Summary: Will the Democrats bite the apple, impeaching Trump but destroying Biden – and revealing the secret money flows of America’s Empire?
“I would say, ‘Follow the money, Earl, because that’s where it’s going to be.’”
— Henry Peterson testifying at 1974 Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the nomination of Earl J. Silbert to be United States Attorney.
Will the Democrats bite the impeachment apple & destroy Biden?
RussiaGate showed us the Deep State in action, as it came into the light to attack Trump. UkraineGate might reveal even bigger secrets: the money flows that are America’s Empire in action. Client states like Ukraine pay America’s elites in many ways. Hunter Biden’s wages are an unusually blatant example. Now the Democrats must decide if they will destroy Joe Biden to get Trump, and show the public Washington’s deep corruption.
The End of Biden’s Candidacy
By William S. Lind.
Why is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi delaying the transmittal of the articles of impeachment to the Senate? Because she and other Democrats know a Senate trial of President Trump could mean the end of the Democrats’ strongest presidential candidate, Joe Biden’s, quest for the White House.
If Republican Senators show a bit of courage and a modicum of brains, they will turn Trump’s trial into a trial of Joe Biden. Why? Because if President Trump’s request to the President of Ukraine to investigate the Bidens were based on a genuinely corrupt relationship between Joe Biden, his son, and a Ukrainian gas company, then President Trump was only doing his duty in making the request. It isn’t simply a matter of corruption in Ukraine; it would mean corruption in the Obama White House. And corruption in the White House, in a recent presidential administration, is something the American people should know about, especially when the person at the head of the corruption ladder is now a candidate for president.
Was Vice-President Biden engaged in corruption? The evidence is circumstantial but significant. His son was made a member of the board of directors of a Ukrainian natural gas company at extraordinary rates of compensation, $50,000 a month or more, which is far higher than normal remuneration for a board membership. He was given the position despite having no background in or, presumably, knowledge of the oil and gas industry. Why would the company do that? There is only one possible answer: because they thought it would buy them access to the Obama administration, at a very high level.
Did it? What we know is that when the chief prosecutor of Ukraine showed indications he might investigate the gas company for corruption, Vice-President Biden demanded the President of Ukraine fire the prosecutor. More, he threatened to withhold U.S. aid for Ukraine until he did so. How do we know that? Because Biden later bragged about it in a session that was videotaped and we have the tape. Moreover, unlike President Trump’s request to the current President of Ukraine to investigate Biden’s role, Biden’s demand was met and the prosecutor was fired. It seems to me that the prosecutor would make a good witness in President Trump’s trial by the Senate. And the tape showing Biden bragging he got the prosecutor fired should certainly be shown, in a session open to the public and press.
Again, the evidence is circumstantial. Biden himself may or may not have profited by the deal, though his son obviously did. Joe Biden’s mind may be too pure for the thought of nepotism ever to have crossed it. His son may have brought unrecognized qualities to the gas company’s board, say, a particular grace in ass-kissing (always useful in business).
But the possibility that all this may be brought into the very bright light of a trial of a sitting president by the Senate must have serious Democratic politicians such as Pelosi worried. I suspect that if she needs encouragement to block it, Mr. Biden is providing it, frequently and loudly. That is why she is demanding Senate Republicans agree with Democrats on a structure for the trial before she sends over the articles of impeachment (without which President Trump may not have been impeached; Constitutional law scholars are in disagreement on that point).
{See former Federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy’s analysis of this issue.}
That structure will have to make a trial of Joe Biden in the court of public opinion impossible or the articles will not be sent. There is no reason the Senate Republican leadership should agree to the Democrats’ demand. Or is there? It seems a few Republican Senators also had dealings with that Ukrainian gas company. The Senate Majority Leader’s phone may be receiving calls almost as frantic as those Madam Pelosi is probably getting from the Biden campaign.
It is obviously in President Trump’s interest to turn his trial into a trial of Joe Biden. It means the end of Biden’s candidacy and it justifies Mr. Trump’s request to the President of Ukraine. The Democrats will have ended up destroying their own best bet to retake the White House instead of President Trump.
All it takes for this story to unfold is some brains and some guts on the part of the Senate Republican leadership. If a couple of Republican Senators get caught up in it too, well, they are not ones whose loss we should lament. There are only two Republican Senators in that category, Rand Paul and Mike Lee. Neither of them was getting money from Ukrainian gas enterprises.
Posted at Traditional Right on 28 December 2016.
Re-posted with the author’s generous permission.
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Biden boasting about his intervention in Ukraine
See former VP Joe Biden’s comments at the Council on Foreign Relations on 23 January 2018. He neglected to mention that the prosecutor was investigating the blatantly corrupt appearing deal with his son. With that information, this no longer looks heroic, and his observations about corruption in Ukraine hit closer to home than he intended.
“I’m desperately concerned about the backsliding on the part of Kiev in terms of corruption. I’ll give you one concrete example. I was – not I, but it just happened to be that was the assignment I got. I got all the good ones. And so I got Ukraine. And I remember going over, convincing our team, our leaders to – convincing that we should be providing for loan guarantees. And I went over, I guess, the 12th, 13th time to Kiev. And I was supposed to announce that there was another billion-dollar loan guarantee. And I had gotten a commitment from Poroshenko and from Yatsenyuk that they would take action against the state prosecutor. And they didn’t.
“So they said they had – they were walking out to a press conference. I said, nah, I’m not going to – or, we’re not going to give you the billion dollars. They said, you have no authority. You’re not the president. The president said – I said, call him. (Laughter.) I said, I’m telling you, you’re not getting the billion dollars. I said, you’re not getting the billion. I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money. Well, son of a bitch. (Laughter.) He got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time.”
About the author
William S. Lind is director of the American Conservative Center for Public Transportation. He has a Master’s Degree in History from Princeton University in 1971. He worked as a legislative aide for armed services for Senator Robert Taft, Jr., of Ohio from 1973 to 1976 and held a similar position with Senator Gary Hart of Colorado from 1977 to 1986. See his bio at Wikipedia.
Mr. Lind is author of the Maneuver Warfare Handbook
He’s perhaps best known for his articles about the long war, now published as On War: The Collected Columns of William S. Lind 2003-2009
- His posts at TraditionalRight.
- His articles about geopolitics at The American Conservative.
- His articles about transportation at The American Conservative.
For More Information
Ideas! For ideas how to spend your holiday cash, see my recommended books and films at Amazon. Also, see a story about our future: Ultra Violence: Tales from Venus.
Best analysis I have seen of the charges against Trump: “The Articles of Impeachment Are Very Weak” by former Federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy.
Please like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Also see all posts about UkraineGate, about campaign 2020, and especially these posts …
- The amazing Trump-Ukraine-Whistleblower story in a nutshell.
- See behind the impeachment stories to learn about America.
- Welcome to Third World America. Stand by for a coup.
- The Deep State emerges. This will change America forever.
- UkraineGate is logic, perhaps destiny, at work.
New books to help us better understand these events
Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency
Hate Inc.: Why Today’s Media Makes Us Despise One Another
