© UnknownFormer VP Joe Biden and son Hunter Biden
For days we've been treated to MSM insinuations that President Trump may have betrayed the United States after a whistleblower lodged an 'urgent' complaint about
something Trump promised another world leader -
the details of which the White House has refused to share.Then, we learned it was a phone call.
Then, we learned it was
several phone calls.
Now, we learn it wasn't Russia or North Korea -
it was Ukraine!Here's the scandal;
It appears that Trump, may have made promises to newly minted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky - very likely involving an effort to convince Ukraine to reopen its investigation into Joe Biden and his son Hunter,
after Biden strong-armed Ukraine's prior government into firing its top prosecutor - something Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani have pursued for months. There are also
unsupported rumors that Trump threatened to withhold $250 million in aid to help Ukraine fight Russian-backed separatists.
And while the MSM and Congressional Democrats are starting to focus on the sitting US president having a political opponent investigated,
The New York Times admits that nothing Trump did would have been illegal, as:
"while Mr. Trump may have discussed intelligence activities with the foreign leader, he enjoys broad power as president to declassify intelligence secrets, order the intelligence community to act and otherwise direct the conduct of foreign policy as he sees fit."
Moreover, here's why Trump and Giuliani are going to dig their heels in; last year
Biden openly bragged about threatening to hurl Ukraine into bankruptcy as Vice President if they didn't fire their top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin - who was leading a wide-ranging corruption investigation into a natural gas firm whose board Hunter Biden sat on.From
The Hill:
In his own words, with video cameras rolling, Biden described how he threatened Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in March 2016 that the Obama administration would pull $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees, sending the former Soviet republic toward insolvency, if it didn't immediately fire Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin.
"I said, 'You're not getting the billion.' I'm going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said:
'I'm leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you're not getting the money,'" bragged Biden, recalling the conversation with Poroshenko.
"Well, son of a bitch, he got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time," Biden said at the Council on Foreign Relations event - while
insisting that former president Obama was complicit in the threat.
In short, there's both smoke and fire here -
and what's left of Biden's 2020 bid for president may be the largest casualty of the entire whistleblower scandal.
And by the transitive properties of the Obama administration 'vetting' Trump by sending spies into his campaign, Trump can simply say
he was protecting America from someone who may have used his position of power to directly benefit his own family at the expense of justice.Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, are acting as if they've found
the holy grail of taking Trump down. On Thursday, the House Intelligence Committee chaired by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA)
interviewed inspector general Michael Atkinson, with whom the whistleblower lodged their complaint - however despite three hours of testimony,
he repeatedly declined to discuss the content of the complaint.
Following the session, Schiff gave an angry speech - demanding that acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire share the complaint, and calling the decision to withhold it "unprecedented." According to the
Washington Post:
"We cannot get an answer to the question about whether the White House is also involved in preventing this information from coming to Congress. We're determined to do everything we can to determine what this urgent concern is to make sure that the national security is protected. There certainly are a lot of indications that it was someone at a higher pay grade than the director of national intelligence."
On Thursday, Trump denied doing anything improper - tweeting "
Virtually anytime I speak on the phone to a foreign leader, I understand that there may be many people listening from various U.S. agencies, not to mention those from the other country itself."
"Knowing all of this,
is anybody dumb enough to believe that I would say something inappropriate with a foreign leader while on such a potentially 'heavily populated' call."
Giuliani, meanwhile, went on
CNN with Chris Cuomo Thursday to defend his discussions with Ukraine about investigating alleged
election interference in the 2016 election to the benefit of Hillary Clinton conducted by Ukraine's previous government. According to Giuliani, Biden's dealings in Ukraine were 'tangential' to the 2016 election interference question -
in which a Ukrainian court ruled that government officials meddled for Hillary in 2016 by releasing details of Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort's 'Black Book' to Clinton campaign staffer Alexandra Chalupa.
And so - what the MSM doesn't appear to understand is that
President Trump asking Ukraine to investigate Biden over something with legitimate underpinnings.Which - of course, may lead to
the Bidens' adventures in China, which Giuliani referred to in his CNN interview. And just like his
Ukraine scandal,
it involves actions which may have helped his son Hunter - who was making hand over fist in both countries.Journalist Peter Schweizer, the author of
Clinton Cash and now
Secret Empires discovered that in 2013, then-Vice President Biden and his son Hunter flew together to China on Air Force Two - and two weeks later,
Hunter's firm inked a private equity deal for $1 billion with a subsidiary of the Chinese government's Bank of China, which expanded to $1.5 billion
Meanwhile, speculation is rampant over what this hornet's nest means for all involved...
