Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday to request documents that will assist the committee “in answering questions regarding allegations” that former vice president Joe Biden pushed to end a 2016 Ukrainian investigation into Burisma, the gas company which employed his son Hunter.
Graham points out three main facts that, in his view, suggest a possible conflict of interest between official U.S. state policy and Ukrainian investigations into Burisma. Graham claims that Joe Biden “held a series of phone calls with former Ukrainian President Petro Porosehnko regarding previous demands to dismiss Prosecutor General Shokin for alleged corruption,” after which Shokin, who had seized property from Burisma’s founder Mykola Zlochevsky, was fired.
And then there's Rudy and friends, possibly joined by Nunes....
quote:
A lawyer for an indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani tells CNN that his client is willing to tell Congress about meetings the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee had in Vienna last year with a former Ukrainian prosecutor to discuss digging up dirt on Joe Biden.
The attorney, Joseph A. Bondy, represents Lev Parnas, the recently indicted Soviet-born American who worked with Giuliani to push claims of Democratic corruption in Ukraine. Bondy said that Parnas was told directly by the former Ukrainian official that he met last year in Vienna with Rep. Devin Nunes.
"Mr. Parnas learned from former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Victor Shokin that Nunes had met with Shokin in Vienna last December," said Bondy.
Shokin was ousted from his position in 2016 after pressure from Western leaders, including then-vice president Biden, over concerns that Shokin was not pursuing corruption cases.
Bondy tells CNN that his client and Nunes began communicating around the time of the Vienna trip. Parnas says he worked to put Nunes in touch with Ukrainians who could help Nunes dig up dirt on Biden and Democrats in Ukraine, according to Bondy.
That information would likely be of great interest to House Democrats given its overlap with the current impeachment inquiry into President Trump, and could put Nunes in a difficult spot.
Bondy tells CNN his client is willing to comply with a Congressional subpoena for documents and testimony as part of the impeachment inquiry in a manner that would allow him to protect his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.
Bondy suggested in a tweet on Friday that he was already speaking to House Intel though the committee declined to comment.
Giuliani has told CNN previously about his conversations with Shokin and Parnas, saying that this was part of his legal work for his client, President Trump. Parnas' claims about Nunes' alleged involvement offers a new wrinkle and for the first time suggests the efforts to dig up dirt on the Bidens involved a member of Congress.
quote:
Parnas, who was indicted on federal campaign finance charges last month, worked with Shokin and Giuliani to push a pair of unfounded claims: that Ukrainians interfered in the 2016 election on behalf of Democrats, and that Biden was acting corruptly in Ukraine on behalf of his son Hunter, who sat on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings.
According to Bondy, Parnas claims Nunes worked to push similar allegations of Democratic corruption.
"Nunes had told Shokin of the urgent need to launch investigations into Burisma, Joe and Hunter Biden, and any purported Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election," Bondy told CNN.
The problem for him is that this Senate charade highlights the quaint and increasingly cluelessly naive stance Biden continues to take about comity.
Sorry, comity is over. And if Joe becomes president, he will be pushed by the party to crush Lindsey's head (metaphorically) between his hands. And that's what the Democrats should do. Supposing 2020 does not go well for Trump, and the GOP begins to repent of its Trumpism, the appropriate response is to run them over.
If, after this, Joe continues to try to make nice to Graham and other Republicans, "I" won't vote for him. He needs to fight back, strongly.
Posts: 12759 | Location: Williamsburg, VA | Registered: 19 July 2005
Agreed, and in my opinion it can't appear to be punitive. I think Biden (in our fantasy future) could pull that off.
Two random observations:
1. Why hasn't an argument been made against the "it's just politics, quid pro quo happens all the time.." crowd. Because of course diplomatic quid pro quo occurs, but the beneficiaries are the nations. In this instance, the clear beneficiary is NOT the USA, but instead is Individual 1. I suppose the die-hard Trumpers will say that what's good for him is good for the USA, but I still am surprised that the distinction between national and personal gain hasn't been made clearer. Instead, they're fighting over "quid pro quo" vs bribery and blackmail.
2. It's hard not to think about the historical context of the Ukraine v Russia. Russia (in its various flavors) has been dying to take over the Ukraine since at least tsarist times. Russia's always been the big bully. But as big as it is, Russia doesn't have the best shipping routes. Northern options are too cold (though maybe that's why they've not been big on supporting global warming!) and the push to get a port on the Black Sea has been going on for centuries. Add in agriculture and you can see why Russia wants the Ukraine. If the USA is seen as caving on Ukrainian statehood, that would be devastating.
Posts: 35428 | Location: West: North and South! | Registered: 20 April 2005