(New York) No one doubts that Hunter Biden exploited his last name to close ethically “reprehensible” deals abroad.
Posted at 0:52 am Updated at 5:00 am
No one has yet found the irrefutable proof, the famous “smoking gun,” that establishes a link between Joe Biden and the “corruption” of his “useless” son.
However, the leaders of the House of Representatives responsible for the impeachment investigation against the occupant of the White House seem convinced of the following story: in 2016, when he was vice president, Joe Biden helped his son by facilitating the dismissal of the Ukraine prosecutor. . General Viktor Shokin, who was investigating the energy company Burisma, of which Hunter Biden was a highly paid director.
However, the “truth” contradicts this “narrative.”
“In reality, Mr. Shokin was deeply embedded in Ukraine’s culture of corruption and, far from being a model of transparency, many in the West – including some conservative Republican senators – saw him as an obstacle to anti-corruption reforms. In fact, there is no evidence that Chokine participated in an investigation into Burisma or that Joe Biden’s role in firing him was in any way linked to Burisma. »
The man behind this paragraph, as well as the opinions and other words in quotes that precede it, is not a supporter of Joe Biden. This is the Republican representative of Colorado, Ken Buck, a staunch conservative, who expressed himself in this way in the Washington Post SATURDAY.
PHOTO BILL CLARK, ASSOCIATED ARCHIVES PRESS Ken Buck, Republican representative of Colorado
At least four other of his Republican colleagues had publicly questioned the merits of opening an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden before House Speaker Kevin McCarthy did so last Tuesday. Not to mention the doubts expressed privately by other Republican representatives, including the majority of the 18 who were elected in 2022 in districts won by Joe Biden.
Also because of these reluctance, Kevin McCarthy opened the investigation without asking the House to ratify it by vote, something that he had nevertheless promised on 1is last September. Nancy Pelosi’s successor wanted to protect her most vulnerable members by preventing them from a vote on the issue.
Save your work
But Kevin McCarthy wanted above all to save his position by giving the green light to an impeachment investigation. Leading a slim majority, he must confront an extremist wing of which one of the most rebellious members, Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, threatened to overthrow him if he did not initiate an impeachment process against Joe Biden.
By defusing this threat, McCarthy also hoped to give himself greater room for maneuver within his own camp in preparation for final negotiations over government funding. In the absence of an agreement before September 30, the federal State will suffer another paralysis, an increasingly likely scenario.
PHOTO J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE, ARCHIVES ASSOCIATION PRESS Kevin McCarthy, Speaker of the House of Representatives
That said, the Republicans’ march towards the “impeachment” of Joe Biden was irreversible. It began even before the first impeachment process against Donald Trump ended.
“One day there will be a Democratic president and a Republican House, and I suspect they will remember it,” prophesied the 45th.my president in December 2019 during the trial against him for pressuring Volodymyr Zelensky to launch an investigation into the Bidens.
Donald Trump finally has the investigation he’s been asking for. But the Republicans’ current accusations are no more founded, for the moment, than theirs at the time.
Certes, like Kevin McCarthy l’a souligné mardi dernier lors d’une brève conférence de presse, Joe Biden a menti (sciemment ou non) en affirmant lors d’un débat présidentiel en 2020 que son fils n’avait pas fait d’argent in China.
But did he also lie when he said in 2019 that he “never spoke” to Hunter Biden about his business dealings? Republicans showed that Joe Biden met with his son’s business associates and that his daughter put him on speakerphone about 20 times while he spoke with his associates.
“The illusion of access” to his father
However, a former business partner of Hunter Biden, Devon Archer, testified that these conversations were limited to banter and that Joe Biden had never been involved in his son’s affairs. What Hunter Biden was selling to his associates, according to Devon Archer, was “the illusion of access” to his father.
Kevin McCarthy also addressed an allegation that Burisma founder Mykola Zlochevsky paid a $5 million bribe each to Joe and Hunter Biden to fire Ukraine’s attorney general. The accusation does not hold up not only for the reasons explained above, but also because Zlotchevsky himself ended up denying it.
“We know that bank records show that nearly $20 million was paid to members of the Biden family and associates through various shell companies,” the House speaker said.
Kevin McCarthy did not specify that Hunter and his uncle James, the members of the Biden family in question, had received only a fraction of the aforementioned sum and that the “shell companies” were only limited liability companies, as Donald Trump has hundreds.
And it did not reveal how these payments were linked to illegal activities.
So far, the Republicans’ case against Joe Biden is reminiscent of this phrase used by Rudolph Giuliani about electoral fraud in Arizona: “We have many theories, but we have no evidence. »
This is not to say that there is no evidence about Joe Biden. Or that Republicans do not discover information along the way that harms the president and has nothing to do with the original accusations.
