Politifact: Hunter's directorship at the Ukrainian gas company posed a conflict of interest for Joe.

[pnwmom]

There is not a bit of evidence that any of Joe's or Obama's actions with regard to the Ukraine were affected by Hunter's relationship with that company.

However, when Hunter took that position it did create an unfortunate conflict of interest, which is making it much easier for the Trump team to muddy the waters now.

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2019/may/07/viral-image/fact-checking-joe-biden-hunter-biden-and-ukraine/

Key takeaways

• Hunter Biden did hold a directorship for a Ukrainian gas company while his father was vice president. Experts agree that Hunter Biden's acceptance of the position created a conflict of interest for his father.

• Vice President Joe Biden did urge Ukraine to fire its top prosecutor, with the threat of withholding U.S. aid. But that was the position of the wider U.S. government, as well as other international institutions.

• We found no evidence to support the idea that Joe Biden advocated with his son's interests in mind, as the message suggests. It's not even clear that the company was actively under investigation or that a change in prosecutors benefited it.

[emulatorloo]

1. From the Intercept: "there is simply no truth to the rumor"

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287288316

https://theintercept.com/2019/05/10/rumors-joe-biden-scandal-ukraine-absolute-nonsense-reformer-says/

A Republican Conspiracy Theory About a Biden-in-Ukraine Scandal Has Gone Mainstream. But It Is Not True.
Robert Mackey
May 10 2019, 4:52 p.m.

In an interview with The Intercept, Daria Kaleniuk, an American-educated lawyer who founded Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Action Center, expressed frustration that two recent front-page stories in the New York Times, on how the conspiracy theory is being used to attack Biden, failed to properly debunk the false accusation. According to Kaleniuk, and a former anti-corruption prosecutor, there is simply no truth to the rumor now spreading like wildfire across the internet.

The accusation is that Biden blackmailed Ukraine’s new leaders into firing the country’s chief prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, to derail an investigation he was leading into a Ukrainian gas company that the vice president’s son, Hunter, was paid to advise.

The truth, Kaleniuk said, is that Shokin was forced from office at Biden’s urging because he had failed to conduct thorough investigations of corruption, and had stifled efforts to investigate embezzlement and misconduct by public officials following the 2014 uprising.

Properly debunking this particular conspiracy theory is easier said than done, though, since it is set in Ukraine, a country with byzantine political intrigue at the best of times, and these are not the best of times. The rivalries between political factions in Kiev are so intense that even the country’s new anti-corruption agencies are at each other’s throats.

[pnwmom]

4. I agree with that particular article, but Glenn Greenwald's The Intercept is not a source

I'd ever want to rely on.

[PhoenixDem]

2. Someone is on an anti-Biden spree n/t

[rickford66]

3. Hunter should have had a golf course or hotel in Ukraine.

[EveHammond13]

5. I think I need to alert this for repeating GOP talking points

[Hoyt]

6. Hope you are right, but I don't see how urging Ukraine to fire

prosecutor who was investigating Biden’s son will not cause a problem.

I’ve been trying to rationalize that since I first heard that this afternoon.

[emulatorloo]

8. See bolded quote from my post above

Of course Republicans will lie. They lie about all Democrats.

Up to Democrats (including us) to put the truth out there about whoever is our eventual nominee.

[Hortensis]

9. He was doing that before Hunter showed up. We were

giving a huge sum of money to Ukraine, and our position had been all along that that person having influence of its disposition was not acceptable.

I didn't know, but Joe Biden from the time he entered politics decided never to own stocks or bonds to avoid the appearance of conflicts of interest. That doesn't say everything, but it should say something.

[Cha]

10. Why the alleged Joe Biden 'Ukraine conspiracy' doesn't hold up

"The investigation into Burisma, Hunter Biden’s employer, had ground to a halt long before the prosecutor was sacked. A subsequent probe into the company’s 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."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/05/08/why-joe-bidens-alleged-ukraine-conspiracy-doesnt-hold-up/

Also crazytown

I just posted this to you on another thread but I think it bears repeating, Hoyt.

[Hoyt]

12. That clearly helps. Biden needs to get that out too because it will

be an issue in this matter.

With all the crud going on in Russia, Ukraine, etc., we need to focus on beating trump on the issues in 2020 and stop searching for a way to get him out of office early.

[Cha]

13. Thanks Hoyt! Hoping trump and

doormats will get impeached for extortion if what they did is proven.

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[treestar]

11. Dotard does not get to say a single thing about it!

With his conflicts of interest, Dotard can STFU!

[Bettie]

14. The thing is that if it really was a conflict of interest

Well, we had a Republican congress at the time. Why did they not open an investigation into it at that time?

They opened investigations into everything else and they weren't shy or coy about it.

[pnwmom]

15. Just taking the position created a conflict of "interest." But there is no evidence

in the case of Hunter and Joe that that conflict was ever illegally or unethically acted upon.

https://access.tufts.edu/conflict-of-interest-and-conflict-of-commitment-policy
A conflict of interest exists when an employee or a family member is in a position to benefit personally, directly or indirectly, from his or her relationship with a person or entity conducting business with the University. All employees have an obligation to avoid conflict, or the appearance of conflict, between their personal interests and the interests of the University and to avoid any situation that affects, or potentially could affect, his or her independent, unbiased judgment in the discharge of his or her duties to the University. An employee should recuse himself or herself from making any decision relating to University business, when the employee is aware of circumstances that might reasonably cause his or her impartiality to be questioned.

To say that one has a conflict of interest does not necessarily mean that the individual involved acted or is expected to act inappropriately. However, if a competing interest exists that creates a conflict of interest concern, certain actions by the individual is required.


https://compliance.ucf.edu/understanding-conflict-of-interest/

A conflict of interest occurs when an individual’s personal interests – family, friendships, financial, or social factors – could compromise his or her judgment, decisions, or actions in the workplace.

[Bettie]

16. My point is actually that the

Republican congress didn't choose to investigate it...even though they investigated everything else.

[pnwmom]

17. Right. Because they knew there wasn't anything there. n/t

[hedda_foil]

18. And it hasn't been taken up since the election either.

[Bidenator]

19. Joe has leverage on both sides of the aisle n/t