By Michael Hernandez
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Two U.S. Senators released an 87-page Hunter Biden, Burisma and Corruption Report on Sept. 23 that has generated diverse and totally different responses from both President Donald Trump and Vice President Joe Biden supporters.
The “Hunter Biden, Burisma and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns” Report was released by U.S. Senator Ron Johnson, R-WI, chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and by U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chair of the Senate Finance Committee.
The report reveals millions of dollars in questionable financial transactions between Hunter Biden (who is the son of Joe Biden) and his associates and foreign individuals, including the wife of the former mayor of Moscow and individuals with ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
Hunter Biden took millions of dollars from Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company with a long-standing reputation for corruption, while his father was vice president and responsible for the Obama administration’s handling of Ukraine policy.
The Report’s 14 Key Findings:
- In early 2015 the former Acting Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, George Kent, raised concerns to officials in Vice President Joe Biden’s office about the perception of a conflict of interest with respect to Hunter Biden’s role on Burisma’s board. Kent’s concerns went unaddressed, and in September 2016, he emphasized in an email to his colleagues, “Furthermore, the presence of Hunter Biden on the Burisma board was very awkward for all U.S. officials pushing an anti-corruption agenda in Ukraine.”
- In October 2015, senior State Department official Amos Hochstein raised concerns with Vice President Biden, as well as with Hunter Biden, that Hunter Biden’s position on Burisma’s board enabled Russian disinformation efforts and risked undermining U.S. policy in Ukraine.
- Although Kent believed that Hunter Biden’s role on Burisma’s board was awkward for all U.S. officials pushing an anti-corruption agenda in Ukraine, the Committees are only aware of two individuals — Kent and former U.S. Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs Amos Hochstein — who raised concerns to Vice President Joe Biden (Hochstein) or his staff (Kent).
- The awkwardness for Obama administration officials continued well past his presidency. Former Secretary of State John Kerry had knowledge of Hunter Biden’s role on the Burisma’s board, but when asked about it at a town hall event in Nashua, N.H. on Dec. 8, 2019, Kerry falsely said, “I had no knowledge about any of that. None. No.” Evidence to the contrary is detailed in the report.
- Former Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland testified that confronting oligarchs would send an anti-corruption message in Ukraine. Kent told the Committees that Zlochevsky was an “odious oligarch.” However, in December 2015, instead of following U.S. objectives of confronting oligarchs, Vice President Biden’s staff advised him to avoid commenting on Zlochevsky and recommended he say, “I’m not going to get into naming names or accusing individuals.”
- Hunter Biden was serving on Burisma’s board (supposedly consulting on corporate governance and transparency) when Zlochevsky allegedly paid a $7 million bribe to officials serving under Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Vitaly Yarema, to “shut the case against Zlochevsky.” Kent testified that this bribe occurred in December 2014 (seven months after Hunter joined Burisma’s board), and, after learning about it, he and the Resident Legal Advisor reported this allegation to the FBI.
- Hunter Biden was a U.S. Secret Service protectee from Jan. 29, 2009 to July 8, 2014. A day before his last trip as a protectee, Time published an article describing Burisma’s ramped up lobbying efforts to U.S. officials and Hunter’s involvement in Burisma’s board. Before ending his protective detail, Hunter Biden received Secret Service protection on trips to multiple foreign locations, including Moscow, Beijing, Doha, Paris, Seoul, Manila, Tokyo, Mexico City, Milan, Florence, Shanghai, Geneva, London, Dublin, Munich, Berlin, Bogota, Abu Dhabi, Nairobi, Hong Kong, Taipei, Buenos Aires, Copenhagen, Johannesburg, Brussels, Madrid, Mumbai and Lake Como.
- Andrii Telizhenko, the Democrats’ personification of Russian disinformation, met with Obama administration officials, including Elisabeth Zentos, a member of Obama’s National Security Council, at least 10 times. A Democrat lobbying firm, Blue Star Strategies, contracted with Telizhenko from 2016 to 2017 and continued to request his assistance as recent as the summer of 2019. A recent news article detailed other extensive contacts between Telizhenko and Obama administration officials.
