The New York-based law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore registered as a foreign agent last week, eight years after the law firm worked on behalf of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings.
Meanwhile, his first son, Hunter Biden, never registered as a foreign agent despite earning $80,000 a month as a board member of Burisma between 2014 and 2019, a period that overlapped with the last three years in which he His father, Joe Biden, served as Barack Obama’s Vice President and oversaw the administration’s policy toward Ukraine.
The disclosure, filed Thursday, arises from meetings that Thomas Buretta, a partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, had with Obama administration officials in 2016, after he was hired to represent Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner of Burisma, while His company faced “possible investigations by government authorities in the United States.”
Cravath, Swaine & Moore retroactively complied with the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, “after discussions with the Department of Justice regarding the scope of FARA,” the firm said in a statement, according to Reuters.
The law firm that registered as a foreign agent eight years after working with Burisma is the Ukrainian energy company that paid Hunter Biden. REUTERS
FARA requires U.S. law firms and lobbyists to disclose certain work done on behalf of foreign clients.
“Cravath has filed a retroactive registration covering legal services provided to two former clients in March and September 2016,” the firm added, referring to Zlochevsky and Burisma Holdings.
The law firm billed the Ukrainian oligarch and his company nearly $350,000 for services provided in 2016, the FARA document shows.
Cravath, Swaine & Moore retroactively complied with the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA. REUTERS
“As part of this representation, Mr. Buretta met with three U.S. government officials in March 2016 and sent a letter to a U.S. government official in September 2016,” the document states. . “In these interactions, Mr. Buretta identified his clients and presented facts relevant to potential investigations in the United States and Ukraine, including information from a proceeding in the United Kingdom involving his clients.”
Buretta, who previously served as principal deputy attorney general and chief of staff of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division in the Obama administration, met individually with then-Deputy Secretary of State Catherine Novelli, Deputy Secretary of State Amos Hochstein and the Department of Justice Bruce Swartz. , according to the file. He also sent a letter to then-U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.
The law firm partner’s meetings with Obama administration officials took place just weeks before Ukrainian Attorney General Viktor Shokin was removed from office.
An FBI whistleblower alleged that Joe Biden, as vice president, pushed for Shokin to be fired because the prosecutor was investigating Burisma. The whistleblower said Zlochevsky claimed he had “bribed” the Bidens for $5 million each, in part to get them to can Shokin.
Biden boasted to the Council on Foreign Relations in 2018 that, during a trip to kyiv in December 2015, he threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. aid to the former Soviet state if Shokin was not fired.
“I looked at them and said: I’m leaving in six hours. If they don’t fire the prosecutor, you’re not going to get the money… Well, son of a bitch. They fired him,” Biden recalled.
Cravath, Swaine & Moore partners’ meetings with Obama administration officials occurred before Ukrainian Attorney General Viktor Shokin was removed from office. AFP via Getty Images
Critics of special counsel David Weiss’ long investigation into the president’s son also noted, following the Delaware federal prosecutor’s December indictment of Hunter Biden for tax crimes, that the 53-year-old has not yet faced charges for alleged rape. from FARA. – Which could implicate his father.
“Unless U.S. Attorney Weiss investigates everyone involved in the Bidens’ fraud and influence-peddling schemes, it will be clear that President Biden’s Justice Department is protecting Hunter Biden and the big guy,” the president said. House Oversight Committee James Comer (R-Ky.) said in a statement. statement last month.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), member of the Oversight Committee, tweeted, “The Department of Justice dropped the charges against FARA. The income came from foreign countries and we have proof.”
Biden raised $80,000 a month as a member of John Burisma’s board of directors from 2014 to 2019. Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP.
“The omission of FARA charges remains a glaring contradiction to other cases, including those against several Trump associates,” George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley told The Post in December.
“There is no evidence that Weiss ever seriously pursued those allegations. The result was to further insulate the White House from the scandal. A FARA charge would have increased pressure on Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special prosecutor over the corruption scandal itself. In fact, the impeachment itself is a marvel of evasion: accusing tax evasion without addressing the corruption that produces the money itself,” Turley said.
Hunter Biden’s alleged FARA violations include calling dinners in D.C. in 2014 and 2015 attended by his father and associates from Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine, and bringing Mexican associates to the vice president’s residence and arranging meetings for them. with officials from the Obama-Biden administration.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn