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WATCH: ‘Gang of Eight’ Democrats Shocked by Russians Hacking Burisma

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By Washington Examiner. Top Democratic leaders in Congress said they were caught completely off guard by a report on Russia hacking the Ukrainian natural gas company at the center of President Trump’s impeachment.

In back-to-back interviews Monday evening, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer claimed they were only just hearing of the breach when asked by MSNBC host Rachel Maddow.

“I have to say, Rachel, I’m a bit distressed to see this for the first time in a newspaper report. If the intel community is aware of this, that should have been brought to our attention by now,” Schiff said.

“But I don’t find it surprising. I do find it deeply disturbing, and I would hope that maybe both parties can get out ahead of this, even if the president won’t, and condemn any Russian effort to influence the next election,” the California Democrat added.

The New York Times reported that security analysts believe Russian hackers from the GRU targeted subsidiaries of Burisma on New Year’s Eve as well as Kvartal 95, a Ukrainian television production company founded by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The report, which notes that it is unclear what the hackers were looking for or what they may have found, does not have any immediate comment from the Russian government or Burisma. (Read more from “‘Gang of Eight’ Democrats Shocked by Russians Hacking Burisma” HERE)

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Ukrainian Gas Firm Burisma Hacked by Russians in All-Too-Familiar Phishing Scheme, Cybersecurity Company Finds

By ABC News. Russian government hackers successfully penetrated the internal systems of Burisma, the Ukrainian-based oil and gas firm that once employed former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, a Silicon Valley-based cybersecurity company has found.

Area 1, the cybersecurity outfit, issued a report detailing Russian GRU phishing efforts beginning in November 2019 aimed at “targeting the email credentials of employees at Burisma Holdings and its subsidiaries and partners” in an effort to “gain control of [Burisma’s] internal systems.”

“Our report is not noteworthy because we identify the GRU launching a phishing campaign, nor is the targeting of a Ukranian company particularly novel. It is significant because Burisma Holdings is publically entangled in U.S. foreign and domestic politics,” the report’s authors wrote. (Read more from “Ukrainian Gas Firm Burisma Hacked by Russians in All-Too-Familiar Phishing Scheme, Cybersecurity Company Finds” HERE)

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Ukraine Conducting Criminal Investigation into Biden-Connected Burisma

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Ukrainian Prosecutor General Ruslan Ryaboshapka announced on Wednesday that the country was expanding its criminal investigation into Ukrainian gas company Burisma, which is at the center of House Democrats’ attempt to impeach President Donald Trump.

“After he took office in late August, Ryaboshapka launched a wide-ranging audit of criminal cases to see whether they had been conducted properly,” Reuters reported. “Thirteen of them relate to Burisma founder Mykola Zlochevsky, Ryaboshapka told reporters at a briefing on Wednesday.”

“Ryaboshapka’s predecessors oversaw a series of investigations into Zlochevsky, a multimillionaire former minister of ecology and natural resources,” Reuters continued. “The allegations concern tax violations, money-laundering and licences given to Burisma during the period where Zlochevsky was a minister.”

Kostiantyn Kulyk, a Ukrainian prosecutor that has investigated Burisma, allegedly suspected in a leaked document that Zlochevsky committed a series of offenses, “including using his official position to embezzle 800 million hryvnias ($33 million) of money belonging to the central bank.” . . .

Burisma is at the center of the push by Democrats to impeach Trump after Trump took an interest in knowing more about alleged corruption involving the Bidens and Ukraine. (Read more from “Ukraine Conducting Criminal Investigation into Biden-Connected Burisma” HERE)

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Impeachment: Democrats’ New Star Witness Was Drinking Wine, Didn’t Take Notes; MORE Contradictions Surface in Testimony

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By Breitbart. David Holmes, the political officer at the U.S. embassy in Ukraine who has emerged as the Democrats’ new star witness in the “impeachment inquiry,” admitted he had been drinking wine at the time he claimed to overhear the president on the phone.