- In addition to the over $4 million paid by Burisma for Hunter Biden’s and Archer’s board memberships, Hunter Biden, his family, and Archer received millions of dollars from foreign nationals with questionable backgrounds.
- Archer received $142,300 from Kenges Rakishev of Kazakhstan, purportedly for a car, the same day Vice President Joe Biden appeared with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arsemy Yasenyuk and addressed Ukrainian legislators in Kyiv regarding Russia’s actions in Crimea.
- Hunter Biden received a $3.5 million wire transfer from Elena Baturina, the wife of the former mayor of Moscow.
- Hunter Biden opened a bank account with Gongwen Dong to fund a $100,000 global spending spree with James Biden and Sara Biden.
- Hunter Biden had business associations with Ye Jianming, Gongwen Dong, and other Chinese nationals linked to the Communist government and the People’s Liberation Army. Those associations resulted in millions of dollars in cash flow.
- Hunter Biden paid nonresident women who were nationals of Russia or other Eastern European countries and who appear to be linked to an “Eastern European prostitution or human trafficking ring.”
(Editor’s Note: To read the entire text of the 87-page Hunter Biden Corruption Report: https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/HSGAC_Finance_Report_FINAL.pdf.)
“Hunter Biden’s position on Burisma’s board cast a shadow over the work of those (Obama-era officials) advancing anti-corruption reforms in Ukraine,” said the Report. Hunter worked for Burisma between April 2014 and April 2019 for a lucrative salary of tens of thousands a month.
“Moreover, this investigation has illustrated the extent to which officials within the Obama administration ignored the glaring warning signs when the vice president’s son joined the board of a company owned by a corrupt Ukrainian oligarch” said the Report.
Hunter Biden’s attorney George Mesires, told the Washington Post the report “falsely alleges” that Hunter Biden had a financial relationship with Russian businesswoman Yelena Baturina and that he received $3.5 million from Baturina.
Hunter Biden’s role on the board of Burisma and his business dealings emerged during President Trump’s impeachment inquiry in 2019 which was a result of a July 25, 2019 phone call between the U.S. President and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
During that conversation, President Trump sought to understand Joe Biden’s role in pressing for the ouster of the Ukrainian prosecutor who had been investigating the founder of Burisma.
Vice President Joe Biden had bragged on U.S. television that the prosecutor had been “let go” because of the pressure he exerted on Ukraine to do so in order to receive one billion dollars in U.S. loan guarantees. (Editor’s Note: To see Vice President Joe Biden claiming how he influenced Ukrainian authorities go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXA–dj2-CY.)
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) slammed the probe into Hunter Biden’s role on the board of Burisma Holdings as a “political exercise.” Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign said the Senate Republicans’ probe was based on “a long-disproven, hard-core right-wing conspiracy theory.”
Meanwhile, U.S. Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) released a 56-page report countering the “Hunter Biden, Burisma and Corruption” Report as partisan. (Editor’s Note: To see the Democrats report go to: https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/200923_FullReport_PetersHSGACWydenFinance.pdf
Michael Hernandez, Co-Founder of the Citizens Journal—Ventura County’s online news service; editor of the History Makers Report and founder of History Makers International—a community nonprofit serving youth and families in Ventura County, is a former Southern California daily newspaper journalist and religion and news editor. He worked 25 years as a middle school teacher in Monrovia and Los Angeles Unified School Districts. Mr. Hernandez can be contacted by email at [email protected].
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Wonder why the Republican led Senate committee didn’t act on this. Are they the Deep State?
Its hard to bel;ieve that this who they want running the country’
Joe Biden and his son hunter are very corrupted, how can some people even cosider to vote for a corrupted guy for POTUS? hope they wake up and reconsider how they vote, specially if the voters call them selves christians, they can’t be christians and support democrats that are killing so may millions of unborn babies by abortion.
It pays to be the son of the vice president in the obumer administration.
So, basically Hunter is Joe’s front man for his whitewashing operation…
Sorta like Hillary’s off-the-network server, so she could coordinate HER family’s foundation quid pro quo dealings without having the government backups record the communications…
Face it, the Democrats are running their own private deals to enrich themselves, opening themselves up to blackmail and whatever nefarious issues can crop up from dirty deals gone bad….