Thread by @JewhadiTM

The Anti-Trump Whistleblower Story Looks Like Another Phony Scandal pjmedia.com/trending/the-a…

The whistleblower didn't have direct knowledge of the communications, an official briefed on the matter told CNN.

Instead, the whistleblower's concerns came in part from learning information that was not obtained during the course of their work.

Those details have played a role in the administration's determination that the complaint didn't fit the reporting requirements under the intelligence whistleblower law, the official said.

Schow noted, "this is yet another anonymous source giving more context on what another anonymous source told a different outlet, but it still calls the entire story into question."

The original Washington Post story, despite being on the front page, was vague, relying on “two former U.S. officials familiar with the matter” who were “speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly”

And alleged Trump had made a “promise” to a world leader—which, based on what we know right now, is incorrect.

All the reactions to the story since have been based on speculation as to what occurred on the call. Trump's alleged to have pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, offered a quid pro quo... which, according to the Wall Street Journal, there wasn't:

“Mr. Trump didn’t mention a provision of foreign aid to Ukraine on the call, said this person, who didn’t believe Mr. Trump offered the Ukrainian president any quid-pro-quo for his cooperation on an investigation…”

Just like the Russian collusion hoax, there's no evidence of this yet, but that isn't stopping people like @HillaryClinton making her laughable allegation, or others declaring an incident they know nothing about an impeachable offense about Trump.

In March 2012, Barack Obama was caught on a live microphone whispering to then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that he needed Russia to give him space on issues such as missile defense.

He added, "This is my last election, after my election I have more flexibility.” It was on tape, but few in the media cared, some even defended Obama, but generally it was treated as much ado about nothing. As of this moment, all we have is speculation.

So far, all we know is that the whistleblower at the heart of this situation didn't actually overhear anything.

The one thing we do know is that in 2016, Biden successfully pressured then-Ukrainian Pres. Poroshenko to ax the country's top prosecutor who was investigating his son's company, by threatening to withhold $1B in U.S. loan guarantees. Biden even bragged about it.

Yet, @JoeBiden claims he never discussed this with his son, Hunter Biden.

Right.

This whistleblower "scandal" may be another nothingburger for Trump, but it could be a much bigger problem for Joe Biden.

This may get uglier... but maybe for Joe, not for Trump.

Additionally, Ukraine’s FM Prystaiko says “I know what the conversation was about and I think there was no pressure,” Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko told the Hromadske media outlet.

"There was talk, conversations are different, leaders have the right to discuss any problems that exist. This conversation was long, friendly, and it touched on many questions, sometimes requiring serious answers."

Also, the leader said “to the best of his knowledge”, Biden wasn’t mentioned in the phone call.

April, 2019 from @jsolomonReports: Ukrainian to US prosecutors: Why don't you want our evidence on Democrats?
thehill.com/opinion/white-…

Kostiantyn Kulyk, deputy head of the Prosecutor General’s International Legal Cooperation Department, told me he and other senior law enforcement officials tried unsuccessfully since last year to get visas from the U.S. Embassy in Kiev to deliver their evidence to Washington.

“We were supposed to share this information during a working trip to the United States,” Kulyk told me in a wide-ranging interview. “However, the ambassador [Marie Yovanovitch] blocked us from obtaining a visa. She didn’t explicitly deny our visa, but also didn’t give it to us.”

Yovanovitch was also the target of an explosive claim in March by Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko, who alleged she had given him "a list of people whom we should not prosecute" during their first in-person meeting.

One focus of Ukrainian investigators, Kulyk said, has been money spirited unlawfully out of Ukraine and moved to the United States by businessmen friendly to the prior, pro-Russia regime of Viktor Yanukovych.

Ukrainian businessmen “authorized payments for lobbying efforts directed at the U.S. government,” he told me. “In addition, these payments were made from funds that were acquired during the money-laundering operation.”

“We have information that a U.S. company was involved in these payments.” That company is tied to one or more prominent Democrats, Ukrainian officials insist.

In another instance, he said, Ukrainian authorities gathered evidence that money paid to an American Democrat allegedly was hidden by Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) during the 2016 election under pressure from U.S. officials.

“In the course of this investigation, we found that there was a situation during which influence was exerted on the NABU, so that the name of [the American] would not be mentioned,” he said.

But many of the allegations shared with me [Solomon] by more than a half-dozen senior Ukrainian officials are supported by evidence that emerged in recent U.S. court filings and intelligence reports. The Ukrainians told me their evidence includes:

🔴 Sworn statements from two Ukrainian officials admitting that their agency tried to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election in favor of @HillaryClinton. The effort included leaking an alleged ledger showing payments to then-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort;

🔴 Contacts between Democratic figures in Washington and Ukrainian officials that involved passing along dirt on Donald Trump;

🔴Financial records showing a Ukrainian natural gas company routed more than $3 million to American accounts tied to Hunter Biden, younger son of then-Vice President @JoeBiden, who managed U.S.-Ukraine relations for the Obama administration.

Biden’s son served on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas company, Burisma Holdings;

🔴Records that VP @JoeBiden pressured Ukrainian officials in March 2016 to fire the prosecutor who oversaw an investigation of Burisma Holdings...

... AND planned to interview Hunter about the financial transfers;

🔴Correspondence showing members of the State Department and U.S. Embassy in Kiev interfered or applied pressure in criminal cases on Ukrainian soil;

🔴 Disbursements of as much as $7 billion in Ukrainian funds that prosecutors believe may have been misappropriated or taken out of the country, including to the US, and the State Dept and U.S. Embassy in Kiev interfered or applied pressure in criminal cases on Ukrainian soil;