On July 25, 2019, President Donald Trump had a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and congratulated him on his recent election victory. As the new leader of Ukraine, Zelenskyy was asking for bolstered military aid from the United States.
During their conversation, and in line with his America First foreign policy position, Trump wanted to know more about corruption in Ukraine in order to be a good steward of American tax dollars that were so often squandered in foreign countries.
"I would also like to thank you for your great support in the area of defense. We are ready to continue to cooperate for the next steps, specifically, we are almost ready to buy more Javelins from the United States for defense purposes," Zelenskky said. "It is very important, and we are open for any future cooperation. We are ready to open a new page on cooperation in relations between the United States and Ukraine."
Taking Zelenskyy up on his offer of cooperation ahead of next steps, Trump inquired about corruption and Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, who was fired while investigating Burisma when Joe Biden was vice president. At the time, Burisma, a notoriously corrupt company, was paying Hunter Biden $80,000 per month to sit on the board.
"I heard you had a prosecutor who was very good, and he was shut down, and that's really unfair," Trump said. "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 the Attorney General, that would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution, so if you can look at it, it sounds horrible to me."
At the time of Trump's inquiry, we knew the Biden family had financially benefited from the very Ukraine-based corruption Joe Biden was supposed to be fighting. Trump was swiftly impeached for asking a truthful question and trying to get to the bottom of the Biden gravy train.
Fast forward to July 20, 2023, and an FBI FD-1023 document, which FBI Director Christopher Wray refused to hand over to Congress – blowing past a number of deadlines to do so – confirmed in black and white that not only was there corruption but paid bribes during Biden's time as vice president.
"Don't worry. Hunter will take care of all of those issues through his dad," an FBI confidential human source (CHS) documented Burisma executives discussing, noting it would be easier to get an initial public offering in the U.S. if they issued bribery payments. "It cost 5 (million) to pay one Biden, and 5 (million) to another Biden."
"CHS mentioned Zlochevsky might have difficulty explaining suspicious wire transfers that may evidence any (illicit) payments to the Bidens. Zlochevsky responded he did not send any funds directly to the 'Big Guy' (which CHS understood was a reference to Joe Biden)," the FD-1023 document states. "CHS asked Zlochevsky how many companies/bank accounts Zlochevsky controls; Zlochevsky responded it would take them (investigators) 10 years to find the records (i.e. illicit payments to Joe Biden)."
The information contained in the FBI FD-1023 corroborates findings by the House Oversight Committee that the Biden's had nearly two dozen shell companies and numerous bank accounts where they funneled money, making it harder to trace. It also backs up accounts from former Biden business partner Tony Bobulinski, who revealed in October 2020 that Joe Biden was referred to as "the Big Guy" and regularly received 10 percent of transactions.
Asking about corruption on a phone call doesn't qualify as high crimes and misdemeanors, although that didn't prevent Democrats from abusing their power against President Trump. Taking bribes from foreign nationals to influence U.S. foreign policy and bend the rules for business in America does qualify. What Biden did in Ukraine (and elsewhere around the world) is certainly an impeachable offense.
Editor's note/correction: The call cited between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took place on July 25, 2019. A previous version of this column stated the call took place on September 24, 2019. September 24, 2019 is when President Trump declassified the call.