The chairman of the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees wrote in a letter, citing media reports over the alleged threat to withhold $250 million:
"As the 2020 election draws closer, President Trump and his personal attorney appear to have increased pressure on the Ukrainian government and its justice system in service of President Trump's reelection campaign, and the White House and the State Department may be abetting this scheme."
House Democrats are also looking into whether Giuliani flew to Ukraine to 'encourage' them to investigate Hunter Biden and his involvement with Burisma.
Comment: From
Breitbart, 21/9/2019: Peter Schweitzer: Media trying to turn a Biden scandal into a Trump scandal
Schweizer said:
"Hunter Biden, in a sense, went around the world and cashed in on his father's access. Hunter Biden was getting $83,000 a month from this Ukrainian energy company where he had no background."
"So the immediate question becomes, he's not selling his expertise โ because he has none in this field โ what is he getting paid for? That is the issue...I think Ukraine needs to investigate it, but also the U.S. Department of Justice, because let's remember, Ukraine is a terribly corrupt country โ it's been plagued with that for a long time โ and this is something that's too serious, we can't just leave it to Ukrainian prosecutors to look into."
"There's no reporting of the fact that the vice president's son was going around the world โ to Ukraine, to China, there are financial transactions involving Kazakh oligarchs, there's money going from Swiss bank accounts to the vice president's son โ and ask me, [or] ask a lot of people โ do we really want to have a country where it becomes acceptable and commonplace for this kind of behavior to take place? And I think the answer is, 'No.'"
"Again the question is, what was [Hunter Biden] being paid for? These entities were not giving the money away. They were paying Hunter Biden for something. He's not selling his expertise, so what exactly was he selling? And that's what needs to be investigated."
No news media figures hosting Democrat events marketed as "presidential debates" have, thus far, asked Joe Biden about Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings. If you change the name from Hunter Biden to Don Jr. or Eric Trump, I think you would have an entirely different tone by the media and by the Congress, and that's a shame, [because] it should be consistent with whoever's doing it.
In addition from
The Hill, 20/9/19: Missing piece to the Ukraine puzzle: State Department's overture to Giuliani
Politics or law could have been part of Giuliani's motive, and neither would be illegal. But there is a missing part of the story that the American public needs in order to assess what really happened: Giuliani's contact with Zelensky adviser and attorney Andrei Yermak this summer was encouraged and facilitated by the U.S. State Department.
Giuliani didn't initiate it. A senior U.S. diplomat contacted him in July and asked for permission to connect Yermak with him. Then, Giuliani met in early August with Yermak on neutral ground โ in Spain โ before reporting back to State everything that occurred at the meeting.
That debriefing occurred Aug. 11 by phone with two senior U.S. diplomats, one with responsibility for Ukraine and the other with responsibility for the European Union, according to electronic communications records I reviewed and interviews I conducted.
According to interviews with more than a dozen Ukrainian and U.S. officials, Ukraine's government under recently departed President Petro Poroshenko and, now, Zelensky has been trying since summer 2018 to hand over evidence about the conduct of Americans they believe might be involved in violations of U.S. law during the Obama years.
Ukrainian officials also are discussing privately the possibility of creating a parliamentary committee to assemble the evidence and formally send it to the U.S. Congress, after failed attempts to get the Department of Justice's attention.
UPDATE: RT 21/9/2019: Biden brands Trump 'serial abuser' of power, nothing in Ukraine scheme involving his son
Biden...pointing fingers at Donald Trump:
"You should be asking him the question: why is he on the phone with a foreign leader, trying to intimidate a foreign leader?" Biden asked. "This appears to be an overwhelming abuse of power." He then dismissed the question about Hunter and Ukraine, saying "everybody who's looked at it said there's nothing there," and urged the reporter to ask "the right question" instead.
The allegations were followed by a string of bombshell reports, that suggested that the US president had repeatedly pressured Zelensky into investigating an allegedly corrupt scheme in the country that had involved Biden's son, who is 49. Those reports were met with outrage from the Democrats, who branded the scandal a "constitutional crisis" and renewed their calls for the impeachment of Trump. Biden Senior, for his part, urged the US President to release a full transcript of the conversation with Zelensky.
But he didn't stop there; he also called Trump a "serial abuser" of power who is trying to use "smear" tactics, fearing the Democrats might beat him in next year's race for the White House.
