Seven years ago, the DNC email leak set Russiagate in motion. Now comes FD–1023, an F.B.I. document exposing Biden making fully corrupt use of Washington’s leverage in post-coup Ukraine.
Jan. 16, 2017: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden traveling to Kiev. (U.S. Embassy Kyiv, Flickr)
By Patrick Lawrence
Original to ScheerPost
Let us cast our minds back just briefly to the very fine afternoon of July 22, 2016.
It was an especially bright Friday, as you may recall, because WikiLeaks released a lot of Democratic Party emails that day, so shining a light worthy of a night game at Yankee Stadium on the party’s corrupt machinations to destroy Bernie Sanders’ presidential bid in the service of the first Goldwater Democrat, the ever-endearing Hillary Clinton. Pause a moment to summon the time.
Now recall the following Sunday, July 24, when Robbie Mook, Clinton’s campaign manager, appeared back-to-back on the Sunday morning news programs to proclaim that never-named “experts” had never-shown “evidence” that it was the Rrrrrrussians who pilfered the mail and gave it to Julian Assange’s operation.
What is more, Mook claimed that the experts, in a matter of 48 hours, were able to detect intent: The Russians had acted in behalf of Donald Trump’s campaign. Nothing was said, and very little subsequently, of the embarrassing contents of the mail Democrats accused Russians of stealing.
It was the singer, not the song. So were Americans guided to think about what turned out to be an internal leak, not a hack by the Russians or anyone else.
Myself, I was apoplectic, and shortly thereafter made this clear in print, as I watched the puerile Mook unroll this rubbish to the nodding assent of various television hacks.
Never mind what was in the mail: How the mail got where it got was the determinant. Atop this was the implicit assertion, yet more insidious, that the truth has some kind of brand. If the Russians have anything to do with it, whatever was true could not be true. The obverse also held, supposedly: If the Democrats say something is so, it is so.
When we finish with our recollections we ought to devote another moment to the psychological implications of Mook’s propaganda pirouette that fateful weekend, when the Democrats pulled the lever to dump five years of Russiagate garbage upon us.
Robby Mook addresses team meeting of Hillary Clinton’s election campaign, April 2016. (Nat Welch, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0)
I see in those few days the seeds of a thought-control operation that, as we have it all these years later, is undermining our republic as surely as the more visible varieties of corruption, notably but not only the politicized abuse of the Justice Department and its law-enforcement appendages.
The one goes with the other: The perversion of public institutions in broad daylight requires that our thoughts are managed such that we cannot see or understand these perversions as they occur.
It was seven years ago last week that the damaging leak of the Democrats’ email set Russiagate in motion.
Another Big One
My mind went back to those first Russiagate days last Thursday, when the tabloid that reported the Hunter Biden computer story just before the 2020 election dropped another in a series of big ones on us. “Biden $10M bribe file released: Burisma chief said he was ‘coerced’ to pay Joe, ‘stupid’ Hunter in bombshell allegations” was the headline on this latest New York Post piece.
Whatever you were doing before picking up the paper, you had to stop long enough to read this one. I did.
You will recall the recent kerfuffle on Capitol Hill, when F.B.I. Director Christopher Wray refused to give the House Oversight Committee an agency file containing allegations that President Biden and Hunter were indeed on the take from Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company, during Joe’s time as Barack Obama’s veep and bearer of the Ukraine portfolio.
Wray capitulated when threatened with contempt of Congress, and it was this file Chuck Grassley, the Republican senator from Iowa, made public Thursday. Just when you think la famille Biden couldn’t get any filthier, la famille Biden turns out to be filthier.
Christopher Wray with his wife Helen swearing in as F.B.I. director in 2017. (FBI, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
We already knew V–P Biden intervened back in 2016, when Viktor Shokin, the prosecutor general, was at the front end of an official investigation into corruption at Burisma. Hunter was by then taking home $50,000 a month —the Post says $83,000 — for sitting on Burisma’s board and doing nothing other than being his father’s son.
Joe stepped in to get Shokin fired — alleging, perversely, that Shokin had to go because he was corrupt. This was in 2016, when Joe was recorded in that infamous video bragging, at the Council on Foreign Relations no less, that he threatened to withhold $5 billion in U.S. aid if Shokin wasn’t removed. “And, son of a bitch, they fired him,” was Joe’s punchline on that occasion.
So in 2018,Joe Biden was boasting about using a billion-dollar loan agreement with Ukraine as leverage to get a prosecutor fired as he was investigating corruption at Burisma.
