Tony Bobulinksi

i was hoping he wd go away

see trump admin corrupt on vekselberg

merri ok

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soll beast

Texts Reveal More Russia Ties for Key Anti-Biden Witness

Roger Sollenberger

:{20 March 2024·

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty

House Republican leaders behind the sputtering impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden scheduled a public hearing on Wednesday to iron out alleged “inconsistencies” in witness testimony. But they might want to start with the witness the GOP impeachment team has cited as their “most credible by far.”

Former Hunter Biden business associate Tony Bobulinski has provided testimony riddled with inconsistencies, including statements that contradict claims in the FBI’s write-up of their interview with him just ahead of the 2020 election.

In closed-door testimony last month, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee pressed Bobulinski on those statements, according to a transcript. In response, Bobulinski blamed other people for lying or getting it wrong: the FBI agents who wrote up the interview, old business associates, former White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson, and reporters at The Wall Street Journal.

Now, House Republicans have scheduled Bobulinski to testify publicly on Wednesday. Hunter Biden and another former business partner rejected offers to appear, leaving Bobulinski as the sole in-person witness. (One other GOP witness—former Biden associate Jason Galanis—will join remotely from federal prison, where he is serving a 14-year sentence for defrauding a Native American tribe.)

This means that Bobulinski’s prior statements will be on the menu again for the Democrats. And not all of his inconsistencies can be chalked up to third-party error.

Hunter Biden, after a closed-door deposition before the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability on Feb. 28.

One central issue in the Bobulinski timeline—his long-standing connections to a sanctioned Russian oligarch behind state-controlled energy company Rosneft—appears far more close and complex than he has suggested, including in his House testimony.

Bobulinski was a partner with Hunter Biden and a small circle of other associates in a proposed 2017 investment deal involving their startup entity, called “SinoHawk,” and privately owned Chinese energy firm CEFC. In 2020, Bobulinski went public with claims that the finances involved not just Hunter Biden, but his father Joe Biden, who was out of office at the time of the negotiations.

Republicans have pointed to Bobulinski’s claims as evidence of potential wrongdoing, and his allegations have fueled unproven but widespread speculation about a bribery scandal—even though many of these claims have been debunked, and years of GOP investigations have turned up no evidence of impeachable offenses.

But as the inquiry has unspooled the details surrounding the proposal, Bobulinski’s own connections to Russia have come into clearer focus.

In 2017, while SinoHawk pursued its deal with CEFC—securing an investment of $5 million—CEFC was simultaneously chasing an exponentially bigger deal. That deal involved purchasing a $9 billion stake in Rosneft, the Russian-controlled energy conglomerate whose founder, Viktor Vekselberg, had close ties to Bobulinski, The Daily Beast previously reported.

Viktor Vekselberg and Vladimir Putin in 2019.

Sergei Ilnitsky/AFP via Getty

The CEFC-Rosneft negotiations created friction between Bobulinski and Hunter Biden, the text messages show, stemming from Hunter Biden’s aversion to dealing with the sanctioned Russian company. That led to the eventual dissolution of SinoHawk, though CEFC’s investment in Rosneft never came to fruition.

Bobulinski has claimed, including in his testimony last month, that he first learned of the potential CEFC-Rosneft deal from press reports in July 2017, emphasizing that the proposal was never officially recognized until September. He also told FBI agents and House investigators that he grew deeply concerned when he learned about the deal. That specific timeline, Bobulinski told House investigators, “is important to my testimony today.”

But WhatsApp messages—compiled by a nonprofit run by outspoken Hunter Biden opponent and former Donald Trump White House staffer Garrett Ziegler, and confirmed as authentic to The Daily Beast by a representative for Bobulinski—show that Bobulinski had been in a position to know much earlier.

According to those messages, Bobulinski had been physically in Moscow for business discussions involving CEFC’s executive director one month earlier.

“Can you please get confirmation of itinerary of Director Z trip to Russia,” Bobulinski asked a CEFC associate in a May 5 message, referring to CEFC executive director Jian Jun Zang.

“The director is still on the plane, so I have not got any update on the time table in Ru,” the associate replied, adding that CEFC would procure a visa for Bobulinski’s own travel to Russia. “Regarding the Visa, CEFC will issue a letter of invitation to you, plz send me [your] passport copy, a position in a certain company (which you would like the officer to know).”

When the associate clarified that Zang would be in Russia from June 4 through June 7, Bobulinski offered to help with lodging and logistics.

“Are his accommodations and things already setup? Is there anything we can help with?” Bobulinski asked, according to the messages. (Bobulinski made a similar inquests in an earlier message, writing, “We would like to be helpful to the Director and make sure his trip is great, can you please confirm his hotel is all settled and which hotel he is staying.”)

GOP’s Star Witness in Hunter Biden Probe Has Ties to Russian Oligarch

In a separate WhatsApp exchange with Bobulinski days later, another SinoHawk partner mentions the upcoming Russia trip.

“[Z]ang wants to organize with me in Bucharest. I would like to do before Moscow or straight after,” the associate, James Gilliar, allegedly wrote, with Bobulinski allegedly replying, “Ok.” (Gilliar is also the person who sent Bobulinski a link to the public report about the CEFC-Rosneft deal, in July 2017.)

In another message from early June, Bobulinski told Gilliar, “see u in Moscow.” Then, in a separate June 4 exchange, a Romanian businessman asked Bobulinski if they could arrange a conversation “before you fly to Moscow.”

Bobulinski later stated in the messages that he was personally in Moscow in early June.

“Chairman Ye coming to moscow this trip?” Bobulinski asked a CEFC representative in a June 7 message, referencing another CEFC official.

The representative answered that Ye “might come to Moscow in several days but it’s not confirmed yet.” Bobulinski then replied that he would have stayed in Moscow longer, according to the messages.

“OK we would have stayed to spend time with him and the Director if we had known, it isn’t 100% confirmed yet though,” he wrote.

Tony Bobulinski speaks to journalists ahead of a debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump in 2020.

Tom Brenner/Reuters

While all SinoHawk partners appear to agree that CEFC’s involvement with Rosneft tainted and ultimately killed the SinoHawk project, their interpretations of those events vary.

In his 2020 FBI interview, Bobulinski told agents that he’d first grown “concerned” about Hunter Biden’s participation in the CEFC-Sinohawk negotiations “after learning of CEFC’s involvement in Rosneft,” news that first came out on Independence Day in 2017. (A WhatsApp message shows Bobulinski receiving this information that day, from Gilliar.)

According to Bobulinski’s account, he thought it was strange that CEFC could manage a $9 billion purchase while slow-rolling its much smaller $5 million investment in Sinohawk. Group WhatsApp messages included in House impeachment releases show that Rosneft and Bobulinski’s oligarch ties gave rise to disputes between Hunter Biden and Bobulinski, The Daily Beast previously reported.

The circumstances surrounding the collapse of the deal, Bobulinski has said, are what led him to come forward in the first place. He has claimed that he first learned Hunter Biden cut him out of the CEFC deal when he read a Senate report released in late 2020, telling the FBI that in retrospect, the Rosneft involvement “didn’t add up” to him.

But WhatsApp messages show that Hunter Biden also bristled at the Rosneft deal—specifically because of Bobulinski’s business ties to Moscow and Vekselberg.

When Bobulinski first agreed to what became the SinoHawk deal—in spring 2016—he did not know he was going into business with Hunter Biden, but a “prominent American family;” impeachment records show he first became aware of Hunter Biden’s role in February 2017. And in the context of 2017, Bobulinski’s Russia connections were nuclear.

In 2014, while Joe Biden was vice president, the U.S. government sanctioned Rosneft in response to Russia’s first unlawful incursion into Ukraine. Additionally, Moscow had just interfered in the 2016 election on Trump’s behalf—with Rosneft’s role in Christopher Steele’s dossier garnering intense speculation—and Hunter Biden was wary of anything involving the Russian government. Hunter Biden aired these frustrations in text messages released by House Republicans, and WhatsApp messages between him and Bobulinski show the two men in fierce arguments months before the SinoHawk project fell apart.

On May 19, 2017, Hunter Biden and Bobulinski had a confrontation over the SinoHawk deal. WhatsApp messages show Biden invoking Bobulinski’s ties to Vekselberg, blasting him as immature and insulting, and at one point threatening to break his jaw.

“I’ll say it one final time. I don’t care how much money you’ve made what teams you were captain of or how many soulless oligarchs you call friend,” Hunter Biden wrote. “Money doesn’t interest me winning is ephemeral and fleeting and I have no interest spending my days on a super yacht measuring my dick with the people on the super yacht next to me.”

Biden continued, “I care about one thing. My family. And your demands make me uncomfortable and you’re [sic] insults remind me of the shit the captain of the lacrosse team said to me in college about my dad right before I broke his fucking jaw. So you’re [sic] choice Tony act like a child and take all your millions of marbles home and throw them at me from afar or sit down like men do and have a discussion face to face. One request though stop the 5th grade group text insults—Jesus my daughters texts are more cogent and mature.”

Bobulinski replied that he and “all the partners around the table” were “trying to protect u and your family” [sic]. Bobulinski also said that if Hunter Biden ever brought the deal up to his father, he’d likely be waved off.

“[A]nd to add to it, if you are so worried about your family, you wouldn’t be doing this because as u said, all of your dad’s lawyers and any lawyer would advise you and Jim not to touch this with a 100 foot pole,” Bobulinski wrote, referencing Hunter Biden’s uncle, James Biden, who was also involved in SinoHawk.

The deal, of course, fell through. Instead, a separate entity that Hunter Biden co-founded with Chinese investors received $5 million from a CEFC affiliate in August 2017. That company paid Hunter Biden $500,000 up-front, followed by monthly consulting fees of $100,000—payments that the GOP has cast in misleading terms.

Last week, CNN reported that the impeachment inquiry has stalled amid a series of embarrassing and escalating setbacks. While the most damaging blow came in the form of the indictment of an FBI informant last month for lying to his handlers, CNN also reported that Biden’s recent closed-door testimony also impressed Republicans, leaving Oversight chair Rep. Jamie Comer (R-KY) Comer “on his own island.”

Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee

Kent Nishimura/Getty

No further witness interviews have been scheduled, and Republicans, who control the House, don’t have enough votes to impeach Joe Biden, CNN reported. There’s no partisan consensus on an exit strategy, either, and while Comer has advocated for criminal referrals, House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan and House Speaker Mike Johnson are less enthusiastic, according to CNN.

Bobulinski didn’t return The Daily Beast’s comment request, and Hunter Biden’s legal team declined to comment. In response to questions, an Oversight Committee spokesperson provided a statement challenging Hunter Biden to appear for a public hearing.

“Tony Bobulinski is willing to appear before the Oversight Committee in public to answer questions about his previous testimony and anything else members want to ask him,” the statement said. “If Hunter Biden was so confident in his previous testimony, he’d do the same. But it appears Hunter Biden is afraid to testify alongside his former business associates.”

Hunter Biden shot down the GOP’s invitation to join Bobulinski at Wednesday’s upcoming hearing, with his attorney Abbe Lowell dismissing the proceedings as a “carnival side show.” Another former business partner, Devon Archer—a key witness for the GOP whose previous testimony undercut their central allegations—also rejected the invitation to testify this week, citing a “patently unreasonable” request.

In last month’s closed-door interview, House Democrats peppered Bobulinski with questions seeking to highlight and dismantle his shifting narratives. Their inquiries zeroed in on several factual discrepancies, chiefly concerning the details surrounding Bobulinski’s presence at a 2017 business meeting in Miami, as noted in the FBI interview. Bobulinski’s written testimony admits that he did not attend the meeting, blaming the half-dozen FBI agents in the interview for a “single note-taking error.”

But as Democrats pressed Bobulinski, that “single note-taking error” morphed into a broader claim, about “numerous statements in [the FBI notes] that are incorrect.” The testimony transcript illustrates a series of contentious exchanges, with Democrats expressing open skepticism that the inconsistencies were merely the fault of FBI agents taking bad notes, and reprimanding Bobulinski for what Democrats said was a combative and “disrespectful” tone.

Those disputed claims include the FBI’s notes that Bobulinski told them he had personally witnessed a Chinese business official giving Hunter Biden a diamond at a Miami meeting in 2017—a note that Bobulinski called “a lie.” The inconsistencies also include the timeline of when Bobulinski first learned of the Chinese company involved with the business deals, with Bobulinksi telling Democrats that the FBI’s notes about that timeline were also “incorrect.”

Attendees of a House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing last fall made their views clear.

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

A third point of contention was whether Bobulinski had visited the White House the day before his FBI interview. (The write-up notes that Bobulinski was tested for COVID specifically because of a White House visit the prior day.) In response, Bobulinski—flanked by Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign lawyer Stefan Passantino—told Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) that the COVID test was for an event in Nashville, Tennessee, adding that he has “never” visited the White House and slamming the detail as a “big, clear mistake” by the multiple FBI agents who had documented the meeting.

