Combine this with today's news that Hunter Biden's "business" communicated with Vice President Biden over 1,000 times -- and that Biden is claiming executive privilege to prevent us from seeing the emails that might expose him -- and a picture takes shape.
This is actually from Tuesday night but I missed it.
If you didn't miss it-- there's a newer article later in the post.
Shocking emails reveal Hunter Biden helped coordinate a plan with Democrat strategists to 'close down any cases' against the owner of allegedly corrupt Ukrainian gas firm Burisma and 'gain intelligence' on the country's top prosecutor's office.
The emails bolster claims by ex-Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin that the First Son and his then-Vice President dad conspired to kill Shokin's criminal investigation of Burisma.
...
Emails obtained by DailyMail.com from Hunter's abandoned laptop lay bare how the First Son was involved in Burisma's attempts to thwart law enforcement looking into its alleged corruption.
On May 12, 2014, the day before Hunter's $1million-per-year appointment to Burisma's board was publicly announced, executive Vadym Pozharskyi emailed the then-VP's son from his personal Gmail account, warning that the firm's owner Mykola Zlochevsky was likely under criminal investigation in Ukraine.
'We urgently need your advice on how you could use your influence to convey a message / signal, etc to stop what we consider to be politically motivated actions,' Pozharskyi wrote.
Note that this has been the spin from Biden since he pressured Ukraine to fire the prosecutor investigating the corrupt company Burisma -- that it was the prosecutor who was really the corrupt one.
And that was all concocted by Burisma's board.
The Burisma executive said the company was the victim of blackmail.
'In case we don't cooperate i.e. provide money in cash the gas production business of [Zlochevsky] would be stopped,' he wrote.
'After unsuccessful attempts to receive funds from our side, they proceeded with concrete actions.'
But at the time Zlochevsky was the subject of a legitimate money laundering investigation by the FBI and British intelligence services, for allegedly awarding his own companies lucrative gas contracts while he served as Ukraine's environment minister and squirreling away $23million abroad.
Hunter got a partner at his then-law firm, Boies, Schiller, & Flexner, to devise a response for Burisma and also pitched in with advice on gaining 'intelligence' on new staff at the Prosecutor General's office using investigative agency Nardello & Co.
'It would be helpful to gain intelligence on who is leading the restructuring the individuals being considered for those posts,' he wrote.
'Agreed -- that is part of what their human intel sources are seeking to learn,' the Boies partner, Heather King, replied.
Does anyone suspect that Joe Biden provided him with that intelligence? In some of those emails he's invoking executive privilege over, maybe?
A senior US diplomat in Ukraine, George Kent, testified to Congress that a deputy in the Ukrainian prosecutor's office told him Zlochevsky ended up paying a $7million bribe to Ukrainian justice officials in December 2014 to sabotage the US-UK probe.
So no one was extracting money from Burisma -- Burisma was offering bribes to shut down investigations.
There is no evidence on Hunter's laptop that the First Son was involved in such an alleged bribe.
But when Shokin took over as the new Prosecutor General in 2015, Burisma faced fresh scrutiny, and again turned to Hunter for help.
Shokin had launched new investigations into the gas firm, took legal action against one of his staff for the alleged sabotage of Zlochevsky's $23million money laundering case, and even got a court to temporarily freeze the Ukrainian oligarch's assets.
Hunter hooked Burisma up with Washington DC consultancy Blue Star Strategies, run by former Clinton administration officials, and Pozharsky spelt out their role in a November 2, 2015 email.
He wrote the 'ultimate purpose' of their work was 'to close down for any cases/pursuits against [Zlochevsky] in Ukraine.'
Pozharsky was unimpressed that Blue Star's written proposal for the job didn't include a promise to lobby top American diplomats -- which would have required the firm to register with the US Justice Department as a foreign agent.
But Hunter and his partners indicated that the firm just didn't want to put it in writing.
'I would tell Vadym that this is definitely done deliberately to be on the safe and cautious side and that Sally [Painter, Blue Star COO] and company understand the scope and deliverables,' Hunter's business partner Eric Schwerin wrote privately to Hunter.
Pozharsky wrote: 'If you and Devon [Archer, Hunter's friend and fellow board member] feel comfortable that they will deliver what in real terms we are talking about, we should disregard the wording of the scope and move further with signing and starting actual work.'
