Trump defense lawyer Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi went on the offense at the Senate impeachment trial Monday, focusing on the Biden family‘s shady dealings in Ukraine.
“When the House managers gave you their presentation, when they submitted their brief, they repeatedly referenced Hunter Biden and Burisma … they referenced Biden or Burisma over 400 times, she said. “And when they gave these presentations they said there was nothing to see, it was a sham. This is fiction.”
Bondi blasted a massive hole in the Democrats’ first article of impeachment against Trump [that the president abused power when he asked Ukrainian President Vlodymyr Zelinskiy to investigate the Bidens in Ukraine] when she argued that—contrary to the the Democrats’ impeachment narrative—the Bidens’ role in Ukraine was so deeply corrupt, it warranted investigation.
Bondi argued that the reason House managers dismissed the president’s legitimate concern about the corruption, was because any serious examination of the facts would make their entire case crumble.
To buttress her point, she pointed out that unlike the Democrats, multiple media reports, including ABC News, the Washington Post, the New York Times, Kyiv Post, as well as Ukrainian law enforcement and the Obama State Department itself, have raised questions about Hunter Biden’s lucrative gig at Burisma Holdings.
Bondi laid out in meticulous detail the Burisma scandal timeline and named the multiple players involved, starting with the firm’s notoriously corrupt founder Mykola Zlochevsky.
And she pointed out that the under-qualified and scandal-plagued Hunter Biden ended up on the board of Burisma shortly after his father—then vice president—was appointed to be the “point man” in Ukraine and paid $83,333 a month by the oligarch Zlochevsky.
“Burisma was so corrupt that [State Dept. official] George Kent said he intervened to prevent USAID from cosponsoring an event with Burisma,” Bondi told the senators.
She detailed the various investigations of Zlochevsky and Burisma for corruption, and Joe Biden‘s efforts in Ukraine, including getting the Ukrainian government to fire Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin when he was investigating the firm.
Bondi defended Trump words to Ukraine President Zelinskiy in the July 25 phone call that sparked the Ukraine scandal and the Dems’ impeachment efforts.
“There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution, and a lot of people want to find out about that. So whatever you can do, with this attorney general would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution, so if you can look into it, it sounds horrible to me.”
Bondi pointed out that Hunter Biden stayed on the board at Burisma until April of 2019.
She accused Democrats of being disingenuous in claiming that all the accusations of corruption involving Burisma and the Bidens have been debunked.
“You’ve heard from the House managers that there is not anything to see here; that all of this is baseless,” Bondi concluded. “All that we are saying is that there was a basis to talk about this, to raise this issue. And that is enough.”
Even CNN legal analyst and dedicated Trump resister Jeffrey Toobin had to admit Bondi’s exposition detailing the Bidens’ “sleezy” activities in Ukraine was effective:
CNN’s Chief Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin: Pam Bondi “did an effective job of showing how sleazy the hiring of Hunter Biden was.”
“The only reason he got” the job “is because he was the Vice President’s son”
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) January 28, 2020
Her arguments were so damaging to the impeachment effort, all big 3 networks tuned out of Bondi’s presentation Monday afternoon, said RealClearInvestigation’s Paul Sperry.
BREAKING: All Big 3 networks ABC, CBS, NBC blacked out Trump defense lawyer Pam Bondi's presentation this afternoon of Ukraine corruption related to Joe Biden, son Hunter Biden & Burisma. In contrast, Big 3 carried Schiff's p.m. presentations live, preempting regular programming
— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) January 27, 2020
Monday night, President Trump retweeted Senator Josh Hawley’s (R-MO) call for the Bidens, Schif and the whistleblower to testify if the senate decides to call witnesses.
I say again: if the Senate is going to call witnesses, then I will ask to hear from Adam Schiff, Hunter Biden, Joe Biden & the whistleblower, at a minimum pic.twitter.com/rNrfUmprNc
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) January 27, 2020