March 17, 2014 – Russia invades Crimean peninsula – annexes portion of Ukraine and regains access to deep water port in Black Sea with access to Mediterranean.
Joe Biden appointed to oversee Ukraine after Russia seizes Crimea [The Hill]
Early April 2014 – UK seizes $23 million in Bursima assets on money laundering charge when Burisma attempts to move the money to Cyprus.
Early April 2014 – Devon Archer (Yale roomate and business partner to Hunter Biden) meets with Joe Biden in White House one week before Archer joins board of Burisma. [The Hill]
April 18, 2014 – Hunter Biden appointed to board of directors of Burisma. Hunter and Archer receive payments Spring 2014-Fall 2015, totaling $3.1 million over 14 months, split between the two, with Hunter receiving $83K/month. [For background on Hunter’s other business dealings, including his lucrative China dealings while his father was in office and overseeing Chinese affairs, see Jim Geraghty’s comprehensive National Review timeline.]
April 22, 2014 – Biden travels to Ukraine and offers $50 million aid to Yatsenuk’s new government
Spring 2014 – Ukraine prosecutor Shokin opens investigation into Zlochevsky/Bursima at the request of UK; WSJ reports Zlochevsky was under investigation in a Ukrainian unlawful-enrichment probe and a separate Ukrainian into alleged abuse of power, forgery and embezzlement
January 2015 – UK closes Burisma investigation when Ukraine failed to produce requested documents by deadline; Ukraine’s Burisma investigation continues.
July 13, 2015 – Crowdstrike announces major investment by Google Capital (Google was the largest corporate donor to the Clinton campaign. Google Capital is owned by Alphabet, whose CEO Eric Schmitds strongly supported the Clinton campaign.) Other investors include Warburg Pincus, whose president, Timothy Geithner, worked for the Clinton and Obama administrations. [Washington Times]
August 2015 – Joe Biden polling high for 2016 presidential election
Fall 2015 – Hunter Biden stops receiving Burisma payments
October 2015 – Biden drops out of 2016 race [allegations are that the NY Times had begun investigating the Biden-Ukraine scandal by this time]
December 7, 2015 – Wall Street Journal publishes Biden exposé, “Ukrainians See Conflict in Biden’s Anticorruption Message”
December 9, 2015 – NY Times publishes Biden exposé, “Joe Biden, His Son and the Case Against a Ukrainian Oligarch”
February 2015 – Shokin returns to Ukraine prosecutor’s position
March 2016 – Just days before the Shokin firing, BlueStar Strategies rep. Sally Painter met with Ukraine embassy official in D.C. to seek a meeting with the prosecutor’s office around the time of Joe’s upcoming visit, and was told to wait until the following week. Burisma’s accounting records show payments to BlueStar. [The Hill]
March 29, 2016 – The day Shokin’s firing is announced, Burisma’s legal defense rep. John Buretta (former U.S. Assistant Attorney General under Holder) calls to ask to speak to interim prosecutor Sevruk, but was denied according to Ukraine prosecutor’s memo.
April 6, 2016 – 2 BlueStar reps. Sally Painter and Karen Tramontano (formerly with the Clinton administration) and Burisma legal defense Buretta obtain meeting with interim Ukraine prosecutor Sevruk. They apologize “for the dissemination of false information by U.S. representatives and public figures on the activities of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine in regards to the investigation of criminal activities of Zlochevsky” and offer to set up DC meeting for new Ukraine prosecutor. [Ukraine prosecutor Sevruk’s memo]
New Ukraine prosecutor Lutsenko scales back Burisma investigation to tax evasion.
Summer 2016 – DNC hires Crowdstrike to investigate server breech; Crowdstrike identifies Russia as perpetrator. The DNC paid Crowdstrike more than $400,000 during 2016. [Washington Times]
November 2016 – Trump wins presidential election
January 2017 – Joe Biden visits Ukraine 10 days before Trump takes office.
January 2017 – Burisma investigation resolved in Ukraine days before Trump’s inauguration, and just after Burisma pays UAH 180 million (a few million U.S.$) back taxes [critics suggest this was a payoff to close the case]
January 2017 – Burisma signs cooperative agreement with Atlantic Council to sponsor their Eurasia Center [Kyiv Post] Crowdstrike cofounder Dmitri Alperovich is a senior fellow with Atlantic Council. The Atlantic Council is hawkish on Russia. In addition to funding from Burisma, it receives funding from the George Soros Open Society Foundation and Ukrainian billionaire who also donated millions to the Clinton Foundation, Viktor Pinchuk. [Daily Caller]
January 20, 2017 – Donald Trump inauguration
Feb. 1, 2017 – Kyiv Post publishes interview with Buretta in which he details timeline of Burisma investigation, saying Ukraine investigation began Aug. 2014 and was open for two years, and contradicting Joe Biden’s claim that the Burisma investigation was over when he demanded Ukraine prosecutor’s firing.
December 2017 – Crowdstrike issues report claiming Russia hacked Ukraine artillery app, and uses the findings to buttress its findings that Russia hacked the DNC servers. The International Institute for Strategic Studies disputes Crowdstrike’s Ukraine hack claim, however, and Crowdstrike subsequently revises and retracts part of its report according to the Voice of America.
January 2018 – Biden describes, at a Council on Foreign Relations event, his threat to withhold $1 billion in aid to Ukraine unless prosecutor Shokin is fired
May 24, 2018 – Intelligence Community Inspector General alters Disclosure of Urgent Complaint “whistleblower” policy (but not the form) to allow second-hand information. ICIG Press Release [The form stated “The [Intelligence Community Inspector General] cannot transmit information via the ICPWA based on an employee’s second-hand knowledge of wrongdoing,” under the bolded heading “FIRST-HAND INFORMATION REQUIRED.” The Federalist]
Summer 2018 – Ukraine begins trying to alert DOJ to possible ethics violations and pro-Clinton election meddling by Democrats in Ukraine.
If one bothers to study the subject of corruption in Ukraine, one finds as follows, and this is from Wikipedia, although that is but one of many articles on the subject, to wit:
Corruption is widespread in Ukrainian society.
Transparency International’s 2018 Corruption Perception Index ranks the country in 120th place out of 180 countries.
In 2012 Ernst & Young put Ukraine among the three most-corrupt nations of the world – alongside Colombia and Brazil.
In 2015 The Guardian called Ukraine “the most corrupt nation in Europe”.
According to a poll conducted by Ernst & Young in 2017, experts considered Ukraine to be the ninth-most corrupt nation in the world.
United States diplomats described Ukraine under Presidents Kuchma (in office from 1994 to 2005) and Yushchenko (in office from 2005 to 2010) as a kleptocracy, according to WikiLeaks cables.
end quotes
So, what in the hell are we doing in bed with those people, having our tax dollars squandered over there to continue to fuel that corruption, which is a way of life over there, as we see by returning to Wikipedia, as follows:
Ukrainian professor O. Bazaluk [uk] reports that the roots of the Ukrainian corruption stem from the Soviet nature of the Ukrainian political leaders, who used to be integrated into Communist nomenclature (ruling elite) before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The politicians created authoritarian-oligarchic governance regime in Ukraine where the corruption is ubiquitous and no chances to implement a European choice of the Ukrainian people.
Prominent Ukrainian economist O. Havrylyshyn [uk] performed a comparison of the Ukrainian corruption in wide global context based on data provided by Transparency International.
This research estimated the level of the corruption in Ukraine as comparable to countries of Sub-Saharan Africa with Uganda as the closest counterpart.
Bribes are given to ensure that public services are delivered either in time or at all.
Ukrainians stated they give bribes because they think it is customary and expected.
Some of the biggest bribes involve more than $1 million USD.
According to a 2008 Management Systems International (MSI) sociological survey, the highest corruption levels were found in vehicle inspection (57.5%), the police (54.2%), health care (54%), the courts (49%) and higher education (43.6%).
On June 8, 2011 Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych stated that corruption costs the state budget US$2.5 billion in revenues annually and that through corrupt dealings in public procurement 10% to 15% (US$7.4 billion) of the state budget “ends up in the pockets of officials”.
According to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the main causes of corruption in Ukraine are a weak justice system and an over-controlling non-transparent government combined with business-political ties and a weak civil society.
Corruption is regularly discussed in the Ukrainian media.
In May 2016 the IMF mission chief for Ukraine stated that the reduction of corruption was a key test for continued international support.
Some western analysts believe that large foreign loans are not encouraging reform, but enabling the corrupt extraction of funds out of the country.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland urged Ukraine to start prosecuting corrupt officials: “It’s time to start locking up people who have ripped off the Ukrainian population for too long and it is time to eradicate the cancer of corruption”.
end quotes
So what is it that we are really “funding” over there in that corrupt ****hole, and why are the congressional Democrats so protective of it?
It is interesting that on September 24, 2019, the Washington Post, not known for being critical of the Democrats, nonetheless had a story entitled “Democrats’ double standard on Ukraine” by a columnist named Marc A. Thiessen, which opened as follows:
We don’t yet know whether President Trump delayed some military aid to Ukraine as leverage to get Ukraine’s president to reopen an investigation into Hunter Biden.
But if we are concerned about U.S. officials inappropriately threatening aid to Ukraine, then there are others who have some explaining to do.
It got almost no attention, but in May, CNN reported that Sens. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) and Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) wrote a letter to Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Yuriy Lutsenko, expressing concern at the closing of four investigations they said were critical to the Mueller probe.
In the letter, they implied that their support for U.S. assistance to Ukraine was at stake.
Describing themselves as “strong advocates for a robust and close relationship with Ukraine,” the Democratic senators declared, “We have supported [the] capacity-building process and are disappointed that some in Kyiv appear to have cast aside these [democratic] principles to avoid the ire of President Trump,” before demanding Lutsenko “reverse course and halt any efforts to impede cooperation with this important investigation.”
So, it’s okay for Democratic senators to encourage Ukraine to investigate Trump, but it’s not okay for the president to allegedly encourage Ukraine to investigate Hunter Biden?
end quotes
And the ready answer to that question, where the Democrats own the power of impeachment right now, which has as it concomitant the power to conduct cover-ups, the answer that question is yes – it is not okay for Donald Trump to encourage Ukraine to investigate Hunter Biden, because of who Hunter Biden’s father is – a high-ranking Democrat who is their presidential standard-bearer as Obama’s vice president, which takes us back to the WaPo article as follows:
And then there is Joe Biden.
This weekend, Biden told reporters, “I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings.”
That is flatly untrue.
Hunter admitted in an interview with the New Yorker that his father expressed concern about the Burisma post at least once: “Dad said, ‘I hope you know what you are doing,’ and I said, ‘I do.’”
Moreover, the New Yorker reports that, “In December, 2015, as Joe Biden prepared to return to Ukraine, his aides braced for renewed scrutiny of Hunter’s relationship with Burisma.”
“Amos Hochstein, the Obama Administration’s special envoy for energy policy, raised the matter with Biden.”
That same month, the New York Times published an article about how Hunter’s business dealings in Ukraine undermined the vice president’s anti-corruption message, which quoted a Biden spokesman saying it had no impact.
So, Biden was fully aware of his son’s involvement with Burisma when he pressured Ukraine to fire the prosecutor in 2016.
He should have known that his using U.S. aid as leverage to force the prosecutor’s dismissal would create, at a bare minimum, the appearance of a conflict of interest.
Federal ethics regulations require “all employees to recuse themselves from participating in an official matter if their impartiality would be questioned.”
Biden violated these rules.
end quotes
Ah, yes, but, hey, well, okay, you know, he’s Joe Biden so HUSH!
SHHHHHHH!
Don’t say anything because Joe is a Democrat running for president which gives him immunity from OUR laws.
Getting back to the WaPo:
On Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced that Congress will initiate a formal impeachment inquiry over the Ukraine episode, a move Joe Biden endorsed in a speech, declaring, “It’s time for the Congress to fully investigate the conduct of this president.”
Such an investigation will be far more damaging for Biden than the president.
It will keep the story of Biden’s conflict of interest in the news through the 2020 election.
Millions of Americans will learn the word “Burisma.”
Put aside the prosecutor’s firing.
Hunter took the position with a Ukrainian natural gas company just a few weeks after his father visited Ukraine in 2014 to urge its government to increase its natural gas production.
Hunter Biden had no expertise in Ukraine or natural gas.
It will not just be Republicans calling this suspicious; nonpartisan experts in ethics law will testify that this a major conflict of interest.
And the focus will not just be on Ukraine but also how, as The Post reported, “for more than two decades, [Hunter’s] professional work often tracked with his father’s life in politics, from Washington to Ukraine to China.”
The irony is the Democrats’ investigation might do more to deny Biden the presidency than Trump.
end quotes
And we people here in America who care about these things thank the Cape Charles Mirror for keeping this story alive, as it needs to be heading into November of this year and our election for our next president.
Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
II. INTRODUCTION
III. CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
IV. THE VICE PRESIDENT’S OFFICE AND STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS WERE AWARE OF BUT IGNORED CONCERNS RELATING TO HUNTER BIDEN’S ROLE ON BURISMA’S BOARD.
V. SECRETARY OF STATE JOHN KERRY FALSELY CLAIMED HE HAD NO KNOWLEDGE ABOUT HUNTER BIDEN’S ROLE ON BURISMA’S BOARD.
VI. STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS VIEWED MYKOLA ZLOCHEVSKY AS A CORRUPT, “ODIOUS OLIGARCH,” BUT VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN WAS ADVISED NOT TO ACCUSE ZLOCHEVSKY OF CORRUPTION.
VII. WHILE HUNTER BIDEN SERVED ON BURISMA’S BOARD, BURISMA’S OWNER, ZLOCHEVSKY, ALLEGEDLY PAID A $7 MILLION BRIBE TO UKRAINE’S PROSECUTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE TO CLOSE THE CASE.
VIII. HUNTER BIDEN: A SECRET SERVICE PROTECTEE WHILE ON BURISMA’S BOARD.
IX. OBAMA ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS AND A DEMOCRAT LOBBYING FIRM HAD CONSISTENT AND SIGNIFICANT CONTACT WITH FORMER UKRAINIAN OFFICIAL ANDRII TELIZHENKO.
X. THE MINORITY FALSELY ACCUSED THE CHAIRMEN OF ENGAGING IN A RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN AND USED OTHER TACTICS TO INTERFERE IN THE INVESTIGATION.
XI. HUNTER BIDEN’S AND HIS FAMILY’S FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS WITH UKRAINIAN, RUSSIAN, KAZAKH AND CHINESE NATIONALS RAISE CRIMINAL CONCERNS AND EXTORTION THREATS.
XII. CONCLUSION
XII. CONCLUSION.
As the Chairmen’s report details, Hunter Biden’s role on Burisma’s board negatively impacted the efforts of dedicated career-service individuals who were fighting to push for anticorruption measures in Ukraine.
Because the vice president’s son had a direct link to a corrupt company and its owner, State Department officials were required to maintain situational awareness of Hunter Biden’s association with Burisma.
Unfortunately, U.S. officials had no other choice but to endure the “awkward[ness]” of continuing to push an anticorruption agenda in Ukraine while the vice president’s son sat on the board of a Ukrainian company with a corrupt owner.
As George Kent testified, he “would have advised any American not to get on
the board of Zlochevsky’s company.”
Yet, even though Hunter Biden’s position on Burisma’s board cast a shadow over the work of those advancing anticorruption reforms in Ukraine, the Committees are only aware of two individuals who raised concerns to their superiors.
Despite the efforts of these individuals, their concerns appear to have fallen on deaf ears.
The records acquired by the Committees also show that Hunter Biden and his family were involved in a vast financial network that connected them to foreign nationals and foreign governments across the globe.
Hunter Biden and Devon Archer, in particular, formed significant and consistent financial relationships with the corrupt oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky during their time working for Burisma, and their firms made millions of dollars from that association while Joe Biden was vice president and the public face of the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy.
Rosemont Seneca Thornton, an investment firm co-founded by Hunter Biden, received $3.5 million in a wire transfer from Elena Baturina, who allegedly received illegal construction contracts from her husband, the then-mayor of Moscow.
Moreover, Archer’s apparent receipt of money for a car from Kenges Rakishev of Kazakhstan while Vice President Biden was in Kyiv is especially concerning in light of the timing.
And finally, Biden and Archer’s work with Chinese nationals connected to the Communist regime illustrate the deep financial connections that accelerated while Joe Biden was vice president and continued after he left office.
The Chairmen’s investigation has faced many obstacles from the minority and from executive agencies that have failed to comply with document requests.
Accordingly, there remains much work to be done.
Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns
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I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In late 2013 and into 2014, mass protests erupted in Kyiv, Ukraine, demanding integration into western economies and an end to systemic corruption that had plagued the country.
At least 82 people were killed during the protests, which culminated on Feb. 21 when Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych abdicated by fleeing the country.
Less than two months later, over the span of only 28 days, significant events involving the Bidens unfolded.
On April 16, 2014, Vice President Biden met with his son’s business partner, Devon Archer, at the White House.
Five days later, Vice President Biden visited Ukraine, and he soon after was described in the press as the “public face of the administration’s handling of Ukraine.”
The day after his visit, on April 22, Archer joined the board of Burisma.
Six days later, on April 28, British officials seized $23 million from the London bank accounts of Burisma’s owner, Mykola Zlochevsky.
Fourteen days later, on May 12, Hunter Biden joined the board of Burisma, and over the course of the next several years, Hunter Biden and Devon Archer were paid millions of dollars from a corrupt Ukrainian oligarch for their participation on the board.
The 2014 protests in Kyiv came to be known as the Revolution of Dignity — a revolution against corruption in Ukraine.
Following that revolution, Ukrainian political figures were desperate for U.S. support.
Zlochevsky would have made sure relevant Ukrainian officials were well aware of Hunter’s appointment to Burisma’s board as leverage.
Hunter Biden’s position on the board created an immediate potential conflict of interest that would prove to be problematic for both U.S. and Ukrainian officials and would affect the implementation of Ukraine policy.
The Chairmen’s investigation into potential conflicts of interest began in August 2019, with Chairman Grassley’s letter to the Department of Treasury regarding potential conflicts of interest with respect to Obama administration policy relating to the Henniges transaction. 1
During the Obama administration, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) approved a transaction that gave control over Henniges, an American maker of anti-vibration technologies with military applications, to a Chinese government-owned aviation company and a China-based investment firm with established ties to the Chinese government.
One of the companies involved in the Henniges transaction was a billion-dollar private investment fund called Bohai Harvest RST (BHR).
BHR was formed in November 2013 by a merger between the Chinese-government-linked firm Bohai Capital and a company named Rosemont Seneca Partners.
Rosemont Seneca was formed in 2009 by Hunter Biden, the son of then-Vice President Joe Biden, by Chris Heinz, the stepson of former Secretary of State John Kerry, and others. 2
The Chairmen’s efforts have always been driven by our belief that the public has the right to know about wrongdoing and conflicts of interest occurring within government, and especially those conflicts brought about by the actions of governmental officials.
This is a good-government oversight investigation that relies on documents and testimony from U.S. agencies and officials, not a Russian disinformation campaign, as our Democratic colleagues have falsely stated.
1 Press Release, Chairman Charles Grassley, S. Comm. on Fin., Grassley Raises Concerns Over Obama Admin Approval of U.S. Tech Company Joint Sale to Chinese Government and Investment Firm Linked to Biden, Kerry Families (Aug. 15, 2019),
https://www.finance.senate.gov/chairman … y-families.
2 Peter Schweizer, Inside the Shady Private Equity Firm Run by Kerry and Biden’s Kids, NEW YORK POST (Mar. 15, 2018),
https://nypost.com/2018/03/15/inside-th … dens-kids/; Peter Schweizer, The Troubling Reason Why Biden is so Soft on China, NEW YORK POST (May 11, 2019), https://nypost.com/2019/05/11/the-troub … -on-china/; Tom Llamas et al., Biden Sidesteps Questions About His Son’s Foreign Business Dealings but Promises Ethics Pledge, ABC NEWS (June 20, 2019), https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-s … d=63820806 (Stating that Hunter Biden was a managing partner at Rosemont Seneca Partners.)
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Key Findings
In early 2015 the former Acting Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, George Kent, raised concerns to officials in Vice President Joe Biden’s office about the perception of a conflict of interest with respect to Hunter Biden’s role on Burisma’s board.
Kent’s concerns went unaddressed, and in September 2016, he emphasized in an email to his colleagues, “Furthermore, the presence of Hunter Biden on the Burisma board was very awkward for all U.S. officials pushing an anticorruption agenda in Ukraine.”
In October 2015, senior State Department official Amos Hochstein raised concerns with Vice President Biden, as well as with Hunter Biden, that Hunter Biden’s position on Burisma’s board enabled Russian disinformation efforts and risked undermining U.S. policy in Ukraine.
Although Kent believed that Hunter Biden’s role on Burisma’s board was awkward for all U.S. officials pushing an anti-corruption agenda in Ukraine, the Committees are only aware of two individuals — Kent and former U.S. Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs Amos Hochstein — who raised concerns to Vice President Joe Biden (Hochstein) or his staff (Kent).
The awkwardness for Obama administration officials continued well past his presidency.
Former Secretary of State John Kerry had knowledge of Hunter Biden’s role on Burisma’s board, but when asked about it at a town hall event in Nashua, N.H. on Dec. 8, 2019, Kerry falsely said, “I had no knowledge about any of that.”
“None.”
“No.”
Evidence to the contrary is detailed in Section V.
Former Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland testified that confronting oligarchs would send an anticorruption message in Ukraine.
Kent told the Committees that Zlochevsky was an “odious oligarch.”
However, in December 2015, instead of following U.S. objectives of confronting oligarchs, Vice President Biden’s staff advised him to avoid commenting on Zlochevsky and recommended he say, “I’m not going to get into naming names or accusing individuals.”
Hunter Biden was serving on Burisma’s board (supposedly consulting on corporate governance and transparency) when Zlochevsky allegedly paid a $7 million bribe to officials serving under Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Vitaly Yarema, to “shut the case against Zlochevsky.”
Kent testified that this bribe occurred in December 2014 (seven months after Hunter joined Burisma’s board), and, after learning about it, he and the Resident Legal Advisor reported this allegation to the FBI.
Hunter Biden was a U.S. Secret Service protectee from Jan. 29, 2009 to July 8, 2014.
A day before his last trip as a protectee, Time published an article describing Burisma’s ramped up lobbying efforts to U.S. officials and Hunter’s involvement in Burisma’s board.
Before ending his protective detail, Hunter Biden received Secret Service protection on trips to multiple foreign locations, including Moscow, Beijing, Doha, Paris, Seoul, Manila, Tokyo, Mexico City, Milan, Florence, Shanghai, Geneva, London, Dublin, Munich, Berlin, Bogota, Abu Dhabi, Nairobi, Hong Kong, Taipei, Buenos Aires, Copenhagen, Johannesburg, Brussels, Madrid, Mumbai and Lake Como.
Andrii Telizhenko, the Democrats’ personification of Russian disinformation, met with Obama administration officials, including Elisabeth Zentos, a member of Obama’s National Security Council, at least 10 times.
A Democrat lobbying firm, Blue Star Strategies, contracted with Telizhenko from 2016 to 2017 and continued to request his assistance as recent as the summer of 2019.
A recent news article detailed other extensive contacts between Telizhenko and Obama administration officials.
In addition to the over $4 million paid by Burisma for Hunter Biden’s and Archer’s board memberships, Hunter Biden, his family, and Archer received millions of dollars from foreign nationals with questionable backgrounds.
Archer received $142,300 from Kenges Rakishev of Kazakhstan, purportedly for a car, the same day Vice President Joe Biden appeared with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arsemy Yasenyuk and addressed Ukrainian legislators in Kyiv regarding Russia’s actions in Crimea.