Burisma the Ukrainian energy company where Hunter Biden was a director…. ?#MikePence#JoeBiden… pic.twitter.com/35w9RS5EJw
— Richard (@ricwe123) July 28, 2023
The just-released document now tells us pretty precisely what happened when the son of a bitch serving as Obama’s point man in Kiev made full use — fully corrupt use, I mean — of Washington’s leverage in post-coup Ukraine.
By February 2016 Shokin had warrants enabling him to seize Mykola Zlochevsky’s apparently extensive property holdings in Kiev. Zlochevsky, the corrupt jillionaire who founded Burisma Holdings in 2002, indeed wanted Shokin off his back and out of his books.
He went to Hunter with this project, whereupon Hunter did his job and went to Pop. Whereupon they both let it be known — both, got it? — that getting the job done would cost Zlochevsky $10 million, $5 million apiece for Biden père et fils. Biden arrived in Kiev in March 2016, a month after Shokin got his warrants to go after Zlochevsky’s real estate. Shokin was dismissed on March 29.
Shokin in February 2015 in a YouTube still from STRC Ukrainian TV and radio broadcasting, Pulse News 10, Feb. 10, 2015.) (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0)
Zlochevsky — who, being a Ukrainian oligarch, seems to have been at ease discussing his own corruptions — related all this to an F.B.I. informant who had worked for the agency for more than a decade and earned, in addition to six figures in fees, an excellent reputation for reliability.
The informant met or spoke by telephone with Zlochevsky on four occasions beginning in late 2015 or early 2016 and running through 2019. Some of these encounters occurred near Kiev; at least one took place at a Vienna coffeehouse.
It was during the latter exchange, in 2016, that Zlochevsky told the F.B.I. informant, “It cost 5 [million] to pay one Biden, and 5 [million] to another Biden,” as this conversation is recorded in the F.B.I. file, which is designated FD–1023 and which, everything it reveals notwithstanding, contains redacted passages.
FD–1023 is rich with evidently authentic reporting from the agency’s informant. Describing the 2016 encounter in Vienna, the file quotes the informant thusly:
“Zlochevsky made some comment that although Hunter Biden ‘was stupid, and his (Zlochevsky’s) dog was smarter,’ Zlochevsky needed to keep Hunter Biden (on Burisma’s board) ‘so everything will be okay.’”
It then continues: “The source,” meaning the F.B.I. informant,
“asked whether Hunter Biden or Joe Biden told Zlochevsky he should ‘retain’ the younger Biden; Zlochevsky allegedly replied, ‘They both did.’”
Jiminy Cricket. We are reading here of the man who puts his head down —apparently for much of the day — at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. A friend recently described the Bidens as “a crime family.”
I was shy of the expression at the time, but the New York Post piece changes my mind. In this document, as in others relating the Bidens’ grifting sojourns in China, Hunter again refers to Joe as “the Big Guy.” After reading this report I have to consider all over again the implications of this phrase.
This could get interesting in coming weeks. The disgusting doings of our president and his son, along with the disgusting efforts to cover these up, could at last break into the open. The prospect of impeachment proceedings may present itself.
Taking Care of the Shokin Matter
Zlochevsky, as he recounted the Bidens’ bribery scheme, told the F.B.I. informant he had 17 recordings of conversations he had with Hunter and Joe as they arranged to take care of the Shokin matter and take Zlochevsky’s money for the favor.
This is a smart guy. Zlochevsky also told the F.B.I. man he had “many text messages” and two written documents, financial records of the payments the Bidens received. Zlochevsky, by the F.B.I. informant’s account, considered this documentary proof of his “coercion.” There appears, then, to be a body of evidence awaiting examination and verification.
Nikolay Vladyslavovich Zlochevskyi. (Svetlana Pashko, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
The F.B.I. informant, a Ukrainian–American, seems to be similarly savvy. All of the informant’s encounters with Zlochevsky took place in the presence of one Alexander Ostapenko, who introduced the informant to Zlochevsky and who, as the file puts it, “works in some office for the administration of President Zelensky.”
The F.B.I. man thus made sure he had a supporting witness. My read of Ostapenko, such as we know anything about him, is that he may be a Ukrainian variant of whoever it was who leaked the Democrats’ mail seven years ago — an insider disgusted with the corruption all around him.
Will Grassley’s release of FD–1023 lead to the sort of investigation the contents of the file plainly warrants? For now, this remains a question. It was reported this week that Hunter’s former business partner, Devon Archer, will shortly testify, under oath and in detail, about the Big Guy’s apparently intimate involvement in the Burisma matter, including the numerous contacts with Burisma execs he has to date denied ever having.
