Thread by @kurteichenwald

Retweet to your favorite reporter.

1. One of the most frustrating things about the so-called Biden scandal and the @GOP and @RudyGiuliani endless lying is that reporters know its false, but stllil them get away with falsehoods that can destabilize Ukraine. So, a primer...

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 2....let's start with the overview, mentioned above. These GOPrs are either incredibly stupid or are willing to destabilize a nation fighting Russia for the sole purpose of creating talking points. It is no coincidence that they are picking up Russian propaganda - knowingly or...

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 3...unknowingly, lying about basic facts in their endless efforts to change the subject or deceive their gullible believers.

First, total basics:

1. There was *never* a Hunter Biden investigation to stop.
2. There was *never* a Joe Biden investigation...

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 4...

c. There was *never* an Burisma investigation.
d. There *was* an investigation of Mykola Zlochevsky, the founder of Burisma, for tax fraud and money laundering....

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 5...

e. The Zlochevsky investigation did touch on his Brociti Investments Limited, a Cypriot-based investment fund that had as one of its assets Burisma, as well as other holdings.
f. However, the primary element of the investigation was allegation that, when he was...

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 6.

...when he was a government official - 12th Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources from 2010-2012 - he accepted bribes which he did not pay the taxes on and laundered through Brociti. He fled the country in 2014, even though the investigation was dormant, because...

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 7...

the Ukrainian Revolution of that year that took place to combat government corruption, was placing every government or former government official accused of wrongdoing - as well as oligarchs - at risk....

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 8...it was AFTER the revolution that several foreign officials were invited to join the Burma board as a public sign that it was prepared to run things honestly. Those people were Aleksander Kwaśniewski, former President of Poland, Cofer Black, fomrer Director of the CIA...

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 9. ...Counterterrorist Center & Ambassador at Large for counter-terrorism, both under the George W. Bush Administration. The third foreign person named to the board was Hunter Biden.

g. None of these people had direct backgrounds in oil and gas, common in board of directors...

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 10.

h. Hunter was selected for a simply reason, which also explained the pay. He was a lawyer with Boies Schiller Flexner, the American law firm founded by prominent lawyer David Boies. Bodies Schiller had been hired as Burisma's lawyers....

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 11...

...& Boies Schiller selected him to handle the client and be on the board so there was somebody there who understood corporate compliance.
i. Summing up the Hunter part, he was never investigated, the company was never investigated, he was there as part of the law firm..

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 12...

j....which in turn was being paid a $50,000 monthly retainer. Firms like Boies Schiller charge $500-1000 an hour for corporate representation. That means the retainer covered about 50 hours of week per month - hardly unusual for a major corporate client...

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 13...

k. This, however, is the least important part of the lies b y @RudyGiuliani and the @GOP, and the ones least likely to have a destabilizing impact on Ukraine. So, onto the next section:

l. Ukraine was struggling on reform to fight corruption from 2014-2016 (things are...

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 14...

better now. But the circumstances there were very much a powder keg, and months after the uprising of Ukranian fighting against corruption, Russia invaded Crimea - in part BECAUSE the revolution to fight corruption was threatening the officials supported by Russia...

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 15...

in other words, the fight against corruption was simultaneously a fight against Russian influence in Ukraine.
m. Now, so as not to confuse, the 2014 uprising followed another in 2013 in Kyiv. So read this from Congressional Research Service in 2017 to get...

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 16...

a sense of where things stood. See attached.

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 17...

n. One of the primary blockers of progress in fighting corruption was the new hero of the GOP, Victor Shokin. Again, the Congressional Research Service, referring to statements by Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland...

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 18..

o. The pressure on Shokin to resign because of his obstruction of anti-corruption reforms was a huge issue inside Ukraine. Here is the cover headline on a Kiev law journal BEFORE Biden said a word....

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 19...

p. The huge pressure to fire Shokin was initially coming from members of the Ukranian Parliament, - again, BEFORE Biden said a word - particularly pro-reform Yegor Sobolev. A little bit about that in Ukranian law journal attached...

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 20...

q. Now, Biden speaks in December 2015. And...nothing happens. The United States was withholding $1 billion in loan guarantees, just as the EU was withholding money as were foreign investors, because reform which was essential for stabilizing government against Russian...

