The Obama administration allowed former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter to continue working for Ukrainian company Burisma, even after learning that the firm and its owner were corrupt, top U.S. State Department official George Kent testified, according to transcripts released Thursday.
Hunter served on Burisma’s board of directors from 2014 until April of this year.
In 2014, the U.S. spent hundreds of thousands in American taxpayer funds on assisting an investigation into corrupt activities linked to Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky, Kent revealed.
During his closed-door deposition on October 15, Kent told House impeachment investigators that he raised concerns about Biden’s lucrative position in 2015.
According to the transcripts , Kent, a deputy assistant secretary charged with overseeing U.S. policy towards Ukraine, testified:
The first time I was in Ukraine as acting deputy chief of mission in the period of mid-January to mid-February 2015, subsequent to me going into the deputy prosecutor general on February 3rd and demanding who took the bribe and how much was it to shut the case against Zlochevsky I became aware that Hunter Biden was on the board. I did not know that at the time.
And when I was on a call with somebody on the vice president’s staff and I cannot recall who it was, just briefing on what was happening into Ukraine I raised my concerns that I had heard that Hunter Biden was on the board of a company owned by somebody that the U.S. Government had spent money trying to get tens of millions of dollars back and that could create the perception of a conflict of interest.
The United States spent “roughly half a million dollars” in support of a Zlochevsky-linked investigation in 2014 — the year Burisma hired Hunter, Kent revealed.
Kent indicated that then-VP Biden’s staff dismissed his concerns about Hunter’s work in Ukraine.
“The message that I recall hearing back was that the vice president’s son Beau Biden was dying of cancer and that there was no further bandwidth to deal with family related issues at that time,” he testified.
“That was the end of that conversation” about Hunter Biden’s conflict of interest in Ukraine, Kent later added.
Kent said he first visited the U.S. embassy in Ukraine in mid-January 2015. He indicated that he soon learned Burisma was corrupt.
“Burisma had a reputation for being, first of all, one of the largest private producers of natural gas in Ukraine but also had a reputation for not being the sort of corporate, cleanest member of the business community,” the top State official said.
He testified that he was so concerned about Burisma’s reputation that he put the breaks on coordinated activity between the company and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
House Democrats pursuing the impeachment probe have accused Trump of abusing his power by pressuring his Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a July 25 call to investigate corruption allegations against the Bidens, allegedly in exchange for aid.
Trump, Zelensky, and some impeachment probe witnesses, including Kent, have denied the claim. Other witnesses, however, have presumed that a quid pro quo took place in which Trump leveraged U.S. aid to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens.
Kent testified that he had no “direct knowledge” of the alleged link between America’s security assistance to Ukraine and the Eastern European country opening of new investigations.
He also told investigators that it is appropriate for the Trump administration to “look at the level of corruption” in foreign countries like Ukraine when determining whether to provide or withhold aid.
The former vice president threatened to withhold aid himself to Ukraine to force the Eastern European country to fire its top prosecutor in 2016, who had investigated the owner of Burisma for possible corruption.
Until recently, Hunter served on the board of Burisma for up to $83,000 per month despite having no background in energy. His position prompted allegations of corruption.
Hunter admitted to ABC News last weekend that his father’s political position helped him secure the lucrative appointment to Burisma’s board of directors.
Based on Kent’s testimony, Trump had reason to be concerned about corruption linked to Hunter Biden’s position.
Fast-forward to today's still vocal Obama gang. Why
no indictments? Mum's the word. Can anyone hold to the
faith in American justice? Those who support the rule of law feel
like Charlie Brown trying to kick a football. It's coming — oh,
wait, it's coming...oh, wait... GORDON WYSON
Judicial Watch: Only Crimes in Russia Scandal Are from ‘Obama
Gang’
THE
MAN WHO WOULD BE DICTATOR
Barack
Obama’s Russia Connection
If
Obama was a fully recruited agent of Moscow, tasked with giving Russia a
significant military advantage over the United States, and economically
weakening and socially dividing the nation, how would he have conducted his
presidency (or his post-presidency) any differently? TREVOR LOUDON
*
We are all victims of the Obama
cabal’s collusion with Russia – President Trump’s voters and all Americans who
believe in our free and fair election
Democrats Allow Communists to Infiltrate Their
Party Across the Nation
“Obama’s new home in
Washington has been described as the “nerve center” of the
anti-Trump opposition. Former attorney general Eric Holder has said
that Obama is “ready to roll” and has aligned himself with the
“resistance.” Former high-level Obama campaign staffers now work with a
variety of groups organizing direct action against
Trump’s initiatives. “Resistance School,” for example, features
lectures by former campaign executive Sara El-Amine, author of the Obama Organizing.”
