Last night we had an amazing performance on Chris Cuomo’s CNN program featuring Rudy Giuliani and his mad theories about Joe Biden and the Ukraine — something something — corruption, bribery — something.
Giuliani argues vehemently that there was a case involving the Obama administration threatening to pull money from Ukraine unless a prosecutor was fired while that prosecutor was investigating a deal involving Joe Biden’s son Hunter. He stated that he had asked for an investigation of that investigation in Ukraine to prove that the Obama Administration improperly used funds to influence Ukraine to the benefit of Biden. He claims he doesn’t know anything about Trump making a call or a promise with the President of Ukraine after withholding $250 Million in military aide in their struggle against Russia. Nope, he knew nothing about that even though that call is aparently part of a “series of actions” that has sparked an Intelligence Whistle-blower to step forward and report to the Intelligence Inspector General a “credible” and “urgent” case that was then referred to the Director of National Intelligence, who then shelved the story rather than provide the details to the House Intelligence Committee within 7 days — which is the law.
Yep, something is rotten in Kiev.
First of all, all of Giuliani’s blather about CNN being “biased” because they haven’t reported on the Hunter Biden corruption story is flatly bunk, because they have reported on it, and there’s simpy no THERE there.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general said in an interview that he had no evidence of wrongdoing by U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden or his son, despite a swirl of allegations by President Donald Trump’s lawyer.
The controversy stems from diplomatic actions by Biden while his son, Hunter Biden, sat on the board of
Burisma Group, one of the country’s biggest private gas companies. As vice president, Biden pursued an anti-corruption policy in Ukraine in 2016 that included a call for the resignation of the country’s top prosecutor who had previously investigated Burisma.
Yuriy Lutsenko, the current prosecutor general, said that neither Hunter Biden nor Burisma were now the focus of an investigation. He added, however, that he was planning to offer details to U.S. Attorney General William Barr about Burisma board payments so American authorities could check whether Hunter Biden paid U.S. taxes on the income.
“I do not want Ukraine to again be the subject of U.S. presidential elections,” Lutsenko said in an interview Tuesday in his office in Kiev. “Hunter Biden did not violate any Ukrainian laws -- at least as of now, we do not see any wrongdoing. A company can pay however much it wants to its board.” He said if there is a tax problem, it’s not in Ukraine.
There was money that was withheld from Ukraine by the Obama administration over corruption concerns with Lutsenko’s predecessor. However it was that predecessor himself who had shutdown the investigation of Burisma, and even when that investigation was active, Hunter Biden wasn’t a target of it because he had joined the Board after the investigation had already started.
Trump and Giuliani allege, contrary to evidence, that Biden improperly pressured the Ukrainian government in 2016 to fire then-Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin in the midst of a corruption investigation of one of Ukraine’s biggest gas companies, Burisma Group. Biden’s youngest son, Hunter, was serving on the company’s board at the time.
But the prosecutor, in fact, was the target of pressure by Ukrainian anti-corruption advocates and a host of international supporters of Ukraine, who argued he should be fired for failing to pursue major cases of corruption. And it was the widely known and publicly espoused position of the U.S. government, across a half dozen agencies, that the prosecutor’s ouster was among crucial anti-corruption measures that the Ukrainian government needed to take to move forward economically and politically. As President Barack Obama’s point man on Ukraine, Biden dutifully relayed those messages at every opportunity.
Yet Trump and Giuliani have turned that real-life scenario on its head, falsely alleging that Biden sought to corruptly influence a Ukrainian prosecutor’s decisions in his son’s favor. The Trump camp’s steady volley of tweets, interviews and supportive articles by pro-Trump authors echoes the persistent Republican accusations against Hillary Clinton related to the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks on Benghazi, Libya, when she was Secretary of State.
And…
The Burisma Group was reportedly involved in a years-long money-laundering inquiry, though Lutsenko said Hunter was “definitely not involved” because he joined the board after the probe started.
Because this is complex and confusing, Giuliani and Trump are hoping to sell the Q-Anon and “Deep State” crowd on this conspiracy theory that Obama and Biden conspired to protect Hunter Biden from being investigated by the former Ukrainian prosecutor, but that’s simply not the case. Just like Hillary Clinton had nothing to do with a human trafficking ring being run out of the basement of Comet Ping Pong Pizza. Just like she had nothing to do with the attack on our consulate in Benghazi.
All of this is fluff, it’s a smokescreen, it’s bullshit.
Trump isn’t getting fed oppo research from Russia anymore so he’s trying to blackmail Ukraine into providing it for him using a threat of $250 Million.
The sad part is that for some people — particularly those in Congress — this bullshit just might work.
Here are the remaining detailed events in the never ending Trump Russia Corruption Timeline and the Facepalm Five.
September 14th —
September 15th —
September 16th —
September 17th —
September 18th —
September 19th —
September 20th —