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...
First, total basics:
1. There was *never* a Hunter Biden investigation to stop.
2. There was *never* a Joe Biden investigation...
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....
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...
...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...
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....
g. None of these people had direct backgrounds in oil and gas, common in board of directors...
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....
...& 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..
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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....
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...
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...
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....
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...
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…
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.
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....
...the Trump Zelensky call takes place on July 25, 2019. Trump urges zelensky to investigate...
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...
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..
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