The claims of numerous factual errors on the FBI’s part beggared belief among Bobulinski’s Democratic interrogators. The accuracy is paramount, because Bobulinski’s FBI interview has for years been held up by Hunter Biden’s critics as official documentation for the bombshell claim that Hunter Biden had arranged for a 10 percent cut for “the big guy,” Joe Biden—an allegation that has since been discredited. (Bobulinski sat for that 2020 FBI interview voluntarily, but refused to provide his electronic devices for imaging.)

After Bobulinski implicated Joe Biden directly in the deal, Gilliar—a SinoHawk partner—told *The Wall Street Journal*, “I would like to clear up any speculation that former Vice President Biden was involved with the 2017 discussions about our potential business structure. I am unaware of any involvement at any time of the former vice president. The activity in question never delivered any project revenue.”

Separately in the hearing, Bobulinski also attacked Cassidy Hutchinson’s claims about him in her recent memoir. Hutchinson wrote that she saw Bobulinski meet with former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows while wearing a ski mask at an October 2020 campaign event, where Meadows gave Bobulinski an envelope of some kind. Bobulinski, however, called her a “fraud and a liar,” denied being handed anything, and denied wearing a ski mask.

In response, Hutchinson released what she said was a photo from the event showing Meadows next to Bobulinski in a black ski mask. Days later, Bobulinski sued Hutchinson for defamation.

When the testimony was over, House Oversight minority leader Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) released a statement characterizing the hearing as “farcical” and rebutting many of Bobulinski’s claims and explanations. In November, Hunter Biden’s legal team filed a criminal referral asking the Justice Department to investigate Bobulinski for potentially lying to federal agents in his 2020 interview.

Republicans, however, defended their witness. In interviews after the hearing, Comer threw his lot in with Bobulinski.

“Tony Bobulinski’s the one credible guy in the Biden orbit,” Comer told Newsmax in one. “I will admit with Jamie Raskin that there are a lot of people involved with the Bidens that weren’t credible. That’s a reflection on the Bidens, not me. Tony Bobulinski’s the one good guy, the one honest guy, the one credible guy, and he did a great job in the transcribed interview yesterday.”

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an 2 24

one name that has been heard a lot in right-wing media outlets is Tony Bobulinski, an investor who House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Kentucky) and other Republicans have been touting as their greatest weapon against Hunter Biden.

Bobulinski, according to many MAGA Republicans, will be the downfall of Hunter Biden and, by extension, his father, President Joe Biden.

But in an article published on February 13, Daily Beast reporters William Bredderman and Roger Sollenberger lay out some reasons why Bobulinski's "ties" make him a problematic witness.

:{":{As Republicans examine Hunter Biden's questionable business ties," the journalists explain, "it turns out Bobulinski is connected to one particular character perhaps more unsavory than any other figure in the inquiry's constellation: Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg…. a Ukrainian-born energy magnate who's been a close ally of Vladimir Putin for decades.}:"

Bredderman and Sollenberger note that in 2017, Vekselberg "reportedly funneled $500,000 to an LLC run by Donald Trump's former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen, supposedly with the intention of influencing the new administration to let Russia illegally occupy parts of Eastern Ukraine."

"U.S. law enforcement has placed sanctions on Vekselberg multiple times, citing Russian attempts to influence the 2016 election, Moscow's aggression against Ukraine, and the oligarch's ties to Putin," the Daily Beast journalists explain. "Vekselberg tried to evade those sanctions with the help of an American attorney. But Republicans are trying to look past Bobulinski's ties to Vekselberg, as they paint Hunter Biden — dishonestly and without actual evidence — as a corrupt figure facilitating payments to his father."

Read the Daily Beast's full report at this link (subscription required).}}:

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DEFAM CASSIDY H LORDY THERE’S PIX AN 4 24

'A picture would help': Ex-Trump aide discredits GOP’s Hunter Biden witness with one photo - Alternet.org

Republicans investigating President Joe Biden's son, Hunter, have been more recently leaning on the testimony of Tony Bobulinski, who was Hunter Biden's former business partner. However, Bobulinski's credibility has recently come under attack by Cassidy Hutchinson, who used to be an aide to former President Donald Trump.