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 21...

r...interference was being primarily blocked by the Prosecutor General - equivalent of our Attorney General.
s. Now, watch what happens. It is February, 2016:
t. On February 4, 2016 - two months after Biden spoke, Ukraine's Economic Minister, Abromavičius, resigned....

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 22...saying that Ukraine - despite its commitments to reform - was suffering from ingrained corruption.
u. Abromavičius was a key player for the west in terms of trust for fighting corruption, and his resignation was a huge blow to that effort...

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 23...

v. As a result, SIX DAYS later, on 2/10/2016, the International Monetary Fund announced that it was prepared to withhold not $1 billion in loan guarantees, but $40 BILLION in cash appropriated for Ukraine... theguardian.com/world/2016/feb…

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 24...

w. Five days later, in a nationally televised address, Deputy PG Vitaly Kasko - Shokin's second in command - resigns, saying that Shokin is blocking anti-corruption reforms....
x. THE NEXT DAY, Shokin resigns.

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 25...

y. So let's follow the logic of delusional @RudyGiuliani. In December, 2015, Biden says that the US will block $1 billion in loan guarantees unless the person blocking corruption reforms - Shokin - is gone. He follows the same demands from the EU and foreign investors....

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 26....and as a result nothing happens. Then, months later, the respected Economics Minister resigns saying it is impossible to fight corruption, and cites the Prosecutor General's office. In response, the IMF - six days later - says it is going to withhold $48 billion....

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 27..unless the corruption is ended. Five days after that, the deputy Prosecutor General resigns, saying that Shokin is corrupt and blocking anti-corruption efforts. Shaken resigns the next day. But in the @RudyGiuliani @GOP world, none of that matters. It's not the $48 billion...

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 28...or the EU, or the western investors, or the resignations, or the public calls for his resignation, or the condemnation by Ukranian lawyers that leads to Shokin's resignation, it's all just Joe Biden, who months before the resignation joined in the criticism. And all of...

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 29...@RudyGiuliani proclaims, is for a criminal investigation of Huntrer Biden that does not exist. How do we know? The timeline of events, the statements of Yuriy Lutsenko, the prosecutor general and longtime member of the prosecutor general's office, and frigging logic. How...

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 30...in the name of God does a criminal investigation of a man for allegedly taking bribes as a public official in 2012 have ANYTHING to do with members of the board of directors named in 2014 to a company owned by an investment fund of the guy alleged to have taken bribes?...

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 31...here is their evidence, and one more serious problem. Their source is Viktor Shokin, the scummy son of a bitch whose corruption ran so deeply that senior Ukranian officials resigned, his deputy resigned, the IMF proclaimed it would withhold $48 billion, the EU withheld $...

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 32...and on and on. What @RudyGiuliani and @GOP are doing to advance frigging talking points is to rehabilitate Viktor Shokin, a man whose corruption was endangering Ukraine's ability to have a stable government that could withstand Russian interventions. It would be as if...

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 33...Britain came in after Nixon forced to resign and proclaim him to be the most honest, ethical person in government. Now, create a scenario where the American government is unstable, & dependent on British support. Nixon could stage a comeback, just like Shokin could do now...

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 33...now, one final thing, which I have nothing to support but is curious. I also am not implicating Ruslan Riaboshapka, the current prosecutor general in anything. But....

...the Trump Zelensky call takes place on July 25, 2019. Trump urges zelensky to investigate...

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 34...the DNC servers nonsense and Joe Biden. Yuriy Lutsenko, named to replace Shokin, has already publicly stated that there is nothing about Biden and the investigation of the guy who runs the fund that owns Burma on which Hunter serves as a director is long over....

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 35...so, Trump is pushing Zelensky to investigate Biden, and Lutsenko is stating there was never a Biden investigation.

35 days after the Trump phone call, Lutsenko is removed from office and replaced by Ruslan Riaboshapka. Again, Riaboshapka has a good rep and I am just...

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 36...intrigued by the timing.

Bottom line: Reporters - know basic facts of Ukraine from 2012-2016. Know about timing of events before Shokin's resignation. And overtime @RudyGiuliani et al spew their nonsense, ask them arent the supporting the man deemed corrupt by Ukraine gov..

@GOP @RudyGiuliani 37...the IMF, EU etc. And shove in Rudy's face -

6 days. 6 days between IMF saying they will withhold $48 billion and Shokin's resign.

1 day. 1 day between Shokin's deputy made a national broadcast calling Shokin corrupt and his resign.

And then tell them to shut up.

fin