(1) Joe diGenova drags George Soros into Ukraine Impeachment circus - via Victoria Nuland & NGOs(2) Sondland says Trump sought a 'quid pro quo' with Ukraine, but admits that Trump never told him so directly(3) ADL: any attack on George Soros is an attack on Jews(4) State officials confirm Soros foundation & U.S. embassy jointly funded 'Anti-Corruption Action Centre' NGO(5) Activist U.S. embassy teamed up with George Soros - John Solomon(6) US Embassy pressed Ukraine to drop probe of George Soros group during 2016 election(7) The Ukraine scandal timeline Democrats and their media allies don’t want America to see(1) Joe diGenova drags George Soros into Ukraine Impeachment circus - via Victoria Nuland & NGOsJoe diGenova: "Soros had a daily opportunity to tell the State Department through Victoria Nuland what to do in Ukraine"https://www.mediamatters.org/lou-dobbs/lou-dobbs-guest-joe-digenova-says-george-Soros-controls-large-part-state-department-andFox News regular tells Lou Dobbs that George Soros controls a large part of the State Department and activities of FBI agentsWRITTEN BY MEDIA MATTERS STAFFPUBLISHED 11/13/19 8:02 PM ESTJOE DIGENOVA: Well, there's no doubt that George Soros controls a very large part of the career foreign service of the United States State Department. He also controls the activities of FBI agents overseas who work for NGOs -- work with NGOs. That was very evident in Ukraine. And Kent was part of that. He was a very big protector of Soros. His testimony today showed this type -- kind of stern, sort of discomfort with not being included in certain discussions. But the truth is, George Soros had a daily opportunity to tell the State Department through Victoria Nuland what to do in Ukraine. And he ran it, Soros ran it. He corrupted FBI officials, he corrupted foreign service officers. And the bottom line is this: George Soros wants to run Ukraine and he's doing everything he can to use every lever of the United States government to make that happen, for business interests, not for good government business.https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/11/14/Soros-foundation-requests-banning-joe-digenova-fox-newsfox-business-after-anti-Semitic-rant/Soros Foundation requests banning of Joe diGenova from Fox News/Fox Business after anti-Semitic rantBy Erik WempleNovember 14, 2019 at 4:06 PM ESTGeorge Soros’s Open Society Foundations is requesting action from Fox News/Fox Business after guest commentator Joe diGenova uncorked an anti-Semitic rant against Soros in a discussion on impeachment. On the Fox Business program "Lou Dobbs Tonight," diGenova — a frequent guest on Fox News — said that Soros controlled a "very large" part of the State Department as well as unspecified FBI agents."This is McCarthyite," wrote Open Society Foundations President Patrick Gaspard in a letter to Fox News chief executive Suzanne Scott. He requested an on-air retraction and the banning of diGenova from Fox air.The letter alights on a bitter and ugly history. In October 2018, Chris Farrell of Judicial Watch suggested on "Lou Dobbs Tonight" that Soros, a Jewish billionaire philanthropist and Democratic donor, was somehow responsible for a large migrant caravan approaching the United States via Mexico. "A lot of these folks also have affiliates or are getting money from the Soros-occupied State Department and that is a great, great concern. We need to start cutting money — start cutting money there." A Fox Business executive was forced to issue an apologetic statement: "We condemn the rhetoric by the guest on Lou Dobbs Tonight," said Gary Schreier, Fox Business Network’s senior vice president of programming. "This episode was a repeat which has now been pulled from all future airings." Farrell would no longer appear on Fox Business or Fox News, the network declared.Months later, another guest on Fox Business — Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) — smeared Soros, earning a reprimand from host Stuart Varney. But perhaps the network’s most brazen and conspiratorial attack on Soros came Wednesday night, when host Lou Dobbs welcomed diGenova and Victoria Toensing to break down impeachment news. Toensing and diGenova are longtime Washington attorneys who frequent the program of Fox News host Sean Hannity and have done their level best to advance the argument that the real collusion in the 2016 presidential campaign took place between Democrats and Ukrainians against candidate Donald Trump. To further the intrigue, Toensing and diGenova have represented John Solomon, a former employee of the Hill who has written mortally punctured stories on Ukraine, President Trump, the Bidens and so on. In his discussion with the pair of conservative lawyers, Dobbs mentioned George Kent, one of two government officials to testify in Wednesday’s House impeachment hearing. As deputy assistant secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, Kent is the senior State official overseeing Ukraine policy and has expressed misgivings about Trump’s maneuvers with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Dobbs said that Kent had tried to limit an investigation in Ukraine into an anti-corruption group supported by Soros. "This is a complicated deal here," said Dobbs.With that, diGenova was off:Well, there’s no doubt that George Soros controls a very large part of the career Foreign Service at the United States State Department. He also controls the activities of FBI agents overseas who work for NGOs, work with NGOs. That was very evident in Ukraine. Kent was part of that. He was a very big protector of Soros. … The truth is George Soros had a daily opportunity to tell the State Department through Victoria Nuland what to do in Ukraine. And he ran it, Soros ran it. He corrupted FBI officials, he corrupted Foreign Service officers. And the bottom line is this: George Soros wants to run Ukraine and he’s doing everything he can, to use every lever of the United States government to make that happen — for business interests, not for good government.Where did that come from? When asked to elaborate by the Erik Wemple Blog, diGenova cited the "work of the award winning journalist, John Solomon," his client and the progenitor of flimsy, tendentious pieces that bear the veneer of good old-fashioned investigative journalism. In August, Solomon wrote an article titled "George Soros’s secret 2016 access to State exposes ‘big money’ hypocrisy of Democrats," which cites emails showing that Soros’s people had contacted then-Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland about various matters, including the European Union’s migration policy. In a phone call, Soros told Nuland that he’d pass along a draft of an essay he was writing on migration for the New York Review of Books.Solomon sums up: "Few people in the world could command the attention of one of America’s busiest, most influential diplomats for a pre-publication read of a column. Soros apparently was one of those few." In a 2016 New York Review of Books essay, Soros advocated "surge" funding to deal with the European refugee crisis. "The refugee crisis poses an existential threat to Europe. It would be irresponsible to allow the EU to disintegrate without utilizing all the resources it has at its disposal," wrote Soros.In concluding his article, Solomon writes: "Whatever political persuasion you hold, Soros’s election-year contacts at State speak volumes about the fact that big-money access to those in power is a bipartisan phenomenon." From that premise, apparently, diGenova decided that Soros controlled the State Department, or at least a "very large" chunk of it. As Nadine Epstein writes in a short biography, Soros survived the Nazi occupation of Hungary — where he was born — and bolted to England in 1947, having experienced both Nazi and communist rule. Migration and refugee policy have been animating interests of Soros ever since. His Open Society Foundations has also funded government accountability efforts worldwide and has contributed 17 percent ($289,285) of Ukrainian anti-corruption group AntAC's funding through the end of 2018, according to the Wall Street Journal. In a CNN interview, Trump’s personal llawyer Rudy Giuliani, teller of far-fetched Ukrainian tales, said, "George Soros has a not-for-profit called AntAC."Biographical