonging to the central bank.
Source: Reuters
Other reporting of the same issue highlights alleged ties to Obama’s allies:
“The son of Templeton’s founder, John Templeton Jr., was one of President Obama’s major campaign donors. Another fund-related character is Thomas Donilon. Managing Director of BlackRock Investment Institute, shareholder Franklin Templeton Investments, which has the largest share in the fund. It is noteworthy that he previously was Obama’s national security advisor,” Derkach added.
Source: ZeroHedge
At the very least, it’s worth discovering whether the threat of withholding our foreign aid was used to shield a criminal enterprise for personal or political gain, isn’t it?
And even if that weren’t a worthy reason, there’s still that matter of ‘election interference’ whose relevance was so VERY important to US domestic policy that it was prioritized over Ukranian security… by 3 Democrat Senators who threatened to pull financial aid if they didn’t cooperate with the Mueller investigation.