Holmes claimed to have overheard a conversation between U.S. Ambassador Gordon Sondland and President Donald Trump on a mobile phone on July 26, the day after Trump spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Holmes told the House Intelligence Committee in a closed-door hearing last Friday that Trump asked Sondland whether Zelensky would “do the investigation,” and Sondland said that Zelensky “loves your ass.” . . .

What the media did not report were other details that became clear Monday, when the transcript of Holmes’s testimony was released, on the eve of a second week of public hearings in the impeachment inquiry.

One detail was that Holmes, and Sondland, were drinking at the time of the conversation in question:

The four of us went to a nearby restaurant and sat on an outdoor terrace. I sat directly across from Ambassador Sondland, and the two staffers sat off to our sides. At first, the lunch was largely social. Ambassador Sondland selected a bottle of wine that he shared among the four of us, and we discussed topics such as marketing strategies for his hotel business.

(Read more from “Impeachment: Democrats’ New Star Witness Was Drinking Wine, Didn’t Take Notes” HERE)

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Democrats’ Make-Or-Break Week of Impeachment Hearings Kicks Off, as Contradictions Surface in Testimony

By Fox News. Beginning Tuesday morning, in a rush of five hearings ahead of the Thanksgiving recess, eight witnesses — including several who have provided inconsistent accounts of key events — are set to testify over three days in what could be a make-or-break week in House Democrats’ impeachment investigation.

Less than 24 hours before the proceedings are set to be gaveled in at 9 a.m. ET, President Trump floated the idea of testifying, rather than tweeting, during the inquiry. A top Republican called for a last-minute postponement, citing secretive new developments behind closed doors. And, the Trump campaign has pointed out apparent inconsistencies in some witness testimony already on the record.

Though he’s not slated to testify until Wednesday, the key witness expected to come up throughout the week is Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, the wealthy donor who has bragged about his proximity to President Trump — and who repeatedly has frustrated Democrats’ narrative by contradicting several other key witnesses in the probe.

For example, Sondland previously testified behind closed doors that Trump explicitly told him there were to be “no quid pro quos of any kind” with Ukraine, and that he didn’t recall any conversations with the White House about withholding military assistance in return for Ukraine helping with the president’s political campaign. Democrats have alleged that Trump held up the aid to ensure a public probe into the Ukraine business dealings of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

Then, William Taylor, the U.S. chargé d’affaires for Ukraine, told lawmakers that Sondland himself said “everything” — a White House visit for Ukraine’s new leader and the release of military aid to the former Soviet republic — was contingent on a public announcement of investigations into the 2016 election and into Ukraine gas company Burisma. Hunter Biden sat on its board. (Read more from “Democrats’ Make-Or-Break Week of Impeachment Hearings Kicks Off, as Contradictions Surface in Testimony” HERE)

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Ukraine Official: Biden Probe Not Linked to Military Aid

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Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said on Thursday that U.S. ambassador Gordon Sondland did not explicitly link military aid to Kiev with opening an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Interfax Ukraine reported.

Trump and his allies are accused by Democrat opponents of freezing nearly $400 million in security aid to Ukraine to pressure President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to open investigations into Biden, Trump’s main rival for the 2020 presidential race. . .

“Ambassador Sondland did not tell us, and certainly did not tell me, about a connection between the assistance and the investigations. You should ask him,” Prystaiko said about Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union.

Prystaiko’s comments came a day after William Taylor, the acting ambassador to Ukraine, testified in the first televised hearing of the impeachment inquiry.

In a disclosure that drew the most attention, Taylor pointed to Trump’s keen interest in getting the eastern European ally to investigate Biden and reiterated his understanding that $391 million in U.S. security aid was withheld from Kiev unless it cooperated. (Read more from “Ukraine Official: Biden Probe Not Linked to Military Aid” HERE)

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Foreign Service Officer Claims Trump Canceled Navy Operation Near Ukraine – Here’s the Truth

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On Monday, as part of Congress’ impeachment inquiry into whether President Trump withheld military support for Ukraine, legislators released testimony from Christopher Anderson, who served as a top aide for Kurt Volker, the former U.S. special representative for Ukraine negotiations. Anderson stated that President Trump had asked the U.S. Navy to cancel a routine “freedom-of-navigation” operation in the Black Sea, near Ukraine, earlier this year.