facts and the like, though, are scarcely necessary to diagnose diGenova’s outburst for what it is: Stripped-down anti-Semitism. Here’s a tweet from Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League:Invoking #Soros as controlling the State Dept, FBI, and Ukraine is trafficking in some of the worst anti-Semitic tropes. @FoxNews won’t have Chris Farrell on for making similar remarks, and they should hold the same standard for @JoeDiGenova. https://t.co/IbCQCdXZfL — Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) November 14, 2019 In his letter to Scott, Gaspard — in addition to requesting a retraction and diGenova’s banning — also recommended an apology to the State Department and the FBI. "This is beyond rhetorical ugliness, beyond fiction, beyond ludicrous," wrote Gaspard. "It’s patently untrue; it is not even possible. This is McCarthyite. On behalf of Mr. Soros, founder and chairman of the Open Society Foundations, which I lead, I ask you what attorney Joseph Welch asked of Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, in one of the darkest chapters in this country’s history: "At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" The Erik Wemple Blog has asked Fox News/Fox Business for a comment and has not heard back.(2) Sondland says Trump sought a 'quid pro quo' with Ukraine, but admits that Trump never told him so directlyhttps://apnews.com/6486944b076b4df99a583a3a7c85574dTrump directed Ukraine quid pro quo, key witness says By LISA MASCARO, MARY CLARE JALONICK and ERIC TUCKER 13 minutes agoWASHINGTON (AP) — Ambassador Gordon Sondland declared to impeachment investigators Wednesday that President Donald Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani explicitly sought a "quid pro quo" with Ukraine, leveraging an Oval Office visit for political investigations of Democrats. But he also came to believe the trade involved much more.Besides the U.S. offer of a coveted meeting at the White House, Sondland testified it was his understanding the president was holding up nearly $400 million in military aid, which Ukraine badly need with an aggressive Russia on its border, in exchange for the country’s announcement of the investigations.Sondland conceded that Trump never told him directly the security assistance was blocked for the probes, a gap in his account that Republicans and the White House seized on as evidence the president did nothing wrong. But the ambassador said his dealings with Giuliani, as well as administration officials, left him with the clear understanding of what was at stake."Was there a ‘quid pro quo?’" Sondland testified in opening remarks. "With regard to the requested White House call and White House meeting, the answer is yes." ...Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union and a major donor to Trump’s inauguration, was the most highly anticipated witness in the House’s impeachment inquiry into the 45th president of the United States.In often-stunning testimony, he painted a picture of a Ukraine pressure campaign that was prompted by Trump himself, orchestrated by Giuliani and well-known to other senior officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Sondland said he raised his concerns about a quid pro quo for military aid with Vice President Mike Pence — a conversation a Pence adviser vigorously denied.Pompeo also dismissed Sondland’s account.However, Sondland said, "Everyone was in the loop. It was no secret." ...Sondland said that conditions on any potential Ukraine meeting at the White House started as "generic" but more items were "added to the menu including -- Burisma and 2016 election meddling." Burisma is the Ukrainian gas company where Biden’s son Hunter served on the board. And, he added, "the server," the hacked Democratic computer system.During questioning in the daylong session, Sondland said he didn’t know at the time that Burisma was linked to the Bidens but today knows "exactly what it means." He and other diplomats didn’t want to work with Giuliani. But he and the others understood that Giuliani "was expressing the desires of the president of the United States, and we knew that these investigations were important to the president."He also came to understand that the military aid hinged on the investigations, though Trump never told him so directly. ...Associated Press writers Colleen Long, Laurie Kellman, Zeke Miller, Matthew Daly and Andrew Taylor in Washington contributed to this report.(3) ADL: any attack on George Soros is an attack on JewsFrom: chris lancenet <chrislancenet@gmail.com> Subject: DiGenova Calls Out Soros’ Control Over State Department and FBIhttps://theduran.com/digenova-calls-out-Soros-control-over-state-department-and-fbi/DiGenova Calls Out Soros’ Control Over State Department and FBIJoe DiGenova committed a grievous crime indeed, calling out the unspeakable "philanthropist" George Soros on Fox News’ Lou Dobbs Show.by Matthew EhretNovember 20, 2019The Open Society and Anti-Defamation League have gone ballistic last week demanding for the unprecedented eternal banning of Joe diGenova from Fox News… or else.DiGenova (former Federal Attorney for the District of Columbia) committed a grievous crime indeed, calling out the unspeakable "philanthropist" George Soros on Fox News’ Lou Dobbs Show on Nov. 14 as a force controlling a major portion of the American State Department and FBI. To be specific, DiGenova stated: "no doubt that George Soros controls a very large part of the career foreign service of the United States State Department. He also controls the activities of FBI agents overseas who work for NGOs — work with NGOs. That was very evident in Ukraine. And Kent was part of that. He was a very big protector of Soros." DiGenova was here referencing  State Department head George Kent who’s testimony is being used to advance President Trump’s impeachment.Open Society Foundation President Patrick Gaspard denounced Fox ironically calling them "McCarthyite" before demanding the network impose total censorship on all condemnation of Soros. Writing to Fox News’ CEO, Gaspard stated: "I have written to you in the past about the pattern of false information regarding George Soros that is routinely blasted over your network. But even by Fox’s standards, last night’s episode of Lou Dobbs tonight hit a new low… This is beyond rhetorical ugliness, beyond fiction, beyond ludicrous."Of course, the ADL and Gaspard won’t let anyone forget that any attack on George Soros is an attack on Jews the world over, and so it goes that the ADL President Jonathan Greenblatt jumped into the mud saying "Invoking Soros as controlling the State Dept, FBI, and Ukraine is trafficking in some of the worst anti-Semitic tropes." He followed that up by demanding Fox ban DiGenova saying: "If Mr. DiGenova insists on spreading anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, there is absolutely no reason for Fox News to give him an open mic to do so. Mainstream news networks should never give a platform to those who spread hate."Even though the MSM including the Washington Post, NY Times and other rags, not to mention countless Soros-affiliated groups have come out on the attack, DiGenova’s statements cannot be put back in the bottle, and their attacks just provoke more people to dig more deeply into the dark dealings of Soros and the geopolitical masterclass that use this a-moral, former Nazi speculator as their anti-nation state mercenary.A Little Background on Soros As has been extensively documented in many locations, ever since young Soros’ talents were identified as a young boy working for the Nazis during WWII (a time he describes as the best and most formative of his life), this young sociopath was recruited to the managerial class of the empire becoming a disciple of the "Open Society" post-nation state theories of Karl Popper while a student in London. He latter became one of the first hedge fund managers with startup capital provided by Evelyn Rothschild in 1968 and rose in prominence as a pirate of globalization, assigned at various times to unleash speculative attacks on nations resisting the world government agenda pushed by his masters (in some cases even attacking the center of power- London itself in 1992 which provided an excuse for the London oligarchs to stay out of the very euro trap that