Hunter’s disgraceful plea deal a few weeks ago, meantime, is suddenly on hold, a Wilmington judge having thrown it back Wednesday to the prosecutors who negotiated it with Hunter’s lawyers. The Burisma bribery affairs is nothing like dead in the water.
Joe Biden, foreground, and son Hunter during inauguration of President Barack Obama, Jan. 20, 2009. (acaben, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0)
At the same time, there are a lot of things going on in our crumbly republic that warrant investigation, but many fewer get investigated. The F.B.I. had initial reports of the Burisma affair in 2017; its informant was on the job by the following year. Wray covered this up until the very last minute, having never investigated the recorded conversations or the documentary evidence.
We now know, also, that David Weiss, the U.S. attorney charged with running the investigation into Hunter’s tax finagling, had FD–1023 three years ago and withheld it from the Internal Revenue Service investigators working on Hunter’s case — those who recently blew their whistles.
A serious investigation will logically begin with the conduct of these unethical punks. We will have to see.
The New York Times’ Coverage
Times’ headquarters on Eighth Avenue, 2019. (Ajay Suresh, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0)
I wasn’t even finished reading the Post piece before I began to wonder, how will The New York Times play this one? The Times prefers to pretend revelations of this kind involving the president, his administration, law enforcement or any major Democratic Party figure never occurred. So, no story at all: It seemed possible this time. But the Times has swept so much under the carpet at this point there’s no traversing the carpet. Hmmm.
My answer arrived in Sunday’s editions under the headline, “Former Republican Aides Shepherd Whistle-Blowers Through Congress.” And there you have it: Those IRS whistleblowers lifting the lid on the coverup in the Hunter Biden fraud case, the F.B.I. file presenting what appears, awaiting verification, an open-and-shut case of corruption at the highest levels of the Executive and the Justice Department: “Hey c’mon, man.”
That’s not the story. The story is that these revelations are being orchestrated by “Republican lawyers with deep experience in Capitol Hill investigations — including years spent as aides to Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa…”
Given what is at stake at this point — and what is at stake is the legitimacy of the American government — this kind of reporting is beyond irresponsible. To call it “Soviet” in character is in no way hyperbolic: It reeks of the thought control op Robbie Mook and his deplorable boss attempted seven years ago.
It is exactly the same: Tar those bearing the truth with one or another sort of discrediting epithet — the Russians did it, the Republicans are doing it — and shuffle the truth under the rug or otherwise out of the public’s sight.
Then the coast is clear to declare the truth Democratic.
Chief among the offenders reported in the Times’ piece are the attorneys who operate as Empower Oversight. “Armed with intricate knowledge of Congress’s byzantine procedures and various whistle-blower statutes, some written by Mr. Grassley decades ago,” the Times reports, “the men developed a strategy for how to get the information to Congress lawfully.”
Bad. These bad men. Imagine assisting those who unearth malfeasance so as to avoid breaking confidentiality rules and such like as they testify on Capitol Hill.
Then comes this devastating background. “Empower Oversight had played a key role in facilitating some of the many Republican investigations into Mr. Biden’s family, his administration, and federal law enforcement,” the Times reports.
“As the G.O.P. presses forward with inquiries aimed at uncovering wrongdoing by the president, the group has become a critical part of the Republican investigative ecosystem, using its knowledge of Capitol Hill to shepherd through Congress witnesses who can put names, faces and crucial details to the allegations being made.”
Names, faces, dates. Bad. These bad men. They are not Democrats. Empowering oversight bodies to do the work of overseeing: Bad again.
All this is as bread for the sandwich. In the 29th paragraph of this story the Times reports on FD–1023 — the New York Post having forced its hand. Referring to Grassley, Luke Broadwater writes, “On Thursday, he released a document obtained from a whistleblower containing unverified allegations that both Hunter and President Biden had accepted bribes. The F.B.I. accused Mr. Grassley of risking “the safety of a confidential source” by releasing the document.”
That is it, readers. You will read no more of what is in FD–1023 unless and until the Times is forced — by new revelations, the findings of a House investigation, or another New York Post story — to indulge in another round of obfuscation.
There are occasions when the Times delights, even when it is at its worst. These occur when the facts do not fit the thesis, and its reporters are left swinging in the wind as they report sheer nonsense. So it is with this piece, as Broadwater tells his readers Empower Oversight is a cabal of Republicans ideologically driven to sabotage innocent Democrats, and then:
“Empower Oversight rejects the suggestion its work is partisan in nature. While its leaders are Republicans, they say their job is to offer legal advice and support to whistle-blowers who approach them.
