After a new joint report on Biden family dealings in Russia and Ukraine was released by the
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee with the Senate Finance Committee, Tim Murtaugh, Trump 2020 communications director had this hot take:
The Senate investigation’s explosive new revelations about the Biden family profiting from Russia, China and other foreign sources while Joe Biden was vice president amount to stunning levels of corruption and breathtaking breaches of America’s national security. While Biden was vice president, his son Hunter received a $3.5 million wire transfer from the billionaire wife of the former mayor of Moscow, individuals who are undoubtedly connected to Vladimir Putin. Chinese nationals also lavished Hunter and other members of the Biden family with money, giving Hunter and Biden’s brother James credit cards for a $100,000 international shopping spree. But the mysterious $142,300 wire transfer from a Kazakhstan businessman through a Latvian bank and a company in Singapore has to take the cake. These bombshells are in addition to new information regarding Hunter’s sweetheart gig on the board of a corrupt Ukrainian gas company that bribed a Ukrainian prosecutor.
Page 17 of this report reveals that Joe Biden flat out lied when he said he had never spoken with Hunter about his foreign business dealings. After a State Department official raised concerns with Vice President Biden about it in the West Wing of the White House, Biden spoke with Hunter about it and Hunter contacted the official.
For what possible reason could all of these foreign countries and entities be shoveling money at people named Biden, if not to influence official U.S. policy? American journalists have a responsibility to relentlessly question Joe Biden about all of this, in detail, and to call out his attempts to cover up this potentially criminal activity. Regardless of whether Biden is forced to face the music, this is further evidence that if Joe Biden wins, China and many other foreign interests with a financial stake in the Biden family win too.
But Mr. Murtaugh was much too polite to highlight some of the report’s most damning revelations.
Other items in the Senate’s long-anticipated report detailing the Biden family’s conflicts of interest include accusations that Hunter Biden paid Eastern European hookers who might have been trafficked.
Hunter Biden, the committees wrote, initiated some transactions that were Russian- and Ukrainian-linked to what “appears to be an Eastern European prostitution or human trafficking ring,” reported The Federalist’s Tristan Justice.
However, our friends at The Conservative Treehouse focused on the potential for blackmail against the Biden family, the former vice-president and the U.S. government if Joe Biden was to remain in public office. The report is damning. Highlights include:
In early 2015 former Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, George Kent raised concerns to officials in Vice President Joe Biden’s office about the perception of a conflict of interest with respect to Hunter Biden’s role on Burisma’s board. Kent’s concerns went unaddressed and in September 2016, he emphasized in an email to his colleagues, “Furthermore, the presence of Hunter Biden on the Burisma board was very awkward for all U.S. officials pushing an anticorruption agenda in Ukraine.”
In October 2015, senior State Department official Amos Hochstein raised concerns with Vice President Biden, as well as with Hunter Biden, that Hunter Biden’s position on Burisma’s board enabled Russian disinformation efforts and risked undermining U.S. policy in Ukraine.
Hunter Biden was serving on Burisma’s board (supposedly consulting on corporate governance and transparency) when Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky allegedly paid a $7 million bribe to officials serving under Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Vitaly Yarema, to “shut the case against Zlochevsky.” George Kent testified that this bribe occurred in December 2014 (seven months after Hunter Biden joined Burisma’s board), and, after learning about it, he and the resident legal adviser reported this allegation to the FBI.
In addition to the over four million dollars paid by Burisma to Hunter Biden and his business partner, Devon Archer, for membership on the board, Hunter, his family, and Archer received millions of dollars from foreign nationals with questionable backgrounds.
Devon Archer received $142,300 from Kenges Rakishev of Kazakhstan, purportedly for a car, the same day Vice President Joe Biden appeared with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arsemy Yasenyuk and addressed Ukrainian legislators in Kyiv regarding Russia’s actions in Crimea.
Hunter Biden received a $3.5 million wire transfer from Elena Baturina. Ms. Baturina is the wife (widow) of the former mayor of Moscow.
Hunter Biden had business associations with Ye Jianming, Gongwen Dong, and other Chinese nationals linked to the Communist government and People’s Liberation Army. Those associations resulted in millions of dollars in questionable transactions.
Hunter Biden opened a bank account with Gongwen Dong that financed a $100,000 global spending spree with James Biden and Sara Biden.
Hunter Biden also moved millions of dollars from his law firm to James Biden’s and Sara Biden’s firm. Upon being questioned about the transaction, Sara Biden refused to provide supporting documentation and information to more clearly explain the activity. The bank subsequently closed the account.
There’s a lot more and The Wall Street Journal’s Kimberly Strassel has plowed through the sections on Joe Biden’s lies about what he knew about Hunter’s corrupt deals – you can read her great Twitter thread through this link.
The key point developed by Ms. Strassel is this:
Joe Biden last year: "I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings." That's pretty definitive, right? Yet according to testimony from former Obama official Amos Hochstein, he briefed Joe on his concerns about Hunter/Burisma in October 2015...
So, Joe Biden was specifically briefed on the U.S. govs concerns about Hunter/Burisma, and he specifically brought up those concerns to his son. How does that comport with "I have never spoken"?? If Joe isn't asked about this at the debate, it will be journalistic malpractice.
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