Hutchinson, who testified before the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, authored the book Enough, which details a 2020 Trump campaign rally in Rome, Georgia, in which former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows handed "a folded sheet of paper or a small envelope" to Bobulinski while Bobulinksi was wearing what Hutchinson called a "ski mask."

"Cassidy Hutchinson is an absolute liar and a fraud," Bobulinksi told the House Oversight Committee in regard to her claim, adding that he didn't wear a ski mask and that "[Meadows] didn't hand me a single thing."

ABC News reported Friday that Hutchinson's attorney, William H. Jordan, wrote a letter to the panel stating that while Hutchinson "has no desire to get involved in the impeachment investigation," she "now finds herself the subject of defamatory comments made by Mr. Bobulinski in his testimony to that Committee."

IFrame Content

"Mr. Bobulinski claims under oath that he was not wearing a mask, that Mr. Meadows did not hand him anything, and that Ms. Hutchinson was 'fabricating facts,'" Jordan's letter read. "Perhaps Mr. Bobulinski's memory is impaired about the meeting, and a picture would help refresh his recollection."

The letter included a photo Hutchinson took of both Meadows and Bobulinski standing between two SUVs, with Meadows wearing a red "Make America Great Again" hat and Bobulinski in a mask covering everything but his eyes. ABC News reporter Will Steakin posted the photo to X/Twitter.

IFrame Content

"Ms. Hutchinson took a photo of Mr. Bobulinski meeting with Mr. Meadows from her vantage point just on the other side of the vehicle from their conversation," Jordan wrote. "A copy is attached to this letter. Mr. Bobulinski may be somewhat hard to make out in this image — since he is wearing his Penn State hat... and a mask."

"Ms. Hutchinson stands by what she witnessed that night and wrote in her book," he added.

Click here to read ABC's full report.

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[### Judge Tosses Tony Bobulinski's Defamation Lawsuit ...

National Review

https://www.nationalreview.com › news › judge-tosses-t...](https://www.nationalreview.com/news/judge-tosses-tony-bobulinskis-defamation-lawsuit-against-fox-news-host/)

Nov 27, 2024 — Manhattan federal judge Paul Oetken threw out Tony Bobulinski's $30 million defamation claim and granted Tarlov's request for attorneys fees. “ ...

[### Judge dismisses Tony Bobulinski's lawsuit against Fox ...

The Hill

https://thehill.com › homenews › media › 5011941-jud...](https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5011941-judge-dismisses-tony-bobulinski-jessica-tarlov-lawsuit/)

Nov 27, 2024 — The defamation suit, which sought $30 million in damages, alleged Tarlov defamed Bobulinski during a March episode of “The Five” when she ...

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former President Donald Trump's ex-White House aide Cassie Hutchinson on Monday was sued by House Republican "star witness" Tony Bobulinksi for defamation, according to The Daily Beast.

Bobulinski — who's an ex-business partner of Hunter Biden's turned GOP impeachment witness — sued Hutchinson over allegations she included in her September memoir, Enough,saying that Bubolinski was "involved with some sort of shady business dealing."

The GOP witness' filing, according to the report, "contends he is being treated unfairly '[b]ecause [he] did not pledge blind loyalty to the Democrat Party and to the Biden family."

The Beast notes during "a Feb. 28 deposition by the House Oversight Committee, Hunter Biden said, 'Tony is a bitter, bitter man that did not get in on a deal that he wanted to get in on, because I thought that he was both incompetent and an idiot."

A highlight of Bobulinski’sdefamation claim are details of "a 2020 Trump campaign rally in Rome, Georgia, in which former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows handed 'a folded sheet of paper or a small envelope' to Bobulinski while Bobulinksi was wearing what Hutchinson called a 'ski mask.'"

According to her book, the report notes, "Hutchinson observed the two men huddling, with Bobulinski covering his face with a ski mask, 'through a gap in the vehicles,' she wrote. Meadows had asked Hutchinson to locate Bobulinski, then 'work with [the] Secret Service to find a hidden spot.'"

The Beast reports:

*According to Bobulinski’s lawsuit, nothing 'nefarious' was going on, and the face-to-face was simply 'an exchange of pleasantries.' It says Bobulinski had become the target of death threats, and that Meadows 'asked to meet with him for the sole purpose of checking on his and his family’s health and safety due to the ongoing threats against them.'

