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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsUkraine already declared the supposed Biden-scandal a dud. Giuliani doesn't care.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-07/timeline-in-ukraine-probe-casts-doubt-on-giuliani-s-biden-claimPresident Donald Trumps personal lawyer is raising the specter that Joe Biden intervened in Ukrainian politics to help his sons business.
But if that was Bidens aim, he was more than a year late, based on a timeline laid out by a former Ukrainian official and in Ukrainian documents.
...
The official described to Bloomberg details about the countrys political dynamic in the run-up to early 2016 when Biden, then the U.S. vice president, threatened to hold up U.S. funding to Ukraine unless it cracked down on corruption. Bidens chief demand was the ouster of a top Ukrainian prosecutor who he said had been ineffective. The episode has come under the spotlight in the last week because at one point, that prosecutor had been investigating a natural gas company where Bidens son, Hunter Biden, sat on the board and received substantial compensation.
Theres little question that the Bidens paths in Ukraine held the potential for conflict, and in a tweet last week, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani said the U.S. should investigate the matter. But what has received less attention is that at the time Biden made his ultimatum, the probe into the company -- Burisma Holdings, owned by Mykola Zlochevsky -- had been long dormant, according to the former official, Vitaliy Kasko.
There was no pressure from anyone from the U.S. to close cases against Zlochevsky, Kasko said in an interview last week. It was shelved by Ukrainian prosecutors in 2014 and through 2015.
...
Instead, it appears more consistent with Bidens previous statements that he was pressing for the removal of a prosecutor who was failing to tackle rampant corruption: According to public reports and internal documents from the Ukrainian prosecutors office, U.S. officials had expressed concern for more than a year about Ukrainian prosecutors failure to assist an international investigation of Zlochevsky.
But if that was Bidens aim, he was more than a year late, based on a timeline laid out by a former Ukrainian official and in Ukrainian documents.
...
The official described to Bloomberg details about the countrys political dynamic in the run-up to early 2016 when Biden, then the U.S. vice president, threatened to hold up U.S. funding to Ukraine unless it cracked down on corruption. Bidens chief demand was the ouster of a top Ukrainian prosecutor who he said had been ineffective. The episode has come under the spotlight in the last week because at one point, that prosecutor had been investigating a natural gas company where Bidens son, Hunter Biden, sat on the board and received substantial compensation.
Theres little question that the Bidens paths in Ukraine held the potential for conflict, and in a tweet last week, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani said the U.S. should investigate the matter. But what has received less attention is that at the time Biden made his ultimatum, the probe into the company -- Burisma Holdings, owned by Mykola Zlochevsky -- had been long dormant, according to the former official, Vitaliy Kasko.
There was no pressure from anyone from the U.S. to close cases against Zlochevsky, Kasko said in an interview last week. It was shelved by Ukrainian prosecutors in 2014 and through 2015.
...
Instead, it appears more consistent with Bidens previous statements that he was pressing for the removal of a prosecutor who was failing to tackle rampant corruption: According to public reports and internal documents from the Ukrainian prosecutors office, U.S. officials had expressed concern for more than a year about Ukrainian prosecutors failure to assist an international investigation of Zlochevsky.
Biden demanded the ouster of a corrupt ukrainian prosecutor AFTER US officials had lodged complaints about his refusal to crack down and more than one year AFTER the case against the company involving Biden's son had been put on hold.
Rudy "there-is-no-truth" Giuliani is really desperately trying to get something going here.
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Ukraine already declared the supposed Biden-scandal a dud. Giuliani doesn't care. (Original Post)
DetlefK
May 2019
OP
Washington Post-Opinion: Why the alleged Joe Biden "Ukraine conspiracy" doesn't hold up
Gothmog
May 2019
#4
MontanaMama
(23,319 posts)1. Rudy is doing something else in Ukraine, imho.