they orchestrated for other European nations to walk into).After the Y2K bubble, Soros began devoting larger parts of his resources to international drug legalization, euthanasia lobbying, color revolutions and other regime change programs under the guise of "Human Rights" organizations which have done a remarkable job destroying the sovereignty of Sudan, Libya, Iraq, and Syria to name a few. Since the economic crisis of 2008-09 (which his speculation helped create through unbounded currency and derivatives speculation), Soros has begun to advocate a new world governance system centred on what has recently been called the "Green New Deal" which has less to do with saving nature, and everything to do with depopulation.So when the ADL, and Open Society attacks someone for being anti-Semitic, you know that whomever they are attacking are probably doing something useful.Matthew Ehret is the founder of the Canadian Patriot Review and Director of the Rising Tide Foundation. He has authored three volumes of the Untold History of Canada, and can be reached at matt.ehret@tutamail.com(4) State officials confirm Soros foundation & U.S. embassy jointly funded the 'Anti-Corruption Action Centre' NGOhttps://www.redstate.com/elizabeth-vaughn/2019/11/13/heres-real-ukrainian-collusion/Here’s the Real Ukrainian Corruption StoryPosted at 8:30 pm on November 13, 2019 by Elizabeth VaughnThe Vienna Convention is an "international treaty that defines a framework for diplomatic relations" between independent countries. The treaty provides diplomatic immunity for foreigners operating in a host country. It also establishes a protocol that diplomats living abroad must adhere to. For example, diplomats are not supposed to interfere in the internal affairs of their host country. The treaty, signed in 1961, can be viewed here.Investigative journalist John Solomon has followed the Russian collusion and the Ukrainian collusion stories closely and over the past few years, he has broken one bombshell story after another. Today, he published a fascinating article about the "activist" tendencies of a fair number of Americans serving in the U.S. Embassy in Kiev in 2016. It seems that they somehow missed the memo about the Vienna Convention.He starts out with Marie Yovanovitch, who testified behind closed doors several weeks ago before Adam Schiff’s impeachment inquiry panel. Yovanovitch, a career diplomat, served as the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine from 2016 until she was recalled in May 2019. During her testimony, she told lawmakers she’d been stunned by her early recall. Claims by Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani were false and unfounded, she said. She had never acted against President Trump’s interests.In March, Solomon was interviewing a State Department official for another story when Yovanovitch’s name came up. This diplomat told Solomon that she had just "caused a commotion in Ukraine a few weeks before that country’s presidential election by calling for the firing of one of the prosecutors aligned with the incumbent president." He said that a senior official from State was on his way to Ukraine to smooth feathers. The man jokingly said, "We always say that the Vienna Convention is optional for our Kiev staff."Solomon looked into it, and found that on March 5, 2019, Yovanovitch had indeed delivered a speech asking for "Ukraine’s special anticorruption prosecutor to be removed." The speech can be viewed here. Solomon said that the country’s media had been "abuzz" over it.Solomon had spent months investigating the "U.S. government’s relationship with a Ukraine nonprofit called the AntiCorruption Action Centre (AntAC), which was jointly funded by liberal megadonor George Soros’ charity and the State Department." According to Solomon:State officials confirmed that Soros’ foundation and the U.S. embassy jointly funded the AntAC, and that Soros’ vocal role in Ukraine as an anticorruption voice afforded him unique access to the State Department, including in 2016 to the top official on Ukraine policy, Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland. (That access was confirmed in documents later released under FOIA to Citizens United.)Soros’ representatives separately confirmed to me that the AntAC was the leading tip of the spear for a strategy Team Soros devised in 2014 to fight corruption in Ukraine and that might open the door for his possible business investment of $1 billion. You can read the Ukraine strategy document here and Soros’ plan to invest $1 billion in Ukraine here.A little digging turned up a letter written by House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions in the spring of 2018 to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saying that Yovanovitch "had made anti-Trump comments and he suggested she be recalled." Sessions gave Solomon a copy of his letter. [...]It is neither a conspiracy theory nor a debunked or retracted story. U.S. embassy officials DID apply pressure to try to stop Ukrainian prosecutors from pursuing certain cases.The U.S. diplomats saw no problem in their actions, believing that it served the American interest in combating Ukrainian corruption. The Ukrainians viewed it far differently as an improper intervention in the internal affairs of their country.That controversy is neither contrived, nor trivial, and it predated any reporting that I conducted. And it remains an issue that will need to be resolved if the Ukraine and U.S. are to have a more fruitful alliance moving forward.(5) Activist U.S. embassy teamed up with George Soros - John Solomonhttps://johnsolomonreports.com/the-real-ukraine-controversy-an-activist-u-s-embassy-and-its-adherence-to-the-geneva-convention/The real Ukraine controversy: an activist U.S. embassy and its adherence to the Geneva ConventionNOVEMBER 13, 2019ADMINThe first time I ever heard the name of U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch was in early March of this year. It did not come from a Ukrainian or an ally of President Trump. It came from a career diplomat I was interviewing on background on a different story.The diplomat, as I recall, suggested that Yovanovitch had just caused a commotion in Ukraine a few weeks before that country’s presidential election by calling for the firing of one of the prosecutors aligned with the incumbent president.The diplomat related that a more senior State official, David Hale, was about  to travel to Ukraine and was prepping to be confronted about Yovanovitch’s comments. I remember the diplomat joking something to the effect of, "we always say that the Geneva Convention is optional for our Kiev staff."The Geneva Convention is the UN-backed pact enacted during the Cold War that governs the conduct of foreign diplomats in host countries and protects them against retribution. But it strictly mandates that foreign diplomats "have a duty not to interfere in the internal affairs of that State" that hosts them. You can read the convention’s rules here.I dutifully checked out my source’s story. And sure as day, Yovanovitch did give a speech on March 5, 2019 calling for Ukraine’s special anticorruption prosecutor to be removed. You can read that here.And the Ukraine media was abuzz that she had done so. And yes, Under Secretary of State Hale, got peppered with questions upon arriving in Kiev, specifically about whether Yovanovitch’s comments violated the international rule that foreign diplomats avoid becoming involved in the internal affairs and elections of their host country.Hale dutifully defended Yovanovitch with these careful words. "Well, Ambassador Yovanovitch represents the President of the United States here in Ukraine, and America stands behind her statements.  