*Bobulinski insists in the suit that, under oath last month before the Jan. 6 Committee, he 'unequivocally rejected' the notion he was wearing a ski mask during the meeting with Meadows. He further complains about being mocked on social media about the mask, embedding a photo of himself in his dress whites, 'an actual photo of Plaintiff, a decorated Navy veteran,” to distinguish himself from a meme-ified cartoon showing a masked man smoking a cigarette.

The news outlet also notes, "in describing Hutchinson as a liar, Bobulinski cites a trio of far-right conspiracy theorists, one of whom was banned from Twitterand Facebook for spreading falsehoods about the 2020 election, as 'proof' of his assertions."

US Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) sent a February 12 letter to House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-KY), saying Bobulinski "is a less-than-credible witness whose 'mysterious ties to the Trump campaign, his refusal to engage with the Committee’s Democratic staff, and his problematic personal finances, raise significant concerns about his truthfulness, credibility, and motivations.'

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empty whl

NYT Covers Up the Still-Ongoing Trump-Russian Effort to Frame Joe Biden

December 4, 2023/65 Comments/in 2016 Presidential Election, 2018 Mid-Term Election, 2020 Presidential Election, 2024 Presidential Election, Hunter Biden, Impeachment, Mueller Probe /by emptywheel

The reason I have so little patience for NYT’s decision to dedicate the resources of three senior reporters to warn about the dangers of a second Trump term is not that I disagree about the second term. They’re right that it would be far worse.

It’s that the same reporters continue to downplay Trump’s past corruption — some of which Maggie Haberman specifically enabled — and outright ignore the ongoing effects of it.

Imagine how much healthier American democracy would be if the NYT dedicated just half of the time and space that went into the eight, often repetitive stories on this topic to instead lay out how the ongoing effort to impeach Biden is a continuation of Trump’s efforts, made with the assistance of men now deemed to be Russian spies by both the US and Ukraine, to frame Joe Biden?

December 4: Why a Second Trump Presidency May Be More Radical Than His First
November 15/December 2: How Trump and His Allies Plan to Wield Power in 2025
November 11: Sweeping Raids, Giant Camps and Mass Deportations: Inside Trump’s 2025 Immigration Plans
November 1: Some of the Lawyers Who May Fill a Second Trump Administration
October 31: If Trump Wins, His Allies Want Lawyers Who Will Bless a More Radical Agenda
July 17: Trump and Allies Forge Plans to Increase Presidential Power in 2025
June 21: Few of Trump’s G.O.P. Rivals Defend Justice Dept. Independence
June 15: The Radical Strategy Behind Trump’s Promise to ‘Go After’ Biden

NYT appears not to have assigned a single reporter to chase down the following allegations that have come out of the GOP impeachment effort:

Bill Barr’s DOJ shut down a corruption investigation into Mykola Zlochevsky — which had been opened in January 2016, while Biden was VP and Hunter was on the board of Burisma — in December 2019, right in the middle of an impeachment defense claiming to prioritize the investigation of Burisma’s corruption.

Days later, Barr set up a rickety effort to ingest the dirt Rudy Giuliani had obtained, including from known Russian agent Andrii Derkach and possibly from Burisma itself, without being forced to prosecute Rudy for soliciting dirt from known Russian agents. One of several details we’ve learned since NYT’s superb past reporting on this effort (besides that Scott Brady’s testimony completely conflicts with that past NYT report), is that Brady mined information from the newly closed Zlochevsky investigation to obtain an FD-1023 recording Zlochevksy making new claims about Joe Biden around the same time in 2019 as Barr shut down the investigation into Zlochevsky, claims that were utterly inconsistent with what he had said months earlier.

Hunter Biden’s lawyer claims, backed by newly disclosed communications, that Tony Bobulinski falsely told the FBI on October 23, 2020 that he had personally attended a February 2017 meeting at which he saw CEFC’s Chair hand Hunter Biden an enormous diamond. That meeting with the FBI took place one day after attending the October 22, 2020 debate with Donald Trump. Weeks later, according to Cassidy Hutchinson, Bobulinski and Mark Meadows had a covert meeting at a campaign stop; she claims she saw Trump’s chief of staff hand Bobulinski, “what appeared to be a folded sheet of paper or a small envelope.”

Separately, Hunter Biden partner Rob Walker described the concerns he and Hunter had about Bobulinski’s business ties to Russians, possibly including Viktor Vekselberg.