But on Wednesday, the U.S. Navy dismissed Anderson’s version of events. “U.S. 6th Fleet conducted our naval operations in the Black Sea region as scheduled in January and February 2019. The U.S. Navy will continue to operate in the Black Sea consistent with international law, to include the Montreaux Convention,” Cmdr. Kyle Raines, a spokesman for Naval Forces Europe-Africa asserted, as Stars and Stripes reported.

On Monday, Politico reported that Anderson recalled an alleged early-2019 conversation in which former national security adviser John Bolton said Trump had complained about a CNN story insinuating the Navy was countering Russian aggression in the Black Sea. Anderson told legislators, “Ambassador Bolton relayed that he was called at home by the president, who complained about this news report.” . . .

Business Insider added, “Anderson said the signal to cancel the Navy operation, combined with reports at the time saying an effort was underway to review all assistance to Ukraine, left some fearing a shift in U.S. policy toward the former Soviet republic.”

Anderson stated, “We met with Ambassador Bolton and discussed this, and he made it clear that the president had called him to complain about that news report. And that may have just been that he was surprised. We don’t — I can’t speculate as to why, but that, that operation was canceled, but then we were able to get a second one for later in February. And we had an Arleigh-class destroyer arrive in Odessa on the fifth anniversary of the Crimea invasion.” (Read more from “Foreign Service Officer Claims Trump Canceled Navy Operation Near Ukraine – Here’s the Truth” HERE)

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Adam Schiff Threatens Republicans Over Whistleblower; Schiff Reveals Trump’s ‘Potentially Impeachable Offenses’

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By Townhall. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff is threatening Republican lawmakers ahead of the first public impeachment inquiry hearing on Wednesday and warning that any criticism of the whistleblower could prompt an Ethics Committee investigation. Schiff is also going out of his way to protect the Bidens from scrutiny.

“As explained in my November 9, 2019, response to the Ranking Member, it is important to underscore that the House’s impeachment inquiry, and the Committee, will not serve as venues for any Member to further the same sham investigations into the Bidens or into debunked conspiracies about the 2016 U.S. election interference that President Trump pressed Ukraine to undertake for his personal political benefit,” Schiff wrote in a memo to the Committee laying out the rules for the hearing.

(Read more from “Schiff Threatens Republicans Over Whistleblower” HERE)

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Adam Schiff: Trump’s Potentially Impeachable Offenses Include Bribery

By Breitbart. On Tuesday’s broadcast of NPR’s “Morning Edition,” House Intelligence chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said there was a clear argument to be made that President Donald Trump committed “bribery.”

Schiff said, “I don’t think any decision has been made on the ultimate question about whether articles of impeachment should be brought. But on the basis of what the witnesses have had to say so far, there are any number of potentially impeachable offenses: including bribery, including high crimes and misdemeanors. The basic allegations against the president are that he sought foreign interference in a U.S. election, that he conditioned official acts on the performance of these political favors — and those official acts include a White House meeting that the president of Ukraine desperately sought with President Trump, as well as hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded military assistance for a country that is at war with Russia and a country that the United States has a deep national security interest in making sure it can defend itself.” (Read more from “Adam Schiff: Trump’s Potentially Impeachable Offenses Include Bribery” HERE)

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Lawyer: Giuliani Associate Told Ukrainians to Investigate Bidens

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An attorney for Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudy Giuliani, is claiming his client traveled to Kiev shortly before the inauguration of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky this year to demand the new administration publicly announce an investigation into 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son.

Parnas’ lawyer confirmed to Fox News that his client told Ukrainian officials that Vice President Mike Pence would not attend the swearing-in of the new president and the United States would freeze aid to the Eastern European nation if the demands were not met.

The claim by Parnas, who has been preparing to testify in the House Intelligence Committee’s impeachment inquiry into President Trump, directly challenged the accounts by Trump and Ukrainian officials that have been at the heart of the congressional probe. Parnas’ claim also directly tied Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney, to threats of retribution if Ukrainian officials did not comply with the demands – something Giuliani steadfastly has denied.