Hunter Biden received a $3.5 million wire transfer from Elena Baturina, the wife of the former mayor of Moscow.
Hunter Biden opened a bank account with Gongwen Dong to fund a $100,000 global spending spree with James Biden and Sara Biden.
Hunter Biden had business associations with Ye Jianming, Gongwen Dong, and other Chinese nationals linked to the Communist government and the People’s Liberation Army.
Those associations resulted in millions of dollars in cash flow.
Hunter Biden paid nonresident women who were nationals of Russia or other Eastern European countries and who appear to be linked to an “Eastern European prostitution or human trafficking ring.”
Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Majority Staff Report
II. INTRODUCTION
The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (HSGAC) and the Senate Committee on Finance undertook this investigation into potential conflicts of interest, and the involvement of the Biden family in foreign business ventures while Joe Biden was vice president, following allegations that the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy could have been affected by Hunter Biden’s position on the board of Burisma, and that family members may have improperly sought to benefit from their relationship with the vice president.
The appearance of a potential conflict of interest in this case was particularly troubling given Hunter Biden’s history of investing in and collaborating with Chinese companies, including at least one that clearly poses significant national security concerns.
This report will discuss Hunter Biden’s and Devon Archer’s corporate entities and their links to the communist Chinese government in more detail.
In 2019, newly released documents, made public as a result of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and investigative reporting, brought fresh public attention and scrutiny to potential conflicts of interest with respect to Ukraine policy in the Obama administration.
Additionally, news reporting also raised questions about potential conflicts of interest with respect to Hunter Biden’s business dealings in China, Ukraine and Russia while Joe Biden was serving as vice president.
The Committees’ investigation focused on determining whether Hunter Biden and Devon Archer sought to benefit financially from their relationship with then-Vice President Joe Biden or if they sought to influence U.S. policy in Ukraine on behalf of Burisma.
Further, the Committees reviewed and evaluated the Obama administration’s handling of Ukraine policy to determine whether policy decisions related to Ukraine and Burisma were improperly influenced by the employment and financial interests of family members of the administration.
For example, after joining Burisma’s board, Biden and Archer subsequently requested meetings with senior State Department officials, including then-Secretary of State John Kerry and then-Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Further, a Democratic lobbying firm, Blue Star Strategies, working on behalf of Burisma, also invoked Hunter Biden’s association with Burisma while requesting a meeting with then-Under Secretary of State Catherine Novelli to discuss matters of concern related to the Department of State’s position that Burisma was a corrupt company.
In 2016, Ukraine’s top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, had an active and ongoing investigation into Burisma and its owner, Mykola Zlochevsky.
At the time, Archer and Hunter Biden continued to serve on Burisma’s board of directors.
According to news reports, then-Vice President Biden “threatened to withhold $1 billion in United States loan guarantees if Ukraine’s leaders did not dismiss [Shokin].”
After that threat, Ukraine’s Parliament fired Shokin.
Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Majority Staff Report
Footnotes
11 Joe Biden Brags At CFR Meeting About Withholding Aid To Ukraine To Force Firing Of Prosecutor, REALCLEARPOLITICS (Sept. 27, 2019),
(Joe Biden was recorded, in a January 2018 appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations, bragging about threatening to withhold military aid to Ukraine in an attempt to force the Ukrainian government to fire Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin. Joe Biden is recorded bragging that in response to his threat to withhold the aid, “[w]ell son of a bitch. [Viktor Shokin] got fired.”).
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/09/27/flashback_2018_joe_biden_brags_at_cfr_meeting_about_withholding_aid_to_ukraine_to_force_firing_of_prosecutor.html
Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns
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U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Majority Staff Report
III. CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
Federal regulation prohibits federal government employees from “us[ing] [] public office for [] private gain … or for the private gain of … relatives.”
This regulation also seek “[t]o ensure that the performance of [] official duties does not give rise to an appearance of the use of public office for private gain or of giving preferential treatment[.]”
This regulation, however, does not apply to the president or vice president.
Although OGE’s authority to investigate and recommend solutions to most employees for conflicts of interest issues is well-established, Congress did not extend this authority to the president and vice president in OGE’s establishment statute.
This does not mean there is an absence of any authority to hold the President and Vice President accountable for conflict of interest issues; rather, it demonstrates that the responsibility for holding the President and Vice President responsible for conduct that implicates conflicts of interest lies elsewhere, namely, with Congress and the American people.
In certain instances, like self-dealing, the harm is plain.
In others, the harm — a loss or apparent loss of impartiality — may be less concrete, but the effect is still the same. 24
When the impartiality of decision makers is drawn into question, it creates a chilling effect on the credibility of their decision-making processing and the ultimate decision.
That, in turn, could undermine the effectiveness of U.S. policy.
24 The House of Representatives appears to think these issues matter. A House committee has been investigating President Trump and his family for “undisclosed conflicts of interest that may impair [the President’s] ability to make impartial policy decisions.” Trump v. Mazars, 140 S. Ct. 2019 (July 9, 2020) (Quoting Rep. Elijah Cummings, Chairman of the House Oversight Committee.).
Does anyone recall the exact date it was that we, the American people ceded to Joe Biden our decision-making authority as to what OUR priorities are as to what is or is not important to we, the American people to have investigated by OUR House of Representatives, which happens to be a separate branch of OUR federal government that does not answer to Joe Biden, or any of his sycophants and toadies and lickspittles?
More to the point, why on earth would we have been stupid enough to do that, what with Joe Biden’s history of repression of news he does not personally like or want talked about in public?
Were we stupid on steroids that day, or what?
Reuters
“White House lawyer snubs Republican request for documents for now”
By Trevor Hunnicutt
December 29, 2022
Republicans, who take control of the House of Representatives next month, have also prioritized investigating the Democratic president and his son Hunter’s business dealings.
Democrats, who retain control of the White House and Senate, are working to aggressively contest those investigations.
Biden’s lawyers and Democratic allies have dismissed the investigations as politically motivated, at odds with voters’ priorities and worked to position the probes as extreme.
If those investigations were “at odds” with “voter priorities,” the Democrats would still be in control of the House of Representatives, and the Republicans need to rip this Hunger Biden business in corrupt Ukraine back open like a hungry bear looking for fat grubs in a rotten log, and then charge Joe Biden with FRAUD ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE for keeping this covered up during a presidential election with Joe portraying himself falsely as above reproach:
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IV. THE VICE PRESIDENT’S OFFICE AND STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS WERE AWARE OF BUT IGNORED CONCERNS RELATING TO HUNTER BIDEN’S ROLE ON BURISMA’S BOARD.
a. Introduction
In early 2015, senior State Department official George Kent raised concerns to staff in the Office of the Vice President about Hunter Biden’s role on Burisma’s board.
Kent testified that he never heard anything back from the vice president’s office, and although Kent advised that Hunter Biden should step down from Burisma’s board to avoid the perception of a potential conflict of interest, his recommendation was not followed.
Hunter Biden’s role on Burisma’s board continued to be an issue State Department officials had to manage when executing U.S./Ukraine policy.
More than a year after Kent reported his concerns to the vice president’s staff, he wrote to his superiors that Hunter Biden’s role on Burisma’s board was “very awkward” to those on the front lines pushing anticorruption efforts in Ukraine on a daily basis.
Kent testified that he felt the need to “prepar[e] everybody for ‘what about-ism,’ because we’re pushing what’s right … and we have to be prepared for people who are critics, are opponents, to say, ‘Well, what about? What about Hunter Biden?’”
Indeed, Kent testified further that he “would have advised any American not to get on the board of Zlochevsky’s company.”
The Committees are also aware of at least one other senior State Department official, Amos Hochstein, who raised concerns directly to Vice President Biden about potential conflicts of interest relating to Hunter Biden’s role on Burisma’s board.
Although Hochstein declined to testify about the substance of his conversation with Vice President Biden, the New Yorker reported that Hochstein “did not go so far as to recommend that Hunter leave the board.”
The Committees found that neither the Office of the Vice President nor the State Department ever took any action following these complaints.
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IV. THE VICE PRESIDENT’S OFFICE AND STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS WERE AWARE OF BUT IGNORED CONCERNS RELATING TO HUNTER BIDEN’S ROLE ON BURISMA’S BOARD.
b. In February 2015, Kent raised concerns about the perception of a conflict of interest regarding Hunter Biden’s role on Burisma’s board.
According to Kent, in early 2015 when he was still Acting Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, he learned that Hunter Biden was on the board of Burisma.
Kent stated, “soon after that, in a briefing call with the National Security staff in the Office of the Vice President on other matters, in February 2015, I raised my concern that Hunter Biden’s status as a board member could create the perception of a conflict of interest.”
Kent continued: “I said that I had learned that Hunter Biden had been appointed to a board of this company, that I had just raised U.S. concerns about the owner of the company, who we believed had been engaged in money-laundering.”
“… The bottom line was, I said I believe that this creates the perception of a potential conflict of interest, given Vice President Biden’s role and his very strong advocacy for anticorruption action, and that I thought that someone needed to talk to Hunter Biden, and he should [step] down from the board of Burisma.”
When the Committees asked Kent who he spoke to in Vice President Biden’s office, he stated, “I can’t remember, to be perfectly honest.”
“I don’t remember who I spoke to.”
Kent told the Committees that, after raising this concern, he never heard anything back from the vice president’s office.
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IV. THE VICE PRESIDENT’S OFFICE AND STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS WERE AWARE OF BUT IGNORED CONCERNS RELATING TO HUNTER BIDEN’S ROLE ON BURISMA’S BOARD.
c. Hunter Biden’s association with Burisma continued to be an “awkward” conflict of interest State Department officials had to manage.
Hunter Biden’s association with Burisma appeared in numerous State Department records, particularly when State officials discussed the company, its owner, and anticorruption efforts in Ukraine.
According to records reviewed by the Committees, in 2016, Kent mentioned Hunter Biden when discussing Burisma with his colleagues.
Kent told the Committees: For me it’s preparing everybody for “what about-ism,” because we’re pushing what’s right, and we do what’s right, and we have to be prepared for people who are critics, are opponents, to say, “Well, what about? What about Hunter Biden?”
So there was no time, as I’ve testified, that the U.S. government, the U.S. embassy ever made a decision about Zlochevsky or Burisma where we took the presence of a private citizen on the board into account.
We made the decision on the merits.
But others might think otherwise.
And so everyone needed to be aware of what we were dealing with as we made the right decisions.
The extent to which Hunter Biden’s role on Burisma’s board affected U.S. policy toward Ukraine is not clear.
But what is clear from the records, however, is that State Department officials, particularly Kent himself, regularly considered how Hunter Biden’s connection to Burisma might affect the execution of U.S. policy.
Moreover, as described previously, this included having to respond to Russian actors attempting to exploit Hunter Biden’s position on Burisma’s board to drive a wedge between Ukrainian and the U.S. in an effort to undermine U.S. policy toward Ukraine.
For example, Kent raised Hunter Biden’s connection to Burisma during multiple discussions over emails involving the Municipal Energy Reform Program (MERP).
In those emails, Kent asked his colleagues, “[H]ow have we traditionally treated/engaged Burisma, given the Zlochevsky connection, but also perhaps US involvement beyond Hunter Biden?”
In another email chain, Kent also pointed out that “[Zlochevsky] put Hunter Biden on the board of his Burisma Energy company.”
When inquiring about the extent to which State Department officials researched Burisma’s past, in order to determine whether to associate with the company, Kent asked his colleagues whether any ‘“know your partner’ due diligence was done” before the partnership between MERP and Burisma was established.
Kent then described old news stories involving the company: “Zlochevsky as a corrupt mal actor was a 2014 story [and] his control of Burisma, and the very sticky wicket of the Hunter Biden connection on Burisma’s board was circulating in 2015.”
As part of that same email chain, Kent asked his colleagues if the U.S. government continues its association with Burisma: [W]ould we want an article on the front page of the Washington Post (and in this case, the Kyiv Post, and on the FB pages of Sergiy Leshchenko and Mustafa Nayyem) commenting about this public private partnership with Burisma, the link to Hunter Biden, and the link to Zlochevsky, who almost certainly paid off the PGO in December 2014 (I had the then First deputy PG Danylenko tell me the bribe was $7 million) to have the case against him closed and his $23 million in assets frozen in the UK unfrozen?
So even though the total amount of time State Department officials spent accounting for Hunter Biden’s association with Burisma is unclear, the records show that it was an issue that had to be addressed repeatedly.
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IV. THE VICE PRESIDENT’S OFFICE AND STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS WERE AWARE OF BUT IGNORED CONCERNS RELATING TO HUNTER BIDEN’S ROLE ON BURISMA’S BOARD.
d. More than one year after Kent reported his concerns about Hunter Biden to the vice president’s office, he once again raised the issue — this time to his superiors at the State Department.
On Sept. 6, 2016, Kent wrote an email to senior State Department officials, including Deputy Assistant Secretary Bridget Brink and U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, and offered his contemporaneous view of Hunter Biden’s association with Burisma.
Kent wrote, “the presence of Hunter Biden on the Burisma board was very awkward for all U.S. officials pushing an anti-corruption agenda in Ukraine.”
In testimony Kent expanded on this comment: I meant that people who talk the talk need to walk the walk, and for the U.S. government, collectively, when we talk about the need to have high standards of integrity, again, as I’ve said, the presence of [Hunter Biden] on the board created the perception of a potential conflict of interest.
The Committees learned, through document requests, that Victoria Nuland, then-Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, also received a forwarded copy of Kent’s September 2016 email outlining his concerns about Hunter Biden being on Burisma’s board.
Nuland testified that she “was always open to hearing the concerns of subordinates and trying to address them in an open and transparent manner.”
Yet when the Committee asked Nuland to explain what actions she took when she received Kent’s email, she said that Kent’s concerns about Hunter Biden were “clearly, way deep down in an email, late in 2016” and “they were not brought to my specific attention by George Kent, who is an old friend and had plenty of opportunity to do so, had he so wanted.”
Despite senior State Department officials clearly being made aware of the situation, Kent’s concerns remained unaddressed.
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IV. THE VICE PRESIDENT’S OFFICE AND STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS WERE AWARE OF BUT IGNORED CONCERNS RELATING TO HUNTER BIDEN’S ROLE ON BURISMA’S BOARD.
e. Hochstein spoke to Vice President Biden about concerns relating to Hunter Biden’s role on Burisma’s board because, according to Hochstein, Russians were using it to advance disinformation.
According to testimony and public reports, Hochstein, then-U.S. Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs, raised concerns about Hunter Biden’s role on Burisma’s board directly to Vice President Biden.
Nuland told the Committees: Amos Hochstein had had a conversation with the vice president and his staff about this, and he also had another conversation on the plane ride to Ukraine for that December 2015 trip.
Public reporting also confirms Hochstein’s discussion with Vice President Biden.
According to one report, “Amos Hochstein, the Obama Administration’s special envoy for energy policy, raised the matter with Biden, but did not go so far as to recommend that Hunter leave the board.”
When Hochstein testified before the Committees, he declined on advice of counsel to testify about the substance of his conversation with Vice President Biden.
The New Yorker, however, reported that Hochstein “did not go so far as to recommend that Hunter leave the board.”
It is unclear how Vice President Biden responded to this conversation.
According to Hochstein, he raised this issue with Vice President Biden because he was concerned that the Russians were using Hunter Biden’s role with Burisma to sow disinformation.
Hochstein recounted that he spoke with Vice President Biden in the West Wing of the White House in October 2015.
When asked why he decided to raise the issue of Hunter Biden’s position on Burisma’s board with Vice President Biden, Hochstein testified:
Hochstein: We were starting to think about a trip to Ukraine, and I wanted to make sure that he [Vice President Biden] was aware that there was an increase in chatter on media outlets close to Russians and corrupt oligarchs-owned media outlets about undermining his message — to try to undermine his [Vice President Biden’s] message and including Hunter Biden being part of the board of Burisma.
Hochstein also raised his concerns about Russian disinformation with Hunter Biden.
Shortly after his conversation with Vice President Biden, Hunter Biden contacted Hochstein and asked to meet.
According to Hochstein, Hunter became aware of Hochstein’s West Wing conversation with the Vice President, who had mentioned it to Hunter.
Hochstein described what he and Hunter Biden discussed at this November 2015 meeting at a coffee shop in Georgetown:
Question: And could you expand on that?
Why did you discuss Burisma with him [Hunter Biden]?
Hochstein: Well, he [Hunter Biden] asked me for a meeting.
I think he wanted to know my views on Burisma and Zlochevsky.
And so I shared with him that the Russians were using his name in order to sow disinformation — attempt to sow disinformation among Ukrainians.
During the November 2015 conversation with Hunter Biden, Hochstein did not recommend that Hunter leave Burisma’s board because he did not “believe that was my place to have that discussion, one way or the other.”
And what a bunch of horse**** Joe Biden is telling us when he tells us he never discussed Hunter Biden’s bidness dealings.
What with all the people around him telling him about Hunter’s bidness dealings, and the concerns about those bidness dealings, Joe would have to be an absolute moron to not know about Hunter Biden’s bidness dealings when they were the talk of the town in corrupt Washington, D.C., when Joe was Hussein Obama’s assistant president and PRO CONSUL for Ukraine.
And now, as we see in this Washington Examiner article titled “‘Political division’: White House dismisses claims Biden lied about family business” by Haisten Willis on 3 January 2022, we have Joe’s witless PROPAGANDA MINISTER KJP telling us that we really aren’t interested in knowing about Hunter and Joe’s bidness dealing in foreign countries and whether or not Joe is compromised, and whether he lied to us when he was running for office, which would be a fraud on the American people, and had his lies back-stopped and covered over by the FBI, which runs interference for Joe, to chill dissent and keep the truth about Joe well hidden, to wit:
The White House on Tuesday deflected a question about President Joe Biden’s family business dealings, saying the issue was a distraction from more important considerations.
end quote
And of course they are going to say some kind of crap like that, because they are against the wall and grasping at straws now, which takes us back to KJP’s spew of BULL****, to wit:
House Republicans on the oversight committee claim to have evidence Biden lied about his involvement in his family’s business schemes, which a reporter asked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about during the afternoon press briefing.
“House Republicans promised that fighting inflation was going to be their No. 1 priority,” Jean-Pierre responded.
“That’s what they said was important to them, and that’s what they said they wanted to do.”
“But instead, what they’re doing is wanting to do an investigation on the president and his family.”
end quotes
No, KJP, it’s the American people who want Joe investigated.
This is a REPUBLIC, KJP, and in a REPUBLIC like ours, it is the people who decide what priorities they want Congress to investigate, not Joe Biden.
If the American people wanted to keep Joe and Hinter’s bidness dealings covered up, they would have left the Democrats in charge of the house.
Getting back to the story:
Conservatives have long raised the alarm about the president’s potential involvement with his son, Hunter Biden, in overseas business schemes in China and Ukraine.
Biden strongly denies any such ties, but House Republicans have promised to investigate the issue now that they hold the majority in the lower chamber.
The younger Biden has hired prominent lawyers ahead of any potential investigations.
Jean-Pierre said the focus on Hunter Biden won’t help everyday voters.
“[House Republicans] don’t want to focus on the American people and their families.”
“They want to focus on political division,” she said.
“They want to focus on something that the American people do not want to see, as we saw from the midterm elections.”
end quotes
As we clearly saw from the mid-term election here in Virginia, where Elaine Luria got the boot, people in America, with good reason, are sick and tired of Democrats covering over for Joe Biden, and did something about it!
So let’s get the investigation going!
The sooner Joe Biden is impeached, the better it will be for America and the world!
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IV. THE VICE PRESIDENT’S OFFICE AND STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS WERE AWARE OF BUT IGNORED CONCERNS RELATING TO HUNTER BIDEN’S ROLE ON BURISMA’S BOARD.
f. Conclusion
Hunter Biden’s role on Burisma’s board hindered the efforts of dedicated career-service individuals who were fighting for anticorruption measures in Ukraine.
Because the vice president’s son had a direct link to a corrupt company and its owner, State Department officials were required to maintain situational awareness of Hunter Biden’s association with Burisma.
Unfortunately, U.S. officials had no other choice but to endure the “awkward[ness]” of continuing to push an anticorruption agenda in Ukraine while the vice president’s son sat on the board of a Ukrainian company with a corrupt owner, earning tens of thousands of dollars a month.
As Kent testified, he “would have advised any American not to get on the board of Zlochevsky’s company.”
Yet even though Hunter Biden’s position on Burisma’s board cast a shadow over the work of those advancing anticorruption reforms in Ukraine, the Committees are only aware of two individuals who raised concerns to their superiors.
Despite the efforts of these individuals, their concerns appear to have fallen on deaf ears.
Bottom line, if you want to work in Washington, D.C., for the Joe Biden regime, you really need to be a good liar like Jack Kerry, Joe’s climate czar who is fighting global warming by flying all over the place in hos own private jet, because as Joe’s climate dude, Jack is free to pollute the air with as much CO2 as he wants, because he is special and thus has an exemption:
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V. SECRETARY OF STATE JOHN KERRY FALSELY CLAIMED HE HAD NO KNOWLEDGE ABOUT HUNTER BIDEN’S ROLE ON BURISMA’S BOARD.
a. Introduction
On Dec. 8, 2019, a reporter asked former Secretary of State John Kerry about his awareness of Hunter Biden on Burisma’s board during his time at the State Department.
Kerry responded, “I had no knowledge about any of that.”
“None.”
“No.”
The reporter pressed for more information and Kerry said, “What would I know about any — no.”
“Why would I know about any company or any individual?”
“No.”
“The answer is no.”
“No communication.”
“No nothing.”
Testimony and documents obtained by the Committees call into question the accuracy of Kerry’s statement.
On May 13, 2014, the day after Hunter Biden joined Burisma’s board, Secretary Kerry’s stepson, Christopher Heinz — who was also Hunter Biden’s business partner — emailed to inform Kerry’s chief of staff, and to distance himself, from that decision.
Moreover, in May 2014, Secretary Kerry’s chief of staff, David Wade, briefed him about press inquiries specifically relating to Heinz, Hunter Biden, and Burisma.
Separately, State Department officials wrote that they sent the secretary articles with the headlines, “Biden’s son joins Ukrainian gas company’s board,” “Biden’s son joins Ukrainian gas producer board,” and “White House says no issue with Biden’s son, Ukraine gas company.”
Accordingly, these records suggest that Kerry did, in fact, know about Hunter Biden and Burisma.
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V. SECRETARY OF STATE JOHN KERRY FALSELY CLAIMED HE HAD NO KNOWLEDGE ABOUT HUNTER BIDEN’S ROLE ON BURISMA’S BOARD.
b. In May 2014, Wade, Secretary Kerry’s chief of staff, briefed him about press inquiries relating to Heinz, Hunter Biden, and Burisma.
On May 13, 2014, State Department officials began fielding press inquiries relating to Hunter Biden joining Burisma’s board and the extent to which Secretary Kerry’s stepson, Heinz, was involved.
That day Heinz emailed Secretary Kerry’s chief of staff about Burisma’s announcement in an apparent attempt to distance himself from Hunter Biden’s decision. 63
Heinz wrote to Special Assistant Matt Summers and Chief of Staff Wade: Apparently Devon [Archer] and Hunter [Biden] both joined the board of Burisma and a press release went out today.
I cant to speak [sic] why they decided to, but there was no investment by our firm in their company. 64
Wade testified that he did not recall receiving this email from Heinz, but he did, to the best of his recollection, reach out to speak with Heinz the following day to “try to confirm since we were being asked whether he, or that Rosemont Seneca was buying or investing in Burisma.”
Wade testified that he spoke to Heinz on May 14, 2014, and confirmed, based only on Heinz’s assurances, that “Rosemont Seneca was not involved” with Burisma.
