House Dems Probe Whether Trump, Giuliani Pressured Ukraine To Hurt Biden’s Campaign

Not the Onion, but astounding and absurd in its shameless bombasity nonetheless: House Democrats have launched an investigation into Biden’s glaring obstruction of a legal probe in Ukraine Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani for alleged interference in Ukraine’s government. 

Democrats are charging the Trump administration with pursuing “politically-motivated investigations” in Ukraine under the guise of “anti-corruption activity” in order to target and smear former Vice President Joe Biden. They allege the White House is using its influence to target Trump’s likely key Democrat presidential challenger for 2020. 

On Monday The Hill reported that three House committees “sent joint letters to White House and State Department demanding documents related to whether Trump and Giuliani sought to pressure Ukraine to target Biden, a 2020 Democratic White House hopeful.”

Giuliani has long pursued the very obvious question (that we ourselves and many others have asked) as to why neither Kiev authorities nor the media have investigated then Vice President Biden’s successful attempt in 2016 to get the country’s top prosecutor removed at a crucial moment during an ongoing investigation into Burisma Holdings — the Ukrainian natural gas company advised at the time by Biden’s son Hunter. 

A joint statement issued Monday from the chairmen of the House Intelligence, Oversight and Reform, and Foreign Affairs said as follows:

“A growing public record indicates that, for nearly two years, the President and his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, appear to have acted outside legitimate law enforcement and diplomatic channels to coerce the Ukrainian government into pursuing two politically-motivated investigations under the guise of anti-corruption activity.” 

“As the 2020 election draws closer, President Trump and his personal attorney appear to have increased pressure on the Ukrainian government and its justice system in service of President Trump’s reelection campaign, and the White House and the State Department may be abetting this scheme,” they continued.

Leading the charge is Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), who have demanded all documents related to their probe no later than September 16.

As the The New York Times reported previously, during the final year of the Obama presidency, VP Biden “threatened to withhold $1 billion in United States loan guarantees if Ukraine’s leaders did not dismiss the country’s top prosecutor” — Viktor Shokin — “who had been accused of turning a blind eye to corruption in his own office and among the political elite.” 

Crucially last month Giuliani was reported to have again raised the issue with Ukrainian officials — which he recently indicated he had done in the capacity of a private citizen in order to help the country deal with corruption, according to his account in an interview.

From the start the mainstream media has largely ignored the Biden scandal, opting instead to attack the messengers — even after his own very public admissions of his prior quid pro quo personal interventions in Ukraine under Obama. 

For example, Biden has in the past positively bragged about many of the very things at the heart of the Burisma Holdings scandal:

“Son Of A Bitch Got Fired!” Joe Biden Brags He Forced Ukraine To Fire Key Official In Exchange For Money https://t.co/BVz6vNdl73

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) January 25, 2018

CNN cynically asserted it in its latest report, “the former New York mayor is making a renewed push for the country to investigate Trump’s political enemies.”

It appears House Dems are taking up where CNN left off by initiating its formal probe, all the while continuing to ignore the much more glaring original scandal.