Parnas’ story, however, has been contradicted by a number of people, including his business partner Igor Fruman, who also was present at a meeting with the Ukrainians and claimed neither the issue of foreign aid nor the vice president’s attendance at the inauguration was raised. (Read more from “Lawyer: Giuliani Associate Told Ukrainians to Investigate Bidens” HERE)

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Hunter Biden-Linked Firm Asked Obama Administration for Help Amid Corruption Probe

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Ukrainian gas firm Burisma Holdings — where Hunter Biden was employed as a board member — asked the Obama State Department for assistance when the company was being investigated for corruption, just one month before then-Vice President Joe Biden forced the country to fire the prosecutor looking into his son’s company.

Investigative journalist John Solomon uncovered the findings in a bombshell report on Monday, revealing several memos he obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The documents show several meetings set up between Obama administration officials and Burisma employees, including Hunter Biden, during the 2016 election cycle.

Solomon notes that Hunter Biden’s name “was specifically invoked by [a] Burisma representative as a reason the State Department should help, according to a series of email exchanges among U.S. officials trying to arrange the meeting.”

A Feb. 24, 2016 email between State Department officials (with the headline, “Burisma”), reads:

Per our conversation, Karen Tramontano of Blue Star Strategies requested a meeting to discuss with U/S Novelli USG remarks alleging Burisma (Ukrainian energy company) of corruption. She noted that two high profile U.S. citizens are affiliated with the company (including Hunter Biden as a board member). Tramontano would like to talk with U/S Novelli about getting a better understanding of how the U.S. came to the determination that the company is corrupt. According to Tramontano, there is no evidence of corruption, has been no hearing or process, and evidence to the contrary has not been considered. Would appreciate any background you may be able to provide on this issue.

(Read more from “Hunter Biden-Linked Firm Asked Obama Administration for Help Amid Corruption Probe” HERE)

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Whistleblower’s Attorney Threatens Legal Action Against Journalists for Outing Their Client

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The Ukrainian whistleblower’s legal team has repeatedly maintained the notion that their client’s anonymity is important and is protected under the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989.

According to the legal team’s statement released on Thursday, the government isn’t the only party responsible for protecting the whistleblower’s identity. The media has a responsibility as well. Should a journalist or media outlet publish the whistleblower’s name, they could face legal recourse:

Accordingly, we neither confirm nor deny the identity of the Intelligence Community Whistleblower. Our client is legally entitled to anonymity. Disclosure of the name of any person who may be suspected to be the whistleblower places that individual and their family in great physical danger. Any physical harm the individual and/or their family suffers as a result of disclosure means that the individuals and publications reporting such names will be personally liable for that harm. Such behavior is at the pinnacle of irresponsibility and is intentionally reckless.

Although the attorneys, Andrew Bakaj and Mark Zaid, haven’t explicitly said they would file lawsuits, they haven’t ruled it out either. (Read more from “Whistleblower’s Attorney Threatens Legal Action Against Journalists for Outing Their Client” HERE)

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NSC Official Testifies He Heard Nothing Illegal on Trump-Zelensky Call

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. . .CBS News is reporting that Tim Morrison, the National Security Council’s Senior Director for European Affairs, testified before Congress on Thursday that he heard nothing illegal on the phone call between President Donald J. Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Morrison also reportedly testified that the transcript released by the White House was accurate.

. . .“I want to be clear, I was not concerned that anything illegal was discussed,” former NSC Senior Director for European Affairs Tim Morrison testified today, according to Sean Davis.

“My recollection is that Ambassador Sondland’s proposal to [Ukrainian National Security Advisor Andriy] Yermak was that it could be sufficient if the new Ukrainian prosecutor general — not President Zelensky — would commit to pursue the Burisma investigation, Morrison testified according to the Federalist. (Read more from “NSC Official Testifies He Heard Nothing Illegal on Trump-Zelensky Call” HERE)

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