Tristan Leavitt, the group’s president and a former aide to Mr. Grassley and other Hill Republicans, said his organization’s ‘nonpartisan work stands for itself.’
Mr. Leavitt has worked… under a Democratic staff member, given presentations to left-leaning groups, and earned praise from other whistle-blower rights advocates. Empower Oversight is also a member of the Make It Safe Coalition, a group of organizations representing whistle-blowers across the political spectrum.
One of the I.R.S. whistle-blowers the group represents said he is a Democrat.”
After this extraordinary passage, our Luke returns without pause to the theme that Empower Oversight is a cabal of Republicans driven by ideology to sabotage innocent Democrats.
Luke, Luke, tell us what it is. You cannot report the case being “A,” then the case being “not–A,” and then return to reporting “A.” It causes us to wonder about the qualifications of your assignment editor — apart from your own, of course.
Miranda Devine, a divinely dogged New York Post columnist, published a commentary after the paper’s piece on the revelations in FD–1023 headlined, “The Joe Biden bribe allegations need a special counsel, now.” I’ll say.
“The story of the Biden family’s corrupt influence-peddling scheme, which netted tens of millions of dollars from Ukraine, China, Russia and beyond, is scandal enough,” Devine writes. “But the coverup — from Big Tech’s censorship of the Post’s reporting from Hunter’s abandoned laptop, and CIA lies that it was Russian disinformation, to the burying of this FD–1023 — is bigger than Watergate.”
Indeed, Miranda. Now tell me, does this seem to you a truth like any other —with no brand, no ideology attaching to it, being neither Republican nor Democratic?
Patrick Lawrence, a correspondent abroad for many years, chiefly for the International Herald Tribune, is a columnist, essayist, lecturer and author, most recently of Journalists and Their Shadows. Other books include Time No Longer: Americans After the American Century. His Twitter account, @thefloutist, has been permanently censored. His web site is Patrick Lawrence. Support his work via his Patreon site. His web site is Patrick Lawrence. Support his work via his Patreon site.
This article is from ScheerPost.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
The establishment claim is that Shokin wasn’t doing a good job investigating Burisma so had to be fired and replaced with a bull dog.
Biden’s son was on the board of Burisma and Shokin was investigating Burisma and the CEO is begging him to do something about Shokin and shortly thereafter Joe Biden insisted he be fired.
Yet according to democrats Biden never did anything more than just talk about the weather.
And Biden can’t be guilty if he’s acting against his son’s interest getting Shokin replaced by a bull dog, which is a mantra the apologists believe because they read it in USA Today, no more evidence required.
Consortium News has posted an excellent video with more than enough information to prove the opposite conclusion must at least be seriously considered. And that’s being generous, it really shows the establishment position is total bunk.
hxxps://consortiumnews.com/2020/01/13/new-documentary-sheds-light-on-ukrainegate/
But this is not even mention-worthy in the democrat party media.
The amazing thing is how so much of the population cannot see through this, because it really is so thinly veiled. Ultimately some amount of the blame must point back to the apathy of regular people.
I am certainly open to believe the worst about Joe Biden and his clan, but I will withhold judgement until solid evidence is produced. That’s the same way that I approached the Russiagate hysteria.
I believe Tara Reade, too.
Biden … Trump … Obama … Bush II … Clinton … Bush I … Reagan … amazing how corruption and those families are connected.
Pretty sure one can go back further.
They are the ultimate in Professional Managerial Class – serving the ruling class of US capitalism.
That’s US capitalism … and it’s by design.
If Trump and Reagan were part of that ilk, there is no way Trump would be facing 641 years in prison and Reagan would have been shot by Bush’s pal’s son. The rest of those gangsters wont spend a day in prison or have any assassination attempts, by “lone gunman”, no matter how many crimes they commit.
Mr. Lawrence
First let there be no mistake, it seems to me that both Biden’s could very easily be in a heap of trouble, depending of course on the final outcome of the investigation into the “Burisma Affair”.
The Biden administration is by far no favorite of mine. Biden being a self-serving neocon who loves war. And willing member of the Democrat Paid Opposition to Democracy and Freedom.
That said I’m just a little more than confused here, that confusion is the result of my reading you piece doing a little searching.
I have been reminded today by Beau of the Fifth Column, who posted August 1, 2023 “let’s Talk About Hunter, Archer, and an old video” that the FD-1023 presented here is one man’s account, uncorroborated testimony that actually means very little until some other source corroborates what source of this has testified to.