'Devon and I do feel comfortable with BS [Blue Star] and the ability of Sally & Karen [Tramontano, CEO] to deliver,' Hunter replied on November 5, 2015.
Note that the State Department contradicted Biden's claim that he had to withhold money from Ukraine to force them to be more aggressive fighting corruption: They certified Ukraine as being adequately anti-corruption, and praised the fired prosecutor Viktor Shokin in particular.
A task force of State, Justice and Treasury officials reviewing the proposed $1billion loan to Ukraine concluded in October 2015 that 'Ukraine has made sufficient progress on its reform agenda to justify a third guarantee', according to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by website Just the News.
The review did not tie the loan to the dismissal of Shokin, despite Joe's later push for his firing.
And National Security Council staffer Eric Ciaramella wrote in a January 21, 2016 email his team were 'super impressed' with staff from Shokin's office after a two-hour meeting with them.
Biden wasn't fighting to make Ukraine take corruption more seriously -- he was fighting to make Ukraine give Burisma a pass on its corruption.
Here's a fresher story: An underling of Merrick Garland's had heard the claims of the IRS whistleblowers that David Weiss was intentionally slow-walking the case. (And oopsie-doopsies, letting the statute of limitations run on his 2014-2015 tax evasion cases! Oh well!)
He contacted Merrick Garland about opening a probe.
He also spoke to... Hunter Biden's lawyer, for some reason.
Why does he need to speak with Hunter Biden's lawyer about an allegation of a misbehaving DOJ prosecutor?
After these conversations, Garland's underling cancelled the probe.
And then: David Weiss rushed out his sweetheart plea deal to make this all go away.
Merrick Garland probably just talked to him about the weather, you know?
EXCLUSIVE: Merrick Garland underling contacted IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley to discuss his Hunter Biden allegations before he testified -- then immediately struck sweetheart deal with president's son
Emails and interviews with whistleblower Gary Shapley's legal team reveal DoJ officials appeared concerned about his claims of slow-rolling of Hunter probe
Shapley's attorney Mark Lytle told DailyMail.com he later briefed Associate Deputy Attorney General Brad Weinsheimer about the case in an April phone call
But Weinsheimer then went straight to Hunter's then-lead lawyer, Chris Clark, and top Delaware prosecutor David Weiss -- and dropped his inquiry, Lytle said
Top Justice Department officials meddled in the criminal investigation into Hunter Biden and showed favoritism to the First Son, lawyers for the key IRS whistleblower have claimed in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com.
Attorneys for senior IRS investigator Gary Shapley revealed a top Justice official approached them in April saying he wanted to investigate Shapley's claims of slow-rolling and obstruction in Hunter's case.
Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer immediately met with Hunter's lawyers and his Delaware prosecutor, who days later struck a 'sweetheart' deal with the president's son for blanket immunity and no jail, while Shapley and his team were pulled off the case.
The lawyers said Weinsheimer at first appeared eager to get to the bottom of Shapley's allegations that Delaware prosecutor David Weiss's team shut down lines of inquiry involving Joe Biden, leaked information to Hunter's lawyers, and deliberately let the statute of limitations run out for Hunter's alleged felony tax crimes over their five-year probe.
'In just two short weeks, Weinsheimer went from expressing an interest in the claims of wrongdoing by the IRS whistleblower to dismissing the claims of retaliation when the IRS agents were pulled off the case,' attorney Mark Lytle told DailyMail.com.
Lytle said that after getting information from him, Weinsheimer reportedly had a secret meeting the next day with Weiss and Hunter's then-lead lawyer Chris Clark, then 'changed his tune' with Lytle telling him everything would be handled by Weiss.
The string of events left Shapley's team feeling DoJ leaders were going behind their backs with the IRS Supervisory Special Agent's sensitive information and showing favoritism to the president's son.
Emails obtained by DailyMail.com and interviews with Shapley's legal team reveal how Justice Department leaders at first appeared concerned and eager to investigate the worrying allegations -- then quickly dropped their inquiry.
Instead Shapley and his team were removed from the criminal case, and prosecutors struck a 'sweetheart' deal with Hunter's lawyers.
An April 24 email obtained this week by DailyMail.com shows an aide for Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco contacted Lytle asking for a call, following the WSJ article.