The Biden "bribery scandal"

Relativist

This accusation, by House and Senate GOP has been made against Joe Biden:

“then-Vice President Biden allegedly engaged in a bribery scheme with a foreign national”

The basis of the allegation is a FD-1023 form, documenting information provided to the FBI by a “highly reliable confidential source”. Congressional GOP (and Conservative News sites like Fox) have stressed this latter point – that the source is “highly reliable”. But they tend to gloss over the fact that this source is not providing first hand information to the FBI. Rather, he’s conveying what someone told him.

So the case consists of an accusation by an unknown source, of unknown reliability. Fox News has reported:

“Sources said the Burisma executive appears to be at a "very, very high level" of the company. One source familiar suggested the confidential source could be referring to the head of Burisma, Mykola Zlochevsky, but said the name of the Burisma executive is redacted in the document.”

Who is Mykola Zlochevsky? He was the co-founder of Burisma, and he was investigated for money-laundering and tax evasion in 2012. In April 2014, he hired Hunter Biden. That same month, the Serious Fraud Office of the United Kingdom froze approximately $23 million belonging to companies controlled by Zlochevsky. The point is: he’s a criminal, and he is the sole source of the allegation.

Background on the alleged bribe: it was allegedly made to get Ukraine’s Prosecutor General, Viktor Shokin, removed – because Shokin was ostensibly investigating Burisma Holdings. However, there’s strong evidence that he wasn’t actually investigating them, and this is why the EU and Ukranian anti-corruption groups wanted Shokin removed – Biden was assisting by forcing the move. The move was effective - Shokin’s replacement actually charged Burisma with corruption. (See: this, this, and this).

More recently, GOP members of Congress have indicated that are tape recordings of Biden coercing the bribe. How do we know there are such recordings? Because according the the same FD-1023, that same Burisma executive said so. IOW, the evidence that Joe Biden took a bribe consists entirely of claims made by one guy, a guy who is very possibly criminal – and very possibly has a vendetta against Biden for his role in getting Burisma investigated.

I’m fine with investigating further, even if it's politically motivated. Congressional Investigations don't require probable cause, and I'm fine with that - but I'm not so fine with the distortions that are made in public statements. But we should reflect on the thinness of the evidence against Biden. Contrast this with the apparent evidence against Trump as described in his indictment.

Many GOP argue that the inaction against Biden vs the actions against Trump demonstrate a two-tier justice system: Trump gets charged with crimes, while Biden’s crimes are ignored. This reflects a double standard on THEIR part: a 2nd hand allegation by a possible criminal vs an apparent wealth of evidence against Trump are hardly comparable.

Srap Tasmaner

In April 2014, he hired Hunter Biden. — Relativist

So what's the story on this? How much do we actually know?

The two explanations that spring to mind are both bad: (1) he was hired in an attempt to co-op VP Joe Biden ("Why come after us? We can be a very good friend to you..."); (2) he was hired as a sort of human shield ("You can come after us, but then your son is in the crosshairs too...").

No doubt Hunter was well-paid, but is there any evidence that either of these plausible intentions were realized?

Trouble is, even if VP Biden didn't back off, that's not necessarily evidence that he didn't personally make a deal with Burisma, or make one through his son: he might have made a deal and then broken it. Criminals often count on being able to get away with that sort of thing. (Which, according to Goodfellas, is why the mob existed, cops for people who couldn't go to the cops.)

If VP Biden were corrupt, it's hard to believe he'd want to advertise it by getting his son a job with the crook whose money he was taking. But that's not much of a defense, and sometimes people are dumb.

Here's one more unsupported theory: Zlochevsky was attempting to put a respectable sheen on his company, but misunderstood how status works in the US. "How can we be bad guys? We have a Biden on our board. His father is an important man, so we are respectable." Hunter Biden, as the child of a celebrity (albeit a political one), is not inherently respectable and untouchable; he's right out of central casting as a someone headed for big-time scandal. Americans, for all kinds of reasons, love to put the children of the famous through the ringer.

To me, it looks like Hunter and his Yale buddies Archer and (though less in this case) Heinz were just engaging in the typical eating-all-the-cookies behavior of elites. They don't have to be purposefully corrupt because opportunities to take more and more just keep coming their way. (Cf. Bush, George W.) He's far from the only guy in America with a history of addiction and infidelity, who might still be decent at whatever job he holds at the moment -- but he also happens to be 90th percentile.

A couple links:
Washington Post
Reuters

Wayfarer

↪Relativist

I don't know if it serves much purpose to ventilate these theories here. I've tried to read up on the so-called Burisma bribe, and the Hunter Biden laptop materials, but it seems awfully patchy with a lot of innuendo and hearsay. And the motivation for it always appears to be to get even with the Democratic Party for the various investigations into Donald Trump's obvious malfeasance, regardless of the merits of the cases. This idea of 'inaction against Biden (and Clinton and whoever)' is a blatant falsehood, comparing spurious allegations of wrongdoing with mountains of documentary evidence and witness testimony in the cases concerning Trump. So too all the complaints about the 'politicization' and 'weaponization' of the DoJ and FBI - all the politicization is coming from Trump and his stooges in an effort to discredit the very well-founded allegations against him.

