Thread by @kurteichenwald

1. It is very rare that I criticize a reporter by name. However, the recklessness and poor reporting of @kenvogel - and his "we're going to keep pulling back the Biden story" garbage requires pointing out the abject poverty of his "reporting" and his attempts to take a few...

@kenvogel 2...facts strung together to suggest scandal where none exists - all compelled by his failure to know or report on the circumstances in Ukraine from 2015-2016. Maybe, Ken, start talking to foreign affairs folks rather than politicos.

So, here we go....

@kenvogel 3...the entirety of the BS Biden "scandal" pertains to the firing of Viktor Shokin, Ukraine’s former prosecutor general, who was sacked by a vote of Parliament.

Why was Shokin fired? Did it all have to do with Biden's telling Ukraine - at the instruction of Obama - that the...

@kenvogel 4...prosecutor general must go to get American money? Nope.

Ukraine was a uniquely corrupt nation, and - under international pressure - had begun an attempt to clean itself up. However, Shokin was standing directly in the way of that getting done....

@kenvogel 5...as a result, government officials committed to reform - including Economic Minister Abramavicius and Deputy General Prosecutor Vitaliy Kasko - resigned in protest. Kasko was Shokin's second in command. In his resignation, Kasko said this on a nationally televised statement:

@kenvogel 6...when he says "foreign investment" he is NOT talking about the United States government. He is talking about foreign investors, who had specifically been stating that they would not put money into Ukraine until it attacked corruption.

Just foreign investors? Nope....

@kenvogel 7...the blocking of corruption reforms by Shokin was leading to across the board condemnation and refusal of foreign entities to provide money to Ukraine. These included the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the United States.....

@kenvogel 8...that excerpt was from a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the testimony of John E. Herbst, US Ambassador to Ukraine under GW. Bush. So Ken, was he also covering up for Biden? Was the EU? The IMF? Foreign investors? Parliament? Hell of a conspiracy...

@kenvogel 9...Oh, and other senators too. How about Senator Cardin from Maryland who said this at the hearing - BEFORE Parliament accepted the resignation of Shokin. Was he part of the "conspiracy" too?....

@kenvogel 10...time sequence is also important. So, presumably, in the "conspiracy" laid out by Ken et. al., Biden rushed in to protect his son, independently called for the resignation go Shokin, fearful, Ukraine folded and Biden saved his kid.

Complete. Utter. BS.....

@kenvogel 11...Shokin did NOTHING in response to Biden's statement. And Biden's statement came AFTER those of the IMF and foreign investors. Once again, let's go to Herbst, the ambassador to Ukraine under GW Bush, who gives the correct timeline....

@kenvogel 12...the Shokin resignation followed the national scandal that exploded with the resignations of Abromavicius and Kasko. Their resignations were an announcement to the world that the anti-corruption actions required by the IMF, EU, US and foreign investors were being stymied....

@kenvogel 13....THAT is what led to the Shokin resignation. Not anything Biden said. Not anything EU or IMF said. Not anything the US said BEFORE Biden said anything. Not what foreign investors said. It was the fact that Ukraine government realized they would never be able to....

@kenvogel 14...survive now that the corruption of Shokin had been laid bare.

To read a little bit about this in congressional hearings, go here:

foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/…

@kenvogel 15...But let's dig in a little deeper. What made Shokin so corrupt? The main thing was keeping the corrupt prosecutors in place nationwide. in 2015, a prosecutorial restructuring was supposed to have begun. That was pushed off to 2016. Shokin rigged the selection committee with..

@kenvogel 16...four of his own supporters, against three from parliament. The result? Duh... The idea was to bring in fresh blood, people who were not part of the previous prosecutors division. But only 3% of hired were outsiders. The rest? Shokin's stooges....

@kenvogel 17...this is why the Atlantic Council (a global think tank composed of experts on foreign affairs) used this headline in a piece about corruption in Ukraine. Here is the full report:

atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainea…

@kenvogel 18...But let's not end there. How about the European Parliament? What did they say happen? Here are their. words:

"The Rada voted to remove Prosecutor General, Viktor Shokin, in March 2016, after Western donors condemned his failure to prosecute open cases of corruption"...

@kenvogel 19...once again, those Western donors are the foreign investors. Then there is also the EU, the IMF and the United States. Here is the full report from the European Parliament....

europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes…

@kenvogel 20...so, maybe all of this - even though the timeline makes no sense - is some sort of double-reverse, three-dimensional mass conspiracy involving Europe, IMF, foreign investors et. al. who are all set to protect Biden's son.

So, the question. How do we know there was an...

@kenvogel 21...investigation of the company on which Biden's son served as a director? Because SHOKIN - who first said the investigation was over, reversed himself after he was out of office and said there was one. Yes, the Republicans (and Ken) are relying on the man who is so corrupt....

@kenvogel 22...that he was forced out by the IMF, EU et al as their sole source that such an investigation was underway.

So, you would think that, if that was a lie, someone would step forward and say "Shokin is lying." AND GUESS WHAT? Kasko - the anti-corruption deputy prosecutor whose..

@kenvogel 23...resignation helped push the sacking of Shokin, has come public and denied what Shokin said. His words:
“There was no pressure from anyone from the U.S. to close cases against Zlochevsky. It was shelved by Ukrainian prosecutors.” (Zlochevsky is the company.)....

@kenvogel 24...notice: My reporting was based on WHAT HAPPENED IN UKRAINE, not on playing Sherlock Holmes using a series of misstated points for the purpose of concluding "questions raised."

It is the utter conceit of US media and politicians that everything in the world is about us...

@kenvogel 25...it is not. In this case, it was about a global campaign against the corruption in Ukraine - a corruption which, if it had not been addressed, would have certainly led them to open a criminal investigation of the company under Trump's pressure. But Ukraine has a reform...

@kenvogel 26...minded leader, and he is not going to place all of the country's international investment and support from EU and IMF at risk simply to satisfy Trump. He has seen corruption, and would recognize it for what it is.

So, yah, Ken - start following the timeline of events....

@kenvogel 27...stop leaving out the global context in which everything was happening, stop resting your conspiracy theory on the word of a corrupt prosecutor while ignoring the one who resigned to combat corruption. And explain - if Biden's public pressure against Shokin was decisive....

@kenvogel 28...why nothing happened in response, why Shokin stayed in office until the resignations, why the EU and IMF and foreign investors are irrelevant, and all of this rests on the back of one guy who is a director of a company.

Your argument is utter foolishness.

@kenvogel 29...clarifying edit so the bullet-proof nature of this is clear:

Kasko said the Zlochevsky investigation was closed by prosecutors in 2014 through early 2015. Biden made his statement a year later.

@kenvogel Typing too fast. Zlochesky is the founder of the company, the company is Burisma.