Godboy
Diamond Member
- Dec 29, 2008
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I suspect this has been beaten to death, but, of late, I still see a number on the right on this forum promulgating the lie that Biden's withholding of loan guarantees to Ukraine was an attempt to prevent the investigation of Burisma, given that Hunter Biden was on the board.
At issue is this video, (link below) which many on the right falsely believe supports this conspiracy theory. But, context is missing. However, even without the context, there is nothing in the video that supports the claim.
I've seen that video a number of times. There is ZERO evidence the video proves that objective had anything to do with Biden attempting to thwart investigation into Burisma. In fact, the evidence proves the OPPOSITE.
Here are the multiple sourced FACTS.
GOP senator says he doesnāt remember signing 2016 letter urging āreformā of Ukraine prosecutorās office
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) told reporters Thursday he did not recall signing a letter urging reforms in the office of the Ukrainian prosecutor President Trump has alleged former Vice President Joe Bā¦thehill.com
āāThe United States, the European Union, the I.M.F., and Ukraineās leading reform figures were all pressing for Viktor Shokin to be removed from office because he was one of the biggest obstacles to fighting corruption in the entire country. This was a bipartisan goal in Congress as well.ā
The withholding of loan guarantees spoken of by Biden in that video was the incentive to get the Poroshenko/Ukrainian Parliament to fire Shokin, the corrupt Ukraine prosecutor, which was the foreign policy of the United States, and the International Monetary Fund with the approval of Democrat and Senate Republicans, at that time.
Why? Because Obama was wary of providing military support to Ukraine, at the time, given the massive corruption in the Country, and SHOKIN was NOT doing his job to fight corruption and naturally Obama didn't want taxpayer funds misappropriated in a corrupt country.
That is precisely the OPPOSITE of the claim.
What, do you (who believe the conspiracy theory) think a man with 30 years in the Senate would be stupid enough to admit to a federal crime on television? If you do, you are unaware of the facts and haven't thought it through.
ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BidenāUkraine_conspiracy_theory
The conspiracy theory alleges that then-Vice President Biden withheld loan guarantees to pressure Ukraine into firing a prosecutor to prevent a corruption investigation into Burisma and to protect his son. The United States did withhold government aid to pressure Ukraine into removing the prosecutor, in accord with the official and bipartisan policy of the federal government of the United States. The US government, along with the European Union, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, believed the prosecutor to be corrupt and ineffective and too lenient in investigating companies and oligarchs, including Burisma and its owner. A January 2018 video shows Biden taking credit for withholding the loan guarantees to have the prosecutor fired, acting to implement bipartisan US policy rather than for the reasons the conspiracy theory alleges.
The inside story of Ukraineās āvery goodā prosecutor at the centre of Trump's latest scandal
Donald Trump said Ukraineās former chief prosecutor was an honest, wronged man, fired after Joe Biden tried to shut down an investigation into his sonās gas company. In Kiev, Oliver Carroll speaks to people who know Viktor Shokin, and finds a different storywww.independent.co.uk
Donald Trump said Ukraineās former chief prosecutor was an honest, wronged man, fired after Joe Biden tried to shut down an investigation into his sonās gas company. In Kiev, Oliver Carroll speaks to people who know Viktor Shokin, and finds a different story
Republicans wanted Shokin removed, as well:
(Even the GOP chairman of the Homeland Security Committee which spearheaded this report, Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, backed the effort to remove Shokin, saying the āwhole worldā agreed he wasnāt doing a good job.)
The inside story of Ukraineās āvery goodā prosecutor at the centre of Trump's latest scandal
Donald Trump said Ukraineās former chief prosecutor was an honest, wronged man, fired after Joe Biden tried to shut down an investigation into his sonās gas company. In Kiev, Oliver Carroll speaks to people who know Viktor Shokin, and finds a different story
Factchecking right wing lies
(Even the GOP chairman of the Homeland Security Committee which spearheaded this report, Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, backed the effort to remove Shokin, saying the āwhole worldā agreed he wasnāt doing a good job.)
TIMELINE -Key dates in the U.S. political controversy over Ukraine
Some Democrats are calling for the impeachment of U.S. President Donald Trump over reports that he asked his Ukrainian counterpart to launch an investigation that could damage his Democratic political rival Joe Biden.www.reuters.com
April 21, 2014: Biden, then vice president, visited Ukraineās capital, Kiev, in a show of support for the countryās government amid rising tensions with Russia.
May 13, 2014: Burisma Group, a private company that has drilled for natural gas in Ukraine since 2002, announced that Hunter Biden would be joining its board. Around that time, Burismaās founder, a former government official named Mykola Zlochevsky, was under investigation for alleged money laundering by Britainās Serious Fraud Office.
Dec. 8, 2015: Biden visited Kiev again and spoke out against bureaucratic corruption that he said was eating Ukraine ālike a cancer.ā Biden threatened to withhold loan guarantees unless Ukraineās top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, who had been widely accused of corruption, was removed.
Shokin had investigated Burisma but the probe was dormant at the time Biden pushed for the prosecutorās termination, Bloomberg reported earlier this year, citing a former Ukrainian official.
March 29, 2016: The Ukrainian Parliament voted to remove Shokin.
Jan. 23, 2018: Biden, at a Council on Foreign Relations event, detailed how he had threatened to withhold funds from Ukraine if Shokin was not removed.
April 2019: Hunter Bidenās term as a Burisma board member expired and he stepped down from the company.
May 16, 2019: Bloomberg quotes Ukraineās current top prosecutor as saying he had no evidence of wrongdoing by Hunter Biden or his father.
We have Hunters laptop (no, im not going to list all the different shit we found in there), we have thousands of shady money transfers which were triggered 150+ "SAR's" by the banks who said it was "money laundering", we have the lies that Joe was caught telling us about never meeting or discussing anything with Hunters partners, we have Joe admitting on live tv that he wouldnt give a Ukraine billion in aid unless they had that prosecutor fired who was investigating Burisma (because he is senile and forgot that he had committed a crime), then we have the partners themselves, starting with Tony Bobulinski who confirmed Joe is "The Big Guy", we have a source at Burisma who says Joe was being bribed by someone whom admitted to personally bribing Joe, and now we have the latest and most devastating news that Devon Archer (Hunters main partner in all this) is in talks with Comer and is about to testify in Congress.
Most glaringly, no one in the Biden family has said a fucking peep about how they earned 20-30 million dollars. If it was legit, why wouldnt they just say "here you go! Here is the evidence that we sold these widgets to earn that money"? Not a fucking peep, despite the embarrassment of being called a criminal on the world stage. No innocent person would do that. No innocent person would laugh when reporters ask questions about being bribed. Innocent people are outraged when they are falsely accused and they aggressively push back on the allegation.