And I don’t see any value in my own elaboration on what they may or may not have meant. They meant what she said." You can read his comments here.Up to that point, I had focused months of reporting on Ukraine on the U.S. government’s relationship with a Ukraine nonprofit called the AntiCorruption Action Centre, which was jointly funded by liberal megadonor George Soros’ charity and the State Department. I even sent a list of questions to that nonprofit all the way back in October 2018. It never answered.Given that Soros spent millions trying to elect Hillary Clinton and defeat Donald Trump in 2016, I thought it was a legitimate public policy question to ask whether a State Department that is supposed to be politically neutral should be in joint business with a partisan figure’s nonprofit entity.State officials confirmed that Soros’ foundation and the U.S. embassy jointly funded the AntiCorruption Action Centre, and that Soros’ vocal role in Ukraine as an anticorruption voice afforded him unique access to the State Department, including in 2016 to the top official on Ukraine policy, Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland. (That access was confirmed in documents later released under FOIA to Citizens United.)Soros’ representatives separately confirmed to me that the Anti-Corruption Action Centre was the leading tip of the spear for a strategy Team Soros devised in 2014 to fight corruption in Ukraine and that might open the door for his possible business investment of $1 billion. You can read the Ukraine strategy document here and Soros’ plan to invest $1 billion in Ukraine here.After being tipped to the current Yovanovitch furor in Ukraine, I was alerted to an earlier controversy involving the same U.S. ambassador. It turns out a senior member of Congress had in spring 2018 wrote a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo alleging the ambassador had made anti-Trump comments and suggesting she be recalled. I confirmed the incident with House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions and got a copy of his letter, which you can read here. Yovanovitch denies any such disloyalty to Trump.Nonetheless, I had a career diplomat and a Republican lawmaker raising similar concerns. So I turned back to the sources I had developed starting in 2018 on Ukraine and began to dig further.I learned that Ukrainian officials, particularly the country’s prosecutors, viewed Yovanovitch as the embodiment of an activist U.S. embassy in Kiev that ruffled feathers by meddling in internal law enforcement cases inside the country.My sources told me specifically that the U.S. embassy had pressured the Ukraine prosecutors in 2016 to drop or avoid pursuing several cases, including one involving the Soros-backed AntiCorruption Action Centre and two cases involving Ukraine officials who criticized Donald Trump and his campaign manager Paul Manafort.To back up their story, my sources provided me a letter then-embassy official George Kent wrote proving it happened. State officials authenticated the letter. And Kent recently acknowledged in this testimony he signed that letter. You can read the letter here.With the help of a Ukrainian American intermediary and the Ukraine general prosecutor’s press office, I then secured an interview in mid-March 2016 with Ukraine’s then top prosecutor, Yuriy Lutsenko. In the interview that was videotaped and released for the whole world to see, Lutsenko alleged that in his first meeting in 2016 with Yovanovitch, the U.S. ambassador conveyed the names of several Ukrainians she did not want to see investigated and prosecuted. He called it, colloquially, a "do not prosecute list."The State Department denied such as list, calling it a fantasy, and I quoted that fair comment in my original stories. But before I published, I held the Lutsenko interview for a few days to do more reporting. State arranged for me to talk to a senior official about the Lutsenko-embassy relationship.I provided the names that Lutsenko claimed had been cited by the embassy. That senior official said he couldn’t speak to what transpired in the specific meeting between Yovanovitch and Lutsenko. But that official then provided me this surprising confirmation: "I can confirm to you that at least some of those names are names that U.S. embassy Kiev raised with the General Prosecutor because we were concerned about retribution and unfair treatment of Ukrainians viewed as favorable to the United States."In other words, State was confirming its own embassy had engaged in pressure on Ukrainian prosecutors to drop certain law enforcement cases, just as Lutsenko and other Ukrainian officials had alleged.When I asked that State official whether this was kosher with the Geneva Convention’s prohibition on internal interference, he answered: "Kiev in recent years has been a bit more activist and autonomous than other embassies."More recently, George Kent, the embassy’s charge d’affaires in 2016 and now a deputy assistant secretary of state, confirmed in impeachment testimony that he personally signed the April 2016 letter demanding Ukraine drop the case against the Anti-Corruption Action Centre.He also testified he was aware of pressure the U.S. embassy also applied on Ukraine prosecutors to drop investigations against a journalist named Vitali Shabunin, a parliamentary member named Sergey Leschenko and a senior law enforcement official named Artem Sytnyk.Shabunin helped for the AntiCorruption Action Centre that Soros funded, and Leschenko and Sytnyk were criticized by a Ukrainian court for interfering in the 2016 US election by improperly releasing or publicizing secret evidence in an ongoing case against Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.It’s worth letting Kent’s testimony speak for itself. "As a matter of conversation that U.S officials had with Ukrainian officials in sharing our concern about the direction of governance and the approach, harassment of civil society activists, including Mr. Shabunin, was one of the issues we raised," Kent testified.As for Sytnyk, the head of the NABU anticorruption police, Kent addded: "We warned both Lutsenko and others that efforts to destroy NABU as an organization, including opening up investigations of Sytnyk, threatened to unravel a key component of our anti-corruption cooperation."As the story of the U.S. embassy’s pressure spread, a new controversy erupted. A Ukrainian news outlet claimed Lutsenko recanted his claim about the "do-not-prosecute" list. I called Lutsenko and he denied recanting or even changing his story. He gave me this very detailed response standing by his statements.But American officials and news media eager to discredit my reporting piled on, many quoting the Ukrainian outlet without ever contacting Lutsenko to see if it was true. One of the American outlets that did contact Lutsenko, the New York Times, belatedly disclosed today that Lutsenko told it, like he told me, that he stood by his allegation that the ambassador had provided him names of people and groups she did not want to be targeted by prosecutors. You can read that here.It is neither a conspiracy theory nor a debunked or retracted story. U.S. embassy officials DID apply pressure to try to stop Ukrainian prosecutors from pursuing certain cases.The U.S. diplomats saw no problem in their actions, believing that it served the American interest in combating Ukrainian corruption. The Ukrainians viewed it far differently as an improper intervention in the internal affairs of their country that was forbidden by the Geneva Convention.That controversy is neither contrived, nor trivial, and it predated any reporting that I conducted. And it remains an issue that will need to be resolved if the Ukraine and U.S. are to have a more fruitful alliance moving forward.