*
“Professor Paul Kengor has
extensively researched the Chicago communists whose progeny include David
Axelrod, Valerie Jarrett, and Barack Hussein Obama. Add the openly
Marxist, pro-communist Ayers, and you have many of the key players who put
Obama into power.”
*
We are all victims of the Obama cabal’s collusion with Russia –
President Trump’s voters and all Americans who believe in our free and fair
election process.
Will We Ever Prosecute?
Imagine that the local cops know that a gang member, named
William, broke into the pawn shop and stole guns, jewelry, and
money. William's fingerprints, film image, and DNA add to the hard
evidence log. The owner knows it; the prosecutor knows it; William's
gang associates know it. But he is not arrested. Nearby
shopkeepers and neighborhood mothers are asking why he is walking the street. No
one explains it; mum's the word. Could it be there is a grand plan
to take out the gang's leaders? No one knows; mum's the
word. Shopkeepers and residents are about to give up and start
moving away from the area, and no one asks them to stay the course.
Fast-forward to today's still vocal Obama gang. Why no
indictments? Mum's the word. Can anyone hold to the faith
in American justice? Those who support the rule of law feel like
Charlie Brown trying to kick a football. It's coming — oh, wait,
it's coming...oh, wait...
Without doubt, a criminal cabal is an extraordinarily complex
organization, and understanding who did what, why, when, and how is a challenge
to the mental faculties of anyone. But, what happens if the full
scope of activities is never clear? Does everyone get off? Does
complexity confer immunity?
In engineering, there is no perfect answer to anything, so changes
are made incrementally, addressing the problems as they are
recognized. Each step brings a clearer view of remaining problems,
which are then addressed, each in its turn. The completed project is
still flawed, but the solution is practical and productive.
So it should be with a grandiose scheme like the Russia
Hoax. The ringleaders don't have to be handled with kid
gloves. They don't even have to be handled at all. Just
start with the low-hanging fruit, and get as far as possible.
Those old enough to remember My Lai, Vietnam, know that Lt. Calley
and Cpt. Medina were not alone in their actions. However, their
prosecution forever changed the game of passing the buck on war crimes.
So, too, can rabid prosecution of bit players in the Russian Hoax
forever change the landscape in plots involving treason. Those who
would participate at the lower levels must know they are subject to
prosecution, so they remain circumspect in such a re-enactment of the coup
attempt. This would be the Achilles heel of another cabal — those
who are intimidated by the prospect of prison. Those who realize
they don't have sufficient rank to escape punishment will be loath to participate
in such a scheme. Without them, there will be no operational
viability to an unlawful coup.
Admittedly, there are always problems in pursuing a criminal
case. It must be so under our Constitution, but it cannot be
impossible!
Prosecutors don't get all the information, but at a certain point,
for each criminal, evidence accumulates that there is a real and provable
crime. It may not include every transgression of that person, nor is
it the magic revelation, untangling the Gordian knot of the conspirators. It
is a simple criminal act. It is what it appears, and it need not be
put in the context of the big picture — it is as plain as the nose on your
face.
That stage is the stimulus for a prosecutor. It is the
time to move. If the DOJ acts, many of the sins can never be
prosecuted, because the prosecution of their lesser crimes may foreclose
pursuit of other crimes under double jeopardy protection. However,
failure to move puts evidence and witnesses at risk of being lost. This
point has passed for so many of the coup conspirators that it seems there will
be no justice for many of them, like Lois Lerner.
Why?
