There is an old saying that the best defense is a good offense. While ordinarily this is a sports analogy, on Monday the Trump defense team in the Senate impeachment trial turned the attention of the senators — and hopefully the nation — to allegations of misconduct by former Vice President Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden, and even former President Barack Obama. Many Americans, frustrated at what they believe to be constant, carping criticism of President Donald Trump (and the millions of Americans who support him and his policies), are no doubt thinking, “It’s about time!”
For weeks, the mainstream media has reported that President Trump held up aid to the nation of Ukraine until they agreed to investigate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. Most of the time, the Democrats and their media allies do not bother to explain what the Ukrainians were supposed to investigate about the two Bidens, leaving the impression that Trump was pushing some open-ended “fishing expedition” to tar the reputation of the man — Joe Biden — who might very well be Trump’s Democratic Party opponent in the 2020 election.
The Trump defenders even zeroed in on the statements and actions of former President Barack Obama made when Obama was in office.
Pam Bondi, a member of the Trump defense team, addressed the issue of Biden’s son, Hunter. Bondi is a former attorney general in Florida. She said it was a Democratic Party “fiction” that Hunter Biden’s “job” in Ukraine raised no concerns in the United States while his father was vice president. Bondi told the senators — sitting as a “jury,” hearing the impeachment case against President Trump — that Hunter Biden “was paid significantly more than board members for major U.S. Fortune 500 companies. The average American family of four during that time, each year, made less than $54,000. Hunter Biden had no experience in natural gas, no experience in the energy sector. As far as we know, he doesn’t speak Ukrainian. Why was Hunter Biden on this board?”
The board of directors to which Bondi referred was of a natural gas company, Burisma Holdings. He was placed on the board in early 2014 while his father was not only the vice president of the United States, but was the person who led American foreign policy with Ukraine. When asked by ABC News last year whether he would have gotten that position on the board of Burisma without the connections of his father, Hunter Biden responded, “I don’t know, probably not.”
Despite having no experience in the energy industry, and no special expertise on Ukraine, Hunter Biden was pulling in $83,333 per month for three years.
Bondi directly challenged to oft-repeated assertion that there was no concern about the arrangement. She told the senators that the step-son of former Secretary of State John Kerry, Chris Heinz, was a business partner of Hunter Biden, and he had expressed “grave concerns” about Biden and his Burisma dealings. Their friendship ended over the controversy.
Bondi added, “He [Heinz] was worried about the corruption, the geopolitical risk and how bad it would look.”
When Burisma was being investigated for corruption by the chief Ukrainian prosecutor, then-Vice President Joe Biden demanded that that prosecutor be fired. He is even on videotape bragging to the Council on Foreign Relations (a pro-globalist organization) that he told Ukraine they either fire the prosecutor, or he would cut off the billion dollars in aid the United States was going to give Ukraine. Within a few hours, the prosecutor — the one investigating Burisma — was fired, the investigation ended, and the aid was released.
Trump defense lawyer Eric Herschmann added, “Does it merit an inquiry that a corrupt company in a corrupt country is paying our vice president’s son $1 million per year? Did he know anything about the natural gas industry at all? Of course not.” Herschmann then turned the Senate’s attention to the actions of then-President Obama.
Herschmann noted that Obama had a private conversation in March 2012 with Dmitry Medvedev, then president of Russia. Obama did not realize that a microphone was on, and he was heard asking Medvedev for “space” in negotiating with him and Vladimir Putin on missile defense systems for eastern Europe (including Ukraine).
“President Obama knew the importance of missile defense in Europe,” Herschmann said, “but decided to use that as a bargaining chip with the Russians to further his own election chances in 2012. President Obama used the powers of the presidency in a manner that compromised the national security of the United States.”
In summary, Herschmann asserted, “The case against President Obama would have been far stronger than the allegations against President Trump.”
The hypocristy of the Democrats in their accusations against Trump is obvious, after listening to these two attorneys on the Trump defense team. Unfortunately, most Americans have never heard the arguments they made. The media is too busy reporting that Trump wanted the Bidens investigated, without bothering to explain what it is that the Bidens did.
But, of course, that would destroy the efforts of the media to get Trump removed from office.
Photo: AP Images
Steve Byas is a university instructor of history and government, author of several books and magazine articles, including History’s Greatest Libels. He may be contacted at [email protected].