(6) US Embassy pressed Ukraine to drop probe of George Soros group during 2016 electionhttps://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/435906-us-embassy-pressed-ukraine-to-drop-probe-of-george-Soros-group-during-2016BY JOHN SOLOMON, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 03/26/19 06:00 PM EDT  578While the 2016 presidential race was raging in America, Ukrainian prosecutors ran into some unexpectedly strong headwinds as they pursued an investigation into the activities of a nonprofit in their homeland known as the Anti-Corruption Action Centre (AntAC).The focus on AntAC — whose youthful street activists famously wore "Ukraine F*&k Corruption" T-shirts — was part of a larger probe by Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office into whether $4.4 million in U.S. funds to fight corruption inside the former Soviet republic had been improperly diverted.The prosecutors soon would learn the resistance they faced was blowing directly from the U.S. Embassy in Kiev, where the Obama administration took the rare step of trying to press the Ukrainian government to back off its investigation of both the U.S. aid and the group."The investigation into the Anti-Corruption Action Center (sic), based on the assistance they have received from us, is similarly misplaced," then-embassy Charge d’ Affaires George Kent wrote the prosecutor’s office in April 2016 in a letter that also argued U.S. officials had no concerns about how the U.S. aid had been spent.At the time, the nation’s prosecutor general had just been fired, under pressure from the United States, and a permanent replacement had not been named.A few months later, Yuri Lutsenko, widely regarded as a hero in the West for spending two years in prison after fighting Russian aggression in his country, was named prosecutor general and invited to meet new U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.Lutsenko told me he was stunned when the ambassador "gave me a list of people whom we should not prosecute." The list included a founder of the AntAC group and two members of Parliament who vocally supported the group’s anti-corruption reform agenda, according to a source directly familiar with the meeting.It turns out the group that Ukrainian law enforcement was probing was co-funded by the Obama administration and liberal mega-donor George Soros. And it was collaborating with the FBI agents investigating then-Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort’s business activities with pro-Russian figures in Ukraine.The implied message to Ukraine’s prosecutors was clear: Don’t target AntAC in the middle of an America presidential election in which Soros was backing Hillary Clinton to succeed another Soros favorite, Barack Obama, Ukrainian officials said."We ran right into a buzzsaw and we got bloodied," a senior Ukrainian official told me.Lutsenko suggested the embassy applied pressure because it did not want Americans to see who was being funded with its tax dollars. "At the time, Ms. Ambassador thought our interviews of the Ukrainian citizens, of the Ukrainian civil servants who were frequent visitors in the U.S. Embassy, could cast a shadow on that anti-corruption policy," he said.State officials told me privately they wanted Ukraine prosecutors to back off AntAC because they feared the investigation was simply retribution for the group’s high-profile efforts to force anti-corruption reforms inside Ukraine, some of which took authorities and prestige from the Prosecutor General’s Office.But it was an unusual intervention, the officials acknowledged. "We’re not normally in the business of telling a country’s police force who they can and can’t pursue, unless it involves an American citizen we think is wrongly accused," one official said.In the end, no action was taken against AntAC and it remains thriving today. Nonetheless, the anecdote is taking on new significance.First, it conflicts with the State Department’s official statement last week after Lutsenko first mentioned the do-not-prosecute list. The embassy responded that the claim was a fabrication and a sign that corruption is alive and well inside Ukraine.But Kent’s letter unequivocally shows the embassy did press Ukrainian prosecutors to back off what normally would be considered an internal law enforcement matter inside a sovereign country. And more than a half-dozen U.S. and Ukrainian sources confirmed to me the AntAC case wasn’t the only one in which American officials exerted pressure on Ukrainian investigators in 2016.When I asked State to explain the letter and inclusion of the Soros-connected names during the meeting, it demurred. "As a general rule, we don’t read out private diplomatic meetings," it responded. "Ambassador Yovanovitch represents the President of the United States in Ukraine, and America stands behind her and her statements."Second, the AntAC anecdote highlights a little-known fact that the pursuit of foreign corruption has resulted in an unusual alliance between the U.S. government and a political mega-donor.After the Obama Justice Department launched its Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative a decade ago to prosecute corruption in other countries, the State Department, Justice Department and FBI outsourced some of its work in Ukraine to groups funded by Soros.The Hungarian-American businessman is one of the largest donors to American liberal causes, a champion of the U.S. kleptocracy crackdown and a man with extensive business interests in Ukraine.One key U.S. partner was AntAC, which received 59 percent (or $1 million) of its nearly $1.7 million budget since 2012 from U.S. budgets tied to State and Justice, and nearly $290,000 from Soros’s International Renaissance Foundation, according to the group’s donor disclosure records.The U.S.-Soros collaboration was visible in Kiev. Several senior Department of Justice (DOJ) officials and FBI agents appeared in pictures as participants or attendees at Soros-sponsored events and conferences.One attendee was Karen Greenaway, then the FBI supervisor in charge of international fraud cases and one of the lead agents in the Manafort investigation in Ukraine. She attended multiple such events and won glowing praise in a social media post from AntAC’s executive director.In one event during 2016, Greenaway and Ambassador Yovanovitch participated alongside AntAC’s executive director, Daria Kaleniuk, and Lutsenko was present. The message was clear: The embassy supported AntAC.The FBI confirmed Greenaway’s contacts with the Soros group, saying they were part of her investigative work: "In furtherance of the FBI’s mission and in the course of their duties, FBI employees routinely travel and participated in public forums in an official capacity. At a minimum, all such travel and speaking engagements are authorized by the employee’s direct supervisor and can receive further authorization all the way up to the relevant division head, along with an ethics official determination."Greenaway recently retired, and Soros’s AntAC soon after announced she was joining its supervisory board.Internal memos from Soros’s umbrella charity organization, Open Society Foundations, describe a concerted strategy of creating friendships inside key government agencies such as State, DOJ and the FBI that can be leveraged inside the countries Soros was targeting for anti-corruption activism."We have broadly recognized the importance of developing supportive constituencies in order to make headway in tightening the global web of anti-corruption accountability," a Feb. 21, 2014, memo states. "We first conceived of this in terms of fostering and helping to build a political environment favorable to high-level anti-corruption cases."That same memo shows Soros’s organization wanted to make Ukraine a top priority, starting in 2014, and planned to use the Anti-Corruption Action Centre as its lead."Ukraine: Behind the scenes advice and support to Ukrainian partner Anti-Corruption Action Centre’s efforts to generate corruption litigation in Europe and the U.S. respecting state assets stolen by senior Ukrainian leaders," the memo states.The memo included a chart of Ukrainians the Soros team wanted to have pursued, including some with ties to Manafort.Senior U.S. law enforcement officials confirmed to me that the early kleptocracy collaborations inside Ukraine led to highly visible U.S. actions against the oligarch Dmitri Firtash, a major target of the Soros group, and Manafort. Firtash is now represented by former Hillary Clinton lawyer Lanny Davis and former U.S. Attorney Dan Webb.Documents posted online by Open Society Foundations show that after U.S. officials scored some early successes in corruption cases in Ukraine, such as asset forfeitures, AntAC requested to receive some of the seized money."Ukrainian NGO AntiCorruption Action Centre (AntAC) petitioned the United States Justice Department on behalf of Ukrainian civil society to dedicate the nearly $3 million in forfeited and seized assets allegedly laundered by former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko, to creating an anti-corruption training facility," a 2015 foundation document stated.Spokespersons for AntAC and Open Society Foundations did not respond to repeated requests for comment.Michael Vachon, a spokesman for Soros, deferred any comment about AntAC to the group. But he did he confirm his boss supported