A new report on the Biden-Burisma influence-peddling scheme shows just why Democrats want to impeach President Trump for his phone call to Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky, during which Trump asked his fellow head of state to probe the corruption scandal.
John Solomon revealed yesterday that Hunter Biden and his pals at Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian gas company that employed him, met with State Department officials in 2015 and 2016. One of those meetings occurred a month before Biden’s father and the Obama administration’s point man on Ukraine, Vice President Joe Biden, pressured the country to fire its top prosecutor, who was investigating Burisma.
Thus, a new probe of the company might well provide corroborating evidence that the vice president — the Democrats’ top candidate for president in 2020 — did indeed move against that prosecutor to protect his son.
The latest from Solomon thoroughly refutes the willfully naive refrain from the hate-Trump media that “there is no evidence” the Bidens did anything wrong, and that Trump’s claims to the contrary have been “repeatedly discredited.”
The Meetings
Citing documents uncovered with a Freedom of Information Request, Solomon reported that Burisma tried to persuade U.S. officials to undermine Ukrainian Prosecutor General Victor Shokin’s probe into the natural gas company, which hired Hunter Biden and placed him on its board despite his complete lack of knowledge about energy and Ukraine and sordid history as an out-of-control dope fiend.
In February 2016, “a U.S. representative for Burisma Holdings sought a meeting with Undersecretary of State Catherine A. Novelli to discuss ending the corruption allegations,” internal memoranda state. Three weeks before that, Ukrainian authorities had raided the home of Burisma’s founder, Mykola Zlochevsky.
But Solomon’s dive into the department’s files divulged something even better:
Hunter Biden’s name, in fact, was specifically invoked by the Burisma representative as a reason the State Department should help, according to a series of email exchanges among U.S. officials trying to arrange the meeting. The subject line for the email exchanges read simply “Burisma.”
“Per our conversation, Karen Tramontano of Blue Star Strategies requested a meeting to discuss with U/S Novelli USG remarks alleging Burisma (Ukrainian energy company) of corruption,” a Feb. 24, 2016, email between State officials read. “She noted that two high profile U.S. citizens are affiliated with the company (including Hunter Biden as a board member).
“Tramontano would like to talk with U/S Novelli about getting a better understanding of how the U.S. came to the determination that the company is corrupt,” the email added. “According to Tramontano there is no evidence of corruption.” …
At the time, Novelli was the most senior official overseeing international energy issues for State.
The Novelli-Tramontano confab was set for March 1, 2016, the e-mails show, but records don’t show whether the two actually met, Solomon reported.
In Steps Hunter
Meetings that did occur included one between Hunter Biden and a top State Department official in 2015, Solomon reported.
On May 22, 2015, Hunter Biden emailed his father’s longtime trusted aide, Blinken, with the following message: “Have a few minutes next week to grab a cup of coffee? I know you are impossibly busy, but would like to get your advice on a couple of things, Best, Hunter.”
Blinken responded the same day with an “absolutely” and added, “Look forward to seeing you.”
The records indicate the two men were scheduled to meet the afternoon of May 27, 2015.
The State Department records also indicate Hunter Biden met Blinken in person for lunch on July 22, 2015.
Another meeting was between Hunter Biden’s business partner Devon Archer and Secretary of State John Kerry, Solomon reported. Young Biden, recall, served on Burisma’s board with Archer. Biden and Archer were partners in an investment firm, Rosemont Seneca.
Archer, Solomon reported, “secured a meeting on March 2, 2016” with Kerry, although the memos don’t state the reason for the meeting.
That meeting is important not only because it shows a direct link between Bursima’s American legmen, the Obama administration, and thus, the vice president, but also because Kerry’s stepson, Christopher Heinz, was a partner in Rosement Seneca.
But Heinz, Solomon reported, wisely bailed out of the Burisma business and ended his business relationship with Biden and Archer because of it.
The Firing
Here’s the summary timeline of Biden-Burisma by Solomons’ reckoning:
• Burima Holdings hired Biden and Archer in spring 2014, just about the time Britain began looking into Burisma for activities dating back to 2010. Money began pouring into an outfit called Rosemont Seneca Bohai in May 2014. “Hunter Biden received payments from it.”
• In the summer of 2015, Hunter Biden contacted a top State Department official.
• “In September 2015, then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt gave a speech imploring Ukrainian prosecutors to do more to bring Zlochevsky to justice.”
• By early 2016, Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin “authorized a court-ordered seizure of Zlochevsky’s home and other valuables, including a luxury car. That seizure occurred on Feb. 2, 2016.”
• Also in February 2016, Burisma reps contacted the State Department to end Shokin’s probe.
• In early March, Hunter Biden’s pal Devon Archer met with Kerry.
• “Within a few weeks of Tramontano’s overture to Novelli and of Archer’s overture to Kerry, Vice President Joe Biden took a stunning action, one that has enveloped his 2020 campaign for president in controversy.”
That action is now well known. Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees if then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko didn’t fire Shokin, a move that Biden bragged about publicly.
Shokin told Solomon and ABC News, and swore in a deposition, that he was fired because he would not stop the Burisma probe. “In fact, Shokin alleges, he was making plans to interview Hunter Biden about his Burisma work and payments when he got the axe.”
Photo: AP Images
