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 Timesreported
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?”
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.
Ukrainian
Government Will 'Happily" Investigate Pro-Hillary Election
Interference, President Says
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says his country will "happily" investigate whether Ukraine interfered in the 2016 US elections - telling reporters on Thursday that "we can't say yes or no" without first looking into the matter.
Zelensky said that it was in Ukraine's best interest to determine what happened, according to the Associated Press.
During a July 25 phone call, President Trump asked Zelensky to look into various accusations of Democrat malfeasance in Ukraine, which Trump's political enemies have seized upon as the foundation of an informal impeachment inquiry against Trump.
Last month, a CIA whistleblower claimed Trump abused his office by pressuring Zelensky to initiate probes into former Vice President Joe Biden and the election interference claims - suggesting that valuable US assistance was used as leverage.
On Thursday, however, Zelensky insisted that there was "no blackmail," telling reporters from AP that he learned that the US had paused nearly $400 million in military aid after the July 25 phone call.
Trump asked Zelenskiy during the call to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden, and Congressional Democrats believe Trump was holding up the aid to use as leverage to pressure Ukraine.
Zelenskiy said he thought the call would lead to an in-person meeting with Trump and wanted the American leader to come to Ukraine. -AP via WaPo
Zelensky's comments came amid an all-day "press marathon" he's giving in order to answer questions about current events.
Election interference?
In an appearance on Fox News in early October, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani said: "What I’m talking about, this, it’s Ukrainian collusion, which was large, significant, and proven with Hillary Clinton, with the Democratic National Committee, a woman named Chalupa, with the ambassador, with an FBI agent who’s now been hired by George Soros who was funding a lot of it."
Rudy Giuliani: "What I'm talking about, this, it's Ukrainian collusion, which was large, significant, and proven with Hillary Clinton, with the DNC, a woman named Chalupa, with the ambassador, with an FBI agent who's now been hired by George Soros who was funding a lot of it"
According to The Hill, Ukrainian Ambassador Valeriy Chaly confirmed that DNC contractor of Ukrainian heritage, Alexandra Chalupa, approached Ukraine seeking information on Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's dealings inside the country, in the hopes of exposing them to Congress.
Chaly says that, at the time of the contacts in 2016, the embassy knew Chalupa primarily as a Ukrainian-American activist and learned only later of her ties to the DNC. He says the embassy considered her requests an inappropriate solicitation of interference in the U.S. election.
“The Embassy got to know Ms. Chalupa because of her engagement with Ukrainian and other diasporas in Washington D.C., and not in her DNC capacity. We’ve learned about her DNC involvement later,” Chaly said in a statement issued by his embassy. “We were surprised to see Alexandra’s interest in Mr. Paul Manafort’s case. It was her own cause. The Embassy representatives unambiguously refused to get involved in any way, as we were convinced that this is a strictly U.S. domestic matter.
“All ideas floated by Alexandra were related to approaching a Member of Congress with a purpose to initiate hearings on Paul Manafort or letting an investigative journalist ask President Poroshenko a question about Mr. Manafort during his public talk in Washington, D.C.,” the ambassador explained. -The Hill
Chalupa, who told Politico in 2017 that she had "developed a network of sources in Kiev and Washington, including investigative journalists, government officials and private intelligence operatives," said she "occasionally shared her findings with officials from the DNC and Clinton's campaign."
Giuliani also said that former Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin, Biden had fired, "dropped the case on George Soros’ company called AntAC," adding "AntAC is the company where there’s documentary evidence that they were producing false information about Trump, about Biden. Fusion GPS was there,” Giuliani added. “Go back and listen to Nellie Ohr’s testimony. Nellie Ohr says that there was a lot of contract between Democrats and the Ukraine. (via the Daily Wire).
Meanwhile, Ukrainians donated the most cash of any country to the Clinton Foundation between 1999 - 2014, followed closely by Brits and Saudis.
If Hillary does run again in 2020, her Ukraine ties may be her downfall.
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