Beau claims Devon Archer has testified the result of which is absolutely nothing new came from this testimony in his new post dated August 1, 2023.
So, what gives?
Thanks CN
You might also want to consider Aaron Mate’s July 13 interview with a man who worked for the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office and then Ukraine’s US Embassy in 2015. He also worked for Blue Star, which appointed Hunter to his big-bucks post.
xttps://thegrayzone.com/2023/07/13/bidens-corruption-led-to-ukraines-destruction-fmr-kiev-diplomat/
I will again point out the fact the fate of this country is almost sealed, as a direct result I see no reason to continue to be patient on these matters.
Everyone who comments here needs to build a bonfire under their senators arse or as I prefer to say under the arse of their senator “Arse”.
Mr. Lawrence’s silence hear is deafening. I made no accusations but I asked a question.
Could the reality be the intelligence community is keeping something from the rest of us? I’m simply saying that any organization that represents what “they term” as the greatest, freest country on the planet, that is the U.S. government has openly withheld vital information from it’s citizens. SEE: JFK murder, the NUMEC Affair and the government cloaked “Special Relationship” the U.S. has with Israel, note this same government continues to throw money at Israel despite it horrid human rights record!! For the sake of Dog-ma?
How the hell are we supposed to select a viable govefnment.
Stop the innuendo and say what the hell you are thinking, what the hell is the government gonna do ? Nuke us all!
Oh wait that’s not so funny huh?
As an aside that is superbly timely and informative I cannot urge commenters here enough to seek out the July, August 2023 issue of Smithsonian magazine. On page 30, 31, & 23 resides a great insightful story. National Treasure: Illuminating the first president.
It concerns Washington’s Fair Well Address to the Nation and has some very timely and educational thoughts on partisan politics and what Washington thought of the concept. A warning that in retrospect shows the man had a keen sense of the human nature of the authoritarian mind.
Use your brain for something besides trying to poke holes in the story as presented by a hologram with your finger. Facts Mam just the facts.
thanks CN
Mr. Lawrence:
What I wouldn’t give to be able to write an opening paragraph like this (including stand alone sentence) Thank you for your work.
“Let us cast our minds back just briefly to the very fine afternoon of July 22, 2016.
It was an especially bright Friday, as you may recall, because WikiLeaks released a lot of Democratic Party emails that day, so shining a light worthy of a night game at Yankee Stadium on the party’s corrupt machinations to destroy Bernie Sanders’ presidential bid in the service of the first Goldwater Democrat, the ever-endearing Hillary Clinton. Pause a moment to summon the time.” Bingo!
Mr. Lawrence,
With respect, I would appreciate a less fiery tone in presenting information and its interpretation.
In my opinion, the facts will stand or fall on their merits, and all the more surely without invective prose. Such emotive language raises in me red flags regarding a journalist’s objectivity. Regardless of growing confidence in a picture growing out of many conflicting cross-currents of evidence, when that confidence leads to emotional attachment to conclusions, all further analysis is endangered and suspect.
Robert Parry set a high bar in this regard, and Consortium News has largely followed suit.
I have found much of your past reporting consistent with that reasonable tone I associate with sober assessment, and even here, respect the information you present. It is your skepticism that comes into question as you report elevated emotional responses after reading the New York Post piece (which was actually fairly soberly reported but accompanied by irrelevant pictures of Hunter Biden’s unsavory private life, and failed to report Wray’s answer to Grassley’s questions as to why the report had not been turned over sooner).
For example, when CHS asks Zlochevsky why spend 20-30M for a US company despite an (apparently obviously) much less expensive alternative, Z’s response is that ‘dumber-than-my-dog-paid-for-doing-nothing’ Hunter Biden had ADVISED him to, full stop. This immediately raises all sorts of unasked questions.
In this article, you present Joe Biden’s role in removing Shokin, but you fail to mention (as does even the NYPost) that he was openly engaged in just such a mission, supported by the US and allies, to do just that on documented grounds. As a journalist, it appears to me incumbent upon you to provide that context, even if you believe more to have been afoot. It’s an emotional section with sarcasm and innuendo unbecoming your abilities.
Here’s my issue: I can myself read allegations all day and form my opinions based on my own convictions, whether preformed or under the influence of my emotive resonances. But I rely on investigative journalists, such as yourself, to dispassionately corroborate, confirm and cross-reference far-flung, opposing and invested/motivated sources, then present the case without polemics.
I respectfully ask that you take a step back, take a deep breath, and return to what you do so well.
