Some will tell you that the impeachment of Donald J. Trump began on December 18, 2019. That was the official date to be sure. On that day, the House of Representatives approved articles of impeachment for the 45th President of the United States. The calls for impeachment, however, began long before that date. In fact, so long before that date, there were calls to impeach the man before he even secured the Republican nomination. As far back as 2016 (President Trump took office on Jan 2017) people were wondering out loud how quickly a president Trump could be impeached.
Not surprisingly, Hillary Clinton was the odds on favorite for winning the presidency, but still people wondered that if, in the event of a Trump presidency, just how quickly he could be impeached. Law professors wrote law review articles explaining how it could be done. Once Trump – against all odds – won the presidency, the calls for impeachment began in a strangely disingenuous earnestness, even before he was sworn in. In fact, unbeknownst to the country (including Trump), the previous administration was using the FBI to investigate the incoming president over alleged ties to Russia.
The country was aware of the accusations made against Donald Trump and to a much lesser degree the trial and tribulation of General Micheal Flynn (and a few others), but no one really understood how nefarious these investigations were and it took quite some time for the country to come to the realization that there was no evidence of any collusion between Russia and the Trump administration or his campaign. Despite this, much of the mainstream media blared what has now become known as the “Russian collusion hoax” ad nauseum.
While the Russian collusion narrative was in full swing, Representatives Brad Sherman (D. Ca) and Al Green (D. Tx) filed the first article of impeachment on President Trump in July of 2017. They charged the president for obstruction of justice over firing FBI Director James Comey. Congress at that time was controlled by Republican’s in both houses so Sherman and Green’s effort flew over like a lead balloon. By January of 2018 however, the Democrats had gained control of the House.
Sherman and Green reintroduced their article of impeachment as freshman Representative Rashida Tlaib (D. Mi) squealed; “Impeach the motherfucker!” In April of 2019 the Mueller Report investigating the so called “Russian collusion,” was released. Despite the fact it found no evidence of any collusion, Democrats focused on the fact the report did not exonerate the president either. The list of Democrats demanding impeachment only grew. Then the now infamous phone call between Donald Trump and incoming president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky took place.
What Wikipedia mendaciously refers to as “an ongoing political scandal…(revolving) around efforts by Donald Trump to “coerce” Ukraine and other foreign countries” into handing him dirt on Joe Biden might seem like quite the impeachable offense. Indeed, many Trump supporters had to admit that if true it was impeachable. In the end – SPOILER ALERT – Trump was acquitted. If Wikipedia is telling the truth, what went wrong with the impeachment?
The event that sparked the articles of impeachment that finally passed in the House of Representatives was the infamous whistle-blower report that alleged the president had asked the new president of the Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, to investigate Joe Biden. Zelensky was elected president of the Ukraine on the 21st of April, 2019. The following day, President Trump made a brief call to Zelensky congratulating him on his victory. Three days later on April 25th, Joe Biden announced his candidacy for the 2020 presidential election.
The Joe Biden/Ukraine connection goes back to the investigation of Burisma Holdings, an energy company that has operated and profited from natural gas in Kiev, that began in April of 2014. The United Kingdom’s Serious Fraud Office started investigating Burisma for money laundering. At that same time, then Vice-President Biden visited Kiev in what Reuters tells us was a “show of support for the country amid the rising tensions with Russia.” In May of 2014, Burisma Holdings announced they had added the vice-president’s son, Hunter Biden to their board of directors.
Because Hunter Biden had no experience what-so-ever with energy, it’s mining or development, the hiring of him was suspicious enough for George Kent, a State Department official overseeing Ukraine policy, to speak up. He was dismissed by Biden staffers. Interestingly, we are told this by the Washington Post relying on three unnamed sources leaking confidential testimony from a congressional testimony. The story was published on the 18th of October, 2019. By October 31st of that year, of course, the House of Representative’s authorized the impeachment inquiry of Donald J. Trump.
Regarding the question of corruption of Hunter Biden’s position at Burisma and the claims that such allegations had been “discredited,” this “debunking” isn’t readily available. Not just George Kent but, as Trump’s White House trial brief pointed out, Amos Hochstein (special envoy for energy within the Obama Administration) “raised the matter” to Biden. According to the trial brief. Secretary Kent also testified (as noted above) that he too had voiced concerns over Vice President Biden’s office. Also that Kent’s step-son broke business relations with Hunter Biden because of “lack of judgment” in joining Burisma.
On May 14th, 2014 The Washington Post had this to say about Hunter joining Burisma: “The appointment of the vice-presidents son to a Ukrainian oil board looks nepotistic at best, nefarious at worst.” But when the unnamed whistle-blower stepped forward with a complaint over the phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian president Voldymyr Zelenskiy, both Biden (when asked) and the media insisted that the Hunter Biden/Burisma connection had been investigated and no crime was discovered. Then a video of Joe Biden speaking at a Counsel of Foreign Relations event surfaced.
In this video, Vice-President Biden can be seen and heard telling what seems to be an amusing tale to the crowd about how he had used the United States billion dollar loan guarantee as an obvious quid pro quo against then president of the Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko. Joe Biden made it clear to Poroshenko that he wanted then prosecutor Viktor Shokin fired. He also tells the crowd that he made clear that if Poroshenko did not fire Shokin then the U.S. Would withhold the billion dollar loan guaranteed. He told Poroshenko he had six hours to decide.
“Well son of a bitch,” Biden tells the laughing crowd. “He got fired.”
The reason Biden and others give for the calls to fire Shokin was his corruption. They maintained he was stalling the investigation on Burisma. Whether Shokin was stalling that investigation or not it is difficult to parse fact from fiction regarding this matter. However, Shokin was mired in the so-called “diamond prosecutors” scandal that certainly doesn’t make him look good in the face of charges of corruption.
