Month: November 2019

Timeline: Hunter Biden, Burisma and the Trump Ukrainian Scandal

Jon Ponder
Hunter Biden

Key Points: Hunter Biden was appointed to the board of directors of Burisma, a Ukainian energy company, in April 2014. His five-year term ended in April this year.

Burisma was founded in 2002 by Ukrainian oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky. In 2010, Zlochevsky was appointed minister of ecology and finance under newly elected pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovich.

There appears to be an inherent conflict of interest in the appointment of an energy baron to head the Ecology and Finance Ministry, and Zlochevsky and Burisma have been investigated many times over the years for tax violations, money-laundering and self-dealing via the ministry.

In 2016, Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko stated that there was never a hint that either Hunter Biden or Joe Biden did anything wrong in relation to Burisma. He repeated this in a May 16, 2019, interview with Bloomberg News. “Hunter Biden did not violate any Ukrainian laws — at least as of now, we do not see any wrongdoing,” Lutsenko said, “A company can pay however much it wants to its board.”

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Buttigieg’s Record Doesn’t Match His Plan

Buck Banks

3%

The Intercept: “One of the main tenets of Pete Buttigieg’s plan to address racial inequality if he becomes president is a proposal to increase the number of federal contracting dollars going to women- and minority-owned businesses to 25 percent. But in South Bend, Indiana, where he has been mayor since 2012, less than 3 percent of city business has gone to minority- and women-owned businesses in recent years, according to annual audits conducted by the city.”

Starr: Trump Will Be Impeached

Buck Banks

“There will be articles of impeachment. I think we’ve known that, it was just confirmed today. Substantively, what we heard from the chairman just now is: It’s over. We now know — this is his position — we now know that the president in fact committed the crime of bribery.”

— Ken Starr, who headed the investigation that led to Bill Clinton’s impeachment, told Fox News that Ambassador Gordon Sondland’s testimony was a “bombshell” and will lead to President Trump’s impeachment.