I’m going to guess this isn’t what Adam Schiff wanted to come out of his latest “hearing.”
A State Department official named George Kent, who served during the Obama administration as well, was called in to add nothing of substance to what we already know regarding Donald Trump and Ukraine. Surprisingly though, he managed to drop a piece of new information and it had to do with Hunter Biden.
Namely, that Kent had approached Biden in 2015 about the issues with his son’s dealing and was rebuffed.
This via Fox News.
A State Department official focused on Ukraine policy told Congress this week he raised concerns about Hunter Biden’s role on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas firm in 2015, but was rebuffed by former Vice President Joe Biden’s staff which said the office was preoccupied with Beau Biden’s cancer battle, Fox News has confirmed.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent, who testified behind closed doors before committees spearheading the formal House impeachment inquiry, told congressional investigators that he had qualms about Hunter Biden’s role on the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings.
Remember, Biden has repeatedly claimed that he didn’t know of his son’s dealings. We know he’s lying in regards to ever talking to Hunter about them, but now we know they were also brought to his attention through official channels as well.
Certainly, there is some leeway to be given to Joe Biden, as he was dealing with his late son’s illness at the time. But his entire staff wasn’t and he was still the Vice President. Such matters are not wiped away because of personal trials. It would have been very easy for Biden’s Chief of Staff (or someone else) to handle the issue. Further, we know that Hunter Biden’s dealings continued well after his brother’s death.
The report continues.
A congressional source confirmed to Fox News on Friday that Kent testified that when he brought his concerns to the office of the vice president in 2016, his staff “blew him off” and ignored the issue involving the younger Biden’s role at the firm. The Post first reported that the staff said they did not have the “bandwidth” to deal with the issue, as his other son, Beau Biden, was battling cancer. Beau Biden died in 2015.
Biden’s campaign responded to this story on Friday by ripping into President Trump. “Donald Trump’s unprecedently corrupt administration is melting down because of the scandal he touched-off by trying to get Ukraine to lie about Joe Biden–and as the vice president said yesterday, he should release his tax returns or shut up,” a Biden campaign spokesperson told Fox News. “On Joe Biden’s watch, the U.S. made eradicating corruption a centerpiece of our policies toward Ukraine including achieving the removal of an inept prosecutor who shielded wrongdoers from accountability.”
I have no idea what Biden’s ranting response has to do with the actual story here. This isn’t about Donald Trump. It’s about Joe Biden lying about his knowledge of his son’s shady dealings and brushing aside concerns being voiced by the State Department. It should also be noted that at no point did Trump try to “get Ukraine to lie about Joe Biden.” That in and of itself is just a blatant lie. Trump asked that Ukraine get to the bottom of the younger Biden’s dealings. He did not ask them to lie or manufacture information.
There’s another bit of information in this piece that’s interesting as well.
However, Kent testified that while Shokin faced accusations of corruption, his replacement, Lutsenko, did too and that both ex-prosecutors were godfathers to former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s children. However, according to sources, Kent said that while the United States pushed hard for Shokin to be fired, no one ever pushed for Lutsenko to be fired.
Lutsenko ended up closing the cases into Burisma and other corruption within Ukraine. Coincidentally, I’m sure, the Obama administration had no problem keeping him on the job despite his checkered history and the fact that he just happened to be helping out Joe Biden and his son in the process.
Kent’s testimony does two things. It further illustrates that there’s nothing to this Trump-Ukraine matter past what’s in the call transcript, which we already have. No official is going to magically provide context we don’t already know as we have the actual words of the call. That’s been the common theme throughout this ordeal. It’s nothing but political theater. More importantly though, it breaths new life into the allegations against the Bidens.
That’s something I’m sure Adam Schiff wasn’t counting on.
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