Trump, who's been vocally dismissive of Biden's chances of beating him in 2020, has brushed the whole Zelensky story off as "political hack job," repeatedly attacking the "fake news" media. He also attacked Biden in a Twitter rant on Saturday.
"The Fake News Media and their partner, the Democrat Party, want to stay as far away as possible from the Joe Biden demand that the Ukrainian Government fire a prosecutor who was investigating his son, or they won't get a very large amount of U.S. money, so they fabricate a story about me and a perfectly fine and routine conversation I had with the new President of the Ukraine," Trump wrote in his own onslaught.
UPDATE: RT, 21/9/2019: Trump 'fishing for election dirt' in Ukraine bad, Trump hit by dirt from Ukraine - silence
President Donald Trump is being roasted for "pressuring" Ukraine to get dirt on Joe Biden over past meddling sins. Did the same people cry murder when Trump's aide Paul Manafort was torpedoed by the 'black ledger' leak from Kiev?
This week dedicated Russiagaters had a short yet intensive thrill ride, after it was revealed that a whistleblower had complained about President Donald Trump having an inappropriate phone conversation with a foreign leader. The gotcha moment soon passed as sources of various media outlets claimed that the foreign leader was not Vladimir Putin of Russia but rather Volodymyr Zelensky, the freshly elected leader of Ukraine.
So Trump, his detractors believe, pressured Zelensky to get dirt on the man who is likely to be his Democratic rival in next year's presidential election. Trump has denied it, tweeting on Saturday that "nothing was said that was in any way wrong" between the two. Kiev officials seem to deny it too, with Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko telling the media he knows "what the conversation was about" and that he thinks "there was no pressure."
There are serious questions about how reliable this leaked ledger was in the first place and how extensive the conspiracy was. The two Ukrainian officials may have acted alone, or on behalf of senior figures in their government wishing to score some points with the perceived future leader in Washington. There are claims of some coordination with people in DC, or rather, the DNC.
Whichever the case, one thing is clear: what the Kiev court described was a case of foreign interference in the American election. And when it came out, Trump critics somehow didn't stampede to denounce it. Which brings us to the partisan logic gripping the US right now: there is "good meddling" and "bad meddling,""illegal" dirt-digging and one "for the greater good," as well as "impeachable" allegations of corruption - and those you can boast about.
"He'll use every element of his abusive power and every element of [his] presidency to try to do something to smear me. Everybody looked at this, and everybody said there's nothing there. Ask the right question!" Biden fumed on Saturday, after a reporter dared to ask about Hunter and Ukraine.
Ask the right question indeed.
UPDATE: Gateway Pundit, 21/9/2019 Another media lie blows up in their face
As more pieces fall into place it becomes evident, once again, that the US media blew another hit piece on President Trump. The latest overly hyped Ukrainian scandal just blew up in their face.
For over two year The Gateway Pundit has been reporting on Ukrainian collusion with the Hillary Clinton campaign. For the past six months TGP has been reporting on Joe Biden's criminal acts in Ukraine.
According to John Solomon it was the Ukrainians that initiated contact with the Trump administration and it was the State Department that encouraged Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani to meet with a top Ukrainian official in July in Spain.
So the alleged far left "whistleblower" blew the story and the liberal media pounced on it anyway.
John Solomon at The Hill reported:
The coverage suggests Giuliani reached out to new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's team this summer solely because he wanted to get dirt on possible Trump 2020 challenger Joe Biden and his son Hunter's business dealings in that country.
Politics or law could have been part of Giuliani's motive, and neither would be illegal.
But there is a missing part of the story that the American public needs in order to assess what really happened: Giuliani's contact with Zelensky adviser and attorney Andrei Yermak this summer was encouraged and facilitated by the U.S. State Department.
Giuliani didn't initiate it. A senior U.S. diplomat contacted him in July and asked for permission to connect Yermak with him.
Then, Giuliani met in early August with Yermak on neutral ground โ in Spain โ before reporting back to State everything that occurred at the meeting.
That debriefing occurred Aug. 11 by phone with two senior U.S. diplomats, one with responsibility for Ukraine and the other with responsibility for the European Union, according to electronic communications records I reviewed and interviews I conducted.
When asked on Friday, Giuliani confirmed to me that the State Department asked him to take the Yermak meeting and that he did, in fact, apprise U.S. officials every step of the way.
"I didn't even know who he (Yermak) really was, but they vouched for him. They actually urged me to talk to him because they said he seemed like an honest broker," Giuliani told me. "I reported back to them (the two State officials) what my conversations with Yermak were about. All of this was done at the request of the State Department."
