Joe Biden Must Explain His Ukraine Dealings

Townhall.com ^ | January 28, 2020 | Betsy McCaughey

[Kaslin]

Democrats impeached President Donald Trump for putting his own political fortunes ahead of the national interest in dealing with Ukraine. But it's Joe Biden who should be in the hot seat for that.

Trump is criticized for a July 25 phone call, when he asked the president of Ukraine for help investigating what Joe Biden did, as vice president, to get a prosecutor there fired. Biden's son was on the payroll of a corrupt Ukrainian energy company, Burisma, targeted by authorities.

Democrats claim it was wrong to ask for the investigation. Trump's defense lawyers say there was every reason to ask. The evidence backs them up.

It's not just the $1 million a year that Burisma paid Biden's son Hunter, with no energy or Ukrainian expertise. That's small potatoes.

The question is what did Burisma get in return? The Obama administration forked over $53 million in American taxpayer money to assist the Ukrainian energy industry. The public should know how much Burisma and its related ventures may have gotten.

Biden should also have to answer for the $20 million in taxpayer-funded loans that went to his Delaware pal John Hynansky to launch a luxury car dealership in Ukraine selling Porsches, Land Rovers and other high-ticket vehicles. None were made in the U.S. Hynansky had made large donations to Biden's campaigns. Later he would loan $500,000 to Biden's brother James, who was behind on mortgage payments and owed more than $590,000 in back taxes.

Democrats and media allies are adamant that Joe Biden's dealings in Ukraine are irrelevant to Trump's impeachment. Not so, if Biden used taxpayer money as his personal piggy bank to help his son and his car dealer pal.

On that July 25 call, Trump did the right thing asking about Burisma, especially when $391 million more in taxpayer-funded aid to Ukraine was about to go out the door.

The chronology of the Bidens' transactions raises serious questions:

April 15, 2014: Burisma sends Hunter Biden's business partner, Devon Archer, $112,000.

April 16, 2014: Archer visits Vice President Biden at the White House.

April 21, 2014: Vice President Biden arrives in Ukraine bearing millions in aid for the Ukraine energy industry.

May 12, 2014: Hunter Biden joins Burisma's board.

February 2015: Ukrainian authorities seize the property of Burisma's CEO and go after unpaid taxes.

March 2016: Biden demands that Ukraine's top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, be fired, and threatens to hold up $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees.

Biden even bragged about telling the Ukrainians "if the prosecutor is not fired, you're not getting the money." That's the kind of quid pro quo of which Trump is accused, only Biden did it, and it's on tape.

The Biden campaign claims the vice president demanded Shokin's dismissal for being soft on corruption, and the media gladly parrot that claim. It defies common sense.

Though accounts vary about how aggressively Shokin investigated Burisma, Shokin himself is clear. In an email to The Washington Post, he blamed Vice President Biden for getting him axed, saying that Biden's "motives" were "the activities of Hunter Biden, and the investigators on his tail."

Data from the United States Aid for International Development show that the Obama administration sent $1.28 billion in aid to Ukraine in 2014 to 2016. Biden, the administration's point person for Ukraine, should be held accountable for how the money was used or misused.

"Profiles in Corruption," a new book by Peter Schweizer, documents how Biden's family and friends leveraged his position to cash in with deals in China, Iraq, Kazakhstan and Latin America. Joe Biden's suspect dealings in Ukraine were not out of character. The Biden motto appears to be that a family that "takes" together stays together.

Democrats insist claims of Biden wrongdoing are "discredited" and "without evidence." That doesn't pass the smell test.

Americans have seen the transcripts of Trump's calls with the Ukrainians. Let's see Biden's call records with the Ukrainians.

If the Senators decide to call witnesses, Joe Biden should be on the top of the list.

[Steely Tom]

Only Republicans have to explain anything.

If Biden is "forced" to explain himself, he'll lie... and the MSM will let him.

[shelterguy]

It has already been litigated. It’s old news. It’s a Fox News conspiracy theory that has been debunked. It was heavily investigated at the time.

[joethedrummer]

But... we already have video of him explaining his corruption.

[joethedrummer]

It’s time for PROSECUTION.

[camle]

not just biden, include pelosi romney and Kerry.

one thing nobody’s picking up on - all that money that went to the bidens (etc.) was from the US taxpayers who meant it to aid Ukraine.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

FLASHBACK, 2018: Joe Biden Brags At CFR Meeting About Withholding Aid To Ukraine To Force Firing Of Prosecutor

https://youtu.be/Q0_AqpdwqK4?t=3074

[Tallguy]

Joe will admit nothing. The second he admits anything he is done politically... forever.

[Verginius Rufus]

If you read the transcript, Trump obviously had seen the video of Biden bragging about getting the prosecutor fired and that's what led him to mention the Bidens in the phone call.

The Democrats claim that Trump wanted Zelensky to make up dirt on Biden to benefit himself in the 2020 election. That is ridiculous for two reasons: (1) all Trump needed to do was to use Biden bragging at the CFR meeting in an ad and (2) Americans don't care if a Presidential nominee is a crook, or Hillary would not have gotten 65 million votes in 2016.

[Sacajaweau]

Does he have 6 hours?

[Sacajaweau]

I’ve been saying that right along. If mention of Biden’s video wasn’t in the transcript, then one might look at it totally different.

[Don Corleone]

Joe Biden Must Explain His Ukraine Dealings

JMHO but POTUS will get him and the rest next term.

[Liz]

In 2005, Joe Biden’s brother, James, bought an acre of land in the Virgin Islands with excellent views of the Caribbean for $150,000. James divided it into three parcels, and the next year Scott Green, a lobbyist close to Joe Biden, bought one of the parcels for $150,000......giving James a huge profit. Later, the lobbyist Scott Green, gave Joe Biden’s brother a mortgage loan on the remaining parcels.

The pattern by which members of the Biden family engage in financial dealings with people with an interest in influencing Joe Biden.

What was the quid pro quo the Bidens exchanged for Scott Greens unprecedented "generosity?"

=======================================

FYI---Scott H. Green is retired as a former American football official in the National Football League (NFL) from the 1991 NFL season until the 2013 NFL season. He had officiated Super Bowls XXXVI in 2002, XXXVIII in 2004, and was the referee for XLIV in 2010.[3] Green was also the head of the NFL Referees Association and led negotiations during the 2012 NFL referee lockout.[4]

Outside his part-time work in professional football, Green works as a Washington, D.C. contractor
for public safety and criminal justice agencies as part of a DC firm he co-founded in 1994.

[Liz]

Joe's brother Frank.

"Team Biden was tasked to be on the lookout for pre-teens to be photoed with Joe."

[Liz]

This pic is the epitome of Joe Biden's corruption. Shows exactly what he thinks of taxpaying Americans.
We exist only to serve him and his greedy family's endless get-rich-quick schemes,.

This was an official tax-paid govt trip to China. But look who then-VP Biden brought with him.
That's Hunter and daughter Finnegan ---- on a family outing paid for by taxpayers.

The moronic grand-daughter waves at Chinese dignitaries like it was old home week.......like she's some sort of diplomat.

Hunter cashed in bigtime, even had a Chinese suckup hand-deliver a diamond to his hotel room.....
......just to make sure corrupt Hunter "was bought good."

The corrupt trio did all the touristy things available in China.......sucking off the backs of US taxpayers 24/7.

[Liz]

Schweitzer's monumental book will expose the “Biden Five” .... Biden family members beyond Hunter Biden.
The Bidens siphoned off 10's of millions of tax dollars, getting shady guaranteed govt loans and contracts
from Joe Biden exploiting his govt offices.the Ukrainian Burisma scandal is just “the tip of Biden corruption".....

GOVERNMENT PARASITES--THY NAME IS BIDEN
Joe's brother James Biden and wife at Obama White House event

Looks like Obama liked his cut of the Biden deals.
Getting to attend a WH state dinner --- means you paid BIGTIME.

TRAC Development, a South Korean firm won the master contract for Biden's Iraq work.
M/M James Biden were guests of Pres at a lavish WH state dinner honoring.....(wait for it).....
South Korea's president, Lee Myung-bak. Obama rewarded all the players in this govt scheme.

================================================

Biden’s Corruption Problem
Powerline ^ | Aug. 2, 2019 | John Hinderaker
FR Posted on 8/3/2019, 9:54:14 AM by libstripper

Joe Biden is being portrayed as the Democrats’ safest potential presidential nominee, despite his obvious flaws as a candidate. But one wonders how Biden’s history of swamp corruption will play if he actually faces the scrutiny of a national run. Biden’s family has gotten wealthy, like those of so many low-paid “public servants”–Tom Daschle and Harry Reid are obvious examples. How does that happen? Politico headlines: “Biden Inc. Over his decades in office, ‘Middle-Class Joe’s’ family fortunes have closely tracked his political career.”

It begins: (Excerpt) Read more at powerlineblog.com ...

=================================

ITEM Joe Biden’s younger brother James received a series of “unusually generous” bank loans during the 1970s, while the former vice president served on the Senate Banking Committee. Politico reported that James Biden, who has a history of murky financial dealings, was able to parlay his role as the chief fundraiser for his brother’s 1972 Senate run into the startup capital required to open a nightclub.The loans were considered “unusually generous” given that the younger Biden was a salesman without any business experience and purportedly had a net worth of less than $10,000 at the outset of the venture in 1973. Another key component of the story, which was widely covered by local media in Delaware and Pennsylvania at the time, is that the loans appeared to draw concerns over influence peddling, as Joe Biden had just been appointed to the Senate Banking Committee. (Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com …

ITEM Here's the real James Biden windfall ----- billions awarded for Iraq reconstruction.

CIRCA 2012 Crony capitalism & Joe Biden’s brother
SOURCE https://nypost.com/2012/10/23/crony-capitalism-joe-bidens-brother/
By Charles Gasparino, NY POST, October 23, 2012

James Biden isn’t a big name in the business of residential housing development, so what exactly qualifies him to work at a construction company and share in the winnings of a $1.5 billion project to build affordable homes in Iraq? If you said it has something to do with his last name, the one shared by his older brother Vice President Joe Biden, you wouldn’t be far off. At least that’s the guess of some Wall Street analysts who cover the Marlton, NJ-based company Hill International and think they’ve seen yet another sordid tale of crony capitalism.

Hill has been around for decades; its main business is managing construction projects in the Middle East and here in America. It’s built a good reputation over the years, as has the father-son team who run it, Irv and David Richter. But the bursting of the real-estate bubble took its toll; Hill shares are down 80 percent since 2008. Since 2011, the company has reported losses. Its Middle East business has also been stymied by the Arab Spring uprisings; in Libya alone, Hill is out $60 million in payments that it’s still trying to recover.

But it got some good news not long after its housing subsidiary hired James Biden as an executive vice president in late 2010. Just six months later, Hill won one of its biggest contracts ever, a $1.5 billion deal to build at least 100,000 affordable homes in Iraq. A good deal for Hill, a relative newcomer to building homes — and for James Biden, who as one partner will get a good share of that $1.5 billion.

The deal is contingent on the Iraqi government providing financing, which it has yet to do, but Hill execs tell analysts the money could start flowing by the end of the year. That’s when veryone involved, James Biden included, will start collecting on tens of millions of dollars in profits.

One friend of James Biden’s estimates his net worth at around $7 million, yet he seems to have a remarkable lack of concrete business experience. An attorney who’s done work for him called him a “serial entrepreneur,” but didn’t name the startups he was responsible for. Hill chief Irv Richter called Biden a “good salesman” and the firm’s Web site describes “40 years of experience dealing with principals in business, political, legal and financial circles across the nation and internationally.”

(James Biden also had a relatively short and somewhat controversial run as a co-owner of a hedge-fund company with Joe’s son Hunter. The company, as it turns out, was marketed by companies controlled by now convicted Ponzi schemer Allen Stanford. Neither Biden was charged, but Stanford went to jail and the company is kaput.)

No, James Biden’s obvious value comes from his connection to the Obama administration. Richter assures me that James’ ties to Joe played no part in landing the plum assignment in Iraq or any of the other government-related jobs Hill has received recently.

Really? Connect these dots: Both the Iraqi government and the Obama State Department played roles in helping Hill win the assignment, Richter concedes. And Joe Biden is President Obama’s point man on Iraq — a country where people expect politicians’ families to be “taken care of.”

Also key is TRAC Development, a South Korean firm that won the master contract for the Iraq work. And — huh! — James Biden and his wife were guests of President Obama and Michelle for last October’s state dinner honoring the president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak.

All one big coincidence?

[Liz]

Dam Breaks: Establishment Media Zone in on Biden Family’s Culture of Corruption.....
BreitBart ^ | 1/29/2020 | FR Posted by caww

On Tuesday, Politico published in-depth exposé on financial ties between the former VP’S younger brother, James, and a high-powered D.C. lobbyist.James and his wife purchased an acre of land in the Virgin Islands for $150,000 in May 2005. A year later, James resold 1/3rd of that acre to Scott Green, a ‘national security lobbyist who formerly served a Senate staffer for Joe Biden. Green paid $150,000 for the land, even though tax assessed value was only $38,000. “In effect, James got their money back while keeping most of the land—recouping their investment in just 12 months.

Any money that Green may have lost through the deal was offset when Joe Biden became vice president. In 2010 Green and members of the lobbying firm he founded, the Lafayette Group, were frequent visitors at the Obama-Biden White House.

That year Green’s ties to the Biden clan seemed to be especially beneficial. On April 11, 2010, the Lafayette Group was awarded two taxpayer-funded contracts from FEMA worth a total of $5.8 million.ed.

(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...

[Liz]

Scott Green.

Biden's younger brother, James, a high-powered D.C. lobbyist purchased an acre of land in the Virgin Islands for $150,000 in May 2005. A year later, James resold 1/3rd of that acre to Scott Green, a ‘national security lobbyist who formerly served a Senate staffer for Joe Biden.

Green paid $150,000 for the land, even though tax assessed value was only $38,000. “In effect, James got their money back while keeping most of the land—recouping their investment in just 12 months.

Any money that Green may have lost through the deal was offset when Joe Biden became vice president.

In 2010 Green and members of the lobbying firm he founded, the Lafayette Group, were frequent visitors at the Obama-Biden White House.

That year Green’s ties to the Biden clan seemed to be especially beneficial.

On April 11, 2010, Green's Lafayette Group was awarded two tax-funded FEMA contracts worth a total of $5.8 million.