the continued investigation of Russia collusion allegations against Trump well past 2016. Vachon said Soros wrote a sizable check from his personal funds in fall 2017 to a new group, Democracy Integrity Project, started by a former FBI agent and Senate staffer Daniel Jones to continue "investigation and research into foreign interference in American elections and European elections."Vachon said the group asked Soros not to divulge the size of his contribution, and Soros later learned the group hired Fusion GPS, the same firm that was paid by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic Party to create the infamous "Steele dossier" alleging Trump-Russia collusion.The he said-she said battle playing out between Ukraine’s chief prosecutor and the American ambassador doesn’t benefit either side, but an honest, complete and transparent account of what the embassy communicated to Ukraine’s law enforcement does.And the tale of AntAC raises some cogent questions:Why would the U.S. Embassy intervene on a Ukrainian internal investigation and later deny it exerted such pressure?Did Soros’s role as a major political funder have any impact?Do Americans want U.S. tax dollars commingled with activists’ private funds when it comes to anti-corruption probes? Someone in State and Congress should try to get the answers.John Solomon is an award-winning investigative journalist whose work over the years has exposed U.S. and FBI intelligence failures before the Sept. 11 attacks, federal scientists’ misuse of foster children and veterans in drug experiments, and numerous cases of political corruption. He serves as an investigative columnist and executive vice president for video at The Hill.(7) The Ukraine scandal timeline Democrats and their media allies don’t want America to seehttps://johnsolomonreports.com/the-ukraine-scandal-timeline-democrats-and-their-media-allies-dont-want-america-to-see/The Ukraine scandal timeline Democrats and their media allies don’t want America to seeNOVEMBER 20, 2019ADMINFor weeks now, Democratic members of Congress, career State Department and National Security Council experts and their allies in the media suggest questions about Joe Biden and a Ukrainian gas company and Ukraine meddling in the 2016 election were nothing more than debunked conspiracy theories.In reality, the facts on both these issues are clearly substantiated. And as I pointed out last week, many of the witnesses that House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff called during the impeachment proceedings confirmed concerns about both.Here is a detailed timeline of key events in the Ukraine scandal, complete with the corroborating evidence. You make your own judgement as to what happened.February 2014.Vice President Joe Biden named by President Obama to be U.S. point man on Ukrainian crisis after Euromaidan Revolution of Dignity leads to ouster of Viktor Yanukovych as Ukrainian president.February 21, 2014George Soros’ Open Society Foundation publishes anticorruption strategy for Ukraine identifying the Anti-Corruption Action Centre, a nonprofit that Soros’ foundation and the U.S. State Department jointly fund, as the leading edge of the foundation’s strategy for Ukraine.Validation: https://www.scribd.com/document/403223726/Open-Society-2014-MemoMarch 2014New Ukrainian elections set for May 2014 and Petro Poroshenko emerges as top Western-friendly candidate for president.April 13, 2014:Devon Archer, the business partner of Hunter Biden, son of the VP, and Christopher Heinz, stepson of Secretary of State John Kerry, is named an independent director of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings.Validation:  https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27403003April 15, 2014:Burisma Holdings makes two payments to the Morgan Stanley account of Devon Archer’s and Hunter Biden’s firm Rosemont Seneca Bohai in the amounts of $83,333.33 and $29,424.82, according to financial records obtained by Ukrainian authorities and the FBI.Validation: Burisma Holdings financial records obtained by Ukraine Prosecutor General’s Office. https://www.scribd.com/document/436048670/Burisma-Holdings-Accounting-Ledger                    FBI records obtained from Rosemont Seneca Bohai: https://www.scribd.com/document/404001731/Rosemont-Seneca-Partners-Court-FileApril 15, 2014:Devon Archer, Hunter Biden’s partner in Rosemont Seneca Bohai and Burisma Holdings, checks into White House for meeting with Vice President Joe Biden, according to the Secret Service’s official WAVES entry logs for the Obama White House.April 22, 2014:VP Joe Biden meets with Ukraine Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and urges Ukraine to ramp up energy production to free itself from its Russian natural gas dependence. Biden boasts that "an American team is currently in the region working with Ukraine and its neighbors to increase Ukraine’s short-term energy supply." Yatsenyuk welcomes help from American "investors" in modernizing natural gas supply lines in Ukraine.Validation: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/04/22/remarks-press-vice-president-joe-biden-and-ukrainian-prime-minister-arseApril 24, 2014:Joe Biden meets with candidate Poroshenko.Validation: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2014/04/petro-poroshenko-interview-ukrainian-presidential-candidate-discusses-putin-the-west-and-ukraine.htmlApril 28, 2014:Britain’s Serious Fraud Office freezes $23 million in assets kept in London by Burisma Holdings and its founder, Mykola Zlochevsky, on grounds it was fraudulently transferred from Ukraine. Zlochevsky and Burisma deny wrongdoing.Validation: https://www.sfo.gov.uk/cases/ukraine-money-laundering-investigation/May 13, 2014Hunter Biden announced as a board member for Ukraine’s largest natural gas company Burisma Holdings, which is run by Mykola Zlochevsky, a former Cabinet official for ousted president Victor Yanukovych.Validation: https://www.cnbc.com/2014/05/13/bidens-son-joins-ukraine-gas-companys-board-of-directors.htmlhttps://Burisma-group.com/hunter-biden-joins-the-team-of-Burisma-holdings/May 13, 2014Christopher Heinz, business partner to Devon Archer and Hunter Biden and stepson to John Kerry, sends email to Secretary of State’s top aides distancing himself from Archer, Biden appointments to Burisma Holdings board, according to FOIA released to Citizens United.Validation: https://www.scribd.com/document/433436789/CU-v-State-FOIA-Doc-UkraineMay 15, 2014Burisma Holdings makes two equal $83,333.33 payments totaling $166,666.66 to the Morgan Stanley account of Hunter Biden’s and Devon Archer’s firm Rosemont Seneca Bohai, according to the company’s official ledger and Rosemont Seneca Bohais bank records obtained by the FBI. Similar payments are made every month for more than a year.Validation: Burisma Holdings financial records released by Ukraine Prosecutor General’s Office: https://www.scribd.com/document/436048670/Burisma-Holdings-Accounting-LedgerRosemont Seneca records seized by FBI: https://www.scribd.com/document/404001731/Rosemont-Seneca-Partners-Court-FileMay 20, 2014David Leiter, former chief of staff to John Kerry, hired as a lobbyist for Burisma Holdings, Senate lobbying records show. The firm is paid $90,000 in 2014 to lobby Congress and the State Department.Validation: https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/client_reports.php?id=F212407&year=2014May 25, 2014Poroshenko wins the Ukraine presidential electionJuly 5, 2014:Burisma Holdings pays $250,000 retainer to Boies Schiller law firm where board member Hunter Biden also works.Validation: Burisma Holdings financial records released by Ukraine Prosecutor General’s Office: https://www.scribd.com/document/436048670/Burisma-Holdings-Accounting-LedgerAug. 20, 2014Ukraine Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin’s office opens criminal investigation of Burisma Holdings and Mykola Zlochevsky for alleged corrupt award of gas exploration permits and eventual looting of company, according to Ukrainian prosecutor general’s case file.Sept. 16, 2014Burisma Holdings makes $33,039.77 payment to Boies Schiller law firm, according to company records.Validation: Burisma Holdings accounting ledger obtained by Ukraine Prosecutor General’s Office https://www.scribd.com/document/436048670/Burisma-Holdings-Accounting-LedgerDecember 16, 2014Former deputy national security adviser Tony Blinken, a longtime Joe Biden adviser, confirmed by Senate as Deputy Secretary of State under John Kerry.Jan. 18, 2015:Prosecutor General’s office in Ukraine declares Burisma Holdings founder Mykola Zlochevsky a fugitive "wanted in Ukraine."Validation: https://www.kyivpost.com/article/content/reform-watch/prosecutors-put-zlochevsky-multimillionaire-ex-ecology-minister-on-wanted-list-377719.htmlJan. 