So, rather than just a political opposition research operation, Giuliani's contacts were part of a diplomatic effort by the State Department to grow trust with the new Ukrainian president, Zelensky, a former television comic making his first foray into politics and diplomacy.
And not only did the Ukrainians initiate contact with the Trump administration but they were blocked from traveling to the US by the US Embassy in Kiev.
According to interviews with more than a dozen Ukrainian and U.S. officials, Ukraine's government under recently departed President Petro Poroshenko and, now, Zelensky has been trying since summer 2018 to hand over evidence about the conduct of Americans they believe might be involved in violations of U.S. law during the Obama years.
The Ukrainians say their efforts to get their allegations to U.S. authorities were thwarted first by the U.S. embassy in Kiev, which failed to issue timely visas allowing them to visit America.
Then the Ukrainians hired a former U.S. attorney โ not Giuliani โ to hand-deliver the evidence of wrongdoing to the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York, but the federal prosecutors never responded.
UPDATE: Gateway Pundit, 21/9/2019 Corrupt Obama ambassador refused visas to Ukrainian officials bringing misconduct evidence to Trump
© UnknownU.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovich a Trump-hater appointed by Obama in 2016.
[Marie Yovanovich] was US ambassador to Ukraine during the 2016 election when the Ukrainian government was colluding with the DNC and Hillary Campaign to undermine the US presidential election.
Starting in 2018 Yovanovich denied Ukrainian officials visas to enter the United States to hand over evidence of Obama administration misconduct to Trump administration officials.
US Ambassador Yovanovich, an Obama appointee, was removed from her post in Ukraine early in May 2019.
Corrupt Ambassador Yovanovich was fired by the Trump administration in May 2019 when all of the Ukrainian collusion with the DNC came to light.
It is telling that far left Democrat lawmakers Steny Hoyer and Eliot Engels were most upset with Ambassador Yovanovitch's removal.
Via Foreign Policy magazine. Now, those lawmakers are bringing their concerns into the public. "The White House's outrageous decision to recall her is a political hit job and the latest in this Administration's campaign against career State Department personnel," said Democratic Reps. Steny Hoyer, House majority leader, and Eliot Engel, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in a joint statement made public Tuesday. "It's clear that this decision was politically motivated, as allies of President Trump had joined foreign actors in lobbying for the Ambassador's dismissal."
UPDATE: Gateway Pundit, 21/19/2019: Who really pressured Ukrainians to fire prosecutor?
If the media had a brain (they apparently do not) they should have taken a look at the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act of 1998. This statute applies to the following circumstances where "urgent concerns" are identified by members of the intelligence community:
- a serious or flagrant problem, abuse, violation of law or Executive order, or deficiency relating to the funding, administration, or operations of an intelligence activity involving classified information, but does not include differences of opinions concerning public policy matters;
- A false statement to Congress, or a willful withholding from Congress, on an issue of material fact relating to the funding, administration, or operation of an intelligence activity; or
- An action constituting reprisal or threat of reprisal in response to an employee's reporting an urgent concern.
President Trump talking to a foreign leader DOES NOT fall under this act. That is why this complaint is not being treated as a legitimate complaint. President Trump has every right to raise the issue of Joe Biden's corrupt activities while performing duties as the U.S. Vice President with the leader of a country that not only was implicated in the act but was threatened. We do not have to wonder if this is true. Slow Joe Biden bragged about it during an appearance in 2018.
Asking whether or not a country is going to pursue a corruption/bribery investigation of Hunter Biden, which was derailed by his father, according to his father, then that does not qualify as a whistleblower complaint.
Comment: From Breitbart, 21/9/2019: Peter Schweitzer: Media trying to turn a Biden scandal into a Trump scandal
In addition from The Hill, 20/9/19: Missing piece to the Ukraine puzzle: State Department's overture to Giuliani UPDATE: RT 21/9/2019: Biden brands Trump 'serial abuser' of power, nothing in Ukraine scheme involving his son UPDATE: RT, 21/9/2019: Trump 'fishing for election dirt' in Ukraine bad, Trump hit by dirt from Ukraine - silence UPDATE: Gateway Pundit, 21/9/2019 Another media lie blows up in their face UPDATE: Gateway Pundit, 21/9/2019 Corrupt Obama ambassador refused visas to Ukrainian officials bringing misconduct evidence to Trump UPDATE: Gateway Pundit, 21/19/2019: Who really pressured Ukrainians to fire prosecutor?