A full recounting of all that is already known would be tedious,
and to expound on the criminal conduct yet again seems shrill. It is
not necessary to understand the intertwining of all the crimes before simply
bringing the charges that are facially obvious. But the deferral of
prosecution, for whatever reason it is done, allows many of the cabal to walk
free when they shouldn't. In fact, the indication is that they are
continuing the very conduct for which they should be prosecuted.
Why has McCabe not been charged with lying to the FBI, lying under
oath? Nothing more is needed to start the dominos
falling. Who will step forward to exonerate him? No one
can, and no one will. That omission — of a vigorously supported
defense — will send a message to the others in the coup conspiracy.
Why has Samantha Power not been indicted for violating national
security requirements in unmasking or transferring her unmasking authority to
others? It doesn't pass the smell test that she is too important to
be prosecuted.
Why is Huma Abedin strolling around, free as a
bird? She forwarded classified emails to Anthony Weiner's
laptop. What else is needed to demonstrate a crime?
Did Strzok do anything? Did
Page? Which one lied to Congress? Their
contradictory accounts mean at least one is a perjurer. Sure, there
is more "there" there, but it isn't necessary to keelhaul them; just
send them to jail, and send others a message.
Listing all the cabal members, who are quite obviously criminal,
is not easy — in fact, it is not doable. It need not be the
aim. A public that finds this whole thing partisan or tedious will
not be easily impressed if a 2,000-count indictment naming 43 people is
suddenly dropped. Bringing along the public is certainly part of
sending the message for future conspirators. It probably is better
done gradually.
Removing the context and simply prosecuting crimes is the
method to educate both today's and tomorrow's citizens.
Selecting single actors, and naming obvious crimes, will have a
chance to convince even skeptical partisans that something is
wrong. The lack of support from other participants will indeed
remove most doubt.
The full scope of what has gone on will never be known, but the
lessons for future participants in such a scheme is essential. The
next time, the prosecution will be more severe, more certain, and more
expedient. Protecting the Constitution is more important than
perfect justice. Some miscreants will escape, but they will never
sleep well again. The lesson must be taught.
A DOJ that fails to move loses its credibility and its
honor. The foundation of the Republic is placed at
risk. Without the rule of law, what do we have?
At some point, deferral of prosecution is dereliction or
abetting. Has it reached that point?
Gordon Wysong is an engineer and entrepreneur who has served as a
county commissioner in Cobb County, Ga.
Victorious Democrats would
also end congressional investigations into the Hillary-Deep
State-DNC-Russian-Clinton Foundation collusion and corruption. All the players
in these massive, sordid affairs will be deemed “too big to jail” – and too
closely tied to the Democratic Party to be investigated further. Paul Driessen
Hillary Clinton's Russia collusion IOU: The answers she owes
America
BY
JOHN SOLOMON, OPINION
During the
combined two decades she served as a U.S. senator and secretary of State, Hillary Clinton ’s patrons regularly donated to her family charity when they had
official business pending before America’s most powerful political woman.
Still, the
money continued to flow by the millions of dollars, from foreigners and
Americans alike who were perceived to be indebted to the Clinton machine or in
need of its help.
It’s time for
the American public to call in their own IOU on political transparency.
The reason?
Never before — until 2016 — had the apparatus of a U.S. presidential candidate
managed to sic the weight of the FBI and U.S. intelligence community on a rival
nominee during an election, and by using a foreign-fed, uncorroborated
political opposition research document.
But Clinton’s
campaign, in concert with the Democratic Party and through their shared law firm,
funded Christopher Steele’s unverified dossier which, it turns out, falsely portrayed Republican Donald Trump as a treasonous asset colluding with Russian President
Vladimir Putin to hijack the U.S. election.
Steele went to
the FBI to get an investigation started and then leaked the existence of the
investigation, with the hope of sinking Trump’s presidential aspirations.
On its face, it
is arguably the most devious political dirty trick in American history and one
of the most overt intrusions of a foreigner into a U.S. election.
It appears the
Clinton machine knew that what it was doing was controversial. That’s why it
did backflips to disguise the operation from Congress and the public, and in
its Federal Election Commission (FEC) spending reports.