29, 2015:British Serious Fraud Office announces it is closing down investigation into Burisma and Zlochevsky for insufficient evidence.Validation: https://www.sfo.gov.uk/cases/ukraine-money-laundering-investigation/March 18, 2015VP Biden has phone call with President Poroshenko.Validation: https://ua.usembassy.gov/readout-vice-presidents-call-ukrainian-president-petro-poroshenko-6/March 30, 2015:George Soros announces plans to invest $1 billion in Ukrainian energy and technology sectors.Validation: https://money.cnn.com/2015/03/30/investing/ukraine-Soros-billion-russia/index.htmlApril 15, 2015VP Joe Biden speaks in Ukraine, praising the decision to appoint a new head of the NABU, the new Ukrainian law enforcement investigative arm set up by United States.March 22, 2015:Hunter Biden emails his father’s longtime trusted aide, Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken, with the following message: "Have a few minutes next week to grab a cup of coffee? I know you are impossibly busy, but would like to get your advice on a couple of things, Best, Hunter."Blinken responds the same day with an "absolutely" and added, "Look forward to seeing you."The records indicate the two men were scheduled to meet the afternoon of May 27, 2015.Validation: https://www.scribd.com/document/436054889/Hunter-Biden-Blinken-May-2015-ContactsJune 11, 2015Burisma Holdings makes $20,000 donation to the Delaware Community Foundation in the name of Beau Biden, the vice president’s oldest son who died of cancer, according to the company’s financial records released by Ukraine prosecutor general’s office.Validation: https://www.scribd.com/document/436048670/Burisma-Holdings-Accounting-LedgerJune 12, 2015VP Biden calls President Poroshenko.Validation: https://ua.usembassy.gov/readout-vice-presidents-call-ukrainian-president-petro-poroshenko-8/July 15, 2015VP Biden and Commerce Secretary Pritzker attend first ever US-Ukraine Chamber of Business meeting.Validation: https://www.uschamber.com/first-annual-us-ukraine-business-forumJuly 22, 2015:Hunter Biden meets with Deputy Secretary Tony Blinken for lunch at State Department, according to State Department memos.Validation: https://www.scribd.com/document/433389212/Biden-Blinken-MeetingJuly 24, 2015:VP Biden calls President Poroshenko, raises concerns about anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine.Validation: https://ua.usembassy.gov/readout-vice-presidents-call-ukrainian-president-petro-poroshenko-10/Aug. 16, 2015Devon Archer throws a $10,000 a plate fund-raiser in New York for the Seed Global Health charity founded by Secretary of State Kerry’s daughter, Dr. Vanessa Kerry, according to official invite.Validation: https://www.scribd.com/document/432522987/Devon-Archer-Fundraiser-Vanessa-KerryAug. 28, 2015VP Biden calls President PoroshenkoValidation: https://ua.usembassy.gov/readout-vice-presidents-call-ukrainian-president-petro-poroshenko-082815/Sept. 25, 2015:U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt gives speech imploring Ukrainian prosecutors to do more to bring Burisma’s Zlochevsky to justice.Validation: https://www.rferl.org/a/us-ambassador-upbraids-ukraine-over-corruption-efforts/27271294.htmlSept. 29, 2015VP Biden meets with President Poroshenko in Ukraine.Validation: https://ua.usembassy.gov/readout-vice-president-bidens-meeting-ukrainian-president-petro-poroshenko/Nov. 5, 2015VP Biden calls President Poroshenko.Validation: https://ua.usembassy.gov/readout-vice-president-bidens-call-ukrainian-president-petro-poroshenko-110515/Nov. 18, 2015Burisma Holdings makes $60,000 payment to the American legal, lobbying and communications firm Blue Star Strategies for consulting work, according to company’s official ledger.Validation: https://www.scribd.com/document/436048670/Burisma-Holdings-Accounting-LedgerDec. 7, 2015VP Biden meets with President Poroshenko and demands the president make "hard decisions" to eliminate "the cancer of corruption" in his country.Validation: https://ua.usembassy.gov/remarks-vice-president-joe-biden-ukrainian-president-petro-poroshenko-bilateral-meeting/Dec. 8, 2015The New York Times publishes article stating Prosecutor General Shokin’s office is investigating Burisma Holdings and its founder Zlochecvsky, and that Hunter Biden’s participation on Burisma board is undercutting Joe Biden’s anticorruption message in Ukraine. VP Biden office quoted in story.Validation: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/world/europe/corruption-ukraine-joe-biden-son-hunter-biden-ties.htmlJan. 21-24, 2016:Obama White House invites leaders of Ukraine’s general prosecutor office to Washington for a hastily arranged set of meetings to discuss anticorruption cases, including Burisma and Party of Regions case involving Paul Manafort..Validation: https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/440730-how-the-obama-white-house-engaged-ukraine-to-give-russia-collusionFeb. 4, 2016Ukraine general prosecutor’s office under the direction of Viktor Shokin announces the seizure of assets from Burisma Holdings founder Mykola Zlochevsky under a continuing criminal investigation. The seizure occurred on Feb. 2, 2016, according to the announcement.Validation: https://en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/322395.htmlFeb. 4, 2016Burisma board member Hunter Biden sends a Twitter notification to Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken, a longtime adviser to Joe Biden, indicating he is following Blinken on Twitter.Validation: https://www.scribd.com/document/433389211/HunterBidenFollowBlinkenTwitterFeb. 11, 18, 19, 2016VP Biden holds series of phone calls with President Poroshenko to check on status of pending items from their December 2015 meeting.Validation: https://ua.usembassy.gov/readout-vice-president-bidens-calls-prime-minister-arseniy-yatsenyuk-president-petro-poroshenko-ukraine-021916/Feb. 24-March 1, 2016:An American representative for Burisma Holdings, Karen Tramontano of Blue Star Strategies, seeks meeting with Undersecretary of State Catherine A. Novelli to discuss ending the corruption allegations against the Ukrainian gas firm.  Hunter Biden’s name was specifically invoked by the Burisma representative as a reason the State Department should help. "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."Validation: https://www.scribd.com/document/433389210/Bluestar-Novelli-ContactsMarch 2, 2016:Devon Archer, a business partner of Hunter Biden and fellow American board member on Burisma Holdings, secures meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry, State Department memos say.Validation: https://www.scribd.com/document/433389208/Archer-Meeting-KerryMarch 15, 2016Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland demands Ukraine "appoint and confirm a new, clean Prosecutor General, who is committed to rebuilding the integrity of the PGO, and investigate, indict and successfully prosecute corruption and asset recovery cases – including locking up dirty personnel in the PGO itself."Validation: https://ua.usembassy.gov/ukrainian-reforms-two-years-maidan-revolution-russian-invasion/March 22, 2016VP Joe Biden engages in phone call from Washington DC with Ukrainian president Poroshenko about U.S. loan guarantees. It is believed in this call that Biden renews his demands that the president fire Prosecutor General Shokin, who is overseeing the Burisma prosecution, or risk losing the next $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees.Validation: https://ua.usembassy.gov/readout-vice-president-bidens-call-president-petro-poroshenko-ukraine-032216/March 29, 2016Ukraine parliament fires Prosecutor General Shokin at urging of President Poroshenko.Validation: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/30/world/europe/political-stability-in-the-balance-as-ukraine-ousts-top-prosecutor.htmlMarch 29, 2016:John Buretta, an American lawyer hired by Burisma Holdings, seeks to contact the Acting Prosecutor General Sevruk seeking a meeting about the Burisma investigation just hours after his boss, Prosecutor General Shokin, was fired under pressure from VP Joe Biden, according to email Buretta’s legal team sent the Ukraine embassy in Washington.Validation: https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/463307-solomon-these-once-secret-memos-cast-doubt-on-joe-bidens-ukraine-storyMarch 30, 2016:Burisma Holdings’ U.S. legal team seeks help of Ukrainian embassy official Andrii Telizhenko in Washington seeking urgent meeting with new Acting Prosecutor General of Ukraine, according to legal team’s email to embassy.Validation: https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/463307-solomon-these-once-secret-memos-cast-doubt-on-joe-bidens-ukraine-storyMarch 31, 2016VP Joe Biden arrives in Ukraine and announces $1 billion in loan guarantees, ending threat to withhold aid and force Ukraine into debt default, and also delivers $239 million more in promised aid.Validation: https://ua.usembassy.gov/readout-vice-president-bidens-meeting-president-petro-poroshenko-ukraine-033116/April 4, 2016:George Kent, a senior US official at the American embassy in Ukraine, writes a letter asking Ukrainian general prosecutor’s office to stand down their investigation of the Soros-funded group the Anti-Corruption Action Centre.Validation: https://www.scribd.com/document/402559592/Embassy2GPLetter4-4-16April 6, 2016Burisma Holdings’ U.S. legal team of John Buretta, Sally Painter and Karen Tramontano meets with Ukraine’s Acting Prosecutor General Sevruk to seek resolution of Burisma criminal investigation. American lawyers apologize for "false information" spread by U.S. government to force the firing of Shokin and offer Prosecutor General’s office an olive branch of arranging a meeting in Washington to clear the air.Validation: Official Prosecutor General’s memo of meeting: https://www.scribd.com/document/427618143/Ukraine-PGO-Memo-Untranslated                    English translation: https://www.scribd.com/document/427616178/Ukraine-PGO-Memo-TranslationApril 14, 2016VP Biden calls President Poroshenko and "stressed the urgency of putting in place a new Prosecutor General who would bolster the agency’s anti-corruption efforts.Validation: https://ua.usembassy.gov/readout-vice-president-bidens-call-president-petro-poroshenko-ukraine-041416/May 4, 2016:DNC contractor Alexandra Chalupa writes email to bosses at party headquarters derailing her work to get dirt on Trump and Manafort from Ukraine.Validation: https://wikileaks.org/dnc-emails/emailid/3962May 12, 2016Yurii Lutsenko named the new Prosecutor General of Ukraine, taking over investigations that include Burisma Holdings. VP Joe Biden later praises Lutsenko as a "solid guy" during 2018 speech at Atlantic Counsel.Validation: : https://www.cfr.org/event/foreign-affairs-issue-launch-former-vice-president-joe-bidenMay 25, 2016:Senior George Soros adviser provides private briefing to Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland about Russian bond market, according to official State Department memo of briefing.Validation: https://www.scribd.com/document/421082234/SorosNulandRussia-Bond-MarketMay 27, 2016VP Biden holds phone call with President Poroshenko.Validation: https://ua.usembassy.gov/readout-vice-president-bidens-call-president-petro-poroshenko-ukraine-052716/June 1, 2016:George Soros seeks and receives a telephonic meeting with Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland to discuss Ukraine, according to the official State Department record of callValidation: https://www.scribd.com/document/421081817/SorosNulandJune1-2016-Contacts-UkraineAug. 4, 2016:Ukraine’s ambassador to Washington, Valeriy Chaly, takes extraordinary step of writing an OpEd in The Hill intervening in the US presidential election, slamming Trump’s policies and comments on Russia.Validation: https://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/international/290411-ukraines-ambassador-trumps-comments-send-wrong-message-toAug. 12, 2016Phone call between VP Biden and President PoroshenkoSept. 20, 2016VP Biden meets President Poroshenko on sidelines of UN meeting. Confirms $1 billion in loan guarantees has been made.Validation: https://ua.usembassy.gov/readout-vice-president-bidens-meeting-president-petro-poroshenko-ukraine/Nov. 8, 2016Donald Trump wins election to become 45th president of United States, ending eight years of Democratic control of the White House.Dec. 15, 2016VP Biden holds phone call with Ukraine president and prime minister, praises work of NABU.Validation: https://ua.usembassy.gov/readout-vice-president-bidens-calls-president-ukraine-petro-poroshenko-prime-minister-ukraine-volodymyr-groysman/Jan. 11, 2017:Politico reports possible effort by DNC contractor Alexandra Chalupa to seek Russia dirt on Trump and Manafort from Ukraine embassy in Washington during 2016 election.Validation: https://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/ukraine-sabotage-trump-backfire-233446Jan. 17-18, 2017Biden makes final appearance in Ukraine with President Poroshenko.Validation: https://ua.usembassy.gov/remarks-vice-president-joe-biden-joint-press-availability-ukrainian-president-petro-poroshenko/February 1, 2017:John Buretta, the American lawyer for Burisma Holdings, gives interview in Kiev confirming there were criminal cases open in 2016 in Ukraine but all have been settled, the last with a penalty for tax violations.Validation: https://www.kyivpost.com/business-wire/john-buretta-us-important-close-casesagainst-Burisma-nikolayzlochevskyiin-legally-sound-manner.htmlJan. 25, 2018Former VP Biden boasts at Council of Foreign Relations events in Washington that he strong-armed Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko into firing Prosecutor General Shokin, using loan guarantees as leverage. He also calls Shokin’s replacement, Yuriy Lutsenko, "solid."Validation: https://www.cfr.org/event/foreign-affairs-issue-launch-former-vice-president-joe-bidenMay 9, 2018House Rules Committee chairman Pete Sessions writes letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo demanding removal of US Ambassador to Kiev Marie Yovanovitch.Validation: https://www.scribd.com/document/402558867/Sessions-Pompeo-correspondence-2018December 12, 2018:Ukrainian court rules that the efforts by Ukrainian parliamentary member Sergey Leschenko and NABU chief Artem Sytnyk to publicize the Manafort black ledger documents in 2016 were an improper foreign intervention in the American presidential election.Validation: https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/publication-of-manafort-payments-violated-law-interfered-in-us-election-kyiv-court-rules.htmlFeb. 10, 2019NABU revives dormant Burisma case, drafting a notice of suspicion against founder Mykola Zlochevsky and asking the special anticorruption prosecutor of Ukraine to bring Zlochevsky in for questioning.Validation: https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/nabu-prepares-draft-notice-of-suspicion-on-episode-involving-ex-minister-zlochevsky.htmlMarch 28, 2019Ukraine General Prosecutor’s office under the authority of Deputy Prosecutor General Kulyk announces it has opened a new money laundering investigation against Burisma founder Zlochevsky.Validation: https://www.scribd.com/document/429942801/March282019NoticeofSuspicionZolchevskyBurismaMay 2, 2019:Ukraine embassy in Washington issues statement confirming that in spring 2016 the DNC contractor Alexandra Chalupa sought the embassy’s help seeking dirt on Donald Trump and Paul Manafort and asking for Ukraine’s president to meet with an investigative reporter working on the issue.Validation: https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/441892-ukrainian-embassy-confirms-dnc-contractor-solicited-trump-dirt-in-2016Text of statement: https://www.scribd.com/document/432699412/Ukraine-Chaly-Statement-on-Chalupa-042519May 16, 2019:Artem Sytnyk, head of Ukraine’s National Anticorruption Bureau (NABU), confirms investigations remain open against Burisma and its founder Zlochevsky.Validation: https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/sytnyk-nabu-has-not-closed-cases-related-to-zlochevsky.html