Posted on 10/10/2019 8:14:49 AM PDT by MNJohnnie
How much do you trust a Ukrainian lawmaker with unverified documents who unveiled them to the world at a news conference hosted by a Russian-owned news agency?
If you’re Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, you trust them quite a bit. If you’re a partisan of former 2020 Democratic front-runner Joe Biden, you likely trust them not at all.
If one side is completely right here, it could have a major effect on the 2020 presidential race.
On Wednesday, Andriy Derkach, a member of Ukraine’s Parliament, held a news conference hosted by wire service Interfax-Ukraine. In it, he accused former Vice President Joe Biden of accepting almost $1 million for consulting services from Ukraine energy giant Burisma while he was in office.
(Burisma, for those making their domiciles under rocks, is the company that paid Biden’s son Hunter $50,000 a month to serve on its board.)
Wednesday night, appearing on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani brought up Derkach’s claims to buttress his case that the Bidens had been up to some dirty dealing in the former Soviet republic.
“Biden, his son and his brother had a 30-year-long scam to make money, millions, selling his public office,” Giuliani said.
“Do you think we’re going to hear [from] the press that a member of the parliament in Ukraine held a press conference today and — name was Andriy Derkach, you won’t hear this on the news, ladies and gentlemen, because they censor it, you only get the news the Dems want you to hear — Derkach publicized documents which he said described the mechanisms for getting money by Biden Sr.”
Giuliani then quoted Derkach during the news conference:
“This was the transfer of funds for lobbying activities, as investigators believe, to Joe Biden through a lobbying company,” he said.
“Funds in the amount of $900,000 were transferred to the U.S.-based company Rosemont Seneca, which according to open sources is affiliated with Biden. The payment reference was for consultative services.”
Giuliani went on to describe some of Derkach’s further comments — which, taken in full, seemed pretty damning.
According to Interfax-Ukraine, Derkach said: “According to the documents, Burisma paid no less than $16.5 million to [former Polish President, who became an independent director at Burisma Holdings in 2014] Aleksander Kwasniewski, [chairman of the Burisma board of independent directors] Alan Apter, [Burisma independent director] Devon Archer and Hunter Biden [who joined the Burisma board of directors in 2014].
“Using political and economic levelers of influencing Ukrainian authorities and manipulating the issue of providing financial aid to Ukraine, Joe Biden actively assisted closing criminal cases into the activity of former Ukrainian Ecology Minister Mykola Zlochevsky, who is the founder and owner of Burisma Group.”
On “Hannity,” Giuliani expanded on that.
et me tell you who Mykola Zlochevsky is,” Giuliani said. “He’s a major oligarch. He stole $5 billion from his people. He very suspiciously was allowed to come back [to Ukraine]. His case got dismissed when they dismissed Hunter Biden’s case [involving Burisma] … This guy’s one of the major criminals in the Ukraine and he’s now walking around free because Joe Biden got the case dismissed.”
Biden said the Justice Department should take the Ukraine accusations seriously.
“This case stinks. They can run away from it all they want,” Giuliani added.
Obviously, accepting this kind of gift from a state-run company during his time as vice president would be incredibly illegal and a major new twist in the Biden case — something that Giuliani no doubt knew when he brought it up on Hannity’s show.
It’s also a difficult sell when you consider the source. It’s not just the fact that the story is a hard one to believe. Even with new leadership, Ukraine isn’t necessarily known as being corruption-free — or the kind of place where a blockbuster story about corruption can be believed on its own merits.
The fact that this happened at a news conference hosted by a Russian-run wire service seems more than a bit sketchy, particularly when you consider the fact that the motive behind the news conference seemed to be exculpating Ukraine’s current president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and pinning electoral interference in American politics on Ukraine’s former leadership.
“We see the conflict in which the new government of Ukraine faces due to the activities of the previous president,” Derkach said at the news conference, according to Interfax-Ukraine.
“I want to emphasize that I’m almost sure, and not only I, but many journalists, that [former Ukrainian President Petro] Poroshenko personally bears responsibility for the situation in which Ukraine has ended up, for dragging Ukraine into interfering in the U.S. presidential election, for a huge number of corruption scandals and international corruption that could not have occurred without his control or participation.”
hese are not the kinds of things you want to hear in a Joe Friday “just-the-facts-ma’am” news conference, particularly in a country that has a history of corruption. For its part, the Biden campaign refused to comment when contacted by the U.K. Daily Mail about Giuliani’s remarks.
So, will this end up being a major new wrinkle in the Bidens’ Ukrainian troubles?
Or, will this end up being a major embarrassment for Rudy Giuliani?
One thing’s for sure — this one isn’t likely to be forgotten anytime soon. It’s also going to shine an unwanted spotlight yet again on what the Bidens were doing in Ukraine back during the Obama era.
Bump this mother until it’s black & blue.
I saw this tweet about Biden’s Spirit Animal. Thought it was funny
https://twitter.com/EddieZipperer/status/1181985654206545920
That said, I don’t know how that animal put up with it.
I’m sure he reported it as income.
Let’s see Quid Pro Joe’s tax returns.
Right CNN even declared the story false. Not “allegedly”, not “without evidence”, not “if true” no they flat said the story was false.
I think this is considered a violation of the Emoluments clause
"Clause 8: No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State."
Funny since the Biden campaign has not ever responded yet. CNN shows once again they really are the Clown Noise Network.
Bump for Later
Joe Biden told Trump he handed in his tax report for the last 21 years must be another one of his fish stories.
Liars never stop they just get bigger.
Well, there's the problem right there. There was no objection from Biden's fellow elected criminals.
GROPER $. What’’s new? Since 1973 GROPER’S been GROPING greenbacks. Parasitic, elitist mofo. The debt was well under 1 trillion when he entered office.
Ping!
John Solomon was just on the Glenn Beck show. He said he has seen the burisma books.
He said they paid two $83,000 checks every month. One to Hunter Biden the other to his partner, I don’t remember his name.
he saw nothing of this $900,000 payment. I think he said he said something about Russian disinformation.
good post #6
If Giuliani has the verified bank records and a forum in which to display them...
Tainted source. Works for the same organization “The Hill” which claims their is “No Evidence of Ukrainian involvmeent in the 2016 election.
there plenty of proof. For example this story from Left Wing Politico
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/ukraine-sabotage-trump-backfire-233446
Ukrainian efforts to sabotage Trump backfire
The partner is Devon Archer...…..WHAT did Hunter the HUNTED DO with $83,000 a MONTH?? Did Quid Pro Joe get ANY of this money?
Biden used bagmen to keep the bribes at arms length. Review accounts and tax returns of Biden’s son(s), brother, cousins, cronies, campaigns, etc.
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