Clinton and the
Democratic National Committee (DNC) used the law firm of Perkins Coie to hire Glenn Simpson’s research firm, Fusion GPS, which
then hired Steele — several layers that obfuscated transparency, kept the
operation off the campaign’s public FEC reports and gave the Clintons plausible
deniability.
But Steele’s
first overture on July 5, 2016, failed to capture the FBI’s imagination. So the
Clinton machine escalated. Steele, a British national, went to senior
Department of Justice official Bruce Ohr — whose wife, Nellie, also worked for
Fusion — to push his Trump dirt to the top of the FBI.
Nellie Ohr
likewise sent some of her own anti-Trump research augmenting Steele’s dossier
to the FBI through her husband. Perkins Coie lawyer Michael Sussmann used his connection to former FBI general counsel James Baker to dump Trump
dirt at the FBI, too.
In short, the
Clinton machine flooded the FBI with pressure — and bad intel — until an
investigation of Trump was started. The bureau and its hapless sheriff at the
time, James Comey, eventually acquiesced with the help of such Clinton fans as
then-FBI employees Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.
To finish the
mission, Simpson and Steele leaked the existence of the FBI investigation to
the news media to ensure it would hurt Trump politically. Simpson even called the leaks a “hail Mary” that failed.
Trump won,
however. And now, thanks to special counsel Robert Mueller, we know the
Russia-collusion allegations relentlessly peddled by Team Clinton were bogus.
But not before the FBI used the Clinton-funded, foreign-created research to get
a total of four warrants to spy on the Trump campaign , transition and presidency from October 2016 through the
following autumn.
The Clinton
team’s dirty trick was as diabolical as it was brilliant. It literally used
house money and a large part of the U.S. intelligence apparatus to carry out
its political hit job on Trump.
After two years
of American discomfort, and tens of millions of taxpayer dollars spent, it’s
time for the house to call in its IOU.
Hillary Clinton
owes us answers — lots of them. So far, she has ducked them, even while doing
many high-profile media interviews.
I’m not the
only one who thinks this way. Longtime Clinton adviser Douglas Schoen said
Friday night on Fox News that it’s time for Clinton to answer what she knew and
when she knew it.
Here are 10
essential questions:
1.
In January 2018, the Senate
Judiciary Committee sent a formal investigative request for documents and
written answers from your campaign. Do you plan to comply?
2.
Please identify each person in
your campaign who was involved with, or aware of, hiring Fusion GPS, Glenn
Simpson and Christopher Steele.
3.
Please identify each person in
your campaign, including Perkins Coie lawyers, who were aware that Steele
provided information to the FBI or State Department, and when they learned it.
4.
Describe any information you and
your campaign staff received, or were briefed on, before Election Day that was
derived from the work of Simpson, Steele, Fusion GPS, Nellie Ohr or Perkins
Coie and that tried to connect Trump, his campaign or his business empire with
Russia.
6.
Did you or any senior members of
your campaign, including lawyers such as Michael Sussmann, have any contact
with the CIA, its former Director John Brennan, current Director Gina Haspel,
James Baker, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page or former FBI Deputy Director Andrew
McCabe?
8.
Describe all contacts you and
your campaign had with DNC contractor Alexandra
Chalupa, the Ukraine government, the Ukraine Embassy in the United States or
the U.S. Embassy in Kiev concerning Trump, Russia or former Trump campaign
chairman Paul Manafort.
9.
Why did your campaign and the
Democratic Party make a concerted effort to portray Trump as a Russian asset?
10.
Given that investigations by a
House committee, a Senate committee and a special prosecutor all have concluded
there isn’t evidence of Trump-Russia collusion, do you regret the actions by
your campaign and by Steele, Simpson and Sussmann to inject these unfounded
allegations into the FBI, the U.S. intelligence community and the news media?
Hillary Clinton
owes us answers to each of these questions. She should skip the lawyer-speak
and answer them with the candor worthy of an elder American stateswoman.