According to Wade, that same day he spoke to Secretary Kerry and “let him know that Chris Heinz and Rosemont Seneca were not involved [with Burisma], that the media questions [about Rosemont Seneca buying or investing in Burisma] were inaccurate, and that Chris Heinz was not buying or investing in a Ukrainian natural gas company, but that my understanding was that … Hunter Biden and Devon Archer, according to the stories, that that was accurate, that they were … joining a board.”
Wade confirmed that Secretary Kerry learned about Hunter Biden’s association with Burisma through him:
Question: What was Secretary Kerry’s reaction to you informing him of these news inquiries about Mr. Heinz and the additional information regarding Mr. Archer’s [and] Mr. Hunter Biden’s connection and involvement with Burisma?
Wade: He knew nothing about it.
Question: So he learned about this information from you?
Wade: I believe so, yeah.
Question: And when you told him that the information that you were able to confirm with Mr. Heinz that Rosemont Seneca had … not invested or bought Burisma, what was Mr. Kerry’s reaction to that?
Wade: If I recall, his reaction was that he was comfortable answering a press question if he got it.
. . . .
Question: [T]hat he was comfortable answering the media question regarding what?
Wade: Regarding … Christopher Heinz or Rosemont Seneca investing in — in a Ukrainian natural gas company or buying a Ukrainian natural gas company.
Question: And did you discuss with Mr. Kerry what his response to that type of inquiry would have been?
Wade: I’m sure — I’m sure I did.
I don’t — I don’t … remember those details of the conversation.
63 Christopher Heinz had business dealings with Hunter Biden and Devon Archer through their firm Rosemont Seneca. According to Heinz’s spokesman he “strongly warned Mr. Archer that working with Burisma was unacceptable” and “[t]he lack of judgment in this matter was a major catalyst for Mr. Heinz ending his business relationships with Mr. Archer and Mr. Biden.” Paul Sonne, Michael Kranish, Matt Viser, The gas tycoon and the vice president’s son: The story of Hunter Biden’s foray into
Ukraine, THE WASHINGTON POST (Sept. 28, 2019), https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/na … story.html.
64 Email from Chris Heinz to Matt Summers and David Wade, U.S. Dep’t of St. (May 13, 2014), https://www.scribd.com/document/4334367 … oc-Ukraine; see also Alana Goodman, John Kerry’s son cut business ties with Hunter Biden over Ukrainian oil deal, THE WASH. EXAMINER (Aug. 27, 2019), https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/poli … n-oil-deal.
When somebody like John Kerry will lie about something as is the case here, they can be depended on to lie about anything, which equates as political reliability to someone like Joe Biden:
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V. SECRETARY OF STATE JOHN KERRY FALSELY CLAIMED HE HAD NO KNOWLEDGE ABOUT HUNTER BIDEN’S ROLE ON BURISMA’S BOARD.
c. In May 2014, State Department staff sent news articles to Secretary Kerry relating to Hunter Biden and Burisma.
David Thorne, who served as a senior adviser to Secretary Kerry, informed Wade that he sent the following collection of press clips and articles to the secretary on May 14, 2014:
Thorne forwarded these clips to Wade and wrote, “I sent it to JK[.]”
Wade told the Committees that “JK” stood for “John Kerry.”
The headlines of the articles that Thorne sent to Kerry included, “Biden’s son joins Ukrainian gas company’s board,” “Biden’s son joins Ukrainian gas producer board,” and “White House says no issue with Biden’s son, Ukraine gas company.”
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V. SECRETARY OF STATE JOHN KERRY FALSELY CLAIMED HE HAD NO KNOWLEDGE ABOUT HUNTER BIDEN’S ROLE ON BURISMA’S BOARD.
d. Conclusion
Former Secretary Kerry’s December 2019 denial of having any knowledge about Hunter Biden or Burisma is inconsistent with the evidence uncovered by the Committees.
Kerry was briefed about Hunter Biden, Burisma and Heinz the day after Burisma announced Hunter Biden joined its board.
Additionally, Secretary Kerry’s senior advisor sent him press clips and articles relating to Hunter Biden’s board membership.
This appears to be yet another example of high-ranking Obama administration officials blatantly ignoring Hunter Biden’s association with Burisma.
And here is where the corrupt Obama/Biden BULL**** with Ukraine and Hunter Biden really begins to flow fast and thick, which makes it crystal clear that there is enough evidence to conclude that Joe Biden and some of his allies might have conspired to commit fraud and obstruction by misleading Americans about what Joe really did know about Hunter Biden’s business dealings in foreign countries, and whether or not Joe is seriously compromised as a result, which would be conspiracy to defraud the American people, and Joe’s repeated lies that he knew nothing about Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings election amount to common law fraud, to wit:
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VI. STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS VIEWED ZLOCHEVSKY AS A CORRUPT, “ODIOUS OLIGARCH,” BUT VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN WAS ADVISED NOT TO ACCUSE ZLOCHEVSKY OF CORRUPTION.
a. Introduction
The State Department clearly viewed Burisma and its owner, Mykola Zlochevsky, as corrupt, and did not want to have any association with either one.
For example, as soon as Deputy Chief of Mission George Kent learned of a de minimis USAID arrangement with Burisma, and succeeded in severing that relationship.
As U.S. officials pressed Ukrainian officials to hold Zlochevsky accountable for his actions, Vice President Biden was “leading the policy charge” of pushing anticorruption measures in Ukraine, which included confronting oligarchs.
Yet as staff prepared talking points for Vice President Biden to answer questions about whether he viewed Zlochevsky as corrupt, they suggested that he “not … get into naming names or accusing individuals.”
Biden’s spokeswoman told reporters, “the vice president does not endorse any particular company and has no involvement with this company.” 75
This stands in stark contrast to the decision of then-Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt to call out Zlochevsky by name as an example of corruption in a September 2015 speech.
Biden’s unwillingness to confront a man whom State officials considered to be an “odious oligarch” demonstrated a lack of leadership, but also raises a serious question about why Vice President Biden would avoid linking Zlochevsky with corruption.
75 James Risen, Joe Biden, His Son and the Case Against a Ukrainian Oligarch, THE NEW YORK TIMES (Dec. 8, 2015), https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/worl … -ties.html.
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VI. STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS VIEWED ZLOCHEVSKY AS A CORRUPT, “ODIOUS OLIGARCH,” BUT VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN WAS ADVISED NOT TO ACCUSE ZLOCHEVSKY OF CORRUPTION.
b. State Department officials viewed Zlochevsky and Burisma as corrupt.
According to testimony and documents obtained by the Committees, State Department officials viewed Burisma and its owner, Zlochevsky, as corrupt.
Insofar as the link between Zlochevsky and corruption was not already clear to State Department officials, in early 2015 they learned that Zlochevsky likely bribed Ukrainian prosecutors to interfere in a United Kingdom criminal proceeding against him, which was subsequently closed.
(Section VII of this report will describe this bribe and its consequences in more detail.)
In short, State Department officials’ understanding of Zlochevsky’s actions relating to the U.K. criminal case strongly influenced their perspective of him and Burisma.
Below are several examples of State Department officials sharing their perspective of Zlochevsky and Burisma:
“Zlochevsky was viewed as corrupt, not just in Ukraine but by the USG/FBI[.]” – George Kent, Department of State, Sept. 2016
“[W]e have extensive concerns about corruption in Ukraine, and we believe Mr. Zlochevsky is an example.” – Memo to then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, Dec. 2016
“Burisma’s owner was a poster child for corrupt behavior[.]” – George Kent Testimony to the Committees
“I would have advised any American not to get on the board of Zlochevsky’s company.” – George Kent Testimony to the Committees 80
“The proliferation of Ukrainian companies clearly (and not so clearly owned/controlled by odious oligarchs or those who outright stole assets and absconded (like Zlochevsky) is likely a long one.” – George Kent, Department of State, Aug. 2016
“Throughout 2015 and 2016, U.S. officials, particularly those at the U.S. Embassy in K[y]iv, consistently pressed Ukrainian officials to hold Zlochevsky to account and made clear our negative view about Burisma.” – George Kent Testimony to the Committees
“…our focus was on [Zlochevsky’s] corrupt acts as minister when he abused the office to award national gas exploration contracts to companies that he controlled through shell companies.” – George Kent Testimony to the Committees
“In the case of former Ecology Minister Mykola Zlochevsky, the U.K. authorities had seized $23 million in illicit assets that belonged to the Ukrainian people.” – Geoffrey Pyatt, then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Sept. 2015
The closing of the U.K. case against Zlochevsky was a “gross miscarriage of justice that undermined months of U.S. assistance … [a]fter the FBI and MI5 spent months and arguably millions working to try to put together the first possible asset recover case (against former Minister of Ecology Zlochevsky)[.]” – George Kent, State Department, Aug. 2016
“[The] U.S. and U.K. were cooperating on a case to seize [Zlochevsky’s] corrupt assets overseas (which had passed through the U.S.).” – Geoffrey Pyatt, then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Dec. 2015
There is “a moral hazard associated with publicly associating/promoting our assistance projects with companies/individuals seen in Ukrainian society as corrupt/compromised.” – George Kent on whether any U.S. agency should cooperate or associate with Burisma or Zlochevsky, Aug. 2016
“[United States Government (USG)] cooperation on the project [with Burisma] would make us look bad. Not to mention the [Members of Parliament] on the energy committee and others would wonder how we speak about anti corruption [sic], but work with those that were associated with corrupt practices.” – Redacted State Department official in an email to colleagues, Sept. 2016
“[There] is a clear link between the company and its primary owner. . . . From the rumors that we hear in the energy sector, there is no sense that Burisma has changed how it conducts its business. . . . I fall on the side of not having anything to do with the company to avoid undermining our broader efforts to promote transparency and [anticorruption].” – Redacted State Department official in an email to colleagues, Sept. 2016
So we are going to see Joe Biden emerge here as a “WARRIOR” against the corruption in the Democrat party fiefdom or province of Ukraine that feeds son Hunter, but as a “WARRIOR” against corruption, Joe can’t say who really is corrupt, or even if it exists, since if you can’t say who is corrupt, how can there be corruption, which makes no sense whatsoever, but then, we’re talking Hussein Obama and Joe Biden here, so of course it doesn’t make sense:
Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Majority Staff Report
VI. STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS VIEWED ZLOCHEVSKY AS A CORRUPT, “ODIOUS OLIGARCH,” BUT VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN WAS ADVISED NOT TO ACCUSE ZLOCHEVSKY OF CORRUPTION.
c. State Department officials viewed Vice President Biden as a “warrior” and “leading the policy charge” on anticorruption measures in Ukraine.
According to testimony, former State Department officials saw Vice President Biden as a leading U.S. figure who pushed for anticorruption measures in Ukraine.
Kent testified, “Vice President Biden was leading the policy charge, pushing President Poroshenko and Prime Minister Yatsenyuk to take more decisive anticorruption action.”
Ambassador Victoria Nuland called Vice President Biden a “warrior” on this issue and said, “I was proud to work with Vice President Biden on Ukraine policy and especially on trying to help the Ukrainian period [sic] root out corruption in their country.”
On December 9, 2015, Vice President Biden spoke in Ukraine in front of the parliament of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada, and told the members that they are facing a “test of courage” and have an “obligation” to Ukrainians to reform their country to “build a united, democratic Ukrainian nation that can stand the test of time.”
In doing so, Biden stated that Ukrainians have “a historic battle against corruption.”
He said “[o]ligarchs and non-oligarchs must play by the same rules.”
Biden called on the Rada to “seize the opportunity.”
“Build a better future for the people of Ukraine.”
Biden’s speech, which pushed anticorruption measures, was, according to Nuland, “very powerful and powerfully received by the Rada.”
Yet, while Vice President Biden called for members of the Rada to have courage to confront corruption in Ukraine, the vice president’s staff was advising otherwise.
“Tell them you’re against corruption, Joe, but DO NOT say who is corrupt!”
Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Majority Staff Report
VI. STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS VIEWED ZLOCHEVSKY AS A CORRUPT, “ODIOUS OLIGARCH,” BUT VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN WAS ADVISED NOT TO ACCUSE ZLOCHEVSKY OF CORRUPTION.
d. Vice President Biden’s staff recommended he not link Zlochevsky with corruption.
Nuland told the Committees that by confronting oligarchs, the U.S. would send an anticorruption message.
Yet as Vice President Biden’s staff responded to press inquiries relating to Burisma and Zlochevsky, one staffer wrote, “I am concerned about getting into anything relating to Mr. Zlochevsky directly.”
Just a few days before the vice president gave his December 2015 speech at the Rada pushing anticorruption measures, his staff prepared talking points for him and included a response to the question: “Do you think Zlochevsky is corrupt?”
His staff wrote:
I’m not going to get into naming names or accusing individuals.
We have been working consistently to push the Ukrainian leadership to make meaningful changes in the Prosecutor General’s office and across the government to help ensure that the Ukrainian people are represented fairly and fully. 100
It is clear that members of Vice President Biden’s staff wanted to distance him from an individual whom the State Department clearly believed was corrupt and an individual who employed his son.
This stands in stark contrast to then-Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt, who identified Zlochevsky by name as a corrupt actor during a September 2015 speech in Odessa, Ukraine.
But the Committees were not able to locate any public statements Vice President Biden gave from 2014 to 2016 in which he called Zlochevsky corrupt.
Instead, in December 2015, Biden’s spokeswoman told reporters, “the vice president does not endorse any particular company and has no involvement with this company.” 101
100 Email from Kate Bedingfield, Off. of the Vice President, to Michael Carpenter, Off. of the Vice President, et al. (Dec. 6, 2015, 6:04 PM), [STATE-2019-18-0000553-554] (emphasis added). Ambassador Pyatt recommended changing the last sentence of that answer to “Something like ‘… begin rooting out the cancer of corruption that has done so much over the years to hold back economic growth and sap the confidence of Ukrainians in those who govern them.’” Email from Geoffrey Pyatt, Ambassador to Ukraine, to Kate Bedingfield, Off. of the Vice President, et al. (Dec. 6, 2015, 11:13 AM), [STATE-2019-18-0000553].
101 James Risen, Joe Biden, His Son and the Case Against a Ukrainian Oligarch, THE NEW YORK TIMES (Dec. 8, 2015), https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/worl … -ties.html
“C’mon, man, man up and confront corruption and change the course of history for your country,” says Joe Biden to the Ukrainians, this being the same Joe Biden whose son Hunter is raking in BIG BUCK$ from a corrupt oligarch that Joe can’t say is corrupt, so who then are the Ukrainians to confront?
Not the gravy train for Hunter Biden, anyway, not if Joe Biden can help it:
Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Majority Staff Report
VI. STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS VIEWED ZLOCHEVSKY AS A CORRUPT, “ODIOUS OLIGARCH,” BUT VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN WAS ADVISED NOT TO ACCUSE ZLOCHEVSKY OF CORRUPTION.
e. Conclusion
In his December 2015 speech at the Rada, Vice President Biden told members to have courage to confront corruption and change the course of history for their country.
Yet when it came to calling out an individual whom the State Department viewed as a “corrupt” and “odious oligarch,” Vice President Biden’s staff advised him to not accuse Zlochevsky of corruption.
In December 2015, while in Ukraine, Biden did not link Zlochevsky with corruption and did not demonstrate the same level of courageousness that he encouraged Ukrainian political leaders to pursue.
Several witnesses highlighted efforts by certain U.S. officials to enable a successful investigation of Zlochevsky, and also noted that the U.S. decision to condition a $1 billion loan guarantee was made in part because of the then-Ukrainian prosecutor general’s failure to pursue a case against Zlochevsky.
But at the end of the day, between 2014 through 2017, despite the concerted effort of many U.S. officials, not one of the three different Ukrainian prosecutor generals held Zlochevsky accountable.
Now we come to Hunter Biden being put in charge of the Burisma Holdings’ legal unit, keeping in mind that in a Politico article titled “Democrats: Packets sent to Trump allies are part of foreign plot to damage Biden – The packets were shipped to leading Republicans by a Ukrainian lawmaker who has met with the president’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani” by Natasha Bertrand, Andrew Desiderio and Kyle Cheney on 07/23/2020, it was stated as follows:
Hunter Biden has acknowledged that he secured the Burisma position due in part to his last name.
end quote
Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Majority Staff Report
VII. WHILE HUNTER BIDEN SERVED ON BURISMA’S BOARD, BURISMA’S OWNER, ZLOCHEVSKY, ALLEGEDLY PAID A $7 MILLION BRIBE TO UKRAINE’S PROSECUTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE TO CLOSE THE CASE.
On May 12, 2014, Burisma trumpeted the addition of Hunter Biden to its board of directors, stating, “Biden will be in charge of the [Burisma] Holdings’ legal unit and will provide support for the Company among international organizations.”
In that same press release, Hunter Biden stated, “As a new member of the Board, I believe that my assistance in consulting the company on matters of transparency, corporate governance and responsibility, international expansion and other priorities will contribute to the economy and benefit the people of Ukraine.”
The company’s release went on to say that, Hunter was “a well-known public figure,” but the release did not mention Hunter’s connection to a more well-known public figure, his father, the vice president of the United States.
When Hunter Biden joined Burisma’s board in May 2014, the prosecutor general of Ukraine was Oleh Makhnitskyi.
Makhnitskyi served as the acting prosecutor general for only a few months before resigning from the post.
His resignation gave way to Vitaly Yarema, who on June 19, 2014, became the prosecutor general of Ukraine.
George Kent, a career diplomat who served in a number of roles at the State Department over his career, including several tours in Ukraine, did not hold Prosecutor General Yarema or his team in high regard.
In fact, he testified, “[Yarema’s] team failed to bring a single prosecution over a seven-month period, and which allegedly took a bribe from [Burisma’s owner] Zlochevsky to close the case against him and collapse our effort to recover the $23 million frozen in the United Kingdom.”
WARNING: We are now entering a real political sewer, so breathing apparatus will be required to protect your health from the noxious gases found therein, and keep in mind that EVERYTHING you are going to be reading about was very effectively BURIED by Nancy Pelosi, Charley “CHUCK” Schumer and the smarmy pencil-neck Democrat from Disneyland and Hollywood Adam “SHIFTY” Schiff after they got Politico to print that article titled “Democrats: Packets sent to Trump allies are part of foreign plot to damage Biden – The packets were shipped to leading Republicans by a Ukrainian lawmaker who has met with the president’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani” by Natasha Bertrand, Andrew Desiderio and Kyle Cheney on 07/23/2020:
Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Majority Staff Report
VII. WHILE HUNTER BIDEN SERVED ON BURISMA’S BOARD, BURISMA’S OWNER, ZLOCHEVSKY, ALLEGEDLY PAID A $7 MILLION BRIBE TO UKRAINE’S PROSECUTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE TO CLOSE THE CASE.
a. Allegations that Zlochevsky bribed Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Office
In January 2015, Kent arrived in Kyiv and learned that the U.S. embassy was not communicating with the Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO).
Shortly after his arrival, Kent asked a Department of Justice (DOJ) official posted at U.S. Embassy Kyiv to set up a high-level meeting with the PGO.
According to Kent, the goal of this meeting was for U.S. officials to raise the money-laundering case against Burisma’s owner, Zlochevsky.
Kent secured a Feb. 3, 2015, appointment with the First Deputy Prosecutor General, who was the “number two prosecutor in the country at the time, Anatoliy Danylenko.”
Kent testified that, during the Feb. 3, 2015 meeting with the PGO, he “confronted the First Deputy Prosecutor General, Anatoliy Danylenko, demanding to know who had paid the bribe and how much it was.”
“I also demanded that the case against Zlochevsky be resumed.”
During testimony, Kent provided the Committees additional insight into what occurred during the Feb. 3, 2015, meeting at the PGO:
When I asked the question [to Danylenko], ‘How much was the [Zlochevsky] bribe and who took it?’ [Danylenko] laughed and said, ‘That’s exactly what President Poroshenko asked us last week.’
And I [Kent] said, ‘So what did you tell the President [Poroshenko]?’ and [Danylenko] said, ‘Seven million dollars and last May [2014], before we came into office.’
Kent apparently did not believe that Zlochevsky’s bribe occurred in May 2014.
He responded to Mr. Danylenko,
“Nice try, but the letter that someone — some prosecutor in your office [PGO] wrote was signed in late December [2014], six months after you all [Yarema’s team] came into office.”
On Feb. 10, 2015, one week after Kent’s conversation with the PGO, President Poroshenko dismissed General Prosecutor Yarema and other members of his team.
And here is just how easy ALL of that corruption business involving Hunter Biden and Biden Inc. was swept under the rug in 2020 in the months leading up to the 2020 contest between challenger Joe Biden and incumbent Donald Trump for the office of president by Nancy Pelosi, Charley “CHUCK” Schumer, Adam “SHIFTY” Schiff of Hollywood and Disneyland, the compliant Federal Bureau of Investigation and the tame media that licks the boots of Pelosi and Company, printing what they are told to print, without question, to wit
MSNBC
“Dems fear foreign influence campaign is using Ron Johnson probe -Democratic leaders fear a foreign adversary may be trying to ‘launder and amplify disinformation’ through Ron Johnson’s committee.”
By Steve Benen
July 21, 2020
end quotes
OMG!
I haven’t even read the story yet, and already I am scared ******** by the thought that the Russians have taken over the White House and now control all of our elections so as to keep compliant Democrats in office as their tools by the simple expedient of having their tools the Democrats and the compliant gelded main-stream media that questions nothing tell the gullible American people that it is really the Republicans who are in bed with the Russians, which takes us back to that story of how the 2020 presidential election was indeed manipulated in the favor of Joe Biden by the Democrats, the Russians, who did a masterful job here, and the FBI, which takes us to the story, to wit:
The “Gang of Eight” is a congressional colloquialism that refers to the top eight lawmakers who receive intelligence briefings unavailable to other members.
The octet is made up of the top two House leaders from both parties, the top two Senate leaders from both parties, and the top two members from the House and Senate Intelligence committees.
With this in mind, the Democratic half of the “gang” — Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Adam Schiff, and Mark Warner — recently sent a formal request to FBI Director Christopher Wray, asking that the bureau provide “a defensive counterintelligence briefing” to literally every member of Congress “regarding foreign efforts to interfere in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.”
The Democratic lawmakers’ letter added, “We are gravely concerned, in particular, that Congress appears to be the target of a concerted foreign interference campaign, which seeks to launder and amplify disinformation in order to influence congressional activity, public debate, and the presidential election in November.”
end quotes
GREAT LINES, people, MASTERFUL SCRIPT WRITING!
What a sense of drama comes forth!
Very powerful stuff indeed, which is exactly what one would expect from a joint Adam Schiff/Hollywood/Disneyland/Kremlin production of some very slick misdirection in the effort of the Russians to have Joe Biden sitting in the oval office, which again takes us back to the story:
It’s not every day that four members of the “Gang of Eight” make such a request to the FBI, and the concerns raised in the letter sound extremely serious.
end quote
My goodness, of course they sound serious!
They were intended to make people scared before the November 2020 presidential election to make them easier to manipulate since scared people cannot think straight, which again takes us back to the story:
These congressional leaders believe Congress is the current target of a foreign interference campaign?
An adversary may be trying to launder and amplify disinformation through Capitol Hill?
To influence our elections again?
What’s this all about?
end quote
And watch for what is known as a media hand-off here, another skillful political move, as MSNBC bases the “veracity” of what it was saying on 21 July 2020 on what Politico was saying the day before, based on a Pelosi/Schumer/Schiff press release, and here comes the WHITEWASH of all of what I have been posting in here from that report, to wit:
Well, a Politico report late yesterday shed some additional light on the Democrats’ efforts.
Among the Democrats’ concerns is that a Senate investigation being led by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) has become a vehicle for “laundering” a foreign influence campaign to damage Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, according to two people familiar with the demand.
It’s worth emphasizing that the letter to Chris Wray did not reference Johnson by name.
