Biden speaks at the Council of Foreign Relations,
January 2018 (Screenshot via YouTube)
On Thursday, the Government Accountability Office
(GAO) ruled that Trump violated the law by temporarily withholding aid to
Ukraine. But, if the Trump administration broke the law, then Joe Biden (and
the Obama administration) broke the law, too.
Remember that $1 billion loan to Ukraine in 2014 that has
come under scrutiny since Democrats started their whole impeachment nonsense?
Remember how in January 2018, Biden spoke at a Council on Foreign Relations
meeting in Washington, D.C., during which he bragged about how he threatened to
withhold that $1 billion loan to Ukraine unless they fired the prosecutor who
was investigating Burisma Holdings, the gas company his son Hunter was sitting
on the board of, and making over $80,000 a month doing so?
In case anyone forgot, here’s what Biden said about
that loan:
And I went over, I guess, the 12th, 13th time to Kiev.
And I was supposed to announce that there was another billion-dollar loan
guarantee. And I had gotten a commitment from Poroshenko and from Yatsenyuk
that they would take action against the state prosecutor. And they didn’t.
So they said they had — they were walking out to a press
conference. I said, nah, I’m not going to — or, we’re not going to give you the
billion dollars. They said, you have no authority. You’re not the president.
The president said — I said, call him. I said, I’m telling you, you’re not
getting the billion dollars. I said, you’re not getting the billion. I’m going
to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and
said: I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not
getting the money. Well, son of a bitch. (Laughter.) He got fired. And they put
in place someone who was solid at the time.
According to the GAO, the Trump administration violated
the law because the funds that were temporarily withheld were appropriated by
Congress, and therefore the executive branch has no authority to place further
conditions on that appropriation.
Biden argued that his actions were above board because he was carrying out the “official policy” of the Obama
administration to root out corruption in Ukraine. “It was a fully
transparent policy carried out in front of the whole world and fully, fully
embraced by the international community of democracies,” he claimed.
Here’s the problem with that defense: like the military
aid at issue with Trump and Ukraine, the $1 billion loan to Ukraine was also
appropriated by Congress. The loan was part of a bill that was passed in March 2014, with a 399 to 19 vote in the House and a
98 to 2 vote in the Senate. By the GAO’s own reasoning with regard to the
aid withheld by the Trump administration, the withholding of aid by Biden on
behalf of the Obama administrations also broke the law.
Let’s not forget that Biden’s threat succeeded in getting
the desired result. According to Viktor Shokin, the prosecutor who was
investigating Burisma, Biden's pressure was responsible for him getting fired. Shokin also said
that Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko told him not to investigate Burisma
because it was not in the best interests of the Bidens. None of the conditions
Trump is alleged to have put on President Zelensky were ever met before the aid
was ultimately released because Ukrainian officials never even knew the aid was
being held back by the Trump administration.
So, will all those who are crying foul about the latest
GAO ruling demand Biden be held accountable?
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Matt Margolis is the author of Trumping Obama: How President Trump Saved Us From Barack
Obama's Legacy and the
bestselling book The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama. You can follow Matt on Twitter @MattMargolis
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