The Biden scandal thing is a ruse.
spanone
(135,841 posts)2. i'm sure trump ordered this. ...and giuliani obeys
genxlib
(5,528 posts)3. If Biden really wanted to help his son
He could have just given him a job in the White House that he was completely unqualified for and then make sure he got Top Secret clearance even if he was deemed a risk.
Gothmog
(145,291 posts)4. Washington Post-Opinion: Why the alleged Joe Biden "Ukraine conspiracy" doesn't hold up
Link to tweet
The trouble began when right-wing bloggers sought to meld these two points into a single conspiracy in which Joe Biden had the prosecutor sacked to protect his sons business interests. I may be an outsider to the bewildering mess that is Ukrainian politics, but, on this particular issue, I have a genuine insight into what happened, having written extensively about Hunter Bidens ex-employer, Mykola Zlochevsky.
As a result, when journalists seek the fire behind the smoke in the Biden-Ukraine tale, they often call to ask my opinion. Many are eager to flesh out what seems a satisfyingly simple conspiracy, but I have to tell them: It isnt true. The timeline doesnt work. The investigation into Burisma, Hunter Bidens employer, had ground to a halt long before the prosecutor was sacked. A subsequent probe into the companys owner was opened because of a request from Ukrainian legislators, not because of prosecutorial initiative. There is, in short, no there there; the bloggers are putting two and two together and coming up with 22.
Hunter Biden should not have taken the job; Joe Biden should probably not have boasted about bullying the president of another country. But those are judgment matters for them personally, not proof of conspiracy, and certainly not an affair worth destabilizing the fragile democracy of a new U.S. ally.
But that has not stopped Giuliani, who tweeted last week: how deep and how high did the alleged Ukraine conspiracy go? He was responding to a story in the New York Times (the Times apparently not failing on this occasion, since Trump retweeted the papers story), which analyzed the theories around the Bidens Ukraine connection. The article ticked all the journalistic boxes, giving father and son space to deny wrongdoing, but still raised a cloud of smoke for those shouting fire. If a major newspaper devotes 2,500 words to conflict-of-interest questions, then those questions presumably exist. How often do you beat your wife?
As a result, when journalists seek the fire behind the smoke in the Biden-Ukraine tale, they often call to ask my opinion. Many are eager to flesh out what seems a satisfyingly simple conspiracy, but I have to tell them: It isnt true. The timeline doesnt work. The investigation into Burisma, Hunter Bidens employer, had ground to a halt long before the prosecutor was sacked. A subsequent probe into the companys owner was opened because of a request from Ukrainian legislators, not because of prosecutorial initiative. There is, in short, no there there; the bloggers are putting two and two together and coming up with 22.
Hunter Biden should not have taken the job; Joe Biden should probably not have boasted about bullying the president of another country. But those are judgment matters for them personally, not proof of conspiracy, and certainly not an affair worth destabilizing the fragile democracy of a new U.S. ally.
But that has not stopped Giuliani, who tweeted last week: how deep and how high did the alleged Ukraine conspiracy go? He was responding to a story in the New York Times (the Times apparently not failing on this occasion, since Trump retweeted the papers story), which analyzed the theories around the Bidens Ukraine connection. The article ticked all the journalistic boxes, giving father and son space to deny wrongdoing, but still raised a cloud of smoke for those shouting fire. If a major newspaper devotes 2,500 words to conflict-of-interest questions, then those questions presumably exist. How often do you beat your wife?
maxsolomon
(33,345 posts)5. Facts are irrelevant to Republics.
This is going to be Biden's Native American Ancestry scandal.
uponit7771
(90,346 posts)6. K&R, This should be by the minute breaking news story !! Red Don's crew is working with other ...
.. governments to gin up BS about US candidates.
at140
(6,110 posts)7. Facebook rejects Biden request to remove Trump Ukraine ad
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/464970-facebook-rejects-biden-request-to-remove-trump-ad-on-ukraine
Trump knows Biden will beat him like a drum!
Trump knows Biden will beat him like a drum!