Dave Z
With all due respect, Dave Z, I take issue with your response. It strikes me as a smear job–journalist’s tone betrays objectivity; at least in your opinion. The comment on Biden regarding Shokin is particularly suspect in this respect. Biden “openly engaged in just such a mission”? To remove Shokin for what reason? What about the widely reported pay-offs to the Bidens in getting rid of this man, whose reputation you are now putting to question? Then there is Joe’s “son of a bitch” response. What do you make of that? What are these “documented grounds”? As to the tone of the essay, that’s your particular taste, yet irony and humor have had a role in journalism for centuries. I think your advice on stepping back might very well be taken by yourself.
Patrick’s writing style tends to be florid—no one can deny that—but it can be engaging.
“Take a step back”??
Please, hold the psychobabble.
Looks like a lot of commenters here are having a hard time dealing with hard truths regarding the Bidens, father and son (and who know whom else).
Of course to their friends that immediately leads to TDS—What, are you a Trump supporter????
That is how legitimate questions concerning the Bidens and other Democrats have been parried by the Dem cult for years.
That is no longer going to work, so give it up.
The Bidens have not only brought disgrace to the White House but also taken the USA and the world down a very dangerous road in order to cover their own dirty tracks in the Ukraine.
Biden said so himself, on video. I guess the CFR thought it was funny.
This whole column and replies appear to be a hate-fest. The document Wray was forced to reveal had no third party substantiation, and is one of those the FBI gets all the time and that anyone can make for any reason. Those who want to stir the shit will always find ways to do so. What we need are people who have the grit to get the necessary jobs done. I would agree that Biden has been lackluster in that regard, and should have planned to be a one-term President from the outset, cleaning the stable and then going off into the political wilderness as a scapegoat.
Anger-fest, in my view. But that’s a good thing, a waking up of sorts vs. oh well same ole same ole nothing to be done here let me get back to my cheeseburger and TV. Then anger turning toward humor is even better, a healing sort of move toward lighter, toward hope. Moving current government (from both sides of the aisle) toward laughing stock is just what we need, I think.
Exactly IJ. Anger and passion. I get so more “angry/passionate” when people just shrug their shoulders in a “that’s life” kind of attitude. Laissez-faire, if you like. But yes, laugh about it too. They are a laughing stock, once you get past the initial shock of whatever decadence in which they are involved.
How does Obama get off scott-free?
After putting the kibosh on the Bush War Crime Investigations, he resuscitated Clinton from her ignoble defeat in 2008, where we should have seen the last of her and he appoints Biden, a former background player in the Senate into a Vice Presidency. He resurrects the Cold War, initiates 6 other hot wars, appoints the most venal, corrupt scoundrels to head the intelligence agencies, Clapper, Comey, Hayden who promulgate the Russiagate and Ukrainegate Frauds, then orchestrates the election of Biden as President in a campaign in which he ordered all Democratic candidates, including the now thoroughly compromised Sanders to stand down.
Biden, Clinton, Bush – we deserve the what we get for dumb enough to vote in these obvious war criminals, but nobody seems to want to lay a glove on America’s greatest Nobel Prize winning Con Artist in Chief President.
And how, by the way, is it possible that Barack Obama is now worth $70 million?
Did he buy the Martha’s Vineyard estate with income from his books? Really?
Or has he perhaps also taken up painting?
Or was he in on the Ukraine grift?
Fantastic article.
A lot of kill the messenger stuff coming from the Dem/media establishment.
Honesty, integrity, and truth are dirty words in American and Canadian, and European Union media and politics: dirty, dirty, dirty.
Just another example of the rampant corruption infecting the US. SCOTUS’ Citizens United decision formalized unlimited political bribery, now we hear that SCOTUS “justices” take bribes as well. That’s not deemed to be very important to the political class.
Congress is institutionally corrupt to the core – it has been obvious for a long time, yet most folks turn a blind eye. All of the presidents of my lifetime have committed high crimes and war crimes. The NSA illegally spies on US citizens and people around the world.
Henry K. (he’s still alive!) Dick Cheney, Bush Jr., Tony Blair et al. have never been investigated, let alone indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Sadly the whole Hunter Biden scandal is used by the R faction to blame the corruption on their Country Club Colleagues, the D faction. If we just vote R this time, things will be different. Hooray for US “democracy” and “rule of law”
“In the US, there is no way to vote against the interests of Goldman Sachs” (or BlackRock, Or Big Oil, or BigPharma, or BigAg…)
There is a way to vote against the corrupt merger of government, corporations, legacy media, and military contractors (which is the definition of fascism). RFK Jr’s campaign is against corruption and polarization. The legacy media, owned by just a few giant corporations is trying its best to demonize and discredit him. I would encourage anyone who has written him off based on what they have read in the media, to watch an interview of an hour or more in duration with him on a podcast, of which there are many to choose from. Trump ran on “draining the swamp”, but did no such thing. Kennedy, as is demonstrated by his decades long record as an environmental lawyer, is very capable of rooting out corruption.
