Ukraine scandal

The Biden-Ukraine Conspiracy Theory

by Dave

Today’s CNN Headline: Indicted ex-FBI informant told investigators he got Hunter Biden dirt from Russian intelligence officials

See link: Indicted ex-FBI informant told investigators he got Hunter Biden dirt from Russian intelligence officials

Wow, that’s a lot to unpack. This happened yesterday in a courthouse in Las Vegas, where Alexander Smirnov, the indicted informant was being held. The Special Counsel’s office wanted Alexander Smirnov held without bail. The Judge rejected this and released Smirnov with an ankle bracelet and restricted travel.

The Biden-Ukraine conspiracy was being kept alive in four places, Donald Trump’s campaign rallies, House of Representatives, Fox News and social media websites. It was just good fodder for Republicans who bought into the “Biden crime family” nonsense.

From Wikipedia’s website: Since early 2015 Hunter and his father Joe Biden have been the subjects of false and baseless claims of corrupt activities in a Biden–Ukraine conspiracy theory pushed by then-U.S. President Donald Trump and his allies.”

It was pushed by many Republicans, particularly chairmen of three House Committees. Representative James Comer, head of the House Oversight Committee really went on the attack:

“Unless U.S. Attorney Weiss investigates everyone involved in the Bidens’ fraud schemes and influence peddling, it will be clear President Biden’s DOJ is protecting Hunter Biden and the big guy,” Comer wrote, referencing the president as “the big guy.”

This conspiracy theory was permanently put to rest, with the arrest of Alexander Smirnov on February 14, 2024. He was an incredible con artist and was able to convince the FBI that he had some information of corruption worth listening to in the FBI offices of Pittsburgh. James Comer probably regrets he told the Special Counsel to dig deeper into the FBI investigation because the actions of Smirnov went from useless leads to criminal activity of lying and falsifying reports.

At the bail hearing, it was revealed that Smirnov had a US and an Israel passport, over 6 million dollars in liquid assets, and admitted to being in contact with Russian military intelligence officers, late last year.

As I will explain, the conspiracy promoted by Republicans died, but it spawned a whole new series of allegations of Russia’s attempt to hurt Biden’s campaign. Of course, this all is based on the statements of a lying FBI informant, which I am certain is being checked out by the FBI right now.

The false narrative: Hunter Biden secured a very high paying job working for Burisma energy company in Ukraine beginning 2014 at the same time that Biden was Vice President. The actual value of the contract varied, but it has been reported that some months, he made $50,000. It was alleged that VP Biden received a 5 million dollar bribe from Burisma, and in return was able to pressure the Ukrainian government to fire their general prosecutor, Vitor Shokin in March 2016, to stop an investigation of corruption within Burisma. It was also alleged that Hunter Biden also received a 5 million dollar bribe for his help.

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Now the truth. There were no bribes. Not one penny ever exchanged hands between the president of Burisma, Mykola Zlochevsky, to either Hunter or Joe Biden for “favors.” This false narrative was at the foundation of Biden impeachment inquiry as launched in the House Oversight Committee, chaired by Representative James Comer. The House Judiciary Committee and the House Ways and Means committee were to be part of this inquiry.

It was an inquiry based on nothing. It was pure circus, put on for purposes of helping Republicans in the election. “It’s very clear that they’ve all been dupes to a Russian disinformation propaganda effort” says Rep. Jamie Raskin on Republicans falling for the claims made by the now-indicted “informant” with ties to foreign intelligence agencies.

Burisma paid Hunter Biden very well to be on the Board of Directors of Burisma from 2014 to 2019. Also, VP Biden stated that as a condition of loan guarantees to Ukraine, the Ukrainian government had to take steps to reduce corruption by replacing their general prosecutor, Vitor Shokin. Both the US and EU wanted Shokin fired as he was an ineffective in fighting corruption. Vitor Shokin was fired in March 2015.

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The Oversight Committee which overlooks the truth and looks for scandal for political purposes

Devon Archer had worked with Hunter Biden in Ukraine, so he was subpoenaed by the Oversight committee. He denied there was any bribes, but Representative Comer took statements out of context, to imply that there was a working relations between Hunter and Joe Biden, when Biden was Vice President. On occasion, Hunter Biden had his father say hello and exchange pleasantries with contacts. Hunter Biden was to appear in a closed door committee hearing. He wanted to appear in an open session so his testimony would not be cherry picked, as was the case with Devon Archer.

