Show Me The Burisma Money
According to the yet-unnamed Burisma executive at the center of the controversy unfolding over an FBI reporting form, Hunter Biden is “dumb.” Also, Hunter Biden and his father both got $5 million for removing Viktor Shokin from the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO), according to this secondhand information.
Sen. Chuck Grassley is very concerned. Not that the executive called Hunter dumb, of course. He is very worried that this person allegedly “possesses 15 audio recordings of phone calls between him and Hunter Biden” as well as “two audio recordings of phone calls between him and then-Vice President Joe Biden.”
This is a serious allegation, to be sure. It looks and sounds bad. Fox News does not have to spin it very much.
The confidential source further detailed that conversation, suggesting to the Burisma executive that he "pay the Bidens $50,000 each," to which the Burisma executive replied, it is "not $50,000," it is "$5 million."
"$5 million for one Biden, $5 million for the other Biden," the Burisma executive told the confidential human source, according to a source familiar with the document.
Ten million smackers. Where are they? I am not saying that they don’t exist. I am not calling an executive at a famously corrupt company in a famously corrupt country corrupt. I am not claiming that he lied to impress his interlocutor, or that the conversation was incorrectly reported. Assume that it is true: show me the money.
Journalism used to do intrepid investigative reporting, once upon a time. This is the stuff Pulitzers used to be made of. Surely someone in the news biz can summon the skills and savvy to find out where that money went. Come on. Follow the money.
This point may seem obvious but bears emphatic repetition. Grassley says “it’s important that the document be made public without unnecessary redactions for the American people to see,” yet the unredacted document will still only contain an accusation. HUMINT requires corroboration. Where is the corroboration of money changing hands? Where is the money? Show me the Burisma money.
Complete transparency, even a wholly-unredacted FD-1023 revealing the name of the Burisma executive and the informant, still does not show me the money.
Assume Hunter snorted a milllion dollars worth of blow and spent another million on hookers. Where are the other three million?
Joe Biden isn’t into blow or hookers. Where are the five millions of dollars? Maybe the White House Press Corps could check the mattress in the Lincoln bedroom.
Grassley wants Congress to see “what the document says” but until I see the money, it is just a document about what some Burisma executive told them. Recorded conversations would be scandal-fuel, sure. Until there is actual money, however, no one can prove a crime has taken place.
Show me the Burisma money, and you will have my full attention. I am willing to believe it exists.
I am however unwilling to believe that Joe Biden told then-president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko to fire Shokin from the PGO because of a bribe. As I said the other day, the lies of Joe Biden and the truth about Viktor Shokin are two different things.
Biden’s policy was the White House policy, and also the Europeans’ policy, and also the policy of government transparency nonprofits. If his policy had gone against everyone else, then it would stand out as public corruption.
Of course, corruption has levels. Ethics require public servants to be above reproach. America has not met that standard in a while, yet I would still find it disturbing if Joe Biden accepted Burisma millions, stuck them in his pocket, and did what he was going to do anyway. This would taint his public service and require public censure.
If Biden took the Burisma money, I want to know about it, and I want to be sure about it, so that I can take appropriate action. So, again: show me the Burisma money.
