Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Source says whistleblower didn't have ‘firsthand knowledge’ of Trump call with Ukraine president
Fox News ^ | Sept. 23, 2019 | Jake Gibson, Alex Pappas

Posted on 09/23/2019 2:08:05 PM PDT by libstripper

The whistleblower who sparked a mounting controversy over President Trump’s July phone call with Ukraine’s president did not have “firsthand knowledge” of the conversation, a person familiar with the situation told Fox News -- even as the issue fuels impeachment calls from Democrats.

The source said that it is made clear in the complaint itself that the whistleblower did not have direct knowledge of the July phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

* * *

Hunter Biden was hired by Burisma in April 2014, two months after Ukraine's Russia-friendly president was ousted by protesters and as his father was heavily involved in U.S. efforts to support the new pro-Western government and its pledge to fight corruption. The hiring of the younger Biden immediately raised concerns that the Ukrainian firm, whose owner was a political ally of the ousted president, was seeking to gain influence with the Obama administration.

Two years later, Biden, as vice president, threatened to withhold $1 billion in loan guarantees from Ukraine unless Shokin was fired. Shokin was accused by many in Ukraine and in the West of being soft on corruption, but he also had been leading an investigation into Burisma's owner.

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


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: biden; bribery; trump; ukraine
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-35 next last
The pattern here is clear. Burisma Holdings hired Hunter Biden, who had no knowledge or expertise in Burisma's businesses, at a salary of about $600,000 per year, to bribe Joe Biden into supporting Burisma in its dealings with the government of Ukraine. Joe delivered his quid pro quo in 2016 when he forced the Ukrainian government to oust Shokin, who had been leading an investigation into Burisma's owner. That's a clear violation of U. S. law, specifically 18 U.S. Code Section 201 that prohibits bribery.

All PDJT was doing here was his Constitutional duty under Article II, Section 3 that requires the President “to take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed[.]”

1 posted on 09/23/2019 2:08:05 PM PDT by libstripper
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: libstripper
-- even as the issue fuels impeachment calls from Democrats.

What doesn't??

2 posted on 09/23/2019 2:12:43 PM PDT by pfflier
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: libstripper

Several theories on this:

1. Trump himself did this to get the media talking about Biden corruption.

2. The DNC did this to get rid of Biden (while tarring Trump).

3. The DNC did this to immunize Biden against Trump bringing up this issue in the future (while tarring Trump).

4. Just more get-Trump BS made up to try to recover from the huge embarrassment that the Russia Hoax is dead and gone.


3 posted on 09/23/2019 2:12:47 PM PDT by samtheman (The drive-by media is the true boss of the democommie party.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: libstripper

Does that mean he/she deserves a little jail time? Oh wait, he/she is a probably a Democrat so just an apology is all that’s required.


4 posted on 09/23/2019 2:13:31 PM PDT by antidemoncrat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: libstripper

They read it on dummie underground. Isn’t that firsthand enough?


5 posted on 09/23/2019 2:16:11 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Everyone who favors socialism plans on the government taking other people's money, not theirs.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: samtheman

I’ll take door number 3

3. The DNC did this to immunize Biden against Trump bringing up this issue in the future (while tarring Trump).


6 posted on 09/23/2019 2:16:41 PM PDT by thinden
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: samtheman

So far I have not seen any of the other Presidential candidates go after Biden on this. I think they are scared to make a move.


7 posted on 09/23/2019 2:16:55 PM PDT by Parley Baer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: pfflier

The temp was under 112 degrees, impeach Trump.

The temp was above 40 degrees, impeach Trump.

I wish a court would slam down the leftist rabble-rousers stridently, and put an end to some of this.


8 posted on 09/23/2019 2:17:32 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (This space for rent.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: samtheman

5. The DNC did this to distract from their impending catastrophe of FISA abuse declassification.


9 posted on 09/23/2019 2:20:19 PM PDT by rfp1234 (Obscured by Clods)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: libstripper
The pattern here is clear.

It sure is. Some swamp critter fabricates a lie about Trump and leaks it to the lamestream press. Without bothering to fact-check they trumpet it at the top of their lungs 24/7 and roughly half the country ends up believing it. Repeat as necessary.


