Did Burisma, the giant Ukrainian oil and gas company once run by an evil billionaire oligarch, take a beating in the impeachment trial, or what? Like, how many billionaire oligarchs do we worship in America – Bloomberg, Buffett, Dell, Trump, Zuckerberg, Gates. Twenty totally unknown oligarch heads of so-called hedge funds pulled down over $1 billion each last year. Hello?
The Trump defense was based in part on the possibility that the Bidens were, in fact, corrupt. Yet, every time in the first week some Republican wanted to get Hunter Biden on the witness stand, the Democrats freaked out, saying he wasn’t a relevant witness. Excuse me, but if you prove Hunter Biden’s dealings were legit, you take all the starch out of Trump’s defense.
Why didn’t the Democrats just throw Hunter Biden under the bus from the very beginning? If that’s all the collateral damage they suffer for saving the US Constitution – it seems like a reasonable price to pay. But no, they refused to; and every time they did so, it hurts their case.
The key issue here is that Burisma had a Board of Directors. (Not something oligarchs commonly have.) Moreover, every Board of every major US Fortune 500 corporation is chock full of ex-Congressmen and ex-Senators, retired admirals, retired generals, and has-been ex-Washington power brokers of every stripe and ilk. None of them are qualified in the industry they represent (except for possibly generals and admirals on the Boards of major defense contractors, which seems like oh such a bad idea.). All of them are paid a boatload of money for doing absolutely nothing. Doh! They’re there for the sole reason of their connections to the power brokers in the nation’s capital.
Hint: Aren’t these intimate links between corporate boards and former decision-makers in Washington DC the epitome of corruption? Abuse of power?
Hunter Biden on the Board of Burisma is the norm, not the exception. He had as many qualifications for the oil and gas industry as any ex-Member of Congress sitting on a corporate board for any other industry. He was a lawyer, for starts. He’d worked up to executive vice president of a major bank holding company. He’d worked in the US Department of Commerce on economic policy for several years. He was then a lobbyist, co-founding his own firm. He was even in the US Naval Reserves. It sounds like exactly the kind of muscle Burisma needed. He had connections. His BFF was the son of John Kerry. God only knows how many other young-stud Washington insiders were in his circle of friends. He had access, visibility, name recognition, and connections.
The problem is that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats could say all this because anybody who did so could forget about ever serving on any cushy corporate board after they left Washington.
Hey, Ukraine just elected a charismatic new anti-corruption president. His first order of business was to form an anti-corruption court. Burisma had been the black-widow spider in the middle of a corrupt web since the Soviet era. They could see the writing on the walls. We should give them the benefit of the doubt and give them credit for hiring a fresh young American kid who might put a new face on their corporation. You’ve got to start somewhere, don’t you?
The Democrats couldn’t let Hunter Biden get questioned because the first thing Trump’s lawyers would ask is, “Did you ever think of giving your million-dollar salary back, once everybody was accusing you and your Dad of corruption?”
Don’t forget that Trump billed himself as an anti-corruption President, too – hell-bent on “draining the swamp.” His defense lawyers never mentioned that; well, because they knew damn well Trump had since become a loathsome swamp monster.
Then there’s the defense counsel’s frequent jab at VP Joe Biden for withholding $1 billion in loan guarantees until Ukraine fired the prosecutor investigating Burisma for corruption. Perry Mason, lawyer for the Constitution, couldn’t jump up and assert an objection. “The prosecutor had to be fired because he wasn’t doing his job – he wasn’t prosecuting corruption but facilitating it.”
The Democrats never mentioned that the Republicans had control of both houses of Congress when the whole Biden corruption scam hit the news wires – why didn’t one of their committees investigate? Why were they all totally silent? Some of the media pundits mentioned this. It’s as if the House managers didn’t talk about it because they knew the media would – meaning the news would get out anyway, but they’d still get their lucrative corporate-Board-retirement gigs down the road.
Joe Biden could have come forward during the impeachment and made an effort to inject “reasonable doubt” into the ethical charges against him, saying, “You mean that idiotic interview that went viral about me withholding the $1 billion? Heck. You know me. It was pure braggadocio. A joke for the peanut gallery. They had the money by the close of business, didn’t they? They knew their cash value was never in doubt.” Or, “Yea, I was stupid. I should have asked for an ethics ruling. I did talk to some friends, but they advised me that it wasn’t necessary – and that just asking for the ruling would rile up the Republicans and be proof positive that I was guilty as charged. Hello? Politics?”
Nor do I believe Papa Biden’s statement that he’s never talked to his son about all of this. Not even now, after all this came out again? They couldn’t stand shoulder-to-shoulder in front of the cameras and fess up? Americans love a comeback. We’ll forgive almost anything for a dramatic moment like that – as they march off the podium to hit the campaign trail for the old man.
The lawyers for the defense failed to bring up the very important fact that in the weeks before the House whistleblower statement initiated the investigation, both Senators Warren and Sanders were publicly calling for an investigation into their rival candidate Joe Biden for corruption. The media had all but declared an end to the Biden presidential run. What’s their angle in not putting this little factoid into evidence? Where’s Trump? Didn’t he see the chance to take out all three leading presidential candidates in one fell swoop?
That would leave Bloomberg and Buttigieg as his general election opponents. He’d rather have a crowded field. Divide and conquer.
All of which undermines yet another pillar of the President’s defense, that it’s wrong to hold an impeachment in an election year. Not so. Both sides showed admiral restraint in not allowing extraneous trial issues, such as some of those enumerated above to unduly influence the campaign trail. Although Trump’s restraint evaporated in a giant cloud of piping-hot steam the day after his acquittal, which, in turn, gives strong support to the House manager’s case that “as soon as this is over…”
Matlock was famous for throwing outrageous scenarios out there in front of the jury at the desperate end of his defense (much to the consternation of the flustered judge). Try this one on for size:
Trump’s a billionaire. We all know he has a fatal attraction for powerful oligarchs like Vladimir Putin and Turkeys’ Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Trump, no doubt, moved in the same billionaire circles as the head of Burisma, Mykola Zlochevesky -attracted like a moth to the flames to his power and darkness.
“Say, Mikkie – could you do me a favor?”
“You name it, Ronald. Anything for a backstage pass to your Miss America contest.”
“How’s about you hire this Biden kid and pay him an outrageous sum.”
“You got it. Except. Will you pay for his salary?”
“Not a problem. I’ll write it off as a business expense.”
(Now we know why Trump refuses to release his federal tax returns. )
“I don’t get it.”
“After you hire Hunter Biden, my people at Fox News will accuse his dad of corruption. Take him out of the race.”
“What if that doesn’t work?”
“Not to worry. Rudi’s already working on a backup plan.”