Thanks for the write up, Mr. Lawrence, and for publishing, CN.
The corruptions of the Biden family are shaping up to be vastly superior and more far-reaching than those of other swamp dwellers who have occupied high office in the US. And I guess we’re about to find out whether that corruption is wholly or only partially irrelevant to the nation, with the courts, the corporate media, our “intelligence” agencies, the DOJ, the FBI, and most Congress-critters providing cover for it.
Will America care enough to demand accountability in this sordid tale or continue on in our learned hopelessness, shrugging off yet more proof that we are ruled by criminals?
Calling Killary a “Goldwater Democrat” is cute, but not fair to Barry Goldwater. (And let me remind you that she started as a Republican.)
The Bidens seem to be giving the Clintons a run for their money but the most corrupt of all are probably the Obamas and their “AG” Holder (head of operations). Remember the emoluments clause??? Or was that just a version of Santa Clause? And about that first Trump impeachment? I’m no fan of Mr. Trump, but …., shouldn’t there be extreme repercussions?
This is what we need! Open it up and laugh at it! How much more ridiculous can you get? The entire absurd spectacle should be good for amusement for years to come if we can just get past what we’ve got as “leadership” at this time. These are models for the weakest, self-driven morons we’ve seen in a long time. Keep on, Patrick!
Always hitting below the belt…that is what the Yanx consider a ‘fair game’. What an odious nation.
If people have to go to the corporate-owned-news (CON) to try and find out what is going on in the world, we are doomed. Turning to one of the major sources of our problems for suggestions or answers on how to fix those problems is certain to fail us. It would be like going to the CIA and asking them to explain who blew up the Nordstream pipelines. Until people reject and abandon the CON, we won’t even be able to have rational discussions about anything.
“All the shit that fits”. It’s remarkable how shameless the charlatans and hacks who make up most of the MSM really are.
I wonder if these sort of people ever experience great feelings of joy/happiness.
No, it’s 24-hour-a-day machinations if you’re talking about people such as the Clintons and Bidens.
The tombstone-eyed monsters on TV are just put back in their boxes after delivering the day’s dose of propaganda.
Nixson saw it coming, in Biden’s current condition does he have the faculty to do as Nixon did?
Great job bird-dogging this story!
Excellent, piece. Mr. Lawrence.
Joe Biden is a dirty hustler who made it big. The big story seems to be that the real corruption is in the Democratic Party, its donors (such Sam Bankman Fried) and its vast enabling machinery including the NYT. Ultimately this is American politics- more cancer than patient left to do anything for.
That it takes the New York Post article to generate interest is in itself bizarre.. We knew of Biden’s extortion when it happened, and the silence which followed. That it is finally being addressed is of little relief, as there will be no convictions of our tweddle-dum gangsters..
Great article by Mr. Lawrence, and the NY Post for up-staging the Times..
What the Biden crime family has done is racketeering. Soliciting bribes, extortion, money laundering, wire fraud, failure to register as a foreign agent, obstruction of justice. To name but a few of the crimes. This activity is the reason we have a RICO statute. Since the Clintons were never touched for their RICO violations, Biden assumed he would skate too. After all, nearly every judge and jury in Washington DC is a Democrat donor who will likely co-conspire to protect any fellow Democrat. Any criminal referral to Garland is a dead end. The House can impeach and the Democrat majority Senate would hold a trial and then vote on conviction. And even if they force Biden out of office, the even worse Kamala Harris would then become President. Strzok and Page were not the only deep state swamp lizards to understand the value of having an ‘insurance policy.’ Biden had to know that when he chose Harris. This is also why Putin is in no hurry to conclude the Ukraine war. He can sit back while Biden is under siege from impeachment. As Putin is in command of the war, he can time the endgame to ensure that if Biden does survive impeachment, he will then have to pivot to having lost the war in Ukraine. Timed for impact on the 2024 elections. Biden bragged about regime change in Moscow. Putin, the judo master gets points for the reversal. Likely ensuring that it is the Biden Regime that will be changed in 2024. Merkel has fallen, as has Rutte and BoJo with many more to follow. Macron is on the ropes. Scholz and Von der Leyen are stuck holding losing hands. No one listens to Stoltenberg or Borrell. Putin will continue to outlast the failing, blowhard leaders of the U.S. NATO and E.U. until they are all gone.