The media in general don’t look any better than Shokin does. On October 3rd, 2019 USA Today, reporting on events surrounding Trumps call to Zelenskiy made this claim: “Burisma Holdings was not under scrutiny at the time Joe Biden called for Shokin’s ouster, according to the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine, an independent agency set up in 2014 that has worked closely with the FBI.”
February of this year (2020) The Washington Post, reporting on story about a Ukrainian court granting Victor Shokin’s request for a probe into Joe Biden’s pressure to have him fired, point out that Shokin’s firing was not “a unilateral action directed by Biden.” That it was prompted by a “push for anti-corruption reforms” apparently coordinated with the European Union and International Monetary Fund. Shokin has maintained since he was fired that he was so because of his efforts to investigate Hunter Biden’s relationship to Burisma Holdings.
“In fact,” The Washington Post reports; “Ukrainian investigations into Burisma related to the period before Hunter Biden joined the board.” While that claim undermines Shokin’s claim, it also undermines the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine’s claim that Burisma was not under scrutiny at the time.
Without any deep dive investigation of Shokin’s alleged corruption, it is worth noting that on February 3rd of 2015, a senior anti-corruption coordinator in the State Department’s European Bureau, George Kent was in the Ukraine. Kent was acting deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv
Whether Shokin was rightly fired for failing to prosecute Burisma or not is an investigative report all on its own. For this report the firing of Shokin at the quid pro quo behest of Joe Biden (representing the Obama administration) does little to explain the suspicious hiring of Hunter Biden by Burisma.
There are conflicting narratives about the alleged corruption of the sate prosecutor of Kiev, Viktor Shokin. In September 23 of 2019, Reuters published a timeline of events regarding the phone call between Ukrainian President Zelinskiy. While Reuters confirms that on December 8th 2015, Biden threatened to withhold loan guarantees until prosecutor Shokin was fired. Reuters also runs with the narrative that Vicktor Shokin was a corrupt prosecutor.
A little more than a year later the UK would drop the case and release the assets of Burisma they froze during the investigation. By September of that same year then U.S. Ambassador, Geoffrey Pyatt accused the Ukrainian prosecutor’s of failing to cooperate with the UK’s investigation.
Mercurial – word of the day
White House says no issue with Biden’s son, Ukraine gas company Reuters May 13th, 2014
The spies who hijacked America
Letter from Ron Johnson (Russia collusion)
Trump, Guiliani, Bidens and Ukrainegate Timeline first published 9/24/2019 updated 1/31/2020 Justice Security V. Geinger, R. Goodman
Ukraine opens probes into Biden after ex-prosecutor Shokin’s court appeals 2/7/2020 Kyiv Post B. Talant
Viktor Shokin: the inside story….
Could Trump be Impeached Shortly After He Takes Office? Politico Apr 17, 2016
“Trump’s deployment of Pence is part of a broader pattern of using both executive authority and high-ranking officials in his administration to advance his personal or political interests – even in cases when those subordinates appear not to know that another agenda is in play.”
Q: How was this any different than Obama sending Biden to use funds as a method of coercing then president to fire prosecutor?
“Without evidence, Trump alleged that Joe Biden used his influence as vice president in 2016 to kill an investigation into the gas company and his son.”
Q: What is the CFR video of Biden bragging about threatening to withhold funds from Ukraine if prosecutor (who was investigating the gas company and Biden’s son) wasn’t fired?
Regarding the question of corruption in terms of Hunter Biden’s position at Burisma and the claims that such allegations had been “discredited,” this discrediting or “debunking” isn’t readily available. In fact, as Trump’s White House trial brief pointed out, Amos Hochstein (special envoy for energy within the Obama Administration) “raised the matter” to Biden. Assistant Secretary Kent also testified that he too had voiced concerns over Vice President Biden’s office. Kent’s step-son broke business relations with Hunter Biden because of “lack of judgment” in joining Burisma. On May 14th, 2014 The Washington Post had this to say about Hunter joining Burisma: “The appointment of the vice-presidents son to a Ukrainian oil board looks nepotistic at best, nefarious at worst.”
On November 20th, 2019 Time Magazine reported on the difficulty Ukrainian authorities have in investigating Burisma because of the Hunter Biden connection and subsequent impeachment of Donald Trump. “As an unintended consequence of the impeachment inquiry, Ukraine has felt the need to treat the company with kid gloves.
“The conversation I had was largely congratulatory, with largely corruption, all of the corruption taking place and largely the fact that we don’t want our people like Vice-President Biden and his son creating to the corruption already in the Ukraine.”
“It’s going to be critical for him to work quickly to repair the damage that Shokin did, and I’m a man of my word. And now that new prosecutor general is in place, we’re ready to move forward to signing that one billion dollar loan guarantee.”
One of the great challenges of this world is to know enough about a subject to think you’re right, but not enough about a subject to know you’re wrong.
One of the great challenges of this world is to know enough about nothing to think you know nothing, but not enough of about nothing to know that’s everything there is to know.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kPINNhHGNw
My legacy status person identifying as he/him family member loves to talk about the days when they had phone books with allow pages. Also talk about McCarthyism when folks were put on a denylist (sounds like denialist only w/ an accent). Man, those days were incoherently checked.
The Great Filter: Humanity’s Final Exam
Hunter Biden’s new job at Ukraine gas company…WaPo article May 14th, 2014
Explainer: Biden, allies pushed Ukrainian prosecutor because he didn’t pursue corruption cases USA Today, Oct 3rd 2019
Ukraine court forces probe into Biden role in firing of prosecutor Vicktor Shokin WaPo Feb 27, 2020.