In addition to the informant report on Zlochevsky’s changed claims about Biden, there were three other dodgy informant reports shared with the Hunter Biden team: from two Ukrainians that seem tied to the Rudy effort, from Gal Luft at meetings where — he has since been accused — he lied about his ties to CEFC, and from Bannon associate Peter Schweizer (the latter of which this important NYT story on Tim Thibault did address).

Throughout this period, the IRS supervisor on the investigation documented repeated examples of improper influence on the investigation. In a recent subpoena request, Hunter’s attorney noted that Trump’s improper effort to influence the investigation continues to this day.

In short, basic reporting on Republican efforts to impeach Biden show that it, along with key parts (though not necessarily all) of the investigation into Hunter Biden, are simply a continuation of an effort Trump started in 2018 to frame Joe Biden. That is an effort that involved people that both the US and Ukraine have labeled as Russian spies.

Aside from some key articles (linked above), NYT has covered none of this.

Instead, NYT claims the exact opposite. It claims that the effort to gin up a criminal investigation into Joe Biden didn’t succeed.

And neither effort for which he was impeached succeeded. Mr. Trump tried to coerce Ukraine into opening a criminal investigation into Mr. Biden by withholding military aid, but it did not cooperate.

It’s right there, the full-time pursuit of three different House committees, ongoing, with an FD-1023 about Zlochevsky’s changed claims about Biden and Bobulinksi’s FBI report that seems to have close ties to Trump (in which Bobulinski was represented by a known Maggie Haberman source).

NYT tells you the first term wasn’t that bad, because Trump’s efforts failed. Yet what failed was NYT’s reporting on ongoing events.

NYT tells this fairy tale even as they continue to whitewash Bill Barr’s efforts. In a recent 4,000-word story, in which they claimed that the commutation of Jonathan Braun’s sentence “stood out” more than the pre-trial pardon of Steve Bannon issued the same day, NYT gives Barr two paragraphs to claim he tried to clean up pardons.

William P. Barr, a Trump attorney general who had left by the time of the Braun commutation, said when he took over the Justice Department he discovered that “there were pardons being given without any vetting by the department.”

Mr. Barr added that he told Trump aides they should at least send over names of those being considered so the department could thoroughly examine their records. While the White House Counsel’s Office tried to do so, the effort fell apart under the crush of pardon requests that poured in during the final weeks before Mr. Trump left office, according to people with direct knowledge of the process.

It is true that of the eight pardons given before he arrived, there were some doozies, including Joe Arpaio, Dinesh D’Souza, Scooter Libby, and the ranchers whose arson cases sparked the Malheur occupation.

But Barr was utterly complicit in the most abusive pardons Trump gave. Less than two months after he was confirmed based off repeated assurances that giving a pardon in exchange for false testimony was obstruction, Bill Barr wrote a memo declining to prosecute a crime in process, the effort to use pardons to ensure that Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, Mike Flynn, and others continued to lie to cover up Trump’s ties to Russia in the 2016 campaign. The Barr memo did not once mention pardons, even though that was a key thrust of the second volume of the Mueller Report (something Charlie Savage has also noted).

Of course, NYT joins Barr in that complicity. This story finally mentions one of those pardons in its discussion of Trump’s abuse.

His lawyers floated a pardon at his campaign chairman, whom Mr. Trump praised for not “flipping” as prosecutors tried unsuccessfully to get him to cooperate as a witness in the Russia inquiry; Mr. Trump later did pardon him.

But it does not mention that Manafort specifically lied about why he briefed Konstantin Kilimnik campaign information, an act that the Intelligence Community later stated as fact resulted in the sharing of campaign information with Russian intelligence. This is a topic about which NYT has a still uncorrected story, hiding the tie to Oleg Deripaska.

It’s not that Trump pardoned Manafort for “not flipping.” It’s that he pardoned Manafort after he lied about why the campaign manager shared information that Russian spies could use in their attack on US democracy.

And the very link NYT relies on here mentions the Stone pardon, a commutation and then pardon that halted a still ongoing CFAA conspiracy investigation between Trump’s rat-fucker and the Russians (another detail NYT has never reported).

Yes, I absolutely agree. A second Trump term would be worse.

But repeating that, over and over, even while misinforming readers about the ongoing five year effort to frame Joe Biden is not the best way to prevent a second term.

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Tags: Bill Barr, Hunter Biden, Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, Rudy Giuliani

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[### Texts Reveal More Russia Ties for Key Anti-Biden Witness

Congress.gov

https://www.congress.gov › house › documents](https://www.congress.gov/118/meeting/house/117001/documents/HHRG-118-GO00-20240320-SD009.pdf)

PDF

Mar 20, 2024 — Former Hunter Biden business associate Tony Bobulinski has provided testimony riddled with inconsistencies, including statements that contradict.

25 pages

[### GOP's Star Witness in Hunter Biden Probe Has Ties to ...

The Daily Beast

https://www.thedailybeast.com › gops-star-witness-tony-...](https://www.thedailybeast.com/gops-star-witness-tony-bobulinski-in-hunter-biden-probe-has-ties-to-russian-oligarch/)

Feb 13, 2024 — Tony Bobulinski, the high-flying investor who is the House GOP's star witness in the Oversight Committee's ever-expanding probe into Hunter Biden.

[### Texts Reveal More Russia Ties for Key Anti-Biden Witness

Yahoo

https://au.news.yahoo.com › texts-reveal-more-russia-ti...](https://au.news.yahoo.com/texts-reveal-more-russia-ties-084608846.html)

Mar 20, 2024 — ... Bobulinski had a confrontation over the SinoHawk deal. WhatsApp messages show Biden invoking Bobulinski's ties to Vekselberg, blasting him ...

[### Bobulinski-Transcript.pdf

United States House Committee on Oversight and Accountability - (.gov)

https://oversight.house.gov › uploads › 2024/02](https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Bobulinski-Transcript.pdf)

PDF

Feb 13, 2024 — ... Russia and China, involving Qatar and the Qatari Investment. 2 ... Vekselberg, correct? 14. A. Ask the question again. 15. Q. Alex ...

418 pages

[### GOP Witness in Hunter Biden Probe Linked to Russian ...

The Intellectualist

https://theintellectualist.com › Posts](https://theintellectualist.com/gop-witness-bobulinski-russian-oligarch-link/)

Feb 14, 2024 — Tony Bobulinski, a pivotal figure in the House GOP's investigation into Hunter Biden, has links to Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, ...

[### GOP's Star Witness in Hunter Biden Probe Has Ties to ...

The Daily Beast

https://www.thedailybeast.com › gops-star-witness-tony-...](https://www.thedailybeast.com/gops-star-witness-tony-bobulinski-in-hunter-biden-probe-has-ties-to-russian-oligarch?via=newsletter&source=DDAfternoon&user_emailA=f7bcacaa96f1395fc1c1349566275b69&user_emailB=25ce3bfbf7ea23280d793a75fc203a6ec63461fe0ce03c88a4e85bd9414a1578&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=240213-Digest%20PM&utm_term=G%20List%20Daily%20Beast%20Newsletter%20PM)

Feb 13, 2024 — In fact, according to FBI interviews and text messages released by the House GOP, Bobulinski's reported ties to Vekselberg caused some concern ...

[### GOP's star witness in Biden impeachment probe linked to ...

Raw Story

https://www.rawstory.com › biden-impeachment-26672...](https://www.rawstory.com/biden-impeachment-2667271007/)

Feb 13, 2024 — High-profile investor Tony Bobulinski has links to Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg ... Russia's attempts to influence the 2016 ...

[### Revealed: Texts shed light on anti-Biden witness' ' ...

AlterNet

https://www.alternet.org › revealed-texts-shed-light-on-...](https://www.alternet.org/revealed-texts-shed-light-on-anti-biden-witness-connections-to-russia/)

Mar 20, 2024 — Text messages, according to Sollenberger, reveal that the "CEFC-Rosneft negotiations" caused "friction between Bobulinski and Hunter Biden" — ...

[### NYT Covers Up the Still-Ongoing Trump-Russian Effort to ...

emptywheel

https://www.emptywheel.net › 2023/12/04 › nyt-covers-...](https://www.emptywheel.net/2023/12/04/nyt-covers-up-the-still-ongoing-trump-russian-effort-to-frame-joe-biden/)

Dec 4, 2023 — ... Bobulinski's business ties to Russians, possibly including Viktor Vekselberg. In addition to the informant report on Zlochevsky's changed ...

[### Former Biden Family Business Associate Says Joe Biden Was ...

AllSides

https://www.allsides.com › story › politics-former-biden-...](https://www.allsides.com/story/politics-former-biden-family-business-associate-says-joe-biden-was-family-business)

Some highlighted his connections to Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg and lawsuits Bobulinski has been involved in. Center- and right-rated media were ...

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