What’s more, the Wisconsin Republican — who also happens to lead the Senate Homeland Security Committee — has denied being used by a foreign influence campaign.
That said, the Democrats’ letter included a classified annex, fleshing out in more detail what they were referring to.
And while there’s no public access to that annex, Ron Johnson has made little effort to hide the fact that he’s eager to use his powerful committee post — including the use of partisan subpoenas — to pursue a probe related to Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.
Could a foreign power — say, Russia, for example — try to exploit this GOP scheme to “launder and amplify disinformation”?
It appears to be a point of concern among Democratic leaders, and there’s reason to take those fears seriously.
From the Politico report:
Johnson renewed his demand for transcribed interviews and documents from the former officials days after a Ukrainian lawmaker — Andriy Derkach, who has met with Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to discuss investigating the Biden family — used a news conference to accuse the Bidens and Amos Hochstein, a former special envoy for international energy affairs at the State Department, of an elaborate conspiracy to steal hundreds of millions of dollars from Ukraine.
The article added that Johnson had previously sought testimony from Andrii Telizhenko, “who has pushed unsubstantiated claims about coordination between the Ukrainian government and the Democratic National Committee in 2016.”
That didn’t turn out well: the FBI’s foreign-influence taskforce warned senators to be skeptical of Telizhenko’s claims.
Let’s also not forget that late last year, even Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), who was chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee at the time, warned Johnson that his efforts could have the effect of helping the Kremlin.
We don’t yet know whether the FBI is prepared to provide the all-members briefing Democrats requested, but Dems want a response from Wray this week.
Watch this space.
Postscript: Given the Wisconsin Republican’s record of using talking points that line up with a Russian disinformation campaign, Johnson’s credibility in this area was already rather shaky.
Before we go further and deeper into this murkiness surrounding the activities of then-Obama vice president Joe Biden, now president thanks to the cover-up and whitewash by the Democrats and their accomplices the FBI and compliant main-stream and legacy media, and his son Hunter, while Joe was vice president and a wheeler-dealer power broker, there are a lot of names that are going to be flying at us, and the three most important right now with respect to these claims by the Democrats providing political cover for Biden Inc. about Republican Senator Johnson previously seeking testimony from Andrii Telizhenko, “who has pushed unsubstantiated claims about coordination between the Ukrainian government and the Democratic National Committee in 2016,” are Karen A. Tramontano, Chief Executive Officer, Blue Star Strategies, a Democrat “lobby shop,” Sally A. Painter, Chief Operating Officer of Blue Star, and Andrii Telizhenko, himself, who as we see from the Conclusion of the Senate Report buried by the Democrats and FBI and complaint media, was very tight with Blue Star, to wit:
The Obama administration and the Democrat lobby shop Blue Star Strategies had consistent and extensive contact with Andrii Telizhenko over a period of years.
Yet despite these well-documented contacts with Democratic officials, Democrats have attempted to impugn this investigation for having received some Blue Star-related records from Telizhenko.
Some Democrats have even (incorrectly) identified Telizhenko as the Committees’ “star witness.”
Although he produced a small number of Blue Star-related records to the Committees, the Committees never interviewed him as part of this investigation.
end quotes
But we are talking about the Democrats, the FBI, and the compliant media, so facts to them do not matter one bit.
As to Karen A. Tramontano, the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Blue Star Strategies, LLC, from 1997 to 2001, she served in the White House as deputy chief of staff to President William Jefferson Clinton and counselor to Erskine Bowles and John Podesta.
In 2001, Ms. Tramontano served as chief of staff for President Clinton’s transition, where she established his office and presence in New York City.
Ms. Tramontano is also Founder and President of the Global Fairness Initiative, a nonprofit organization working to promote a more equitable and sustainable approach to globalization.
Sally A. Painter, the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at Blue Star Strategies, LLC., was a senior advisor in the Clinton Administration From 1993-1995, where she managed the Office of Business Liaison’s outreach and advocacy program for the late Secretary of Commerce Ronald H. Brown, providing strategic advice and advocacy for U.S companies bidding on overseas contracts.
And as for Andrii Telizhenko, let’s take the liberty for a moment of jumping ahead (yes, I have read the whole report as is my habit word for word) where we have as follows:
IX. OBAMA ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS AND A DEMOCRAT LOBBYING
FIRM HAD CONSISTENT AND SIGNIFICANT CONTACT WITH FORMER
UKRAINIAN OFFICIAL ANDRII TELIZHENKO.
a. Introduction
Despite claims from Ranking Member (Democrat) Peters, Ranking Member (Democrat) Wyden and Democrat leadership, the Committees reject all assertions that this investigation has been influenced by Russian disinformation.
To be crystal clear, the Committees’ work has focused only on Obama administration records from the State Department, National Archives and Records Administration, Department of Justice, other federal agencies, and the U.S. consulting firm Blue Star Strategies, as well as interviews with current and former U.S. government officials.
The Committees have spoken with one foreign national about his ties to the Obama administration, a DNC operative, and Blue Star Strategies.
In 2016, Andrii Telizhenko was an official at the Ukrainian embassy in Washington.
In that position, Telizhenko met several times with Obama administration officials, a consultant for the Democratic National Committee, and the Democrat lobbying firm, Blue Star Strategies (which later employed him from 2016 to 2017).
Blue Star Strategies officials continued to contact and request his assistance as recently as the summer of 2019.
b. Communication and meetings between Obama administration officials and Telizhenko.
As far as the Committees are aware, the majority of Telizhenko’s interactions with Obama administration officials occurred during 2015 and 2016.
The Committees possess records of some of these communications from their request to the National Archives.
According to documents, on July 19, 2013, Telizhenko attended a meeting at the White House with two other Ukrainians to meet with Lyn Debevoise.
At that time, Telizhenko was the counselor to a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s Parliament.
It is unknown what was discussed at this meeting.
The Committees attempted to obtain Telizhenko’s Blue Star Strategies documents that are subject to a non-disclosure agreement, but Democrat obstruction shielded Blue Star Strategies from providing these relevant documents.
On July 21, 2015, Telizhenko was scheduled to meet in the Old Executive Office Building with Michael Carpenter, who was a foreign policy advisor to Vice President Biden.
It is unknown what was discussed at this meeting.
So, before we move on here, people, PRESTO CHANGO, just like that at least with respect to Andrii Telizhenko, anyway, who in 2016 was an official at the Ukrainian embassy in Washington, and while in that position, met several times with Obama administration officials, as well as a consultant for the Democratic National Committee, and the Democrat lobbying firm, Blue Star Strategies, which later employed him from 2016 to 2017, and continued to contact and request his assistance as recently as the summer of 2019, and who in January of 2021, in a stunning fall from grace after being tight with the Obama administration, had become a sanctioned “Russian-linked actor” as we see by going to a press release of the United States Treasury titled “Treasury Takes Further Action Against Russian-linked Actors” January 11, 2021, where we have as follows which should have us asking ourselves just what the hell is really going on here, to wit:
WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took additional action against seven individuals and four entities that are part of a Russia-linked foreign influence network associated with Andrii Derkach.
Russian agent Derkach was designated on September 10, 2020, pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13848, for his attempt to influence the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
“Russian disinformation campaigns targeting American citizens are a threat to our democracy,” said Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin.
“The United States will continue to aggressively defend the integrity of our election systems and processes.”
end quotes
For the record, Mnuchin was Trump’s secretary of the treasury, so it is clear that it was Trump taking the action against Russian disinformation, not the Democrats.
So was Trump acting to protect Joe Biden from Russian disinformation?
Going back to that press release, it continues as follows:
Since at least 2019, Derkach and his associates have leveraged U.S. media, U.S.-based social media platforms, and influential U.S. persons to spread misleading and unsubstantiated allegations that current and former U.S. officials engaged in corruption, money laundering, and unlawful political influence in Ukraine.
Former Ukrainian Government officials Konstantin Kulyk, Oleksandr Onyshchenko, Andriy Telizhenko, and current Ukraine Member of Parliament Oleksandr Dubinsky have publicly appeared or affiliated themselves with Derkach through the coordinated dissemination and promotion of fraudulent and unsubstantiated allegations involving a U.S. political candidate.
They have made repeated public statements to advance disinformation narratives that U.S. government officials have engaged in corrupt dealings in Ukraine.
These efforts are consistent with and in support of Derkach’s efforts, acting as an agent of the Russian intelligence services, to influence the 2020 U.S. Presidential election.
Telizhenko, a former low-level Ukrainian diplomat, orchestrated meetings between Derkach and U.S. persons to help propagate false claims concerning corruption in Ukraine.
Kulyk, Onyshchenko, Telizhenko, and Dubinsky are being designated pursuant to E.O. 13848 for having directly or indirectly engaged in, sponsored, concealed, or otherwise been complicit in foreign influence in a United States election.
The Treasury Department encourages the American people to confirm information received via social media intelligently by going to multiple trusted sources for news and information, particularly when the source or suspected source of the information is from outside the United States.
More information specific to the U.S. 2020 election and disinformation campaigns can be found here: https://www.cisa.gov/rumorcontrol.
And getting back to what the Democrats in league with the FBI and the compliant main-stream and legacy media were able to easily and successfully whitewash and cover over as “Russian disinformation” about Biden, Inc. before the 2020 presidential election, a fraud on the American people if there ever was one which was intended to put Joe Biden in the oval office, we have more of what was covered up as follows:
Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Majority Staff Report
VII. WHILE HUNTER BIDEN SERVED ON BURISMA’S BOARD, BURISMA’S OWNER, ZLOCHEVSKY, ALLEGEDLY PAID A $7 MILLION BRIBE TO UKRAINE’S PROSECUTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE TO CLOSE THE CASE.
b. George Kent reporting of the Zlochevsky’s bribe allegation to U.S. officials
Kent told the Committees that after the meeting with Danylenko, the DOJ official at U.S. Embassy Kyiv reported the allegation — that Zlochevsky paid the PGO a $7 million bribe — to the FBI. 116
At this time, the Committees are seeking an explanation from the FBI about what, if any, actions they took after receiving this information from U.S. Embassy Kyiv.
Kent testified that it was not until sometime after the Feb. 3, 2015, meeting with the PGO that he became aware that Hunter Biden was on the board of Burisma.
After Kent learned of the alleged Zlochevsky bribe, he became aware of Hunter Biden’s connection to Burisma.
Soon after, Kent spoke with Vice President Biden’s office about his concerns.
This conversation occurred sometime between Feb. 3 and Feb. 14, 2015, when Kent ended up on a phone call with a staffer from Vice President Biden’s office.
He could not recall the exact date of the phone call, and when asked whether he apprised the staffer for Vice President Biden about Zlochevsky’s alleged bribe, Kent testified, “I can’t remember — to be perfectly honest, I don’t remember who I spoke to.”
Kent told the Committees he did not memorialize this February 2015 phone call with Vice President Biden’s office.
Despite not recalling whether he mentioned the alleged Zlochevsky bribe to Vice President Biden’s office, or to a member of the Obama National Security Council, over the years, Kent did mention his knowledge of the alleged Zlochevsky bribe to high-ranking State Department officials.
For example, on Aug. 31, 2016, Kent told State Department colleagues that “[Zlochevsky] who almost certainly paid off the PGO in December 2014 (I had the then First deputy PG Danylenko tell me the bribe was $7 million) to have the case against him closed and his $23 million in assets frozen in the UK unfrozen?”
Hunter Biden, as we are soon to see, was a protected person while he was doing his dealings in foreign countries, “business” dealings Joe Biden, the “BIG GUY,” says he knows absolutely nothing about, and the FBI didn’t respond because the FBI was part of the team doing the whitewashing, to wit:
Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Majority Staff Report
VII. WHILE HUNTER BIDEN SERVED ON BURISMA’S BOARD, BURISMA’S OWNER, ZLOCHEVSKY, ALLEGEDLY PAID A $7 MILLION BRIBE TO UKRAINE’S PROSECUTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE TO CLOSE THE CASE.
c. Conclusion
Based on Kent’s testimony, the alleged $7 million bribe from Zlochevsky to Ukraine’s PGO likely occurred while Hunter Biden was on Burisma’s board.
Hunter Biden has stated that his position on the board was to “consult on matters of transparency, corporate governance and responsibility[.]” 123
The Committees requested information from the FBI about what, if any, actions it took in regard to this allegation.
The FBI has not yet responded to that request.
123 Press Release, Burisma Holdings, Hunter Biden joins the team of Burisma Holdings (May 12, 2014), https://web.archive.org/web/20140606004 … -holdings/.
Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Majority Staff Report
VIII. HUNTER BIDEN: A U.S. SECRET SERVICE PROTECTEE WHILE ON BURISMA’S BOARD
When Vice President Biden traveled overseas on Air Force Two, he was often accompanied by members of his family. 125
Hunter Biden joined his father on a number of trips and, as the son of the vice president, he could enroll as a protectee and receive armed protection from the U.S. Secret Service (USSS).
In an effort to determine how much of Hunter Biden’s scheduled travel occurred as a protectee and whether that overlapped with his private business dealings, the Committees requested and received documents from the USSS detailing Hunter Biden’s scheduled travel as a protectee.
The Committees found that Hunter Biden scheduled travel as a protectee after joining Burisma’s board in May 2014.
The Committees also determined that Hunter Biden declined USSS protection after a scheduled July 8, 2014, trip to Michigan City, Ind.
At this time, the Committees have not determined why Hunter Biden declined USSS protection after July 8, 2014.
125 Josh Lederman, Biden’s trip to China with son Hunter in 2013 comes under new scrutiny, NBC NEWS (Oct. 2, 2019),
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-e … w-n1061051.
And as we learn here, for Hunter Biden, who I would say seemed to be involved in a world-class money-laundering scheme with secret service protection, being a vice president’s son was a whole lot better gig than being a mere senator’s son, which itself was a better gig than being a mere citizen, to wit:
Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Majority Staff Report
VIII. HUNTER BIDEN: A U.S. SECRET SERVICE PROTECTEE WHILE ON BURISMA’S BOARD
a. Hunter Biden, USSS protectee
According to USSS records, Hunter Biden enrolled as a protectee starting in January 2009, after his father was elected vice president.
He remained a protectee for about 4.5 years, and records indicate an extensive amount of scheduled foreign travel as a protectee.
Although the majority of his trips were domestic, the Committees identified nearly 70 trips that Hunter Biden scheduled to foreign countries while he was a protectee.
Hunter Biden, here identified by the USSS using his full name, Robert H. Biden, scheduled foreign travel as a protectee to a wide array of foreign cities:
Joe Biden has been asked about his son, Hunter, joining him on foreign trips to China while he was vice president.
In response to questions about whether this arrangement was a conflict of interest, Joe Biden has told the media, “I have never spoken to my son [Hunter] about his overseas business dealings.”
The USSS records indicate Hunter Biden scheduled at least six trips to China while a protectee, including a trip to Beijing in May 2014 right before he joined Burisma’s board:
During his December 2013 trip to China, during which Hunter Biden flew on Air Force Two, Hunter Biden admitted he met with a Chinese banker.
According to news reports, Hunter Biden appeared to be conducting his own private business during this specific trip and was working to secure a deal in the hopes of creating a Chinese equity fund.
And while all of this admittedly may well seem to be lifted directly from the pages of “Tales Of The Weird And Absurd,” let me assure you that it is straight out of U.S. government records, instead:
Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Majority Staff Report
VIII. HUNTER BIDEN: A U.S. SECRET SERVICE PROTECTEE WHILE ON BURISMA’S BOARD
b. Hunter Biden, USSS protectee and Burisma board member.
According to USSS records, Hunter Biden was a protectee at the time he joined Burisma’s board in May 2014.
Hunter Biden scheduled at least seven trips after he joined Burisma’s board on May 13, 2014.
These trips took him to the foreign cities of Doha, Qatar, and Paris, France, and stateside to New York, Newark, N.J., and Michigan City, Ind.:
The Committees did not determine why Hunter Biden declined USSS protection following the July 8, 2014, trip in Michigan City.
But it should be noted that, the day before his last trip as a protectee, Time published an article describing Burisma’s ramped up lobbying efforts to U.S. officials and Hunter’s involvement in Burisma’s board. 138
The Committees requested additional information from the USSS about the lack of records after July 8, 2014.
The USSS did not provide greater detail other than Hunter Biden declined protection.
138 Michael Scherer, Ukranian Employer of Joe Biden’s Son Hires a D.C. Lobbyist, TIME (Jul. 7, 2014).
https://time.com/2964493/ukraine-joe-bi … r-burisma/
I can just picture Hunter Biden out there strutting large and in charge on the world stage like a drug lord or mafia don with his armed secret service detail hovering around him like a drug lord’s gunsels because he is Joe Biden’s son:
Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Majority Staff Report
VIII. HUNTER BIDEN: A U.S. SECRET SERVICE PROTECTEE WHILE ON BURISMA’S BOARD
c. Conclusion
Hunter Biden scheduled hundreds of trips while he was a protectee.
He was a Burisma board member while a protectee.
Whether Hunter Biden conducted additional private business dealings while a protectee is unknown.
Further, the Committees do not know why Hunter Biden declined USSS protection, and whether or not media scrutiny was a factor for Hunter to decline protection in July 2014.
And here, we are going to be seeing some slick Democrat sleight-of-hand or legerdemain with respect to this Andrii Telizhenko dude, who in a CNN article titled “US revokes visa of Giuliani’s Ukrainian ally who spread conspiracy theories about the Bidens” by Kylie Atwood, Jennifer Hansler, Marshall Cohen and Jeremy Herb on October 5, 2020 became Rudy Giuliani’s “ally,” after being an Obama ally four years earlier in 2016, to wit:
Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Majority Staff Report
IX. OBAMA ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS AND A DEMOCRAT LOBBYING FIRM HAD CONSISTENT AND SIGNIFICANT CONTACT WITH FORMER UKRAINIAN OFFICIAL ANDRII TELIZHENKO.
a. Introduction
Despite claims from Ranking Member Peters, Ranking Member Wyden and Democrat leadership, the Committees reject all assertions that this investigation has been influenced by Russian disinformation.
To be crystal clear, the Committees’ work has focused only on Obama administration records from the State Department, National Archives and Records Administration, Department of Justice, other federal agencies, and the U.S. consulting firm Blue Star Strategies, as well as interviews with current and former U.S. government officials.
The Committees have spoken with one foreign national about his ties to the Obama administration, a DNC operative, and Blue Star Strategies.
In 2016, Andrii Telizhenko was an official at the Ukrainian embassy in Washington. 139
In that position, Telizhenko met several times with Obama administration officials, a consultant for the Democratic National Committee, 140 and the Democrat lobbying firm, Blue Star Strategies (which later employed him from 2016 to 2017).
Blue Star Strategies officials continued to contact and request his assistance as recently as the summer of 2019.
139 The Committees attempted to obtain Telizhenko’s Blue Star Strategies documents that are subject to a non-disclosure agreement, but Democrat obstruction shielded Blue Star Strategies from providing these relevant documents.
140 Kenneth Vogel and David Stern, Ukrainian efforts to sabotage Trump backfire, Politico (Jan. 11, 2017).
So, people, what we are going to be hearing about this Andrii Telizhenko dude on October 5, 2020, which is yet in the future to what is transpiring now in this report, from anti-Trump CNN in an article titled “US revokes visa of Giuliani’s Ukrainian ally who spread conspiracy theories about the Bidens” by Kylie Atwood, Jennifer Hansler, Marshall Cohen and Jeremy Herb on October 5, 2020 is as follows, to wit:
The US State Department revoked the visa of a former Ukrainian diplomat who has worked with Republicans to spread baseless conspiracy theories about the Biden family and foreign meddling in 2016, American and Ukrainian officials told CNN on Monday.
A US official said there are also conversations within the US government about potentially sanctioning that individual – Andrii Telizhenko – and identifying him as a Russian agent.
Democrats have accused Telizhenko of intentionally spreading Russian disinformation.
end quotes
That, people, is October 5, 2020.
So let’s drop back in time with that knowledge firmly in hand, to see what it is we see, wondering at the same time whether or not Andrii Telizhenko was a Russian agent intentionally spreading Russian disinformation when he was tight with Obama’s crowd, and Democrat lobby shop Blue Star Strategies, or whether that all happened later, after he got tight with Rudy Giuliani, instead, to wit:
Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Majority Staff Report
IX. OBAMA ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS AND A DEMOCRAT LOBBYING FIRM HAD CONSISTENT AND SIGNIFICANT CONTACT WITH FORMER UKRAINIAN OFFICIAL ANDRII TELIZHENKO.
b. Communication and meetings between Obama administration officials and Telizhenko.
As far as the Committees are aware, the majority of Telizhenko’s interactions with Obama administration officials occurred during 2015 and 2016.
The Committees possess records of some of these communications from their request to the National Archives. 141
According to documents, on July 19, 2013, Telizhenko attended a meeting at the White House with two other Ukrainians to meet with Lyn Debevoise. 142
At that time, Telizhenko was the counselor to a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s Parliament. 143
It is unknown what was discussed at this meeting.
On July 21, 2015, Telizhenko was scheduled to meet in the Old Executive Office Building with Michael Carpenter, 144 who was a foreign policy advisor to Vice President Biden. 145
It is unknown what was discussed at this meeting.
141 Letter from Ron Johnson, Chairman, S. Comm. on Homeland Sec. and Governmental Aff., and Charles Grassley, Chairman, S. Comm. on Fin., to Hon. David S. Ferriero, Archivist, Nat’l Archives and Records Admin, (Nov. 21, 2019).
142 Email from Waves Request, U.S. Secret Serv. to Marisa Donelson (Jul. 11, 2013, 1:18 PM), [000064].
143 Email from Andrii Telizhenko, Counsellor to the Deputy of Verhovna Rada, to Lyn Debevoise (Aug. 5, 2013, 8:39 AM), [000217].
144 Email from Andrii Telizhenko to Frances Castro (Jul. 21, 2015, 10:01 AM), [000140].
145 Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy & Global Engagement, Michael Carpenter, https://global.upenn.edu/penn-biden-cen … -carpenter. Michael Carpenter served in the White House as a foreign policy advisor to Vice President Joe Biden as well as on the National Security Council as Director for Russia.
So, staying with the plot here, on October 5, 2020, which is yet in the future to what is transpiring now in this report, CNN published an article titled “US revokes visa of Giuliani’s Ukrainian ally who spread conspiracy theories about the Bidens” by Kylie Atwood, Jennifer Hansler, Marshall Cohen and Jeremy Herb on October 5, 2020 is as follows, where we were further informed about this Andrii Telizhenko dude, who in the same article was identified by Democrats, as if they would know anything, as a Russian agent who Democrats accused of intentionally spreading Russian disinformation, as follows, to wit:
Telizhenko is a stalwart Giuliani ally who has traveled with the former mayor and has promoted the conspiracy theory that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election to weaken Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and defeat President Donald Trump.
That theory flies in the face of the unanimous assessment from US intelligence agencies that it was the Russian government who interfered in the 2016 election, and their goal was to elect Trump.
end quotes
Great lines, aren’t they people – plots within plots within plots!
But, think about it, if Telizhenko was a stalwart Giuliani ally who had traveled with the former mayor and had promoted the conspiracy theory that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election to weaken Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and defeat President Donald Trump, what conspiracy theory was he peddling to the Obama administration when he was tight with them?
Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Majority Staff Report
IX. OBAMA ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS AND A DEMOCRAT LOBBYING FIRM HAD CONSISTENT AND SIGNIFICANT CONTACT WITH FORMER UKRAINIAN OFFICIAL ANDRII TELIZHENKO.
c. January 2016 Ukrainian delegation visit to Obama’s White House.
Telizhenko’s interactions with Obama administration officials became more frequent starting in January 2016.
According to a document with a DOJ logo, a Ukrainian delegation that included senior-level Ukrainian prosecutors arrived in Washington on Jan. 18, 2016.
