Even while faced with a Russian invasion of their nation, some elements in the Ukrainian government were plotting to help the Biden re-election campaign — with U.S. taxpayer money.
That was the gist of an explosive article Thursday from the Washington-based website Just the News, citing a declassified intelligence report.
And Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is reportedly on the case.
The Just the News report was authored by website founder John Solomon, a veteran, highly respected D.C. journalist, and Just the News chief investigative correspondent Jeff Dunleavy.
It claimed that U.S. intelligence intercepts had revealed that personnel in the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, and the Ukrainian government discussed a plan in late 2022 to redirect “hundreds of millions” of American taxpayer money from a “clean energy” project in Ukraine back to the United States — and into the coffers of then-President Joe Biden’s re-election bid.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, meaning the discussions were taking place only months after the carnage had begun unfolding.
What wasn’t clear was whether anything actually came of the plotting, or whether it stalled in the discussion stage.
However, the Biden administration showed a “lack of curiosity to investigate such an explosive allegation of foreign interference in a U.S. election,” Just the News reported, citing “officials who have reviewed the files.”
Gabbard, however, is asking USAID to “scour for records to see if the plot actually was carried out and whether a criminal referral should be made to the FBI,” Just the News reported.
If the report is true, and the plot moved beyond simply discussion, it could represent a bombshell in U.S.-Ukraine relations.
Allegations of Russian meddling in the election of 2016, after all, were the foundation of the “Russia collusion” investigation that dogged President Donald Trump’s first term.
The possibility that the Biden administration could collude with another foreign government to use what amounts to stolen U.S. taxpayer funds to aid Biden’s re-election campaign would be considerably worse. And it could sour relations between the Trump administration and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
In late 2022, Trump was far from guaranteed the Republican nomination for the 2024 election cycle. At the time, his company, the Trump Organization, was being prosecuted on charges of tax fraud in New York City — and was convicted in December of that year.
The year following year, 2023, would bring indictments on criminal “hush money” charges against Trump himself, which would lead to convictions in May 2024.
And he was facing the prospect of criminal cases in Georgia brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (which eventually collapsed) and in federal courts from then-special counsel Jack Smith (which also collapsed, thanks to the Supreme Court and U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon).
Still, some Republican was going to be the party’s nominee in 2024, and a revelation that the Kyiv government, dependent on U.S. aid for its very existence, would turn American taxpayer money into corrupt campaign contributions to a Democratic administration could be toxic at a time when Ukraine is desperate for U.S. help in its continuing war with Russia.
And the report alone is enough to remind Republicans on Capitol Hill, as well as the White House, of Zelenskyy’s decision to visit a munitions plant in the swing state of Pennsylvania in September 2024, the virtual eve of the presidential election.
The visit was viewed by many in the GOP as a virtual campaign stop for then-Vice President Kamala Harris in her ultimately unsuccessful battle against Trump, who by then had won the GOP nomination on the way to completing his seemingly impossible political comeback to the White House.
The allegations could also strengthen memories of the extremely lucrative job Biden’s son, Hunter, landed with the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma during his father’s years as vice president, as well as Biden’s own interference in Ukraine’s anti-corruption efforts — interference Biden himself bragged about.
What happens next will probably depend on the findings of Gabbard’s investigation, but the Just the News report could be just the beginning.
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