John Solomon is an award-winning investigative journalist whose
work over the years has exposed U.S. and FBI intelligence failures before the
Sept. 11 attacks, federal scientists’ misuse of foster children and veterans in
drug experiments, and numerous cases of political corruption. He serves as an
investigative columnist and executive vice president for video at The Hill.
Follow him on Twitter @jsolomonReports .
ALL
REVOLUTIONS START OUT MESSY AND UNFOCUSED. THE BEST IS YET TO COME!
The
Party of Antifa Fascists?
Who are
the “Antifa” mobs? What are they doing to our country? How long will we
tolerate them?
The Brett
Kavanaugh confirmation hearings were their latest excuse for tantrums and
intolerance. Dismissing fairness, propriety and due process, they screamed that
mere allegations of misconduct were enough to bar him from the Supreme Court,
despite no corroborating evidence or witnesses.
Vicious
harassment of senators and White House officials in restaurants, streets,
grocery stores, and Senate offices and elevators was matched by ambush tactics
and despicable behavior by Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats. If Justice
Clarence Thomas’s confirmation hearings were “ an electronic lynching ,” those hearings were an electronic
assault on a respected jurist, his wife and young daughters.
When
Kavanaugh fought back, the same Senators and their media friends said he
“lacked the proper temperament” to be on the Court. (Apparently, he should have
just tried to enjoy the experience.)
The fact
is, Democrats and their allies had said in lockstep and from the outset that
they intended to keep any Trump nominee off our highest
court. The Women’s March mistakenly released a statement saying it opposed the
“ nomination of XX ” to the Court. (They forgot to fill
in the blank.) They view the Court as their supreme state and national
legislature: it’s far easier to get 5 votes than 5 million or 50 million.
In
reality, this ongoing attempted rule by mob (with Portland, Oregon a prime example) goes back to
the 2016 elections that put Donald Trump in the White House. The mobs weren’t
just disappointed that Hillary Clinton had not won. They were enraged . And they’ve remained so ever
since.
In fact,
their furor goes back even further – to mounds of excrement they left behind in
North Dakota, for instance, where they tried to block the Dakota Access Pipeline , by burning and bombing bridges,
threatening local residents and killing cattle. One “peaceful protester” tried
to shoot a deputy sheriff.
In
another example, they enlisted state attorneys general, universities, wealthy
leftwing foundations and private law firms (on a contingency fee basis) to
bring RICO and other actions against scientists and think
tanks that voice skepticism about “cataclysmic manmade climate change.” On
college campuses they have banned, disinvited, mobbed, harassed or just plain
screamed over 300 conservative
speakers into
silence. Being a Republican or wearing a Trump MAGA hat can get you beaten, or
worse .
They
forget President Obama’s dictum: “Elections have consequences.” One is the
President’s right to nominate Federal judges. But from their perspective,
“consequences” must never apply when they lose – and the Electoral College must be abolished when it works
as our Founding Fathers intended: to keep populous urban areas from dominating
presidential elections and imposing a tyranny of the majority. (The fact that
85% of all US counties voted for Donald Trump illustrates this principle in
action.)
In most
of these cases, “they” are the Antifa mobs. Antifa being short for
“anti-fascist.” Don’t be conned.
The
Antifa mobs are fascists! And they have become the
ski-masked thug wing of the Democratic Party.
They (and
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Kyrsten Sinema, Andrew Gillum, Bernie Sanders and
other favored candidates) certainly espouse socialism as
their vehicle for wealth redistribution. However, in almost every other
respect, their philosophies and actions reflect fascism, which
is generally defined as:
A
political system in which an authoritarian government does not own businesses
and industries, but strictly regulates and controls their actions, output and
rights – while forcibly controlling and suppressing citizens and their thought
and speech via stringent laws, intimidation and even violence.
Sadly,
the Democratic Party is slipping further into these tendencies, becoming ever
more closely aligned with these radicals. It relies on Antifa thugs to “rally
the base,” intimidate and abuse Republican voters and
candidates, and get Democrat (and “undocumented”) voters to the polls. Like too
many in the “mainstream” news media, Democrats refuse to condemn the mob
behavior – and say it’s wrong to even call them
mobs . They’re just
concerned citizens, peaceably assembling and seeking redress of their
grievances. Right. (Hint: You don’t like being called fascist mobs? Stop
behaving like fascist mobs.)
“You
cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand
for, what you care about,” Hillary Clinton said recently. So instead of civil
debates we’re to have civil war over whose vision and agenda will rule? Is
there something wrong, antiquated or “threatening” about debating issues ?
Former
Attorney General Eric Holder said, when Republicans “go low” with their
rhetoric, “we kick them.” Rep. Maxine Waters (R-CA) incites
Antifa mobs by ranting, “If you see anybody from the Trump Administration in a
restaurant, in a department store, tell them they’re not welcome anymore,
anywhere .”
Now on
top of the speech codes, trigger warnings, boycotts, censorship, groupthink and
identity politics, Google, Facebook and Twitter control and restrict access to
conservative views; crowd funding sites prevent conservative groups from
raising money; and the Obama IRS prevented Tea Party groups from getting the
tax status needed to operate. When all that fails, we’re supposed to tolerate
mobs and riots.
On
campuses, LGBTQ diversity is virtuous. Diversity of viewpoints or political
affiliation is intolerable. Some say Republicans want to control what you do in
your bedroom. But Democrats want to control everything you do anywhere outside
your bedroom. And Antifa mobs will keep you quiet and in line .
Antifa
thugs fire-bombed a North Carolina Republican office and trashed another one in
New York City, where they left a note that said, “ This is just the beginning. ”Others knocked a 71-year-old female
congressional staffer unconscious! It even reached the point where a rabid
Bernie Sanders supporter tried to gun down Republican
legislators and
staffers who were practicing for a charity baseball event.
Indeed,
death on a large scale, to serve state or other “higher interests,” is another
aspect of fascism. We see that with millions of people dying every year in
Africa and Asia, because pressure groups deny them access to energy , insect control, water
purification, agricultural and other modern technologies,
in the name of protecting the environment from dangerous climate change,
chemicals and biotechnology.
There are
crazy ironies, too. Google helps the
Chinese Communist
Government prevent its citizens from accessing “forbidden” knowledge and ideas
– but then claims helping the US Defense Department with Cloud computing or
artificial intelligence surveillance would “violate its principles.”
Around
many neighborhoods, signs proclaim “Hate has no home here,” in multiple
languages, with an American flag heart logo reminiscent of the Obama campaign
logo – in liberals’ yards. The signs are part of a project that “promotes just
and inclusive communities.” Trump supporters need not apply.
Democrats
appear to be depending on all of this to counter a possible “red wave” – and
regain control of the House of Representatives and maybe even the Senate. If
they succeed even with just the House, Democrat congressional committees will
investigate, interrogate and try to impeach Trump, Kavanaugh and other
officials. They will impede and obstruct everything the Trump Administration
tries to do.
They’ll
also try to abolish ICE, block the Wall, pack the Supreme Court, take our guns,
bash Israel – and replace the fossil fuels that provide 80% of our energy with
“ 100% renewable energy ” that is so expensive and unreliable
it will bring our industries, economy and nation to its knees, while blanketing
rural and habitat land, damaging
people’s health and property rights, and butchering birds and bats by the
millions.
Our
rebounding energy, employment, economy, markets and living standards would get
rolled back.
Victorious Democrats would
also end congressional investigations into the Hillary-Deep
State-DNC-Russian-Clinton Foundation collusion and corruption. All the players
in these massive, sordid affairs will be deemed “too big to jail” – and too
closely tied to the Democratic Party to be investigated further.
Some say
the Antifa-Schumer-Pelosi-Clinton-Holder-Waters strategy will backfire. I hope
that happens, because it would be disastrous if these people run Congress,
America and our lives. But I won’t bank on it.
If you’re
worried too (and you should be), get inspired and involved. Above all, VOTE!
Vote to preserve our democratic Republic, our freedoms, our booming economy , reliable and affordable energy for all Americans – and
equal justice for all, based on the presumption of innocence until proven
guilty.
Paul
Driessen writes books and articles on energy, environmental, human rights and
political issues.
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