Representative Chuck Grassley released a unverified FBI form, called a FD 1023, which contained Alexander Smirnov’s fabricated story of bribery between Hunter Biden and Ukraine officials on July 20, 2023. Smirnov detailed a meeting he attended in Vienna with Burisma’s president, Mykola Zlochevsky, in which Zlochevsky stated he paid 5 million dollars to Hunter Biden and other 5 million dollars to “the big guy.” The FBI released the form to Grassley after he threaten to hold the FBI in contempt of Congress.

Grassley releases internal FBI document about unverified Biden bribery allegations

More documentation on events that just not happen. The FBI did everything possible to stop the release of this misinformation by Congress and interfering with a legitimate investigation. Prior to the release of the FD 1023, an arrested associates of Rudy Giuliani, Lev Parnas, testified that there was no bribe, and Giuliani became very upset on hearing this news and told Parnas not to tell anyone.

Every bit of information supporting bribery just seemed to be falling apart, but Republicans didn’t care. The conspiracy was already told many times on Fox News, particularly that Biden was taking bribes from an Ukrainian business as Vice President. The bribery scheme was promoted more than 80 times by Sean Hannity on Fox News. As we just learned, it may just be he was promoting Russian propaganda. Still too early in the new investigation. See links below.

A final twist is Hunter Biden, through his lawyers, is stating that a factor why his plea deal fell apart, what because of the false reports from the FBI informant. Seems like a long shot and he may lose on this issue. The judge ultimately rejected the deal, and had no information about false reports from the FBI.

This is a very fast evolving story, so I can only report today’s news.

What’s next

On February 14, 2024, FBI informant Alexander Smirnov was indicted for lying to the FBI and creating false reports on multiple occasions. At his bond hearing, it was stated by prosecutors that he was a flight risk and had 6 million dollars in liquid assets. He was released with an ankle bracelet and restricted in his movements. I am certain at this point, he is being carefully monitored and protected so he is available for trial. (This isn’t Russia).

The FBI and Justice Department are doing their job. Hunter Biden will go on trial for falsifying a gun purchase form and tax related charges. There will likely be more information on Alexander Smirnov. The indictment states he was never in direct contact with Mykola Zlochevsky and all contacts were well after the period when Joe Biden was not Vice President.

The Impeachment inquiry of Joe Biden by the House Committee on Oversight should “pack up their tents and go home” as Jamie Raskin suggests, because the circus is over. I agree. The House Republicans control the committees, and will not have open hearings that show they were duped and likely promoted Russian propaganda to help Donald Trump.

Republicans likely will try to salvage the inquiry, from what is left. The only way the full story will be revealed, is after the election, if Democrats can take back the House. Sean Hannity and Donald Trump will not apologize for spreading fake news. Only in my dreams.

I suspect there may be more charges against Alexander Smirnov and others as the FBI follows the money trail. The Special Counsel David Weiss investigation just widened into the framing of Hunter and Joe Biden, based on fraudulent reports and possibly involving Russian agents (GRU ?).

That’s something that James Comer really didn’t see coming when he implored Weiss to broaden his investigation.

Stay tuned,

Dave

Links:

Facts first, Ouster of Vitor Shokin

CNN Link: House Republicans seek to downplay FBI informant charges that undermine Biden impeachment inquiry

I don’t have an exact date on this summary. The Republicans control the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, so this was prepared by Democrats sometime after July 2023.

fact-sheet-re-firing-of-viktor-shokinDownload

Bolton’s Book “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir”

by Dave

Former National Security Advisor John Bolton has written his third book, entitled, “The Room Where It Happened” which according to  Amazon.com will be published in hard copy and on Kindle on March 17, 2020.   Amazon is accepting pre-publication orders.  I bought a copy from Amazon.     It isn’t my normal reading.  I disagree with his basic philosophy of using the threat of  military power in every way possible to promote US interests.   In one editorial in the New York Times,  he was aptly described as the least diplomatic diplomat.   I have posted his biography from Wikipedia under links.

Thanks to the impeachment hearings, John Bolton has now gotten heaps of criticism from the party he has always supported – the Republicans.   It has guaranteed that his hawkish views will be heard – either in his book or on social media. He appeared very often on Fox News during the Obama era.   It seemed he was critical of almost every initiative undertook by Obama with respect to international policy and cooperation.   At every turn, he would fall back to the idea that America would be better off going it alone.