I sometimes mention that during the Obama Presidency, the Republicans raised hell because Barrack Obama had the audacity to appear at the presidential podium wearing a tan suit. Compare that, with what is on the public record in respect of Donald Trump's innummerable scandals and alleged crimes, including espionage, insurrection, interference with public officials, and intimidation of witnesses. Gives an idea of the scale of the hypocrisy which pervades the current Republican Party.

Relativist

↪Srap Tasmaner

I'll add this to your solid info: Hunter was added to the Burisma board AFTER the illegal activities occurred, and his specific role isn't implicated in any crimes. Still, it could be that his undeserved high salary was a quasi-bribe, but I don't see that Burisma got anything out of it. Hunter has a history of making money off his name. It's a questionable practice, but it's not unique to the Bidens.

Relativist

This idea of 'inaction against Biden (and Clinton and whoever)' is a blatant falsehood, comparing spurious allegations of wrongdoing with mountains of documentary evidence and witness testimony in the cases concerning Trump. So too all the complaints about the 'politicization' and 'weaponization' of the DoJ and FBI - all the politicization is coming from Trump and his stooges in an effort to discredit the very well-founded allegations against him. — Wayfarer

100% agree. It seems to me this originates in the fact that Trump has been investigated so much, and GOP is loath to think any investigation of him can possibly have merit. Whereas others notice how many of the investigations into Trump and his associates have borne fruit and exposed actual crimes.

Wayfarer

↪Relativist

https://www.thedailybeast.com/republicans-admit-they-dont-know-if-biden-bribery-tapes-really-exist?ref=home

“Well again, we don’t know really if the tapes exist, we just don’t know that, whether this was just a bluff on the part of whoever the executive was,” the Wisconsin lawmaker (Johnson) said on Wednesday.

It's typical of this lot. All of the promised 'bombshell revelations' about the 'weaponisation of the FBI' have likewise fallen completely flat, relying as they were on disenchanted ex-employees and so-called informants that the panel was unable to actually locate.

As always with Trumpworld fiascos, malevolence throttled by incompetence.

RogueAI

If Biden goes down, an old white guy President gets replaced by a black woman. Good.

Wayfarer

It seems that the investigation of Hunter Biden has basically culminated in a couple of wrist-slaps, for un-filed tax returns and illegal possession of a firearm. No doubt the maga fanatics will continue to pound the drum, but my bet is, that is all that’s going to come of it.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/06/20/us/hunter-biden-plea-deal/heres-the-latest-on-hunter-bidens-case?smid=url-share

Wayfarer

The ‘star witness’ that James Comer was counting on to dish the dirt on Biden has instead been made subject of an arrest warrant for various acts of international skullduggery including trying to sell Iranian oil to Chinese business interests as well as dodgy arms deals.

A dual U.S.-Israeli citizen who has accused President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, of corruption has been charged by federal prosecutors in New York with failing to register as a foreign agent while working to advance the interests of China.

Gal Luft, 57, has also been charged with violating U.S. sanctions on Iran. He remains a fugitive.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/biden-critic-gal-luft-charged-failing-register-foreign/story?id=101093820

Michael

So the case consists of an accusation by an unknown source, of unknown reliability. Fox News has reported:

“Sources said the Burisma executive appears to be at a "very, very high level" of the company. One source familiar suggested the confidential source could be referring to the head of Burisma, Mykola Zlochevsky, but said the name of the Burisma executive is redacted in the document.” — Relativist

GOP had evidence disproving Biden bribery claims in 2019, top Democrat says

But according to a transcript of an interview with Mr Zlochevsky which Giuliani associate Lev Parnas provided to Congress during the first impeachment of Mr Trump, the Burisma founder said years ago that his company never had any contact with the elder Mr Biden.

In his letter, Mr Raskin wrote that the Ukrainian executive “explicitly and unequivocally denied” the allegations of bribery. He said Mr Zlochevsky also “denied (1) that anyone at Burisma had “any contacts” with then former Vice President Biden or his representatives while Hunter Biden served on the Burisma board, and (2) that former Vice President Biden or his staff “in any way” assisted Mr. Zlochevsky or Burisma”.

Relativist

↪Michael

I'm convinced the majority of Congressional GOP know the allegation is nonsense (idiots like MTG notwithstanding). But they know the fiction appeals to their base, so they milk it.

Wayfarer

Devon Archer's testimony bursts GOP's hype balloon

The Biden "bribery scandal"

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