The agenda shows that their first official meeting was confirmed for Jan. 19, 2016, at the White House, from 11 a.m. to noon with “Eric Ciaramella, Elizabeth [sic] Zentos and others TBD, National Security Council.” 146
In the middle of the night on Jan. 19, 2016, Telizhenko contacted Elisabeth Zentos, a member of the Obama administration’s National Security Council (NSC) asking to join the NSC-Ukrainian delegation meeting scheduled at 11 a.m. that morning. 147
It is not known if Zentos responded to Telizhenko’s email, but she did forward Telizhenko’s request to her colleague on the NSC, Eric Ciaramella, after the Jan. 19, 2016, meeting. 148
According to Telizhenko’s email to Zentos, Artem Sytnyk, Nazar Kholodnickiy, and David Sakvarelidze, among others, were listed as participants in the meeting with the NSC. 149
Over the next two days, Jan. 20-21, 2016, the Ukrainian delegation was scheduled to meet with a slew of U.S. officials, including representatives of the DOJ Office of the Inspector General, the DOJ, the FBI and the Department of State. 150
At this time, the Committees have not confirmed whether all the scheduled meeting entries on the agenda occurred.
Further, despite the Committees’ efforts, no U.S. officials have confirmed what was discussed at any of these January 2016 meetings with the senior-level Ukrainian prosecutors. 151
146 Email from Eric Ciaramella, Nat’l Sec. Council, to Catherine Croft, U.S. Dep’t of St. (Jan. 19, 2016, 7:26 PM), [001753] (attaching Agenda for Examination of the U.S. Adversarial Criminal Justice System for senior-level Ukrainian prosecutors (Jan. 18, 2016 to Jan. 23, 2016), [001755]).
147 Email from Andrii Telizhenko to Elisabeth Zentos, Nat’l Sec. Council (Jan. 19, 2016, 12:22 AM), [000074].
148 Email from Elisabeth Zentos, National Security Council to Eric Ciaramella, Nat’l Sec. Council (Jan. 19, 2016, 9:42 PM), [000074].
149 Email from Andrii Telizhenko to Elisabeth Zentos, Nat’l Sec. Council (Jan. 19, 2016, 12:22 AM), [000074].
150 Email from Eric Ciaramella, Nat’l Sec. Council, to Catherine Croft, U.S. Dep’t of St. (Jan. 19, 2016, 7:26 PM), [001753] (attaching Agenda for Examination of the U.S. Adversarial Criminal Justice System for senior-level Ukrainian prosecutors (Jan. 18, 2016 to Jan. 23, 2016), [001755-001756]).
151 Transcript of Interview at 174-75, S. Comm. on Fin. and S. Comm. on Homeland Sec. and Governmental Aff. Interview of Elisabeth Zentos (July 20, 2020), [Hereinafter Elisabeth Zentos Testimony].
Now, before you go further here, on October 5, 2020, which again is yet in the future to what is transpiring now in this report, CNN is going to be telling us the following Democrat party falsehoods in the article titled “US revokes visa of Giuliani’s Ukrainian ally who spread conspiracy theories about the Bidens” by Kylie Atwood, Jennifer Hansler, Marshall Cohen and Jeremy Herb as follows about Andrii Telizhenko and these investigative committees as follows, to wit:
Telizhenko played a significant role in the Republican-led Senate investigation into Ukraine and the Bidens.
Senate Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, had sought earlier this year to subpoena Telizhenko, who was a contractor to a US public affairs companies that worked with Ukrainian energy firm Burisma, but he scrapped the subpoena following objections from Sen. Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican.
Democrats accused Johnson and Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who co-led the report, of relying on Telizhenko despite the fact that he was one of the “known purveyors of Russian disinformation narratives” involving former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.
In the Republican report released last month, which accused Hunter Biden who was hired by Burisma, of being involved in questionable foreign payments, Telizhenko is cited repeatedly.
The report, which did not accuse Joe Biden of any wrongdoing, even tried to turn the allegations surrounding Telizhenko back on the Democrats, including a section header that “Obama administration officials and a Democrat lobbying firm had consistent and significant contact” with Telizhenko.
Johnson denied relying on Russian disinformation in his investigation.
end quotes
Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Majority Staff Report
IX. OBAMA ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS AND A DEMOCRAT LOBBYING FIRM HAD CONSISTENT AND SIGNIFICANT CONTACT WITH FORMER UKRAINIAN OFFICIAL ANDRII TELIZHENKO.
d. Interactions between Obama NSC official Elisabeth Zentos and Andrii Telizhenko.
The Committees interviewed Zentos and during that interview discussed her interactions with Telizhenko.
Zentos testified that she didn’t “remember exactly when [she] first communicated with [Telizhenko], but [she] believes it was while [she] was working at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, so it would have been between 2012 and 2014.”
Zentos was less cooperative than any other witness the Committees interviewed.
She refused to provide the names of officials to whom she directly reported, nor would she name individuals who reported to her, either at the NSC or the State Department.
In relation to her meetings and communications with Telizhenko, starting in January 2016, Zentos testified that she met and communicated with Telizhenko as “he was a representative of the Ukrainian Government.”
“Part of my job was to be in touch with the Ukrainian Government.”
During the spring of 2016, records indicate, Zentos and Telizhenko would meet at coffee shops, among other venues, around Washington, and they met at least one time while in Ukraine.
Overall, records indicate that they would meet a number of times during the first half of 2016.
For example, on Feb. 9, 2016, less than a month after the White House meeting, Zentos and Telizhenko met at Cosi in Washington.
It is not known what was discussed at this meeting.
In addition, on Feb. 23, 2016, Telizhenko and Zentos emailed about meeting.
In her reply, Zentos asked, “Ok if I bring my colleague Eric, who works on Ukraine with me?”
She ended the email by asking, “[D]id you get Trump’s autograph for me?”
On March 1, 2016, Zentos and Telizhenko agreed over email to meet on March 3, 2016, at a Washington bar called The Exchange.
Before the planned meeting, Zentos told Telizhenko, “I’ll see if my colleague Eric is up for joining.”
When asked whether “Eric” was Ciaramella, Zentos declined to answer.
This meeting ultimately occurred on March 4, 2016, but it is unclear what was discussed.
Additional meetings between Zentos and Telizhenko included:
March 4, 2016: Zentos and Telizhenko met at Swing’s coffee house in Washington.
Telizhenko emailed Zentos after the meeting and discussed how an individual was seeking a meeting with Obama NSC official Charles Kupchan.
March 10, 2016: Telizhenko emailed Zentos asking to meet that afternoon for five minutes.
Based on the email, it appears they met at 5 p.m. that day at Cosi.
Despite this email, Zentos testified, “I do not remember if this occurred.”
“As you can probably see from the email, Mr. Telizhenko likes to ask me to meet.”
“I don’t remember if this specific meeting happened.”
April 13, 2016: Zentos and Telizhenko apparently met.
When asked about this meeting, Zentos testified, “I do not recall when any specific meeting was with Mr. Telizhenko.”
Zentos said this despite her own email to Telizhenko saying, “No worries!”
“Just got here.”
“See you soon.”
May 4, 2016: Zentos and Telizhenko apparently met.
July 9, 2016: Zentos emailed Telizhenko suggesting they meet.
The email suggested that Zentos was in Ukraine at this time, and Zentos testified that she joined Secretary Kerry’s delegation to Ukraine around this time.
Zentos does not recall if she met Telizhenko while she was in Ukraine despite emails indicating she planned to see Telizhenko and he was “downstairs in the lobby” on the next day.
Staying with this October 5, 2020 CNN article titled “US revokes visa of Giuliani’s Ukrainian ally who spread conspiracy theories about the Bidens” by Kylie Atwood, Jennifer Hansler, Marshall Cohen and Jeremy Herb which serves to trash everything in the report that we are actually reading as “Russian disinformation,” as if everything we are actually reading in the report was nothing more than a series of falsehoods put forth by the Russians to discredit Joe Biden, which itself is a falsehood, we have this next from CNN about Andrii Telizhenko as follows, to wit:
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who was a top White House adviser on Ukraine and had regular contacts with the Ukrainian embassy, testified in the impeachment inquiry that Telizhenko is “not a credible individual.”
David Holmes, a top US diplomat, also cast doubt on Telizhenko, telling lawmakers, “I don’t think we found his perspective to be always credible and useful.”
end quotes
Which is why we must seriously wonder why he was such a favorite of the Obama-ites and why he was hired by Demo0crat lobby shop Blue Star Strategies, and for what purpose, to wit:
Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Majority Staff Report
IX. OBAMA ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS AND A DEMOCRAT LOBBYING FIRM HAD CONSISTENT AND SIGNIFICANT CONTACT WITH FORMER UKRAINIAN OFFICIAL ANDRII TELIZHENKO.
e. Blue Star Strategies’ relationship with Andrii Telizhenko.
Burisma hired Blue Star Strategies, a Democrat lobbying firm, in November 2015.
Blue Star was founded by Chief Executive Officer Karen Tramontano and Chief Operating Officer Sally Painter.
Both Tramontano and Painter interacted with Telizhenko when he was an official at the Ukraine embassy, and Blue Star eventually employed Telizhenko starting in July 2016.
Telizhenko’s contract with Blue Star overlapped with the firm’s representation of Burisma.
Blue Star refused to provide Telizhenko’s documents from his time as a contractor to the Committees, and it refused the Committees’ request to release Telizhenko from his nondisclosure agreement.
March 2016 was a pivotal month for Blue Star and its work for Burisma.
In response to calls for his termination by then-Vice President Biden, Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin was about to be removed, and Blue Star increased its outreach to, and meetings with, both U.S. officials and Ukrainian officials. 170
On March 21, 2016, a Blue Star employee emailed State Department official Amos Hochstein to request a meeting with CEO Tramontano, COO Painter, and John Buretta, a private attorney, to discuss “a sensitive energy matter ahead of [Ukraine] President Poroshenko’s upcoming visit to DC next week.”
The next day, on March 22, 2016, Vice President Biden called President Poroshenko about U.S. loan guarantees.
As Blue Star officials waited for a response from Hochstein, they met with Ukrainian officials.
Specifically, Tramontano testified that she and Painter met with Ukrainian officials on March 22, 2016 at the Ukraine embassy.
Telizhenko joined this meeting, and Tramontano testified that Burisma was a topic of discussion:
Question: So at this point in this discussion you referenced with Mr. Telizhenko, you had not brought up Burisma specifically?
Tramontano: Oh. No, we had — I’m sorry.
To be clear, yes, we had brought up Burisma, and my — we did not bring up, you know, specific cases that were pending.
Question: I understand.
And did you just bring up Burisma to Mr. Telizhenko, or did this come up in your meeting with Ms. [Oksana] Shulyar?
Tramontano: It came up in our meeting [March 22, 2016] with Ms. Shulyar that Mr. Telizhenko attended.
We had the meeting to inform them of the clients we had, including Burisma, and the meetings that we were seeking.
So, yes, it [Burisma] came up in that discussion.
According to documents, after their meeting at the Ukraine embassy, Tramontano replied to Telizhenko, asking him about scheduling a meeting with the Prosecutor General for Ukraine.
Her email also informed Telizhenko that Buretta, an attorney and former DOJ official, planned to be in Ukraine for a day.
Additionally, the day after their meeting, Painter sent Shulyar and Telizhenko an email with the subject line: “Many Thanks.”
Painter’s March 23, 2016, email noted, “As Karen said, please think of us as an extension of your team.”
“We are available to be helpful in any way.”
Further, Painter said that Blue Star was working with “Morgan Williams on their piece of the [Ukrainian] President’s visit and would be honored to help set up something for Mr. Lozhkin with Denis McDonough, the President’s Chief of Staff, or with anyone else he is interested in meeting.”
Blue Star did not produce these company records to the Committees; instead, the Committees received them from Telizhenko.
On March 24, 2016 — three days after Blue Star requested a meeting to “discuss a sensitive energy matter” and two days after meeting with Telizhenko and Shulyar — Painter and Buretta met with Hochstein at the State Department.
According to Painter, during this March 2016 meeting with Hochstein, she provided him a summary of Blue Star’s December 2015 meeting with Ambassador Pyatt.
She also told the Committees that Buretta provided Hochstein a briefing on the U.K. court case.
Hochstein testified that he decided to meet with Blue Star officials, “Because until that meeting I was still under the impression from the first meeting that they were looking to conduct a report.”
“I was – I didn’t have an issue with meeting with them again and hearing where they were in their process.”
He did not recall Blue Star providing him a report but they gave him a verbal view of where they stood and they also tried to “convince” him to change his position.
170 Tramontano told the Committees that Blue Star Strategies engaged in “government relations assistance” for Burisma. Oddly, Painter said the exact opposite. See, Karen Tramontano Testimony at 39; Sally Painter Testimony at 39. Moreover, when questioned whether Blue Star Strategies engaged in “government relations assistance” in Ukraine on behalf of Burisma, Painter implied that it did: “I mean, we were engaging with the government, yes.” Sally Painter Testimony at 40. In addition, both Tramontano and Painter denied that they lobbied the U.S. Government on behalf of Burisma and denied that they intended to influence U.S. policy with respect to Burisma; however, that testimony is contradicted by Amos Hochstein’s. See Karen Tramontano Testimony at 48 (“We didn’t lobby the U.S. government.”) and 49 (“In our representation of Burisma, we did not try to influence U.S. policy with respect to Ukraine.”) and Sally Painter Testimony at 43 (Question: “When meeting with U.S. government officials, did you intend to influence U.S. policy towards Burisma?” Answer: “No.”) and 167 (“I do not consider them to be lobbying. I consider that to be exploring to understand the position of the U.S. government.”) compared to Amos Hochstein’s Testimony at 138 (“They did not like my answer, and they tried to convince me otherwise.”).
So what we are witnessing in here courtesy of the Cape Charles Mirror is a very slick and very successful cover-up and whitewash by the Democrats and CNN to protect Joe Biden before the 2020 presidential race, and to rig and influence the election away from Trump and towards Joe Biden by calling the truth and facts about BIDEN, INC. being uncovered by the investigating committees “Russian Disinformation,” which takes us back for more, as follows:
Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Majority Staff Report
IX. OBAMA ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS AND A DEMOCRAT LOBBYING FIRM HAD CONSISTENT AND SIGNIFICANT CONTACT WITH FORMER UKRAINIAN OFFICIAL ANDRII TELIZHENKO.
f. Blue Star takes Telizhenko’s recommendation to remove Burisma’s name to secure a June 2016 meeting with the PGO.
While strategizing about how to secure a June 2016 meeting with Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office, Blue Star officials and Telizhenko discussed how they should craft the meeting request to the PGO.
Blue Star sought this meeting to discuss the ongoing PGO cases against Burisma and Zlochevsky.
On June 7, 2016, Telizhenko offered his advice in an email to Tramontano: I wanted to recommend to, in the official request letter, to take away Mr. Zlochevsky’s company name and his name.
Just request a meeting an [sic] put just the topics you wanted to discuss, expect [sic] Zlochevsky.
I will brief you more when you come to Kiev, but because the President [Poroshenko] does not really like Zlochevsky (he has personal issues), Mr. Lutsenko will deny the meeting if his name stays in the letter.
You can raise the issue during the meeting, but on the official letters I would recommend to remove it.
I spoke to the chief of staff.
He is ready to meet, but please take off the name of the company and his name.
On June 10, 2016, Tramontano replied to Telizhenko, saying, “Thank you for your assistance.”
“I hope you received the revised letter.”
Tramontano testified that some of Telizhenko’s recommendations were adopted:
Question: Did Blue Star make the changes to the letter that was sent to the Prosecutor General that Mr. Telizhenko recommended?
Tramontano: John Buretta made the changes.
Question: And what changes did Mr. Buretta make?
Tramontano: As I recall, and I believe this document is in the submission, he changed the agenda items to take the name of the company [Burisma] off the agenda items.
On June 22, 2016, Tramontano, Buretta and Burisma’s Vadym Pozharskiy met with Prosecutor General Lutsenko.
So, while we are reading the actual detailed history here of what transpired between this Andrii Telizhenko dude and the Obama administration and Democrat lobby shop Blue Star Strategies before Telizhenko allegedly starting peddling Russian “disinformation” about the corrupt BIDEN INC. to Rudy Giuliani, let’s go back to the October 5, 2020 CNN article titled “US revokes visa of Giuliani’s Ukrainian ally who spread conspiracy theories about the Bidens” by Kylie Atwood, Jennifer Hansler, Marshall Cohen and Jeremy Herb to see what CNN is saying happened:
Despite the condemnation (from Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and David Holmes, a top US diplomat), Telizhenko became a fixture in right-wing media.
He spread his allegations on Trump-friendly conspiracy sites like Infowars and Gateway Pundit, appeared on One America News Network and gave an interview to The Hill’s ex-columnist John Solomon, who coordinated his work with Giuliani and other Trump allies.
Some of that coverage highlighted his partnership with Giuliani, who has also championed many of the same conspiracy theories about Ukrainian election meddling.
Last year, Telizhenko participated in meetings between Giuliani and two disgraced Ukrainian prosecutors who accused the Bidens of corruption, promoting claims that were largely debunked and discredited.
Those meetings happened while the impeachment proceedings were happening in Washington – with Congress scrutinizing allegations that Trump had abused his powers to seek political favors from the Ukrainian government.
end quotes
Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Majority Staff Report
IX. OBAMA ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS AND A DEMOCRAT LOBBYING FIRM HAD CONSISTENT AND SIGNIFICANT CONTACT WITH FORMER UKRAINIAN OFFICIAL ANDRII TELIZHENKO.
g. Blue Star official communicates with Telizhenko in 2019.
Blue Star’s contract with Telizhenko ended in May 2017, yet Blue Star officials continued to communicate with Telizhenko.
Tramontano testified that after ending the contract with Telizhenko, “we remained in contact, I would say, you know, from time to time.”
“When he came to Washington, he would, you know, let us know.”
“But I haven’t talked to him in quite some time, I would say.”
When asked if this was the same for Painter, Tramontano replied, “I would think it’s the same.”
Further, when Tramontano was asked whether Painter communicated more with Telizhenko, she responded, “I don’t even know how to answer that question.”
“I’m sorry[.]”
When the Committees interviewed Painter, she explained how she communicated with Telizhenko:
Question: How did you communicate with Mr. Telizhenko?
Painter: We communicated by email and on the telephone.
Question: By telephone, you mean phone calls?
Painter: Yes.
At that point of the interview, Painter failed to mention that she communicated via WhatsApp with Telizhenko.
The Committees have obtained some images of WhatsApp messages between Painter (white colored boxes) and Telizhenko (green colored boxes) starting in April 2019 and ending in August 2019.
These texts show that Blue Star and Telizhenko maintained consistent contact even after he left their employment and that Blue Star continued to rely on his advice.
Messages exchanged between Sally Painter (white background) and Andrii Telizhenko (green background)
Messages exchanged between Sally Painter (white background) and Andrii Telizhenko (green background)
Messages exchanged between Sally Painter (white background) and Andrii Telizhenko (green background)
Messages exchanged between Sally Painter (white background) and Andrii Telizhenko (green background)
When the Committees presented these WhatsApp messages to Painter, she confirmed that these messages were authentic:
Question: Did you text with Andrii Telizhenko?
Painter: I believe so, yes.
Question: Do these appear to be messages between yourself and Mr. Telizhenko?
Painter: Yes.
Question: How often do you text with Mr. Telizhenko?
Painter: I can’t quantify.
I don’t recall the number.
Painter did not provide these WhatsApp messages to the Committees despite repeated requests.
When asked whether she still possessed these messages with Telizhenko, Painter testified, “I do not keep my WhatsApp messages.”
And when questioned why she doesn’t keep the messages, Painter said, “I like to get rid of them.”
“It makes me know that I finished a task.”
“So I get rid of my texts and my WhatsApp and any of my traffic like that.”
“I like to have a clean file.”
When asked why she was communicating with Telizhenko in July 2019, Painter testified, “We had a fine rapport, and he would communicate with me periodically.”
According to these messages, on April 30, 2019, Painter told Telizhenko to “please Take [sic] blue star off resume.”
The Committees asked Painter about this message:
Question: It sounds like you’re ordering him to do that [Remove Blue Star from his resume].
No?
Painter: As I stated before — this will be the third time — Mr. Telizhenko was working more and more with Mr. Giuliani, and we had a conversation about whether it would hurt him with the Republicans if he had Blue Star on his résumé.
So this is not a characterization of our conversation.
Question: So is that connected to the message you sent above on April 26, 2019, that says, “Have you seen what Solomon has written about what you said?”
Painter: I don’t think the — I can’t comment on that because I don’t think this is an accurate representation of the chain of events.
Question: So you’re advising Mr. Telizhenko how to better work with Rudy Giuliani and Republicans?
Painter: Ironically, Mr. Telizhenko was asking my advice.
In another message, on June 18, 2019, Painter messaged Telizhenko, “Complaint filed.”
The Committees asked Painter about this message and she explained:
Question: On June 18th, 2019, you wrote “Complaint filed.”
What is this reference to?
Painter: I don’t recall.
Question: You have no recollection?
Painter: I do not.
Question: Why would you have to tell Mr. Telizhenko that a complaint was filed?
Painter: I don’t recall.
So why was this Andrii Telizhenko dude working more and more with Mr. Giuliani, and the Republicans after being so tight with the Obama crowd and Democrat lobby shop Blue Star Strategies?
What could that possibly have been, other than a real slick set-up of Rudolph Giuliani, not the sharpest crayon in the box, and the Republicans by the Obama crowd and Blue Star Strategies:
Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Majority Staff Report
IX. OBAMA ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS AND A DEMOCRAT LOBBYING FIRM HAD CONSISTENT AND SIGNIFICANT CONTACT WITH FORMER UKRAINIAN OFFICIAL ANDRII TELIZHENKO.
f. Blue Star takes Telizhenko’s recommendation to remove Burisma’s name to secure a June 2016 meeting with the PGO.
While strategizing about how to secure a June 2016 meeting with Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office, Blue Star officials and Telizhenko discussed how they should craft the meeting request to the PGO.
Blue Star sought this meeting to discuss the ongoing PGO cases against Burisma and Zlochevsky.
On June 7, 2016, Telizhenko offered his advice in an email to Tramontano: I wanted to recommend to, in the official request letter, to take away Mr. Zlochevsky’s company name and his name.
Just request a meeting an [sic] put just the topics you wanted to discuss, expect [sic] Zlochevsky.
I will brief you more when you come to Kiev, but because the President [Poroshenko] does not really like Zlochevsky (he has personal issues), Mr. Lutsenko will deny the meeting if his name stays in the letter.
You can raise the issue during the meeting, but on the official letters I would recommend to remove it.
I spoke to the chief of staff.
He is ready to meet, but please take off the name of the company and his name.
On June 10, 2016, Tramontano replied to Telizhenko, saying, “Thank you for your assistance.”
“I hope you received the revised letter.”
Tramontano testified that some of Telizhenko’s recommendations were adopted:
Question: Did Blue Star make the changes to the letter that was sent to the Prosecutor General that Mr. Telizhenko recommended?
Tramontano: John Buretta made the changes.
Question: And what changes did Mr. Buretta make?
Tramontano: As I recall, and I believe this document is in the submission, he changed the agenda items to take the name of the company [Burisma] off the agenda items.
On June 22, 2016, Tramontano, Buretta and Burisma’s Vadym Pozharskiy met with Prosecutor General Lutsenko.
