The
impeachment trial of President Donald Trump should begin with an indictment of
the media. The alleged crime committed by Trump revolves around his request
that the president of Ukraine investigate Hunter Biden's shady business
dealings with a corrupt Ukrainian oil and gas company when Joe Biden was vice
president.
That investigation might have been unnecessary had the news
media chosen to do what they're supposed to do: investigative journalism.
Why would Trump have to ask a foreign official for an
investigation into Biden sleaze? Because when politicians have a D next to their
name, the idea of the press holding people accountable goes out the window.
It is unfathomable that the American news media would choose
not to investigate the activities of the vice president of the United States.
Joe Biden used his portfolio of experience running then-President Barack
Obama's policies in Ukraine to get his son a "consulting" job for
which he was wholly unqualified but that reportedly paid him a cool 50 grand a
month. Then Biden bragged in public that he demanded Ukraine's top prosecutor
be removed under threat of America pulling its military aid. The whole thing
was stained by his son's business connection.
Maybe somehow they all just missed it. Except they didn't.
They knew it was happening.
Then-New York Times investigative reporter James Risen
published the story of Hunter Biden and the oil company, Burisma Holdings, in
December 2015. But The Times buried it by putting it on page A-22. The national
media yawned. In their political calculations, Joe Biden wasn't running for
president, and since it was Lame Duck season, why make the Obama-Biden White
House look bad?
Ever
since Trump's asking about Hunter Biden in a phone call to Kiev became a
scandal, our Accountability Police have routinely repeated like a dancing line
of puppets that there is "no evidence the Bidens did anything wrong."
Democrats and their media friends also play dumb when
Republicans insist Hunter Biden should be part of the Senate impeachment trial.
On the Sunday network news shows, moderators asked Democrats for their feelings
about Biden being a witness in the trial. Their answers needed a laugh track.
On ABC, Sen. Cory Booker told George Stephanopoulos with a
straight face, "These assaults on the Biden family are not relevant to
what's at issue in this case." On CNN, Sen. Sherrod Brown sounded like he
had a low IQ. "I don't know what Hunter Biden has to do with the phone
call," he said.
It's not that he doesn't know. It's that he, like Booker,
doesn't want to know.
This entire impeachment is about protecting the Biden family
from any scrutiny or criticism. So asking questions about the Bidens becomes a
scandal and is somehow a massive attempt to despoil the 2020 election.
Democracy dies when the Bidens are asked questions?
At least
Rep Jerry Nadler tried a slightly different spin on CBS, and it was even more
brazen. He insisted, "Hunter Biden has no knowledge of the accusations
against the president." How exactly does Nadler know that? Has Hunter
Biden been living in a cave for the last few months? Nadler's whopper set up
his next statement: "Their asking for Hunter Biden is just more of a smear
of Hunter Biden that the president is trying to get the Ukraine to do."
No one can question Hunter Biden on anything. This is not the
way the media and the Democrats have treated Donald Trump Jr., or Eric Trump,
or Ivanka Trump.
The first lesson of this impeachment charade? The double
standards for politicians and their children are breathtaking.
L. Brent Bozell III is the president
of the Media Research Center. Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the
Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org.
Hunter
Biden’s Firms Scored Reportedly Hundreds of Millions from Russians, Chinese,
and Kazakhs
20 Jan 20205,644
5:51
Hunter Biden, son of 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden, has
come under scrutiny for his business links to Ukrainian natural gas firm
Burisma while his father was vice president.
Now, a new book by author Peter Schweizer reveals Hunter Biden
forged other business deals with individuals and entities tied with the
governments of Russia, China, and Kazakhstan, that reportedly scored him
hundreds of millions of dollars.
The book, titled Profiles in Corruption: Abuse of Power by
America’s Progressive Elite., lays out how
Hunter Biden and his business partners, in addition to his numerous
Rosemont-branded entities and ventures, was deeply involved with an entity
called the Burnham Financial Group.
Hunter and his business partner, Devon Archer, used Burnham to
make foreign deals with governments and oligarchs, according to a copy of
the book viewed by Breitbart News.
