The Senate Investigation of Hunter Biden

by J Michael Waller via Threadreader

1) The Senate investigation of Hunter Biden was about how foreign corruption influenced American national security. @JoeBiden surrogates are spinning it as an unfair attack on a relative.

Let's pick through the @RonJohnsonWI-@ChuckGrassley
report: hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/…

2) Timeline after the mass protests in Ukraine that ousted pro-Russian President Viktor Yanokovych on February 21, 2014:

"Less than two months later, over the span of only 28 days, significant events involving the Bidens unfolded..."

3 "On April 26 2014, Vice President Biden met with his son's business partner, Devon Archer, at the White House. Five days later, Vice President Biden visited Ukraine, & he soon afterward was described in the press as the 'public face of the administration's handling of Ukraine." 

4) "The day after his visit, on April 22, Archer joined the board of Burisma.

"Six days later, on April 28, British officials seized $23 million from the London bank accounts of Burisma's owner...

"Fourteen days later, on May 12, Hunter Biden joined the board of Burisma..." 

5) "... and over the course of the next several years, Hunter Biden and Devon Archer were paid millions of dollars from a corrupt Ukrainian oligarch for their participation on the board."

Meanwhile, the Obama admin gave China "control" via Biden-Archer of a US defense company. 

6) Biden backers branded the probe as "Russian disinformation":

"This is a good-government oversight investigation that relies on documents and testimony from US agencies and officials, not a Russian disinformation campaign, as our Democratic colleagues have falsely stated." 

7) Obama and Biden knew.

"What the Chairmen discovered during the course of this investigation is that the Obama administration knew that Hunter Biden’s position on Burisma’s board was problematic and did interfere in the efficient execution of policy with respect to Ukraine." 

8) "Moreover, this investigation has illustrated the extent to which officials within the Obama administration ignored the glaring warning signs when the vice president’s son joined the board of a company owned by a corrupt Ukrainian oligarch...." 

9) "And, as will be discussed in later sections, Hunter Biden was not the only Biden who cashed in on Joe Biden’s vice presidency." 

10) The Senate Investigation's "key findings" about the influence op aimed at @JoeBiden:

Early 2015: A career foreign service officer, George Kent [a Never Trumper], "raised concerns to officials in Vice President Joe Biden’s office. . . ." 

11) "...about the perception of a conflict of interest with respect to Hunter Biden’s role on Burisma’s board. Kent’s concerns went unaddressed ...." 

12) "... 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 US officials pushing an anticorruption agenda in Ukraine.'" 

13 @JoeBiden disinformation warning:

Oct 2015: State Dept 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 & risked undermining US policy in Ukraine."

14) Senate investigators found that former secretary of state John Kerry knew about his stepson's involvement with Hunter Biden and Burisma, but lied about it.

15) Top State Department expert on Ukraine called Burisma owner an "odious oligarch," and in December 2015, @JoeBiden's staff told him to quit talking about him.

16) Hunter Biden served on Burisma board, "supposedly consulting on corporate governance and transparency," when Burisma allegedly paid millions in bribes to shut down a case against the company's owner. State Department official reported case to FBI.

17) Hunter Biden ended his five-year, worldwide Secret Service protective security detail the day after Time published an article about him being on Burisma's board while Burisma was running influence operations.

18) The Obama-@JoeBiden team was fine with Andrii Telizhenko, a former Ukrainian diplomat, meeting with him often until he spilled the beans about Burisma corruption.

They then vilified him as a Russian agent and spreader of Kremlin disinformation. @AndriyUkraineTe

19) Hunter Biden took cash from many foreign nationals of questionably-gained wealth to gain influence with @JoeBiden. One was the wife of the former mayor of Moscow. (USA Today's @dstanglin and others leapt on this to discredit it as "unproven," but we'll see soon.)

20) HUMAN TRAFFICKING: Before the @nypost ran its story, Senate investigators found questionable and criminal networks connections from Eastern Europe and Communist China to influence US foreign policy via the Bidens.

Twitter is now branding these two posts on this thread as "offensive content."

These two replies to this thread are also "offensive content," according to the Twitterniks.

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