But, I bought the book, because I am certain he will corroborate the testimony of others in the impeachment trial.  I’m sure Bolton feels a sense of betrayal from Trump, who could not separate his role as president, setting incredibly important policy decisions  from that of a candidate for re-election.

The current controversy is whether the manuscript can be published without changes.    A restraining order, preventing Simon and Schuster from publishing the book is possible, but likely to be ineffective, as I am certain  excepts will appear in the press.   A restraining order will only make the book more popular.

The Supreme Court case, “The New York Times v.  United States” was decided 38 years ago (I remember it, wow am I that old!) in favor of the New York Times publishing excerpts from the Pentagon Papers, a leaked government document reviewing the history of the Vietnam War, as prepared by the Department of Defense.   Three conservative judges (Burger, Harlan and Blackmun) dissented.  See links.

The lead story in today’s New York Times is: “Attacking Bolton, Republicans Push to Swiftly Acquit. Confident they can block witnesses.   The White House and Senate Republicans worked aggressively on Wednesday to discount damaging revelations from John R, Bolton and line up the votes to block new witnesses from testifying in President Trump’s impeachment trial, in a push to bring the proceeding to a swift close.”  A vote on witnesses may occur tomorrow, Friday January 31.  Without witnesses, the trial could end next week, before the State of the Union address.

Stay tuned,

Dave

Links:

Amazon, The Room Where it Happened: A White House Memoir, accepting pre-publication orders, available March 17, 2020

Wikipedia:  John Bolton

Wikipedia:  New York Times v.  United States (1971)

(yes- I know the actual case name is a bit longer and includes the case against the Washington Post.   The case was part of the C-Span series on Landmark Supreme Court cases. See

C-Span Landmark Supreme Court Decisions:  New York Times v United States

At issue was whether our First Amendment rights of a free speech could be limited by the government’s claim of harming to national security, because it relied on confidential information.  I believe after publication, it became clear that Pentagon Papers were an excellent historical account of events leading to our involvement in the Vietnam war.

 

 

 

Ukraine Scandal – the call that perhaps never occurred

by Dave

Nov 27 (Washington Post):

“This is Ambassador Sondland speaking to me,” Trump said outside the White House last week, looking down to read notes he’d taken of Sondland’s testimony. “Here’s my response that he just gave: ‘I want nothing. . . . I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo.’ ”

Seems Trump feels  his defense is ironclad, because it is based on the sworn testimony of Ambassador Sondland.  If the Democrats are going to accept everything else that Sondland testified to, as the truth and was incriminating, then it stands to reason that they have to accept his recollection of this phone call.

I don’t agree that everything that came from Sondland was the truth.  The other phone calls could  be corroborated.   This “September 9 call” is suspicious and  I think evidence is mounting that the call did not occur.    The White House could immediately dispel this idea, as they have the phone records.  The State Department has Sondland records and will not provide them to Sondland.  Note Sondland is still the Ambassador to EU.

The Republicans on the House Intel Committee kept after Ambassador Sondland to be more detailed on the “no quid pro quo” call.  Sondland said that because the State Department would not allow him access to his records and he wasn’t much of a note taker, he could not be sure of the details.

It is very possible that the Sept 6 to 9 time period, just one phone call was made to Trump.  In this phone call, he stated that there was “no quid pro quo” but then said what was specifically required to release the aid.   An announcement by the Chief Prosecutor was not enough.   It had to be from Zelenskiy.  I think in Trump’s mind, he was on the winning side.  The worse the fighting was with the Ukraine, the more likely that he would comply with Trump’s demands.

Unlike Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump doesn’t email.  I think by using 3 amigos (Kurt Volker, Gordon Sondland and Rick Perry) as plus  Rudy Giuliani, to the Ukraine, Trump thought he could by-pass normal Foreign Service protocol.  Of course, it meant getting rid of our US Ambassador to Ukraine, Maria Yovanovitch, because she had three undesirable qualities:  honesty, intelligence and experience, and wasn’t going to be a good fit in the dirt seeking political  missions of Donald Trump, helping him get re-elected.  See CNN link.

The links below are very compelling.

Stay tuned,

Dave

Link:

Just Security:  Here’s the Proof that the Quid Pro Quo call never occurred

Washington Post Witness testimony and records raise questions about account of Trump’s ‘no quid pro quo’ call

CNN  Opinion (Nov 17)  What Rudy and ‘Three Amigos’ were up to