One of those oligarchs included Nurlan Abduov, the associate of
another Kazakh oligarch, Kenges Rakishev. Rakishev is the son-in-law of the
former vice prime minister of Kazakhstan, Imangali Tasmagambetov. Tasmagamvetov
was also formerly the defense minister, and is now the Kazakh ambassador
to Russia.
According to the book, an account Hunter regularly received
funds from showed money arriving from a firm run by Rakishev in 2014:
A Morgan Stanley investment account from which Hunter regularly
received funds shows money arriving from mysterious
sources around the world. There is a $142,300 deposit in April 2014 from Kazakh oligarch–controlled Novatus Holdings. Kenges
Rakishev, whose father-in-law is the former vice prime minister of Kazakhstan and a close ally of Kazakh dictator Nursultan
Nazarbayev, runs the offshore firm.
sources around the world. There is a $142,300 deposit in April 2014 from Kazakh oligarch–controlled Novatus Holdings. Kenges
Rakishev, whose father-in-law is the former vice prime minister of Kazakhstan and a close ally of Kazakh dictator Nursultan
Nazarbayev, runs the offshore firm.
While Burnham received funds from Kazakh oligarchs, Archer acted
as a backchannel between Kazakhstan to then-Secretary of State John Kerry,
according to the book. (Kerry’s stepson Chris Heinz was a business partner with
Biden and Archer in some of their ventures).
In a July 11, 2013, email, Kerry’s chief of staff David Wade
wrote to Archer:
Devon: understand you spoke to the Secretary re having him call
[Kazakh] Foreign Minister Idrisov today, can you let me know topics Idrisov
wants to talk about/any requests he’ll have of the boss, so we can get paper
prepared for a call. Hopefully, the situation on the home front will leave him
time to do it.
Burnham also had business deals with two mysterious Chinese
companies — Kirin Global Enterprses Limited and Harvest Global Investors,
according to the book.
Kirin Global Enterprise Limited was an investment vehicle
run by Xiangyao (or Yaojun) “Larry” Liu and Guo Jianfeng, according to
Schweizer. “Very little is known about Kirin or its two principals, other than
the fact that they invest heavily in mainland Chinese real estate,” he writes.
Harvest Global Investors was a Chinese investment firm linked to the government
in Beijing.
Burnham also had a financial relationship with Russian Oligarch
Yelena Baturina, a billionaire with extensive political connections in Moscow
and links to Russian organized crime, according to Schweizer. Archer said
Baturina invested $200 million into “various investment funds” with which he
was involved.
Burnham also got wrapped up in a $60 million fraudulent bond
scheme to rip off union pension funds and the poorest Indian tribe in America,
the Oglala Sioux, Schweizer writes.
In May 2016, Archer was arrested in New York and charged with
“orchestrating a scheme to defraud investors and a Native American tribal
entity of tens of millions of dollars.”
Some of the targeted were government employee or labor union
organizations that had supported Joe Biden in the past. Biden has long
described himself as a “union man.”
Although Hunter Biden was not charged, Schweizer writes, “his
fingerprints were all over Burnham.” The legitimacy that his name and political
status as the vice president’s son lent to Burnham was brought up repeatedly
during the trial, he writes.
That status was used as a means of both recruiting pension money
into the scheme and alleviating investors’ concerns, he writes. In
an August 2014 email, Jason Galanis, who was convicted in the bond scheme,
agreed that Burnham had “value beyond capital” because of their political
connections.
Hunter Biden had an office at Burnham’s New York City offices on
Fifty-Seventh Street, and during the trial, numerous witnesses came forward
describing Hunter’s involvement with the firm, according to the book.
Schweizer writes these deals have long been a pattern with the
Biden family, to include Hunter Biden:
With the election of his father as vice president, Hunter Biden
launched businesses fused to his father’s power that led him to lucrative deals
with a rogue’s gallery of governments and oligarchs around the world. Sometimes
he would hitch a prominent ride with his father aboard Air Force Two to visit a
country where he was courting business. Other times, the deals would be done
more discreetly. Always they involved foreign entities that appeared to be
seeking something from his father. Often, the countries in question, including
Ukraine, Russia, and Kazakhstan, had highly corrupt political cultures.
In short, Hunter Biden was not cutting business deals in Japan
or Great Britain, where disclosure rules and corporate governance might require
greater scrutiny. These were deals in the truly dark corners of the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment