By Glenn Reynolds | Instapundit
NEW YORK SUN: The Biden
Boomerang. “Boomerang. That’s the word for news that Joe Biden is
the 2020 Democratic candidate with whom the CIA’s so-called whistleblower had a
‘professional’ tie. The ex-vice president had been holding himself —
and his son — out as the wronged parties in this whole contretemps. Now
it’s starting to look as if he has been less than forthcoming with the American
voters.”
I think the whole whistleblower thing was meant to be a
distraction from Biden’s Ukraine problem, but instead it’s been a spotlight.
These guys just aren’t very bright, and things got out of hand.
---------
THIS
IS THE PART IN WHICH I GLOAT: Joe Biden worked with whistleblower when he
was vice president, officials reveal
By Charlie Martin
You may recall — and if not, I’m sure as hell gonna
remind you — that just yesterday I wrote, in Who
Does the Whistleblower Know?
I think the most plausible inference is that the
whistleblowers are connected to Biden’s campaign, or to the DNC, and were
shaken by the possibility of Biden and Crowdstrike being investigated because
they know there is something there to be found.
I wonder what we’ll learn as the “modified limited
hangout” continues.
____________________
RELATED
ARTICLES
Bombshell? Joe AND Hunter Biden Were Both
Paid By Burisma
By Matt
Vespa | Townhall
Source: AP Photo/Nick Wass
So, the plot thickens with Joe Biden and his Ukraine
ties. House Democrats have pulled the trigger on their grand plan to impeach
President Trump for simply winning the 2016 election. They couldn’t get him on
impeachment for "Russian collusion," but they’re now using some
inaccurate whistleblower report that alleged that President Trump tried to
shakedown Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, threatening to withhold
military aid unless he opened a corruption investigation into Hunter Biden.
Hunter was being paid $50,000/month at his position at Burisma Group, an energy
company and a sector of the economy that Biden has zero experience.
As the son of then-Vice President Joe Biden, it seems
pretty clear that he was there selling access. That’s the allegation. It’s a
question that hasn’t gone away, and one that has irritated Joe Biden to no end.
And now we’re hearing that Joe Biden was also paid $900,000 which was part
of his lobbying fee on behalf of Burisma. The former vice president has
repeatedly said that he and his son never discussed overseas business, despite
being pictured in a photograph golfing with two Ukrainian energy executives.
They didn’t talk business. Who are you kidding? Our friends at RedState wrote
about this earlier today. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani,
Trump's attorney, also repeated the claim on Fox News' Sean Hannity.
Rudy Giuliani, the personal lawyer for President Trump,
alleged that a Ukrainian natural gas company that employed Joe Biden’s son
Hunter also paid the former vice president $900,000 in lobbying fees.
Giuliani, appearing Wednesday night on Fox News’ “The
Sean Hannity Show,” cited as evidence documents released by Andriy Derkach,
a member of Ukraine’s parliament.
“Biden, his son and his brother had a 30-year-long scam
to make money, millions, selling his public office,” Giuliani told Hannity.
Derkach held a press conference earlier Wednesday in Kiev
where he claimed he had documents showing how Burisma Holdings paid Biden the
lobbying fees.
The whistleblower who decided to create this firestorm is
reportedly a CIA agent. This person has also been cited for political bias, is
a registered Democrat and had worked with a 2020 Democratic candidate. The
third citation is unknown. That part is redacted. But the White House released
the transcript of the call debunking the quid pro quo allegations. The
Ukrainian president also said he didn’t feel like he was being blackmailed.
It’s a nothing burger. But the Democrats couldn’t get Trump on "Russian
collusion," so they waited until they could find another reason to launch
this impeachment circus. Meanwhile, Joe Biden’s ties to Ukraine haven’t been
resolved and it could become an albatross around his neck as he slips away from
frontrunner status.
___________________
BREAKING: Whistleblower Worked With Joe Biden
At The Obama White House
By Matt
Vespa | Townhall
Source: AP Photo/John Locher
House Democrats began their impeachment push formally
based on some whistleblower report that alleged President Trump tried to
shakedown Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in July. Trump supposedly
threatened to withhold military aid unless Zelensky opened a corruption probe
against Hunter Biden, son of former Vice President Joe Biden. The whistleblower
is reportedly a CIA agent, a registered Democrat, and worked with a 2020
Democratic candidate. There is also a third citation indicating political bias that
was not revealed. That portion was redacted. But the report is second-hand
sourced and riddled with errors because this person didn’t listen in on the
call. The Trump White House also released the transcript, which totally
debunked the quid pro quo aspect of this circus.
The complaint wasn’t released to members of Congress
prior to them announcing a formal impeachment inquiry. Yeah, no one read the
complaint, so that’s all you need to know about Democratic intentions in this
matter. This is an attempt to overturn the results of the 2016 election, using
a biased intelligence operative who had worked with Joe Biden during the Obama
presidency. Yeah, that was revealed today
by The Washington Examiner.
The 2020 Democratic candidate with whom the CIA
whistleblower had a "professional" tie is Joe Biden, according to
intelligence officers and former White House officials.
Lawyers for the whistleblower said he had worked only
"in the executive branch." The Washington Examiner has established
that he is a career CIA analyst who was detailed to the National Security
Council at the White House and has since left. On Sept. 26, the New York Times
reported that he was a CIA officer. On Oct. 4, the newspaper added that he
"was detailed to the National Security Council at one point."
Michael Atkinson, the Intelligence Community's inspector
general, told members of Congress that the whistleblower had a
"professional tie" to a 2020 Democratic candidate. He had written
earlier that while the whistleblower's complaint was credible, he had shown
"some indicia of an arguable political bias ... in favor of a rival
political candidate."
A retired CIA officer told the Washington Examiner: “From
everything we know about the whistleblower and his work in the executive branch
then, there is absolutely no doubt he would have been working with Biden when
he was vice president."
As an experienced CIA official on the NSC with the deep
knowledge of Ukraine that he demonstrated in his complaint, it is probable that
the whistleblower briefed Biden and likely that he accompanied him on Air Force
Two during at least one of the six visits the 2020 candidate made to the
country.
And we also learned today that both Joe and Hunter Biden
were paid by Burisma Group, the Ukrainian energy company at the
center of all the questions concerning their working relationship with the
former vice president and his son. Hunter was on the board being paid tens of
thousands of dollars a month, despite having zero experience in the energy
sector. The allegation is that he was there selling access and the Biden
campaign has yet to fully address this working relationship. The former vice
president insists that he never discussed overseas work with Hunter. That’s
never going to hold up. There’s that picture of the former VP and Hunter
golfing with Ukrainian energy executives; they never discussed overseas work.
Who are you kidding? And now with Biden revealed to have been paid $900,000 for
his lobbying efforts on behalf of Burisma, this Ukraine tie will remain a topic
of discussion.
__________________
Joe Biden worked with whistleblower when he was vice
president, officials reveal
By Rob Crilly, Steven Nelson, & David M. Drucker | Washington
Examiner
The 2020 Democratic candidate with whom the CIA
whistleblower had a "professional" tie is Joe Biden, according
to intelligence officers and former White House officials.
Lawyers for the whistleblower said he had worked only
"in the executive branch." The Washington Examiner has
established that he is a career CIA analyst who was detailed to the National
Security Council at the White House and has since left. On Sept. 26, the New
York Times reported that he was a CIA officer. On Oct. 4, the
newspaper added that he "was detailed to the National
Security Council at one point."
Michael Atkinson, the Intelligence Community's inspector
general, told members of Congress that the whistleblower had a
"professional tie" to a 2020 Democratic candidate. He had written
earlier that while the whistleblower's complaint was credible, he had shown
"some indicia of an arguable political bias ... in favor of a rival
political candidate."
A retired CIA officer told the Washington
Examiner, “From everything we know about the whistleblower and his
work in the executive branch then, there is absolutely no doubt he would have
been working with Biden when he was vice president."
As an experienced CIA official on the NSC with the deep
knowledge of Ukraine that he demonstrated in his complaint, it is probable that
the whistleblower briefed Biden and likely that he accompanied him on Air Force
Two during at least one of the six visits the 2020 candidate made to the country.
A former Trump administration official, speaking on
condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, said Biden’s work on
foreign affairs brought him into close proximity with the whistleblower either
at the CIA or when he was detailed to the White House.
“This person, after working with Biden, may feel
defensive towards him because he feels [Biden] is being falsely attacked. Maybe
he is even talking to Biden’s staff,” the former official said. “Maybe it is innocent,
maybe not.”
Last month, the whistleblower accused President Trump of
abusing his position by asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to
investigate Biden and his son, Hunter, who sat on the board of a Ukrainian gas
company. His complaint is now at the center of a Democrat-led impeachment
inquiry, prompting Trump and his allies to cry foul.
Biden was President Barack Obama’s "point man"
on Ukraine, making a half dozen trips there in his eight years as vice
president. Those trips involved briefings from senior intelligence officials
and NSC officers, some of whom traveled with him to Kyiv and elsewhere.
“The Whistleblower has ties to one of my DEMOCRAT
OPPONENTS,” tweeted Trump, after the "professional" link was revealed
by the Washington Examiner. “Why does the ICIG allow this scam
to continue?”
Trump said Thursday he did not know the identity of the whistleblower.
The connection to Biden has emerged a week after
Atkinson, the Intelligence Community's inspector general, briefed the House Intelligence Committee on the
whistleblower’s complaint.
After the report on what Atkinson said, lawyers for the
whistleblower immediately insisted their client was not motivated by political
considerations, but their cryptic comment fueled speculation about his identity.
The careful statement did not rule out that the whistleblower worked with one
of the candidates before they started running for president.
"First, our client has never worked for or advised a
political candidate, campaign, or party," said Andrew Bakaj and Mark Zaid.
"Second, our client has spent their entire government career in
apolitical, civil servant positions in the Executive Branch."
Glenn Carle, a former CIA officer who himself blew the
whistle on George W. Bush administration efforts to collect intelligence on an
American citizen, said the distinction was crucial. “The truth is that the
whistleblower would have worked with Biden not in some partisan political sense
but as a member of the government,” he said. “It is scurrilous to suppose there
was a political motivation.”
He added that it was possible that the CIA officer
briefed senators or representatives who were now running for president.