Nothing could make me happier than to watch both Biden and Trump indicted for fraud and corruption. Maybe then the US public will be forced to confront just how far down the dystopian rabbit hole we have fallen as a nation. Time for new parties and fresh ideas if we are to pull ourselves away from the cliff these shysters have been dragging us toward.
Yes!
That would be sensational, but of course is only a dream.
Bombshell, Bombshell! The walls are closing in! But (maybe) only on Trump.
The saw-dust headed Joe Biden is the Perfect Puppet for the Establishment and is untouchable no matter what he does. His racist comments are “just gaffes”, his plagiarism is “just misspoken”, and his VERY REAL crimes are just “soft corruption” (for which any other REAL American would be imprisoned for a very long time).
Corruption is the NEW “American Democracy”, our politicians are always mindlessly blathering on about.
“If the Russians have anything to do with it, whatever was true could not be true.”
“Tar those bearing the truth with one or another sort of discrediting epithet”
Just what Canada’s foreign affairs minister in 2016, Chrystia Freeland, did when
Russian media confirmed that her grandfather was a leading Ukrainian Nazi.
She called it Russian disinformation, despite ample evidence then — including
in archives she and her uncle had worked on for an Alberta university —
that it was true. Even clearer since 2016.
A hawk on Russia (where she is officially persona non grata), Freeland is now
Canada’s deputy prime minister and finance minister. She says limited federal
funding is available to support refugees her government let in but recently had
little choice but to sleep outside on Toronto streets — but she can find lots of cash
to send weapons and other aid to Ukraine.
A distinctive hallmark of a professional con artist is that he lies brazenly. He puts emphasis into his lie. Because most people assume that a normal person will only emphasize a statement they feel certain is true. The pro takes advantage of this assumption to make his lie appear true.
Here is a video of Biden lying brazenly, forcefully. The first 5 minutes deal with Biden’s history of plagiarism. Clear instances of his brazenly lying start at 5:00 of the video. Here he tells 5 distinct lies, all very forcefully.
Compilation Of Biden’s Public Lies & Plagiarism
hxxps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSUPfnYdXFU
Conclusion: Joe Biden has a long history as a professional con artist. That’s why he gets the big bucks.
“UNPROVOKED”
Just to prove your point. Absolutely, unequivocally, and for many decades, actively provoked – Russia’s decision to intervene, of course. No-one sternly proclaimed more forcefully than Joe Biden that Russia’s response was unprovoked.
And each time he said it my blood boiled, and my heart sank. As long as I’ve been alive my homeland, my nation, has been involved in brutal warfare based mostly on lies.
A real tour de force … my favorite element:
“Never mind what was in the mail: How the mail got where it got was the determinant. Atop this was the implicit assertion, yet more insidious, that the truth has some kind of brand. If the Russians have anything to do with it, whatever was true could not be true. The obverse also held, supposedly: If the Democrats say something is so, it is so.”
I remember back and this was one of the things that was driving me crazy as a Bernie supporter: why the heck do we care where the truth came from? If it’s true, if the DNC did work behind the scenes on HRC’s behalf, isn’t that what we care about? Stories come out in many ways and we’ve never cared about them; that’s the security agencies’ concern. What we care about is: is it true and does it matter?
It has been amazing over the past few years to note the lock-step cult-like behavior of the social ruling class, exemplified by the national Democrats and the big media people … the Sovietization of America. It this inevitable in late-empire?
Biden is guilty of so much worse. But this whole scandal shows how hard the Republicans have to work to find something to go after the Democrats for that doesn’t also implicate themselves. Biden has been involved in so many war crimes and crimes against humanity, things that are trivial to document, but those are crimes of collaboration across both sides of the aisle. So nobody is going to talk about them. We find ourselves having to ignore genocide and go after influence peddling. Reminds me of Watergate. Nixon was committing war crimes in collaboration with the Democrats, so they had to go after him for dirty election tricks. Who will tell the people?
Excellent comment! Thank you.
When the USSR collapsed in 1989 it was suggested nobody in Russia believed in communism anymore. Unfortunately, one can say the same about 2023 American democracy, now. It’s hard to make a prognosis but I sure hope there are enough conscientious citizens left to pull us through, getting us off our exceptionalism and domination – called hegemony – tack. That is, the use of lies for mis-information, and the use of military solutions for political problems.
Debatable BL. Not within the current government.