10 posted on 09/23/2019 2:20:34 PM PDT by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: AntiDemocrat; All

My concern about all the publicity that matter has drawn is that few, if any, commentators have directly accused Joe of being involved in a bribery conspiracy and being bribed. In fact, that’s exactly what appears to have happened. He and his son have therefore violated U. S. law. Not only that, but bribery is one of the only two specific offenses that the Constitution makes impeachable. Thus, President Trump, the country’s chief law enforcement officer, was only doing his constitutionally mandated duty of enforcing the law against bribery.


11 posted on 09/23/2019 2:21:46 PM PDT by libstripper (a bit,)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: samtheman

5. Accusations flung by Democrats are always self-referential.


12 posted on 09/23/2019 2:22:59 PM PDT by rightwingcrazy (;-)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: libstripper

So that means the whistle blower could have been set up by Trump.


13 posted on 09/23/2019 2:26:05 PM PDT by Raycpa
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: libstripper
I posted this yesterday, though not nearly as concisely as you did, along with this:

Imagine for a moment if we swapped HUNTER BIDEN and BURISMA with DONALD TRUMP JR and GAZPROM...

Trump would no longer be POTUS and his son would be in PRISON, possibly with along with his father. It would be the biggest scandal in a century.


14 posted on 09/23/2019 2:33:25 PM PDT by ETCM
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: libstripper

I heard Peter Schweizer say o Hannity today that it was $83k/month for both Hunter and of Kerry’s fundraisers. That works out to around a million per year.


15 posted on 09/23/2019 2:36:10 PM PDT by jospehm20
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rfp1234

5. The DNC did this to distract from their impending catastrophe of FISA abuse declassification.

I sure hope you’re right about that one.


16 posted on 09/23/2019 2:47:56 PM PDT by samtheman (The drive-by media is the true boss of the democommie party.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: samtheman

Occam’s razor suggests it’s likely #4.


17 posted on 09/23/2019 2:50:57 PM PDT by traderrob6
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: libstripper

It’s Deja-Vu All Over Again – The Ukraine Effort is Simply “Obstruction 2.0″…

Posted on  by 

[Background] As I’m wiping down the white-board to outline the corrupt purposes, intents and connections, suddenly it becomes obvious. The Ukraine story is Obstruction 2.0.

To assemble a quick elevator explanation of the Muh Russia obstruction construction, and to better understand the end goal of the political objective which encompassed the use of the FISA court, CTH previously said:

To get impeachment, they needed obstruction. To get obstruction, they needed an investigation. To get the investigation, they needed evidence. To change dossier from oppo-research to evidence they needed a FISA. To get a FISA they needed a target. The target was Carter Page.

While assembling the more recent deployment of Adam Schiff’s Ukraine story, I recognize something familiar:

To get impeachment Schiff needs obstruction.  To get obstruction, Schiff needs an investigation.  To get an investigation Schiff needs evidence.  To change political innuendo into evidence, Schiff needs a ‘whistle-blower’.  To use a ‘whistle-blower’ they need a report… And guess where we are?

In the 2016/2017 Muh Russia operation we notice the same general cast of characters were involved. 

Now, remember, the Lawfare Alliance is quite smart, they purposefully use the intelligence apparatus as part of the constructed narrative because the intelligence aspect itself can act as a shield.

You might remember when Adam Schiff was making claims in 2017 about the ‘highly classified’ FISA application used against Carter Page?

As the HPSCI ranking member Adam Schiff was saying in 2017 the ‘Steele Dossier’ was not the structural evidence underlying the application (it was).  However, Schiff knew: (A) the application was hidden by its classified status; and (B) if the application did ever become public in 2018, his allied media would never hold him accountable for the 2017 lies.

When the FISA application was ultimately released, albeit in redacted form (Aug ’18), the Steele Dossier was the structural underpinning for it; yet Adam Schiff was never held accountable for the fraudulent content in the House Minority Intelligence Report.

Fast forward to 2019 and overlay this Trump/Ukraine story and what you will immediately notice is an almost identical deployment of the same playbook.

♦ Obstruction 1.0 (2016 original version): Source for Obstruction narrative, Chris Steele.
♦ Obstruction 2.0 (2019 Ukraine version): Source for Obstruction narrative, an unnamed “Whistle-Blower”.

♦ Obstruction 1.0: Tool for Obstruction narrative, Steele Dossier.
♦ Obstruction 2.0: Tool for Obstruction narrative, Whistle-Blower Complaint.