As someone who watches US politics at the national level the way some watch professional wrestling or women’s cage fighting, I do have to say I am impressed with the ability of the Democrats to walk all over the Republicans here before the 2020 presidential election with their whitewash of the activities of BIDEN, INC. in Ukraine, where son Hunter made a million dollars in one year by being on the board of Burisma while Papa Joe was Hussein Obama’s Pro Consul for Ukraine, which takes us to an article in the New York Post titled “‘Incredibly suspicious’ Hunter Biden email may be based on classified info: GOP senator” by Miranda Devine on 25 January 2023, where we learn what happened to son Hunter’s million dollar payoff when Joe left office, to wit:
Hunter Biden and Devon Archer were both named to the Burisma board of directors, with the first son getting paid as much as $83,000 a month — equivalent to $1 million a year — despite having no experience in the energy industry, according to information stored on his infamous laptop.
But that salary was slashed after Joe Biden left office and Hunter Biden resigned from the board in April 2019, when his business dealings began complicating his dad’s White House bid.
end quotes
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Majority Staff Report
IX. OBAMA ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS AND A DEMOCRAT LOBBYING FIRM HAD CONSISTENT AND SIGNIFICANT CONTACT WITH FORMER UKRAINIAN OFFICIAL ANDRII TELIZHENKO.
h. Conclusion
The Obama administration and the Democrat lobby shop Blue Star Strategies had consistent and extensive contact with Andrii Telizhenko over a period of years.
Yet despite these well-documented contacts with Democratic officials, Democrats have attempted to impugn this investigation for having received some Blue Star-related records from him.
Some Democrats have even (incorrectly) identified Telizhenko as the Committees’ “star witness.”
Although he produced a small number of Blue Star-related records to the Committees, the Committees never interviewed him as part of this investigation.
Nonetheless, Democrats have claimed that Telizhenko is involved in a Russian disinformation campaign.
Even though almost all of the Committees’ records are from U.S. agencies and U.S. officials or persons, Democrats have repeatedly misconstrued the facts of this investigation.
In doing so, they conveniently have ignored their own long history of meeting with Telizhenko and his year-long work for a Democrat lobby shop.
If Democrats are concerned that Telizhenko presents any risk of advancing disinformation, it is notable that the Ranking Members have not expressed any curiosity about his work with the Obama administration or Blue Star Strategies.
Now, here is a real conundrum confronting us in this sage of the very murky dealings of BIDEN, INC. – IF the million dollar salary of Hunter Biden on the board of Burisma was slashed AFTER Joe Biden left office and then Hunter Biden resigned from the board in April 2019, when his business dealings began complicating his dad’s White House bid, how can Joe Biden turn around and truthfully tell us he knew nothing about son Hunter’s bidness dealings?
IF Joe didn’t know about Hunter’s bidness dealings, at all, then who was it that did know Hunter’s bidness dealings were complicating Joe’s White House bid?
The butler?
Joe’s dogs?
And speaking of a real slick COVER-UP of Joe’s nefarious doings by the Democrats, and masterful use of Russian DISINFORMATION by the Democrats leading up to the 2020 presidential election to make the Republicans look like Russian STOOGES instead of the Demo0crats, who were the real Russian STOOGES in the caper, here it comes, and if this were a dance contest or ice skating competition, it is my thought that the Democrats would score some high style points as they run rings around the Republicans and make them look like CHUMPS, to wit:
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Majority Staff Report
X. THE MINORITY FALSELY ACCUSED THE CHAIRMEN OF ENGAGING IN A RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN AND USED OTHER TACTICS TO INTERFERE IN THE INVESTIGATION.
a. Introduction
Since the majority began its investigation, the Ranking Members (DEMOCRATS) have attempted to mischaracterize its scope in an effort to cast doubt on its eventual findings.
They have done so, in part, by spreading an unfounded conspiracy theory rooted in a foreign-sourced influence campaign publicly identified by the Intelligence Community (IC). 207
Specifically, Democrats, not just the Ranking Members, relied upon materials and statements from foreign nationals who are attempting to influence U.S. politics to levy unsupported and demonstrably inaccurate allegations linking the majority’s investigation to those same unreliable foreign nationals.
As part of their efforts, Democrats laundered their unclassified speculation through classified analysis of intelligence reporting to fabricate a veneer of credibility in an effort to shield their claims from public scrutiny.
Those false claims were then leaked to friendly media outlets, which reported them as fact.
Together, these networks of Democratic offices and liberal press outlets have worked to weave fact with fiction in order to construct a false narrative designed to undercut and discredit the Chairmen’s investigation and its eventual findings.
In the process, Democrats relied upon and disseminated disinformation from foreign sources, such as Ukrainian official Andriy Derkach, whom the IC has publicly warned are actively seeking to influence U.S. politics.
Thus the Democrats, specifically the Ranking Members, have engaged in a disinformation campaign, not Chairmen Grassley or Johnson.
207 See Press Release, Off. of the Dir. of Nat’l Intelligence, Statement by NCSC Director William Evanina: Election Threat Update for the American Public (Aug. 7, 2020), https://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/ … can-public; see also, Opening Statement of Joshua Flynn-Brown, Deputy Chief Investigative Counsel for Chairman Grassley (Sept. 17, 2020).
And now, thanks to the Cape Charles Mirror, we are getting a good look into how the Democrats in coordination with their main-stream and legacy media co-conspirators and enablers used some very slick political chicanery, something the Democrats are very practiced at, along with Russian disinformation, to rig the 2020 presidential election in favor of Joe Biden, to wit:
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Majority Staff Report
X. THE MINORITY FALSELY ACCUSED THE CHAIRMEN OF ENGAGING IN A RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN AND USED OTHER TACTICS TO INTERFERE IN THE INVESTIGATION.
b. Beginnings of the investigation, early leaks, and unequal information sharing
On Nov. 15, 2019, Chairman Grassley and Chairman Johnson wrote a non-public letter to the Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), seeking Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) on individuals and entities, including Hunter Biden, Burisma Holdings (Burisma), and others.
Although most of the letters sent during the investigation have been released to the public shortly after being transmitted, this letter was not released at the time because of the sensitive nature of the underlying records and the need to ensure the integrity of the investigation with respect to those records.
SARs often contain evidence of potential criminal activities, such as money laundering and fraud, and at the time, there was no evidence that SARs existed for the individuals mentioned in the request.
The letter was, however, shared with Ranking Member Peters’ office.
Just one week later, on Nov. 22, 2019, a copy of the letter was leaked to Reuters, which published an article containing a link to a full and unredacted copy of the letter.
According to the Treasury, the department’s protocol requires stamping the document, which the leaked version did not contain.
The next major leak came in February 2020, just one day after the Committees sent a public letter to the Secret Service requesting Hunter Biden’s travel records.
The Committees had requested the travel records in order to assess claims that Hunter Biden may have used government-sponsored travel to conduct private business.
The leaks were unrelated to the Secret Service letter but they were designed to undermine the Treasury request.
For example, these disclosures to the media included the fact that the Treasury had been producing information responsive to the Committees’ requests as well as the approximate date when the Treasury had begun its production to the Committees.
The Yahoo News article also stated, “the senators’ requests to the Treasury have borne fruit, according to the ranking Democratic senator on the Finance Committee, Ron Wyden of Oregon[.]”
Senator Wyden’s spokesperson was also quoted as saying, “the Treasury Department [is] rapidly complying with Senate Republican requests — no subpoenas necessary — and producing ‘evidence’ of questionable origin.”
The Yahoo News article stated that the Department of Treasury had “complied with Republican senators’ requests for highly sensitive and closely held financial records about Hunter Biden and his associates[.]”
Further, on the same day the Yahoo News article published, Buzzfeed News reported that the Committees had begun coordinating interviews with potential witnesses.
Contrary to the allegation that the Chairmen have not included the Ranking Members in the Chairmen’s investigation, Ranking Member Wyden and Ranking Member Peters are not a party to the majority’s investigation.
However, Chairman Grassley and Chairman Johnson have included them in all document productions and interviews even though the Ranking Members have failed to abide by the same principles of inclusion with respect to their investigations.
As one example, on July 1, 2020, Ranking Member Wyden and Ranking Member Peters released a COVID-19 report that included non-public government information that was not shared with Chairman Grassley and Chairman Johnson or their staff.
The Ranking Members failed to include the Chairmen and their staff in all document production requests related to this review.
Moreover, Ranking Member Wyden and Ranking Member Peters provided Chairmen’s staff with a draft of this report that totaled 30 pages in length and represented that it was the final version, to be publicly released.
Days later, the Ranking Members made public the “final” report, which was 98 pages in length, not the 30 pages that was represented to the Chairmen and their staff.
As another example, Ranking Member Wyden conducted a year-long investigation into Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma with the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, and the minority on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
On Sept. 9, 2020, at 6:16 p.m., Ranking Member Wyden’s staff notified Chairman Grassley’s staff that the report would be issued the following morning.
Ranking Member Wyden’s staff did not include Chairman Grassley’s staff in any document productions, witness interviews, report drafts, or communications relating to that investigation.
Further, the Ranking Members have repeatedly made public previously undisclosed and non-public information pertaining to the majority’s investigation.
On Feb. 11, May 6, and July 7, 2020, Ranking Member Wyden used the majority’s investigation to request sensitive materials from the State Department relating to Ukraine.
In doing so, the May 6 and July 7 letters also made unauthorized releases of previously non-public information, including details regarding the number of documents produced by the State Department in response to Committees’ requests, information which they would not have known if they were not included in the document productions.
News outlets used that information to report that the administration was responding to the Chairmen’s requests with unusual speed, which was false.
Moreover, staff for the Chairmen and Ranking Members had a phone call with Victoria Nuland’s attorneys on Aug. 29, 2020.
During the course of that phone call, staff for Ranking Member Wyden attempted to disclose to Nuland’s counsel the transcribed testimony of another witness.
The Chairmen’s staff immediately interceded to stop the communication and made clear that such a disclosure would negatively affect the integrity of the investigation.
In addition, the Ranking Members’ staff have had contact with counsel for the witnesses without the Chairmen’s staff present; in the context of an investigation conducted by only the Chairmen and opposed by the Ranking Members, this unilateral contact raises concerns about any communications, purposeful or inadvertent, that might harm the integrity of the investigation.
House Democrats have also tried to involve themselves in this inquiry.
On May 21, 2020, Representative Eliot Engel, who serves as Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, wrote to the State Department to request that the documents provided to the Senate Committees be provided to his committee as well.
(Of course, Ranking Member Wyden and Ranking Member Peters received contemporaneous productions of all records provided to the Committees.)
Citing Ranking Member Wyden, Chairman Engel did not request the materials in connection with any investigation of his own.
Instead, he merely requested all records that have been produced to the Committees.
His inadequately predicated request appears to be another effort to gather information for the purpose of running political interference.
Further, Chairman Engel has subpoenaed records and, in an attempt to strong-arm Secretary Pompeo into turning over documents, has threatened to initiate contempt proceedings against him.
Based on communications with the State Department, Chairman Engel’s actions have directly interfered with the State Department producing records to the Chairmen.
On Sept. 18, 2020, the State Department provided copies of records produced to the Committees to Chairman Engel without providing any prior notice to the Chairmen.
Yes, people, what we have here, courtesy of the Cape Charles Mirror, is the true story from U.S. government records of a very slick CONSPIRACY by the Democrats and their co-conspirators in the main-stream and legacy media to throw the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden and the Democrats, and when we see that top level Democrats like Charley “CHUCK” Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and the smarmy pencil-neck from Hollywood and Disneyland Adam “SHIFTY” Schiff were not only directly involved but leading the charge, it comes as absolutely no surprise that it would be very slick, indeed:
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Majority Staff Report
X. THE MINORITY FALSELY ACCUSED THE CHAIRMEN OF ENGAGING IN A RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN AND USED OTHER TACTICS TO INTERFERE IN THE INVESTIGATION.
c. Conspiracy theory claims
On July 13, 2020, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senator Mark Warner, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Representative Adam Schiff sent a letter, with a classified attachment, to the FBI to express a purported belief that Congress is the subject of a foreign disinformation campaign.
In that letter, which was publicly released on July 20, 2020, they requested a defensive briefing on foreign efforts to interfere in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
The classified attachment included unclassified elements that, among other things, attempted — and failed — to tie the joint Committees’ investigation to foreign disinformation.
One of those elements was an unclassified paragraph that summarized an open source document created by Russia-aligned Ukrainian Andriy Derkach, which mentions the Chairmen along with other Republican senators and administration officials.
In that document, the Chairmen are labeled as individuals who are fighting against Ukrainian corruption and under their pictures is an envelope icon.
The Democrats speculated that the envelope icon possibly suggests that the Chairmen might have received information from this Ukrainian national.
Liberal media outlets picked up that reference, clearly from a leak, even though the Chairmen had not received any information from that Ukrainian national, including any alleged tapes.
Those media outlets reported that the Chairmen had in fact received information from Derkach, which is false.
Indeed, clicking on the envelope icon in the document produces a collection of public letters the Chairmen have sent during the investigation, not any additional documents that Derkach allegedly sent to them.
Although the Democrats’ letter and attachment from July 13 targeted the Chairmen’s investigation, they were not copied on the letter and were not granted access to the classified portion until two weeks after it was sent to FBI and one week after portions of it were publicly reported.
On July 16, mere days before the Democrats’ July 13 letter became public, Ranking Member Peters and Ranking Member Wyden wrote to the Chairmen to request a briefing from the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force and other relevant members of the IC on matters related to the Committees’ investigation.
On July 28, 2020, the Chairmen responded to the Ranking Members and reminded them that in March 2020, the FBI and relevant members of the IC had briefed the Committees regarding the investigation and provided assurances at that time that there was no reason that the Committees should not continue their investigation.
Those assurances were provided with knowledge of public reporting that Andrii Telizhenko provided records to the Committees.
Notably, Telizhenko had extensive and consistent contact with Obama administration officials and a DNC consultant, and worked for the U.S.-based Democrat firm Blue Star Strategies on matters relevant to the Committees’ investigation.
As such, the only records he provided to the Committees related to his work for Blue Star Strategies and his interactions with Obama administration officials.
Additionally, during that briefing, the agencies made clear to the Committees’ staff that they did not have any additional information to provide and that the relevant written products, which members have had access to for months, speak for themselves.
Subsequently, on Aug. 6, 2020, Chairman Grassley and Chairman Johnson received another briefing from the FBI on behalf of the IC, in which the FBI stated that it is not attempting to “quash, curtail, or interfere” in the investigation in any way.
On July 20, 2020, Politico reported on the contents of the Democrats’ July 13, 2020 letter.
Unnamed sources for the article alleged that the classified attachment cited the investigation into Hunter Biden and others as “one of the sources of … concern.”
A subsequent Politico article, again citing unnamed sources, reported that in 2019, Derkach allegedly sent information to several members of Congress, including the Chairmen and Ranking Member Wyden and Ranking Member Peters.
The article then further suggested that these weak parallels reinforced the “suspicions” of some Democrats that the Committees’ investigation was ‘“laundering’ a foreign influence campaign to damage Biden.”
The Politico article also suggested that Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs George Kent and several other individuals have been the subject of Committee information requests.
The Chairmen repeatedly rejected claims that they had any engagement with Derkach.
In August 2020, Derkach was publicly identified by the IC as a proponent of a foreign-sourced influence campaign to influence the 2020 election.
He was later sanctioned by the U.S. Department of Treasury for the same activity.
Chairman Grassley and Chairman Johnson praised the Treasury for imposing those sanctions.
Since the offices of Chairman Johnson and Chairman Grassley did not receive, and were unaware of, the information that Derkach had allegedly sent, it is impossible that Derkach’s efforts could have shaped the Committees’ investigation in any way.
Furthermore, it should now be clear that Derkach’s core claims are in no way a part of the Committees’ investigative work.
For example, according to media reports, Derkach is responsible for spreading allegations that Burisma made direct payments to Joe Biden in the amount of $900,000, which were allegedly funneled to Biden through his son’s consulting firm, Rosemont Seneca Partners, and marked for “consultative services.”
This claim about direct payments made to Joe Biden is not evaluated in the Committees’ report of investigation, nor has it ever been cited as a predicate for any of the Committees’ information requests.
However, during the Chairmen’s staff interview of George Kent, Ranking Member Peters’ staff inserted into the interview record the same Derkach-created document that Democrats relied on in their July 13 letter to falsely accuse the Chairmen of relying on disinformation.
Kent described Derkach’s document as disinformation, but Ranking Member Peters’ staff used it anyway.
Thus, the Ranking Members introduced disinformation into the record, not the Chairmen.
In summary, the Democrats’ July 13, 2020, letter relied on foreign disinformation to create a false and harmful innuendo about the Chairmen’s oversight work.
That innuendo was then wrapped in a classified attachment in an apparent effort to fabricate a veneer of credibility and shield their analysis from public scrutiny before being disseminated to news media, which reported their speculation as fact.
Ironically, the Democrats relied on and disseminated foreign-sourced disinformation to falsely accuse Republicans of relying on that same foreign-sourced disinformation.
Despite its inaccuracies, the Democrats’ false narrative has continued to be picked up, amplified and circulated by a broad network of Democrat-friendly media outlets and Democratic members of Congress.
MSNBC has reported extensively on the Derkach allegations. 246
Further, on Aug. 7, 2020, Senator Richard Blumenthal published an op-ed in The Washington Post in which he repeated many of these baseless allegations as if they were fact.
He wrote: It now appears that … disinformation and deception are gaining a toehold in Congress as well: On Wednesday, The Post reported that Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, is moving ahead with an investigation into presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s family using documents provided to the senator by the son of a former KGB officer.
Johnson’s actions are of such concern to the CIA, according to news reports, that the agency has refused to brief him.
Think of it: Congress may become a forum for debunked conspiracy theories peddled by Kremlin proxies.
There is no excuse for perpetuating Russian disinformation in the U.S. Senate, just as there is there is no excuse for barring the American public from learning more about the genuine foreign threats to the November election.
Senator Blumenthal’s reference to documents provided by a former KGB officer is a reference to the debunked conspiracy theory that Derkach sent documents to the Chairmen.
His reference to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) briefing relates to false allegations spread in an Aug. 5, 2020, Politico article that suggested that the CIA has refused to cooperate with an offer to brief the Committees because its officers have “deep skepticism of the probe[.]”
In reality, the CIA declined to provide a briefing because it considers any additional briefings to be unnecessary.
The FBI is the lead agency for the IC in matters related to foreign election interference, and the FBI already has repeatedly briefed the Committees on behalf of the IC.
As previously noted, at a March 2020 briefing, which included the Ranking Members’ staff, the FBI informed the Committees that there was no reason they should not continue with their investigation.
On Aug. 6, 2020, the FBI reiterated the same to the Chairmen.
The Chairmen responded to Senator Blumenthal, as well as Senator Chris Van Hollen’s false statements regarding the investigation.
In their response, the Chairmen reasserted that they have not received any information from Derkach and that their focus is on government records from the Obama administration and records from a Democrat lobby shop.
The Chairmen also noted to both senators that for years the senators peddled and pushed the now-debunked Russian collusion narrative and used the “Steele dossier” — a Democrat bought-and-paid-for document filled with Russian disinformation — to do so.
Senators Blumenthal and Van Hollen never responded to the Chairmen.
These Democrats in league with their co-conspirators in the main-stream media and legacy media played not only the Republicans, but the American people, as well, like a Stradivarius leading into the 2020 presidential election in their successful effort to get their rubber stamp Joe Biden into the white house no matter the means employed to do it:
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Majority Staff Report
X. THE MINORITY FALSELY ACCUSED THE CHAIRMEN OF ENGAGING IN A RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN AND USED OTHER TACTICS TO INTERFERE IN THE INVESTIGATION.
d. Ongoing leaks
While these false narratives have developed and spread, leaks to the media have continued.
The same team of writers responsible for the above-referenced July 23, 2020, Politico article have published several other pieces that contained leaked Committee information related to the Ukraine investigation.
On July 16, 2020, Politico published the names of individuals who the Committees requested to interview, including David Wade, Antony Blinken, Amos Hochstein, Victoria Nuland and Catherine Novelli. 252
The article detailed areas of interest for the investigation and stated that subpoenas could be issued as soon as July 22, 2020.
None of this information was made public by the Chairmen.
Although the sources for the leaked information contained in the article are unknown, the article states that a spokesman for Chairman Johnson declined to comment on ongoing discussions with witnesses and Chairman Grassley has not confirmed to the media any interviewees, whether potential or actual.
On July 22, Politico published an article stating that the Committees had secured an interview with Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs George Kent.
The article contained non-public scheduling details and indicated that Kent could be interviewed as early as July 24, 2020.
252 Natasha Bertrand and Andrew Desiderio, Senate Republicans Eye Subpoenas of Biden Advisers in Burisma Probe, POLITICO (July 16, 2020), https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/1 … nas-366358.
Yes, people, thanks to the Cape Charles Mirror, we have before us, page by page, the very professional SCAMMING of the American people by the Democrats leading into the 2020 presidential race, and after, to wit:
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Majority Staff Report
X. THE MINORITY FALSELY ACCUSED THE CHAIRMEN OF ENGAGING IN A RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN AND USED OTHER TACTICS TO INTERFERE IN THE INVESTIGATION.
e. Preferential treatment
Throughout this investigation, the Ranking Members have tried to create the narrative that the Chairmen have received preferential treatment from the executive branch.
The Ranking Members have asserted that the executive branch has been too quick and too thorough in its responses to Committee information requests.
Ranking Member Wyden has made this allegation repeatedly and has said they are legitimate efforts to raise awareness of a “double standard of Trump administration cooperation with Congress.”
The suggested implication is that the Trump administration is working to quickly release information to the Committees because the investigation includes Hunter Biden, the son of Joe Biden, President Trump’s political opponent in the 2020 presidential election.
Allegations suggesting the existence of a double standard ring hollow.
By no stretch has the Trump administration responded to all of the Committees’ requests in a timely manner.
The Chairmen have dozens of outstanding requests related to the investigation, and on literally hundreds of occasions, the Chairmen’s staff have had to remind the executive branch, particularly the State Department, to comply with their requests.
Indeed, in some cases, the Committees have received relevant records from the administration after interviewing witnesses who could have been asked about the information.
That is the absence of cooperation.
Finally, recently released emails show that in the past, Democrats have exhibited the very type of behavior they are now accusing Republicans of engaging in.
These documents show officials in the Obama administration scrambling to produce highly sensitive documents in response to requests made by Democrat offices on Capitol Hill during the final days of the Obama administration and before President Trump assumed office.
In one email on Jan. 13, 2017, a State Department staffer pointedly remarked, “The clock is ticking.”
That same day, another urged, “Both Senators [Cardin and Warner] want the package by Thursday Jan. 19.”
As the deadline for President Trump’s inauguration approached, on Jan. 18, one of the same individuals wrote, “Is it possible for me to act as the courier and drop [the information] off to the Hill tomorrow?”
“There is a time sensitivity to these docs.”
Does anyone alive today remember the Steele dossier and the FBI’s OPERATION CROSSFIRE HURRICANE?
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X. THE MINORITY FALSELY ACCUSED THE CHAIRMEN OF ENGAGING IN A RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN AND USED OTHER TACTICS TO INTERFERE IN THE INVESTIGATION.
f. Conclusion
Many of the allegations Democrats have made against Republicans — that they are relying on foreign disinformation, that they are carrying out a politicized investigation in an effort to bring down their political opponents, and that they are working covertly with the executive branch to quickly release sensitive information for political reasons — reflect the very patterns of behavior that Democrats themselves have engaged in, and continue to engage in, on a regular basis.
Let us not forget how the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign paid for the Steele dossier, which was created by a foreign national, a former MI6 employee, and is based on Russian government sources. 263
Some of those Russian government sources were part of the Russian presidential administration and supported Hillary Clinton.
Moreover, in January 2017 and February 2017, the FBI received reporting, some from the IC, that assessed portions of the Steele dossier were the product of a Russian disinformation campaign.
That’s no surprise, since the Russian Intelligence Services were also aware of the dossier in early 2016 before the FBI opened Crossfire Hurricane.
Thus, the Steele dossier was the perfect vehicle for disinformation to affect multiple elections and to sow discord and chaos.
Yet Democrats had no qualms about disseminating information from the dossier far and wide, reading parts of the dossier into the congressional record, and using its allegations as the basis for years of investigations and false claims against the Trump administration.
Moreover, since the Chairmen made public in April 2020 the fact that the Steele dossier contained Russian disinformation, it does not appear that any Democrats have commented upon this revelation or expressed concern about their previous reliance on Russian disinformation.
Here, the Democrats are again relying on unverified foreign disinformation to falsely accuse their political rivals of doing the same.
Congressional oversight can and should be nonpartisan.
It should be focused on exposing wrongdoing regardless of who is involved and on ensuring transparency and accountability in government on behalf of the American people.
Efforts to discredit legitimate oversight, especially using foreign disinformation to sow discord, only serves to benefit our foreign adversaries at the expense of our own democratic institutions.
263 See Press Release, Chairman Charles Grassley, S. Comm. on Fin., IG Footnotes: Serious Problems with Dossier Sources Didn’t Stop FBI’s Page Surveillance (Apr. 15, 2020), https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/ne … rveillance.
According to the news today, on 8 February 2023, the House hearings into BIDEN INC are set to begin and what follows is some of the grist for that mill, to wit:
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
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Majority Staff Report
XI. HUNTER BIDEN’S AND HIS FAMILY’S FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS WITH UKRAINIAN, RUSSIAN, KAZAKH, AND CHINESE NATIONALS RAISE CRIMINAL CONCERNS AND EXTORTION THREATS.
Hunter Biden was paid as much as $50,000 per month to serve on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian natural gas company with a corrupt owner, while his father was the public face of the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy. 266
But Burisma was not the only example of Hunter Biden seeking to monetize his family name.
During the course of our investigation, Chairman Grassley and Chairman Johnson uncovered additional examples of Hunter Biden, other family members, and their business associates pursuing financial arrangements with foreign nationals in various parts of the world.
The Treasury records acquired by the Chairmen show potential criminal activity relating to transactions among and between Hunter Biden, his family, and his associates with Ukrainian, Russian, Kazakh and Chinese nationals.
In particular, these documents show that Hunter Biden received millions of dollars from foreign sources as a result of business relationships that he built during the period when his father was vice president of the United States and after.
In addition to providing new and descriptive details about the nature, origin and extent of payments from Burisma Holdings to Hunter Biden, the documents acquired by the Committees also shed light on a much broader array of questionable financial transactions involving Hunter Biden, other members of the Biden family, and their associations with foreign nationals.
These foreign nationals have questionable backgrounds that have been identified as being consistent with a range of criminal activities, including but not limited to organized prostitution and/or human trafficking, money laundering, fraud, and embezzlement. 267
The following transactions are designed to illustrate the financial associations between and among subjects in the inquiry.
Much has been reported about Hunter Biden and Devon Archer and their corporate entities and foreign and domestic financial associations.
The transactions discussed below do not illustrate the full extent of the material the Committees possess.
The transactions discussed below are designed to illustrate the depth and extent of some questionable financial transactions.
Moreover, the financial transactions illustrate serious counterintelligence and extortion concerns relating to Hunter Biden and his family.
The Committees will continue to analyze the records in their possession.
266 Paul Sonne, Michael Kranish, and Matt Viser, The gas tycoon and the vice president’s son: The story of Hunter Biden’s foray into Ukraine, THE WASHINGTON POST (Sept. 28, 2019), https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/na … -foray-in- ukraine/2019/09/28/1aadff70-dfd9-11e9-8fd3-d943b4ed57e0_story.html; Polina Ivanova, Maria Tsvetkova, et al., What Hunter Biden did on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma, REUTERS (Oct. 18, 2019), https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hunt … SKBN1WX1P7.
267 There is extensive public reporting concerning Hunter Biden’s alleged involvement with prostitution services. Records on file with the Committees do not directly confirm or refute these individual reports. However, they do confirm that Hunter Biden sent thousands of dollars to individuals who have either: 1) been involved in transactions consistent with possible human trafficking; 2) an association with the adult entertainment industry; or 3) potential association with prostitution. Some recipients of those funds are Ukrainian and Russian citizens. The records note that it is a documented fact that Hunter Biden has sent funds to non-resident alien women in the United States who are citizens of Russia and Ukraine and who have subsequently wired funds they have received from Hunter Biden to individuals located in Russia and Ukraine. The records also note that some of these transactions are linked to what “appears to be an Eastern European prostitution or human trafficking ring.”
First, we had “The Godfather!”
Then we had “The Sopranos!”
Now, playing at a theater near you soon, it’s that smash hit story of a real-to-life criminal mastermind family called appropriately “THE BIDENS”:
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
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Majority Staff Report
XI. HUNTER BIDEN’S AND HIS FAMILY’S FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS WITH UKRAINIAN, RUSSIAN, KAZAKH, AND CHINESE NATIONALS RAISE CRIMINAL CONCERNS AND EXTORTION THREATS.
a. Burisma Holdings Limited
On April 15, 2014, Burisma Holdings (Burisma), a Ukrainian private oil and gas company owned by corrupt Ukrainian oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky, sent two wires totaling $112,758.15 to Rosemont Seneca Bohai LLC.
Rosemont Seneca Bohai is an apparent shell entity owned by Hunter Biden’s long-time business associate, Devon Archer, which was first registered in Delaware on Feb. 13, 2014.
According to Real Clear Politics, on the following day, April 16, 2014, Archer visited Vice President Biden at the White House. 270
One week later, on April 22, 2014, Vice President Biden appeared with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arsemy Yasenyuk and addressed Ukrainian legislators in Kyiv regarding Russia’s actions in Crimea.
That same day, Burisma announced that Archer had joined its board of directors. 272
In the wake of Vice President Biden’s visit, the press described him as “the public face of the administration’s handling of Ukraine.” 273
The earliest payment from Burisma related to Hunter Biden appears to have been made to Boies, Schiller, and Flexner LLP (Boies Schiller), the Washington law firm where he was employed as a counsel in 2014.
On May 7, 2014, mere weeks after Vice President Biden took lead of the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy, Burisma sent Boies Schiller a payment of $250,000.
Approximately one week later, on May 12, 2014, Hunter Biden joined Archer on Burisma’s board of directors. 276
Burisma made a second payment to Boies Schiller on Sept. 16, 2014, in the amount of $33,039.77.
Both the May 7 and Sept. 16 payments state in the transaction notes that they were “for Legal and Consulting Services.”
Payments from Burisma to Boies Schiller have been the subject of past news reporting. 279
According to Hunter Biden’s attorney, George Mesires, at Biden’s urging, Boies Schiller performed the following services for Burisma: [E]ngaged Nardello & Co., a leading global investigative firm, to assess, among other things, Burisma’s corporate structure and government practices.
Burisma agreed to pay the legal expenses of Boies Schiller to support Hunter in developing corporate reform initiatives. 280
However, according to statements made at the time by both Hunter Biden and Burisma, these were Hunter Biden’s responsibilities as a member of Burisma’s board of directors.
In a press release issued on May 12, 2014, Biden stated: I believe that my assistance in consulting the Company on matters of transparency, corporate governance and responsibility, international expansion and other priorities will contribute to the economy and benefit the people of Ukraine. 281
Alan Apter, the chairman of Burisma’s board of directors, also said “the company’s strategy is aimed at the strongest concentration of professional staff and the introduction of best corporate practices, and we’re delighted that Mr. Biden is joining us to help us achieve these goals.”
It is unclear whether any of the funds sent from Burisma to Boies Schiller were used to pay for services that Hunter Biden was supposed to provide to Burisma as a member of the board.
Additionally, if Burisma was paying Boies Schiller for consulting services provided by third-party firm Nardello & Co, as Mesires has indicated, it remains unclear why Hunter Biden did not provide or arrange those services himself, on his own time, in exchange for the compensation he was receiving from Burisma as a member of the board.
Between May 15, 2014 and Feb. 12, 2016, Burisma sent another 48 wires to Rosemont Seneca Bohai, totaling $3,489,490.78.
Of the 48 transactions, 39 are described as “Consulting Services” and 39 of the 48 are in the amount of $83,333.33, with the last of the payments occurring on Feb. 12, 2016.
Between June 5, 2014, and Oct. 5, 2015, Rosemont Seneca Bohai sent 38 wires totaling $701,979 to three of Hunter Biden’s bank accounts.
These transfers may represent the final step in the flow of funds from Burisma to Rosemont Seneca Bohai to Biden during this period.
The nature of the payment arrangement between Biden and Burisma appears to have changed over time.
In May 2016, Hunter Biden’s business partner, Archer, and five others were arrested and criminally charged in a scheme to defraud investors and a tribal entity of millions of dollars.
Starting Jan. 25, 2016, Burisma began sending regular payments for Biden to his Washington law firm, Owasco PC (Owasco).
Owasco was incorporated on Jan. 19, 2006, lists an agent address in Washington, and lists its executing officer and governor as Robert Hunter Biden.
Payments from Burisma to Owasco continued throughout most of 2016 and ceased eight days after Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the Nov. 8, 2016 presidential election.
Between Jan. 25, 2016, and Nov. 16, 2016, Burisma sent nine wires totaling $752,054.99 to Owasco with each of the nine transactions listing “Owasco, PC/Robert Biden” as the recipient.
Of the nine, two payments were for $83,333.33, five were for $83,333, one was for $84,992.33, and one was for $83,731.
The records acquired by the Committees show the last documented payment was made on Nov. 16, 2016.
Biden continued to serve on Burisma’s board of directors until April 2019. 293
In addition to being the owner of Burisma, Zlochevsky made at least two large cash transfers to Burisma during the time that Archer and Biden served on its board of directors.
On April 30, 2014, around the dates when Archer and Hunter Biden first joined Burisma’s board of directors, Zlochevsky wired $12.3 million from another one of his companies, Brociti Investments Limited (Brociti), to Burisma.
Brociti is based in Kyiv, Ukraine, and is registered in Limassol, Cyprus.
Zlochevsky sent another wire from Brociti to Burisma on April 20, 2015, in the amount of $212,000.
It’s unclear exactly how much, if any, of the funds wired by Zlochevsky on April 30, 2014, and April 20, 2015, were used to cover the payments made from Burisma to Rosemont Seneca, Owasco, and Boies Schiller.
However, these transactions, including those to Biden and his companies, were identified for potential financial criminal activity.
270 Betsy McCaughey, Joe Biden Must Explain His Ukraine Dealings, REAL CLEAR POLITICS (Jan. 29, 2020),
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/artic … 42255.html.
272 Press Release, Burisma Holdings, US Financier and Board Member Devon Archer on Maximizing Growth for Burisma Holdings (Apr. 22, 2014), https://burisma-group.com/eng/news/us-f … -holdings/.
273 Susan Crabtree, Joe Biden emerges as Obama’s trusty sidekick, WASHINGTON EXAMINER (Apr. 25, 2014),
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/joe- … y-sidekick.
276 Press Release, Burisma Holdings, Hunter Biden joins the team of Burisma Holdings (May 12, 2014), https://docs.house.gov/meetings/JU/JU00 … -SD984.pdf.
279 See Kenneth P. Vogel and Iuliia Mendel, Biden Faces Conflict of Interest Questions That Are Being Promoted by Trump and Allies, THE NEW YORK TIMES (May 1, 2019), https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/us/p … raine.html.
280 George Mesires, A Statement on behalf of Hunter Biden, dated October 13, 2019, MEDIUM (Oct. 13, 2019),
https://medium.com/@george.mesires/a-st … 0bc11087ab.
281 Press Release, Burisma Holdings, Hunter Biden joins the team of Burisma Holdings (May 12, 2014), https://docs.house.gov/meetings/JU/JU00 … -SD984.pdf.
293 Kenneth P. Vogel and Iuliia Mendel, Biden Faces Conflict of Interest Questions That Are Being Promoted by Trump and Allies, THE NEW YORK TIMES (May 1, 2019), https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/us/p … raine.html.
And here is where this saga of BIDEN, INC. wings off towards BIZARRO-VILLE at warp speed, while we are hearing from the Democrats about RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION, and this Hunter Biden dude can sure move money around like a real pro:
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
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Majority Staff Report
XI. HUNTER BIDEN’S AND HIS FAMILY’S FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS WITH UKRAINIAN, RUSSIAN, KAZAKH, AND CHINESE NATIONALS RAISE CRIMINAL CONCERNS AND EXTORTION THREATS.
b. Russia
Hunter Biden and his associate, Archer, had a financial relationship with Russian businesswoman Elena Baturina.
Baturina is the former wife of the late Yuri Luzhkov, who was the mayor of Moscow and was fired in 2010 by then-Russian president Dmitry Medvedev over corruption allegations. 298
Baturina became Russia’s only female billionaire when her plastics company, Inteko, received a series of Moscow municipal contracts while her husband was mayor.
According to reporting, “Luzhkov used his position as mayor to approve over 20 real estate projects that were built by a Baturina-owned construction company and ultimately generated multibillion-ruble profits for his family.”
In addition, a Russian investigation led to a criminal case against the former head of the Bank of Moscow, Andrey Borodin, who “allegedly used money from the Moscow City Budget to lend money to shell companies, which ultimately transferred $443 million to Baturina.”
On Feb. 14, 2014, Baturina wired $3.5 million to a Rosemont Seneca Thornton LLC (Rosemont Seneca Thornton) bank account for a “Consultancy Agreement DD12.02.2014.”
Rosemont Seneca Thornton is an investment firm co-founded by Hunter Biden that was incorporated on May 28, 2013 in Wilmington, Del.
According to The Financial Times, Rosemont Seneca Thornton is a consortium that consists of Rosemont Seneca Partners and the Thornton Group, a Massachusetts-based firm.
In June 2009, Biden co-founded Rosemont Seneca Partners with Archer and Christopher Heinz.
The Thornton Group’s website states that it has offices in Boston and Beijing, lists Rosemont Seneca Partners among its list of alliances and clients, and includes photographs from multiple events attended by Hunter Biden.
Separately, between May 6, 2015 and Dec. 8, 2015, Baturina sent 11 wires in the amount of $391,968.21 to a bank account belonging to BAK USA LLC (BAK USA).
Nine of the 11 transactions, totaling $241,797.14 were sent from Baturina’s accounts to a Rosemont Seneca Thornton bank account, which then transferred to the money to BAK USA.
The 11 transactions all listed “Loan Agreement” in the payment details section.
BAK USA was a startup technology company headquartered in Buffalo, N.Y., that produced tablet computers in cooperation with unnamed Chinese business partners. 310
BAK USA filed for bankruptcy on March 29, 2019, with a reported loss of $39 million. 311
These transactions were identified because of Baturina’s reported criminal activity.
298 David Filipov, Yuri Luzhkov, transformative Moscow Mayor, dies at 83, THE WASHINGTON POST (Dec. 10, 2019),
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/ob … story.html; Christian Eriksson and Margot Gibbs, Russia’s richest woman quits role at London Mayor’s charity after Finance Uncovered investigation, FINANCED UNCOVERED (Sept. 26, 2019),
https://www.financeuncovered.org/invest … corruption.
310 Samantha Christmann, Microsoft contract is a boon for Buffalo tablet-maker BAK USA, BUFFALO NEWS (Mar. 16, 2016),
https://buffalonews.com/business/local/ … 9c9cd.html.
311 Local News, Former tablet maker BAK USA reports more than $39 million loss in Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing, WKBW BUFFALO (Apr. 11, 2019), https://www.wkbw.com/news/local-news/fo … llion-loss
And here I really need to warn everyone reading this stuff to watch your backs lest you get caught reading it because according to news just out, Hunter Biden has had his pack of high-priced, snarling, snapping lawyers get ahold of Hunter’s father’s “pet poodle” in Hunter’s father’s so-called Department of Justice to have his father’s “pet poodle” and his FBI come down real hard with both feet and with the full weight of the United States government on anyone caught screw-facing Hunter Biden, giving him the stink-eye, talking smack about him, or reading this stuff, because it really makes Hunter look guilty of international money-laundering when Joe Biden and Merrick Garland know Hunter to be as pure as the driven snow:
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Majority Staff Report
XI. HUNTER BIDEN’S AND HIS FAMILY’S FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS WITH UKRAINIAN, RUSSIAN, KAZAKH, AND CHINESE NATIONALS RAISE CRIMINAL CONCERNS AND EXTORTION THREATS.
c. Kazakhstan
On April 22, 2014, Vice President Joe Biden appeared with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arsemy Yasenyuk and addressed Ukrainian legislators in Kyiv regarding Russia’s actions in Crimea. 312
The same day, Novatus Holding PTE. LTD. (Novatus Holding), a private holding company in Singapore, used a Latvian bank to wire $142,300 to Archer’s company, Rosemont Seneca Bohai.
The currency transaction report states, “For Rosemont Seneca Bohai LLC, … For a Car.”
According to a Securities and Exchange Commission report, Kenges Rakishev of Kazakhstan is the sole shareholder of Novatus Holding and has a business address associated with a company in Kazakhstan called SAT & Company.
Rakishev is the son-in-law of now-retired Kazakhstan politician, Imangali Tasmagambetov. 316
At the time that Rakishev sent the money to Rosemont Seneca Bohai, Tasmagambetov was serving as the mayor of Astana (now called Nur-Sultan), the capital city of Kazakhstan. 317
Tasmagambetov is reportedly a longtime confidant of then-President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Tasmagambetov has since served as prime minister of Kazakhstan as well as Kazakh ambassador to Russia. 319
At the time of Vice President Biden’s visit to Kyiv, there were divided opinions in Kazakhstan over Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the international situation had produced tension in the region generally. 320
Nazarbayev’s government reportedly shifted positions over time, and Nazarbayev reportedly made some statements supportive of Russia’s actions. 321
Given Rakishev’s close connection to political leadership in Kazakhstan, the tense political situation, Hunter Biden’s longstanding relationship with Archer and involvement in transactions with Rosemont Seneca Bohai, and the fact that the payment was timed perfectly with Vice President Biden’s visit to Kyiv to discuss U.S. sanctions against Russia for the invasion of Crimea, the April 22, 2014 payment from Rakishev to Rosemont Seneca Bohai raises serious questions.
It is unclear why a foreign company, Novatus Holding, would purchase a $142,300 car for Rosemont Seneca Bohai when the company does not deal in vehicles.
312 Press Release, The White House Off. of the Vice President, Remarks by Vice President Joe Biden at a Meeting with Ukrainian Legislators (Apr. 22, 2014), https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/th … egislators; see also Press Release, The White House Off. Of the Vice President, Remarks to the Press by Vice President Joe Biden and Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk (Apr. 22, 2014), https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/th … ister-arse.
316 Olzhas Auyezov, Kazakh Leader Promotes Daughter, Confident in Reshuffle, REUTERS (Sept. 13, 2016),
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-kaza … SKCN11J1JR; see also Dmitry Solovyov and Mariya Gordeyeva, Kazkommertsbank finalizes deal to buy stake in BTA Bank, REUTERS (Feb. 6, 2014), https://www.reuters.com/article/us-kazk … VD20140206.
317 Joshua Kucera, Kazakhstan’s Defense Minister Fired After Six Months On Job, EURASIANET (Oct. 24, 2014),
https://eurasianet.org/kazakhstans-defe … ths-on-job .
319 Galiya Khassenkhanova, Kazakh President reshuffles key government positions, THE ASTANA TIMES (Dec. 19, 2019),
https://astanatimes.com/2019/12/kazakh- … positions/.
320 Ryskeldi Satke, Kazakhstan Opposition Fears Ukraine’s “Russian Spring”, THE DIPLOMAT (Apr. 12, 2014),
https://thediplomat.com/2014/04/kazakhs … an-spring/.
Hunter to the “BIG GUY”: Look, dad, I went home with the waitress, the way I always do.
How was I to know, she was with the Russians, too?
I was gambling in Ukraine, I took a little risk,
Send DOJ lawyers, FBI guns and federal government money, dad, get me out of this!
I’m the innocent bystander!
Somehow I got stuck between the rock and a hard place, all because my name is Biden!
And I’m down on my luck, yes I’m down on my luck!
Well, I’m down on my luck,
And I’m hiding in Rehobeth Beach,
I’m a desperate man!
Send lawyers, guns, and money, dad, and hurry, the Republicans are now in charge!
And the **** has hit the fan!
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Majority Staff Report
XI. HUNTER BIDEN’S AND HIS FAMILY’S FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS WITH UKRAINIAN, RUSSIAN, KAZAKH, AND CHINESE NATIONALS RAISE CRIMINAL CONCERNS AND EXTORTION THREATS.
d. China
Hunter Biden and Devon Archer engaged in numerous financial transactions with Chinese nationals who had deep connections to the Communist Chinese government.
These Chinese nationals included Ye Jianming, founder of CEFC China Energy Co. Ltd (CEFC) and chairman of the board for its subsidiary, the China Energy Fund Committee (CE Fund).
They also included Gongwen Dong, who was Ye Jianming’s associate and reportedly executed transactions for his companies.
Ye’s connections to the Communist government are extensive and, as explained below, he has been previous affiliations with the People’s Liberation Army.
Based on the information received by the Committees, Ye was also financially connected to Vice President Biden’s brother, James Biden.
Thus, there exists a vast web of corporate connections and financial transactions between and among the Biden family and Chinese nationals.
For Hunter Biden, being born Joe Biden’s son, as opposed to the son of somebody who wasn’t named Biden, was the best day of his life, because the Biden name was worth some real big bucks for Hunter in China, as we see from the following:
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Majority Staff Report
XI. HUNTER BIDEN’S AND HIS FAMILY’S FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS WITH UKRAINIAN, RUSSIAN, KAZAKH, AND CHINESE NATIONALS RAISE CRIMINAL CONCERNS AND EXTORTION THREATS.
i. Hunter Biden Has Extensive Financial Connections to the Chinese Government.
Hunter Biden has extensive connections to Chinese businesses and Chinese foreign nationals that are linked to the Communist government.
Those contacts bore financial fruit when his father was vice president and after he left office.
For example, in June 2009, Hunter Biden had co-founded Rosemont Seneca Partners with Archer and Heinz. 322
During 2010-2011, as a representative of Rosemont Seneca, Hunter Biden networked with representatives from Chinese state-owned enterprises and representatives of the Boston-based Thornton Group, which today describes itself as “a cross-border capital intermediary.”
On its current website, the Thornton Group includes among its alliances and clients a variety of Chinese state-owned enterprises, including actors linked to Ye Jianming and his associates.
Ye Jianming is a Chinese businessman and a frequent figure in Hunter Biden’s financial dealings in China.
Based on public reports that were available in 2015, when his contact with Biden began to ramp up, Ye was a founder of CEFC China Energy Co. Ltd (CEFC) and served as chairman of the board for its subsidiary, the China Energy Fund Committee (CE Fund).
CEFC had a reported income estimated at $33.4 billion, according to 2013 figures that were available at the time.
Although CEFC reportedly remained a private company until state-owned enterprises assumed control of it in 2018, reporting in 2017 indicated that it received financing from the China Development Bank, “hired a number of former top officials from state-owned energy companies” and had “layers of Communist Party committees across its subsidiaries — more than at many private Chinese companies.” 327
Thus, it had significant connections to the Communist government and its subsidiaries had associations with the Thornton Group.
For example, according to the Thornton Group’s website, its list of Chinese partners currently includes: the Agricultural Bank of China, the Bank of Beijing, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, the Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs, the CAIFC, the China Electricity Council, CITIC Group, China Life, the China State Construction Engineering Corporation, the China Railway Construction Corporation, the Council for Industrial and Commercial Development, the Chinese International Economy Cooperation Association, the China Mining Association, the government-owned Founder Group, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited, and Peking University.
A Thornton Group press release dated April 12, 2010, provides an example of an early event in China involving Rosemont Seneca Partners and the Thornton Group.
It states the following:
Thornton Group and its US partner Rosemont Seneca Chairman Hunter Biden (the second son of the US Vice President Joe Biden) and other high-level officials visited Chinese financial institutions and fund companies from April 7th to 9th. Including China Investment Co., Ltd., National Council of Social Security Funds, China Life Asset Management Co., Ltd., Postal Savings Bank of China, Hillhouse Capital and Founder Group, etc., aiming to further deepen mutual understanding and explore the possibility of commercial cooperation and opportunity.
The Chinese companies and financial institutions visited expressed a warm welcome to Thornton Group and Rosemont Seneca, and hoped to strengthen exchanges, in-depth discussions and reach cooperation.
The delegation was led by James Bulger, Chairman of Thornton Group, and Lin Junliang, Chief Executive Officer, to visit and meet Chinese personnel including: Gao Xiqing, General Manager and Chief Investment Officer of China Investment Corporation, Equity Assets Department (Industrial Investment Department) of the National Council of Social Security Fund person in charge Ji Guoqiang, Vice President Cui Yong of China Life Asset Management Co. Ltd., Peng Zuogang, General Manager of Postal Savings Bank of China, Zhang Lei, Founder of Hillhouse Capital, Wei Xin, Chairman of Founder Group, and Xia Yangjun, Vice President of Founder Group. 329
Pictures from the event posted by the Thornton Group show Hunter Biden standing with the chairman of the Founder Group, general manager of the China Investment Corporation, the vice president of the China Life Asset Management Company, the general manager of the Postal Savings Bank, and others.
322 Adam Entous, Will Hunter Biden Jeopardize his Father’s Campaign?, THE NEW YORKER (July 1, 2019),
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019 … s-campaign.
327 Chen Aizhu and Jan Lopatka, China’s CEFC has big ambitions, but little known about ownership, funding, REUTERS (Jan. 12, 2017), https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cefc … SKBN14X0B5; see CONFIDENTIAL DOCUMENT 7 (on file with Comms.).
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Majority Staff Report
XI. HUNTER BIDEN’S AND HIS FAMILY’S FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS WITH UKRAINIAN, RUSSIAN, KAZAKH, AND CHINESE NATIONALS RAISE CRIMINAL CONCERNS AND EXTORTION THREATS.
i. Hunter Biden Has Extensive Financial Connections to the Chinese Government, continued …
In 2012, Archer and Biden reportedly spoke with Jonathan Li of the Chinese private equity fund Bohai Capital about the possibility of forming a company, Bohai Harvest RST (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund Management Co. (BHR), that would invest Chinese capital in companies outside of China. 331
BHR was eventually formed as an investment fund and is reportedly “controlled and funded primarily by large Chinese government-owned shareholders” and is 80% controlled by Chinese entities.
That list of entities includes the government’s postal savings bank, with which Hunter Biden had networked in 2011, its main development bank, as well as the Bank of China. 333
Hunter Biden served on its board of directors and “joined based on his interest in seeking ways to bring Chinese capital to international markets.” 334
He served unpaid but reportedly acquired a 10% stake in the company in 2017.
Prior to its creation, in December 2013 and one month after the shareholders signed contracts relating to the creation of the company, Hunter Biden reportedly flew aboard Air Force Two with then-Vice President Biden to Beijing.
While in China, Hunter Biden reportedly helped arrange for Li to “shake hands” with Vice President Biden.
Afterward, Hunter Biden met with Li for what was reportedly a “social meeting.”
After the China trip, BHR’s business license was reportedly approved. 339
In September 2014, BHR had become a private equity shareholder in Sinopec Chemical Commercial Holding Company Limited, a subsidiary of Sinopec.
Sinopec is reportedly the second largest oil and gas company in China and the largest refiner of oil in Asia. 341
In 2016, Ye announced at a board meeting that he wanted CEFC “to become a second Sinopec … by acquiring global assets and consolidating ‘teapot’ [independent] refineries.”
Hunter Biden’s position of influence and connections to Chinese business interests, which were further strengthened while his father was vice president, most likely appealed to Ye, a man who The New York Times has since described as “[wanting] access to the corridors of power in Washington.” 343
BHR’s extensive connections to Chinese government intertwined its existence with the decision-making of Communist party rulers.
For example, the China Development Bank (CDB) is one member of a consortium that controls 30% of BHR.
Other members of that particular consortium are the government’s postal savings bank and the Bank of China.
Importantly, the CDB appears to have been connected to Ye Jianming’s CEFC.
Records acquired by the Committees note that, according to reports, after CEFC and Ye fell out of favor with the Chinese government in 2018, “at the orders of President Xi Jinping, China Development Bank abruptly pulled its lines of credit on offshore bonds for CEFC[.]”
Moreover, the former chairman of the CDB, Hu Huaibang, was accused in a 2018 court case of helping a CEFC subsidiary to obtain billions in financing during his time at the CDB and of channeling bribes on behalf of Ye while serving in a previous position at the Bank of Communications, another Chinese government entity. 347
331 Adam Entous, Will Hunter Biden Jeopardize his Father’s Campaign?, THE NEW YORKER (July 1, 2019),
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019 … s-campaign.
333 See James T. Areddy, What We Know About Hunter Biden’s Dealings in China, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (Oct. 4, 2019),
https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-we-kn … 1570181403; see also Press Release, Thornton Group, Thornton Group brings Rosemont Seneca executives to visit Chinas financial/fund industry executives (Apr. 12, 2010), http://www.thorntonai.com/english/newsc … icleID=282.
334 Katie Glueck, Hunter Biden to Leave Chinese Company Board, Addressing Appearance of a Conflict, THE NEW YORK TIMES (Oct. 13, 2019), https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/13/us/p … china.html.
339 Sharon LaFraniere and Michael Forsythe, What We know About Hunter Biden’s Business in China, THE NEW YORK TIMES (Mar. 6, 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/03/us/p … china.html.
341 Chen Aizhu, China’s CEFC courts ‘teapots’ for first domestic refinery acquisition, REUTERS (Mar. 10, 2017), https://de.reuters.com/article/us-china … SKBN16H0G4.
343 Alexandra Stevenson, David Barboza, Matthew Goldstein, and Paul Mozur, A Chinese Tycoon Sought Power and Influence. Washington Responded., THE NEW YORK TIMES (Dec. 12, 2018), https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/12/busi … nming.html.
347 Tony Munroe, Cheng Leng, Engen Tham and Min Zhang, Ex-chairman of China Development Bank under probe by graft-buster, REUTERS (July 31, 2019), https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china … dUKKCN1UQ0
Fox News
“JESSE WATTERS: The Bidens are all over FBI wiretaps talking to China”
Story by Fox News Staff
26 January 2023
Fox News host Jesse Watters analyzes Hunter Biden’s alleged shady business dealings on “Jesse Watters Primetime.”
JESSE WATTERS: The Bidens are all over FBI wiretaps talking to China.
The FBI was investigating Patrick Ho, a Chinese bagman who eventually got caught for bribing African leaders and helping Iran evade sanctions.
Real nice guy.
What does Ho have to do with the Biden family?
Ho was the VP for the Chinese energy company that was getting the Bidens rich, but Ho was also a spy and Hunter knew he was a spy.
Hunter’s on tape calling Ho the effing spy chief of China.
Ho handed Hunter and Jimmy the Chin millions in dirty Chinese money — consulting fees, that’s what they call that.
Hunter and the Chin were bribed with Chinese consulting fees.
The FBI knew Ho was an intelligence agent and they were listening to his phone calls and the FBI finally picked him up at JFK, slapped the cuffs on him and booked him right here in Manhattan.
So, Ho gets his one phone call.
Of all people, Ho calls the Chin and the Chin calls Hunter and Hunter picks up the phone and Ho asks him to be his lawyer.
How much? says Hunter.
A million bucks, says Ho.
Deal, says Hunter.
Hunter is representing Ho, the “effing spy chief of China,” and the FBI knew it.
***************
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Majority Staff Report
XI. HUNTER BIDEN’S AND HIS FAMILY’S FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS WITH UKRAINIAN, RUSSIAN, KAZAKH, AND CHINESE NATIONALS RAISE CRIMINAL CONCERNS AND EXTORTION THREATS.
i. Hunter Biden Has Extensive Financial Connections to the Chinese Government, concluded …
Hunter Biden’s business associations in China were not limited to investment funds like BHR and those additional connections created questionable associations with Communist government elements.
For example, in 2015, while his father was vice president, Hunter Biden reportedly met with an aide to Ye. 348
In addition to the Communist government, Ye also had reported connections and affiliations to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
For example, from 2003 to 2005, Ye reportedly served as deputy secretary general of the China Association for International Friendly Contacts (CAIFC), which is the public name for the PLA General Political Department’s International Liaison Department. 350
Additionally, in 2014, under Ye’s leadership, CE Fund had co-organized events with the China Huayi Broadcasting Corporation (CHBC), a company incorporated by the PLA General Political Department.
The CEO of CHBC, Wang Shu, was commander of the PLA General Political Department base “at the forefront of applied psychological operations and propaganda directed against Taiwan,” which was managed by a training center that was funded by a subsidiary of CEFC.
The general manager of that subsidiary, Lan Huasheng, was deputy secretary general of Ye’s CE Fund.
Wang reportedly attended the 2014 CE Fund and CHBC event along with Xu Jialu, a man who was associated with the PLA’s CAIFC as well as CE Fund and China’s Confucius Institutes. 354
Huasheng served as executive director of CE Fund’s China Institute of Culture Limited (CIOC), “a nationally supported organization in charge of ‘promoting Chinese culture.’”
Accordingly, Ye and his associates had robust relationships with China’s military units, some of which were involved in matters in direct opposition to U.S. policy in the region.
It is unclear whether Hunter Biden was aware of Ye’s close relationship with the PLA or involvement in efforts to develop and spread Chinese propaganda at the time of his 2015 meeting with Ye’s associate.
However, public reporting did make those connections.
Hunter Biden’s connections with Ye continued into the summer of 2017, when he met with Ye while soliciting donations for World Food Program USA in his capacity as a member of its board of directors.
At the time, Ye continued to operate the CE Fund, which has since been found to have engaged in criminal activities. 358
During their interactions in 2017, Hunter Biden reportedly agreed to assist Ye by using his contacts to help Ye locate potential investments for CEFC in the United States.
In keeping with that agreement, after meeting Ye, Hunter Biden stated that he began working on a deal for Ye that involved a $40 million investment in a natural gas project on Monkey Island in Louisiana that reportedly fell through the following year.
Around the same time that Hunter Biden began this work, Ye raised concerns with Hunter Biden that one of his associates, Patrick Ho, was under investigation by U.S. law enforcement.
Hunter Biden subsequently agreed to represent Ho.
On Sept. 8, 2017, a $9.1 billion deal was announced whereby Ye’s company, CEFC, would acquire a stake in the state-owned Russian energy company, Rosneft. 363
Ye’s efforts to acquire a stake in Rosneft appear fully consistent with his vision of turning CEFC into a “second Sinopec” with holdings across the world.
348 Alexandra Stevenson, David Barboza, Matthew Goldstein, and Paul Mozur, A Chinese Tycoon Sought Power and Influence. Washington Responded., THE NEW YORK TIMES (Dec. 12, 2018),
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/12/busi … nming.html. (The name of Ye’s aide and the exact date of the meeting have not been publically reported. The aforementioned meeting, and another meeting between Hunter Biden and Ye that took place in May 2017, were confirmed by “people with direct knowledge of the meetings who were not authorized to speak publicly because the meetings were private.”).
350 See J. Michael Cole, Unstoppable: China’s Secret Plan to Subvert Taiwan, THE NATIONAL INTEREST (Mar. 23, 2015),
https://nationalinterest.org/feature/un … iwan-12463; see also International Liaison Department [China Association for International Friendly Contacts] General Political Department, FEDERATION OF AMERICAN SCIENTISTS (Nov. 26, 1997), https://fas.org/irp/world/china/pla/gpd_ild.htm.
354 J. Michael Cole, Unstoppable: China’s Secret Plan to Subvert Taiwan, THE NATIONAL INTEREST (Mar. 23, 2015),
https://nationalinterest.org/feature/un … iwan-12463. (According to records on file with the Committees, it appears that Gongwen Dong, a mutual associate of Ye Jianming, James Biden, Sara Biden, and Hunter Biden, recently contributed to the Confucius Foundation Inc. On July 29, 2019, there was a wire for $5,000 from a Golden Coast Asset Management LLC account that is linked to both Gongwen Dong and Shan Gao to the Confucius Foundation Inc. with memo, “Gongwen Dong.”) CONFIDENTIAL DOCUMENT 8 (on file with Comms.).
358 See Press Release, U.S. Dep’t of Just., Former Head of Organization Backed by Chinese Energy Conglomerate Sentenced to Three Years in Prison for International Bribery and Money Laundering Offenses (Mar. 25, 2019),
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-h … ars-prison.
363 Olesya Astakhova and Chen Aizhu, China invests $9.1 billion in Rosneft as Glencore, Qatar cut stakes REUTERS (Sept. 8, 2017), https://www.reuters.com/article/us-rosn … SKCN1BJ1HT.
The Hill
“Biden: ‘The public’s not going to pay attention’ to investigations into his family”
Story by Brett Samuels
8 February 2023
President Biden on Wednesday brushed off plans by House Republicans to investigate his family members, arguing the public will not care.
The president sat for an interview with PBS NewsHour’s Judy Woodruff, who asked about the House GOP’s plans to use its new majority to probe his son, Hunter Biden, and potentially the finances of his brother, James Biden.
“The public’s not going to pay attention to that,” Biden said.
“They want these guys to do something.”
“If the only thing they can do is make up things about my family, it’s not going to go very far.”
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee’s website features a landing page titled “Biden Family Investigation” that lays out how Chairman James Comer (Ky.) and other Republicans “are investigating the Biden family’s domestic and international business dealings to determine whether these activities compromise U.S. national security and President Biden’s ability to lead with impartiality.”
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Majority Staff Report
XI. HUNTER BIDEN’S AND HIS FAMILY’S FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS WITH UKRAINIAN, RUSSIAN, KAZAKH, AND CHINESE NATIONALS RAISE CRIMINAL CONCERNS AND EXTORTION THREATS.
ii. Hunter Biden and his Family had Extensive Financial Connections to Ye Jianming, Gongwen Dong and other Chinese Nationals.
On the same day that the impending Rosneft deal was announced, Hunter Biden and Gongwen Dong, a Chinese national who has reportedly executed transactions for limited liability companies controlled by Ye Jianming, applied to a bank and opened a line of credit under the business name Hudson West III LLC (Hudson West III). 365
Hunter Biden, James Biden, and James Biden’s wife, Sara Biden, were all authorized users of credit cards associated with the account.
The Bidens subsequently used the credit cards they opened to purchase $101,291.46 worth of extravagant items, including airline tickets and multiple items at Apple Inc. stores, pharmacies, hotels and restaurants.
The cards were collateralized by transferring $99,000 from a Hudson West III account to a separate account, where the funds were held until the cards were closed.
The transaction was identified for potential financial criminal activity.
The Committees prepared the following chart which displays transactions related to the line of credit:
Hudson West III was incorporated on April 19, 2016, more than a year before the credit cards were issued.
Hudson West III, which is now dissolved, changed ownership at some unknown point.
After that change, ownership was divided between Hunter Biden’s law firm, Owasco PC (50%) and Coldharbour Capital LLC (50%).
Although ownership in Coldharbour Capital is equally divided between two individuals, Mervyn Yan and Tian Zhang, it has a business address identified as the address of Gongwen Dong.
According to records on file with the Committees, Hudson West III checking accounts were opened on Aug. 3, 2017, and Sept. 6, 2017, with Yan and Robert Hunter Biden.
Gongwen Dong was a former signer, which suggests that at one time he was associated with Hudson West III’s bank accounts and finances.
On Aug. 4, 2017, CEFC Infrastructure Investment (US) LLC, a subsidiary of Ye Jianming’s CEFC China Energy Company that listed Gongwen Dong as its director, sent Hunter Biden’s law firm, Owasco, a payment for $100,000.
This transaction was identified for potential criminal financial activity.
One of the investment entities of CEFC Infrastructure Investment is reportedly Shanghai Huaxin Group, a Chinese state-owned enterprise “engaged in petroleum products.”
That company is owned by CEFC Shanghai International Group Ltd., which is controlled by Shanghai Guosheng Group, another state-owned enterprise.
According to reporting, CEFC Shanghai was a CEFC subsidiary linked to the aforementioned corruption allegations involving the head of the China Development Bank. 379
These examples further illustrate the deep financial connections between Biden, Owasco, and the Chinese government.
365 CONFIDENTIAL DOCUMENT 9 (on file with Comms.); see also Katherine Clarke, A Top Chinese Oilman Vanishes, and a Manhattan Buying Binge Ends, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (Oct. 25, 2018), https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-top-chin … 1540478781
379 Zdravko Ljubas, China Development Bank’s Ex-Chief Suspected of Graft, ORGANIZED CRIME AND CORRUPTION REPORTING PROJECT (Aug. 1, 2019), https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/10378-ch … d-of-graft.
The Hill
“Hunter Biden attorney rejects House Oversight request for records”
Story by Emily Brooks
9 February 2023
In a sharply worded opening volley against the House GOP’s probe into Hunter Biden and the business dealings of President Biden’s family, an attorney for the president’s son denied a request for documents and information from the Oversight and Accountability Committee, saying it has “no legislative purpose.”
“Peddling your own inaccurate and baseless conclusions under the guise of a real investigation, turns the Committee into ‘Wonderland’ and you into the Queen of Hearts shouting, ‘sentence first, verdict afterwords,’” Abbe David Lowell, an attorney for Hunter Biden, wrote a letter sent Thursday.
“Evidence obtained in our investigation reveals the Biden family business model is built on Joe Biden’s political career and connections,” Comer said in a statement.
“Biden family members attempted to sell access around the world, including individuals who were connected to the Chinese Communist Party, to enrich themselves to the detriment of American interests.”
“If President Biden is compromised by deals with foreign adversaries and they are impacting his decision making, this is a threat to national security.”
*********************
“If the only thing they can do is make up things about my family, it’s not going to go very far.”
– U.S. president and world leader Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., 8 February 2023
*********************
CAUTION: Use discretion here as everything you are about to read about Hunter Biden, “Jimmy the Chin” Biden and his wife Sara Biden has been made up by somebody who is real good at making these kinds of things up to fool the American people and make them think the Biden’s are involved in some real dirty business, which can’t be true, because they are Biden’s, and Biden’s are as pure as the driven snow:
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Majority Staff Report
XI. HUNTER BIDEN’S AND HIS FAMILY’S FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS WITH UKRAINIAN, RUSSIAN, KAZAKH, AND CHINESE NATIONALS RAISE CRIMINAL CONCERNS AND EXTORTION THREATS.
ii. Hunter Biden and his Family had Extensive Financial Connections to Ye Jianming, Gongwen Dong and other Chinese Nationals, concluded …
On Aug. 8, 2017, CEFC Infrastructure Investment wired $5 million to the bank account for Hudson West III.
These funds may have originated from a loan issued from the account of a company called Northern International Capital Holdings, a Hong Kong-based investment company identified at one time as a “substantial shareholder” in CEFC International Limited along with Ye.
It is unclear whether Hunter Biden was half-owner of Hudson West III at that time.
However, starting on Aug. 8, the same day the $5 million was received, and continuing through Sept. 25, 2018, Hudson West III sent frequent payments to Owasco, Hunter Biden’s firm.
These payments, which were described as consulting fees, reached $4,790,375.25 in just over a year.
There are conflicting explanations for an additional $1 million sent to Hudson West III by CEFC Limited Foundation (CEFC Limited) on Nov. 2, 2017, that appears to have been refunded to CEFC Limited on Nov. 21, 2017 with a memo marked “refund.”
According to records on file with the Committees:
[Records indicated that] ‘CEFC paid the consultation fee to HW III for the purpose of conducting a market investigation of a natural gas project; however, the project was deemed unnecessary at the time so CEFC Limited decided to postpone the market investigation.
Therefore, HW III provided the refund to CEFC Limited’.
In another email correspondence dated 4/2/2018, Mr. Biden stated that the incoming wire amounting to $1MM on 11/2/2017 from CEFC Limited foundation should have gone to Owasco LLC, however, he provided the wrong wire instructions, and due to the large amount the transactions was not corrected until 3/22/2018, which consisted of an outgoing wire for the same amount benefiting Owasco LLC.
On March 22, 2018, a $1 million payment was sent from Hudson West III to Owasco with a memo line for “Dr Patrick Ho Chi Ping Representation.”
In his alternative explanation, Hunter Biden indicated that the misdirected $1 million was related to his representation of Ye’s associate, Patrick Ho.
These transactions illustrate the financial connections between Gongwen Dong’s Hudson West III, Ye Jianming’s CEFC, and Hunter Biden’s Owasco.
Biden stated that:
Boies Schiller Flexner is co-counsel for Dr. Patrick Ho’s case.
Hudson West III LLC has no involvement with Patrick Ho Chi Ping[’]s case and won[’]t expect further transaction related to Dr. Patrick Ho Chi Ping trail [sic] for Hudson West III LLC.
Owasco LLC and co-Counsel Boies Schiller Flexner will represent Dr. Patrick Ho Chi Ping [at] trial.
During the same period, there is also evidence that Hunter Biden moved large sums of money from his firm, Owasco, to James Biden’s consulting firm, the Lion Hall Group.
Between Aug. 14, 2017 and Aug. 3, 2018, Owasco sent 20 wires totaling $1,398,999 to the Lion Hall Group, a consulting firm that lists James Biden and his wife, Sara Biden, on the bank account.
This transaction was identified for potential criminal financial activity.
These transfers began less than one week after CEFC Infrastructure Investment wired $5 million to Hudson West III and Hudson West III sent its first payment of $400,000 to Owasco.
Most of the payments from Owasco to the Lion Hall Group had vague notes in the memo lines, 15 of which simply indicated that they were for further credit to James Biden; however, the memo line for one of the payments read “HW3,” which indicates some of the transferred money could be from Hudson West III.
When the bank contacted Sara Biden regarding the overall wire activity, she stated that the Lion Hall Group and Owasco provide international and business consulting and that the Lion Hall Group was assisting Owasco with an international client through a contract that had since terminated.
Sara Biden told the bank that she would not provide any supporting documentation, and she also refused to provide additional information to more clearly explain the activity.
Consequently, the bank submitted the account for closure.
The Committees created the following chart with respect to this transaction.
Hudson West III also sent funds directly to the Lion Hall Group.
According to records on file with the Committees, James B. Biden is the principal contact for the Lion Hall Group, and between January 2018 and October 2018, Hudson West III sent the Lion Hall Group outgoing wires totaling $76,746.15 with the memo, “office expense and reimbursement.”
These transactions illustrate a direct financial link between Hudson West III (which was connected to CEFC, the Chinese government, and Gongwen Dong) and James Biden.
On Aug. 17, 2017, three days after the first transfer from Owasco to The Lion Hall Group, it was publicly announced that Ye’s CEFC Energy was in talks to purchase a stake in the Russian state-owned energy company Rosneft, which, as noted, later fell through.
Around the same time, there were also outgoing wires from Hudson West III to various accounts associated with Ye and Gongwen, including CEFC Infrastructure Investment, Coldharbour Capital (located at Gongwen Dong’s address), Gongwen’s personal bank account, a separate bank account for Hudson West V, and Bo Jian Group Investment Company (a company with a complex ownership structure controlled by Ye in which Gongwen Dong is also reportedly a part owner).
These transactions and the transacting entities begin to paint a mosaic of the complex corporate structure that existed between entities linked to Hunter Biden and his associates and family and Chinese companies linked to the Communist government.