♦ Obstruction 1.0: The impediment to Obstruction narrative advancement (a needed special counsel) was AG Jeff Sessions.  Solution was to force recusal.
♦ Obstruction 2.0: The impediment to Obstruction narrative advancement is current Acting DNI Joseph McGuire.  Solution ongoing, hence call him before HPSCI.

[IMHO The House Intelligence Committee will likely attempt some recusal process against Joseph McGuire.  Also, if you accept this Ukraine angle was planned to roll-out, it is almost certain to explain why Schiff and the Democrats were desperately demanding the appointment of Sue Gordon.  They’ve had this operation in the works for weeks.]

It doesn’t matter that the underlying premise is false. What matters is the ability of Schiff and team -including media- to create the illusion of possibility within their premise:

Once Schiff/Lawfare create the premise and cement a false narrative; then all efforts shift to taking aggressive measures to bait President Trump into taking action that would lead to the charge of obstruction:

It should be emphasized the Inspector General for the Intelligence Community; the guy who accepted the ridiculous premise of a hearsay ‘whistle-blower‘ complaint, who was “blowing-the-whistle” based on second hand information of a phone call without any direct personal knowledge, is Michael K. Atkinson.

Atkinson’s self-interest:  Michael K Atkinson was previously the Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General of the National Security Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ-NSD). That makes Atkinson senior legal counsel to John Carlin and Mary McCord who were former heads of the DOJ-NSD in 2016 when the stop Trump operation was underway.

[Irony Reminder: The DOJ-NSD was purposefully under no IG oversight. In 2015 the OIG requested oversight and it was Sally Yates who responded with a lengthy 58 page legal explanation saying, essentially, ‘nope – not allowed.’ (PDF HERE) All of the DOJ is subject to oversight, except the NSD.]

Put another way, Michael Atkinson was the lawyer for the same DOJ-NSD players who: (1) lied to the FISA court (Judge Rosemary Collyer) about the 80% non compliant NSA database abuse using FBI contractors; (2) filed the FISA application against Carter Page; and (3) used FARA violations as tools for political surveillance and political targeting.

Yes, that means Michael Atkinson was Senior Counsel for the DOJ-NSD, at the very epicenter of the political weaponization and FISA abuse.

Immediately after the Carter Page FISA warrant is approved, in the period where DOJ-NSD head John Carlin has given his notice of intent to leave but not yet left, inside those specific two weeks, the National Security Division of the DOJ tells the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) they have been breaking the law.  The NSD specifically inform the court they are aware of contractors who have been using FISA 702(16)(17) database search queries to extract information on political candidates.

DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz has looked into the FISA application used against U.S. Person Carter Page.  Additionally, U.S. Attorney John Durham is said to be looking at the intelligence communities’ use of systems for spying and surveillance.

If the DOJ-NSD exploitation of the NSA database, and/or DOJ-NSD FISA abuse, and/or DOJ-NSD FARA corruption were ever to reach sunlight, Atkinson -as the lawyer for the process- would be under a lot of scrutiny for his involvement.

Yes, that gives current ICIG Michael Atkinson a strong and corrupt motive to participate with the Schiff/Lawfare impeachment objective.

View this document on Scribd

If you stand back and look at the big picture, what becomes visible is the purpose for this 2019 Adam Schiff Ukraine Whistle-blower narrative to create the same situation previously used in 2016/2017 to generate Trump impeachment by obstruction.

It is an almost identical playbook.

Meanwhile…

 

 

 


18 posted on 09/23/2019 2:51:29 PM PDT by Bratch (IF YOU HAVE SELFISH IGNORANT CITIZENS, YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE SELFISH IGNORANT LEADERS-George Carlin)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: libstripper

The term “whistleblower” is also misapplied. You blow the whistle on a misbehaving agency, not POTUS.

Especially when he’s just doing his job.


19 posted on 09/23/2019 2:52:36 PM PDT by jdsteel (Americans are Dreamers too!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: samtheman
Several theories on this:

5. Schiff has an inside man in the WH feeding him anything he thinks might be useful.

Schiff seemed to have an inside track on all of this, and seems to be pushing this as a reason for impeachment. I think getting Biden out of Warren's path is just a bonus.

20 posted on 09/23/2019 3:03:37 PM PDT by ETCM
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-35 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson