Here’s a brief fact check on all those conspiracy theories being floated to take the focus off of:

1. Russia’s interference in our elections.
2. Trump’s extortion of Ukraine.
3. Damning witness testimony.

What About All Those Conspiracy Theories?

1. Throughout the proceedings, Republican questioners have repeatedly tried to shift the focus of the investigations to their theories that Ukraine meddled in the elections (calling the idea that Russia meddled in the election the “Russia hoax”). Specifically, Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Representative Devin Nunes (R-CA) have been the biggest proponents of these theories.

• • During Vindman’s and William’s testimony, Nunes tries to make the Bidens the focus instead of Trump. He asserts without evidence that Biden interfered in Ukraine’s domestic affairs to benefit his son, Hunter.
  • During Volker and Morrison’s testimony, Jim Jordan pushes the narrative that Ukraine was engaged in election meddling in 2016. He cites tweets against Trump and Ukraine officials speaking against Trump.
    • He also says that because of Volker and Morrison, Zelensky was able to get reform passed through the parliament that allows politicians to be charged with a crime. This is important because oligarchs liked to become politicians so they couldn’t be indicted. (But I don’t know how much Volker or Morrison had to do with passing the law.)
  • Republican questioners also keep bringing up Alexandra Chalupa.
  • And finally, there’s the conspiracy theory about the DNC server being held somewhere in Ukraine so the FBI can’t get to it.

2. Trump’s own staff, including his first head of Homeland Security Thomas Bossert, repeatedly warned him that the Ukraine conspiracy was completely debunked.

Did Ukraine Meddle in Our Elections?

No more so than any other foreign country who feared a Trump presidency. Compare what Ukraine is accused of doing with what our intelligence agencies say we know Russia did: 

• • Putin ordered Russia’s interference, and it involved both Russia’s intelligence agencies and their military.
  • Russia focused on spreading a pro-Trump message and spreading unflattering stories about Clinton.
  • Russia also executed repeated cyberattacks on our election system.
  • There is no clear evidence connecting the Clinton campaign to a foreign government, nor of them seeking illegally obtained information from one. These very things were outlined, however, in Mueller’s report between the Trump campaign and Russia.
  • I shouldn’t have to remind anybody that eight people under investigation by Mueller either pleaded guilty or were convicted.
    

1. So here’s what is being used as proof of Ukraine meddling: The black ledger; an op-ed and flurry of social media posts criticizing Trump’s comments during an August 1, 2016, interview with George Stephanopoulos; Alexandra Chalupa’s research; and CrowdStrike.
2. The Politico story that seems to have started or at least fueled this theory says that Putin personally directed Russia’s effort, and it was a focused effort involving military and foreign intelligence services. The Ukraine effort, if there was one, was scattershot. Former President Poroshenko maintains there was no effort to meddle in our elections. Ukraine did fear a Trump presidency, though, because he was more friendly to Russia than to Ukraine.
3. The op-ed and social media posts from Ukraine officials that Republicans are citing as evidence of a concerted effort against Trump were in response to an interview candidate Trump did with George Stephanopoulos. During the interview, Trump said that Putin is “not going into Ukraine, just so you understand. He’s not going to go to Ukraine.” In reality, Putin seized Crimea from Ukraine two years prior in 2014, and they’ve been fighting ever since.

• • Trump went on to say the whole area is a mess under Obama, and that the people of Crimea might be happier under Russian rule. Trump only made it worse when he tried to clarify his statements. The reaction from Ukraine officials is understandable. And no wonder they were scared of a Trump presidency.

4. Several of the social media posts reportedly came from US-born Ukrainians. The only social media posts I can find evidence of have been deleted, and were from a retired Ukrainian diplomat and from Ukraine‘s Minister of Internal Affairs.

• • They called Trump a clown and a danger, and one harshly criticized Trump for saying Putin hadn’t attacked Ukraine. They also criticized Paul Manafort.

5. At the Republican National Convention in July, they changed their platform to remove references to arming Ukraine against Russia, so Ukraine again had reason to be concerned about a Trump presidency.
6. The Politico article and its author say that nothing done by the Ukrainians comes even close to what Russia did.
7. The Hill and Politico both reported that a spokesperson for Russia’s Foreign Ministry started the narrative that Ukraine meddled in our elections. Marie Zakharova said that Ukraine “seriously complicated” Trump’s election campaign when they “planted” information about Paul Manafort (the black ledger conspiracy theory). If you remember, Manafort is in prison, convicted of multiple charges and having pleaded guilty to multiple others.
8. An anti-corruption politician and investigative reporter, Sergei Leshchenko, found the black ledger. He also lost his job when Giuliani complained about him.
   

Who is Alexandra Chalupa?

1. Alexandra Chalupa worked for the Clinton administration and then was a consultant for the DNC. She was still consulting for the DNC, along with other clients, in 2016.
2. Chalupa is the daughter of Ukrainian immigrants, and is an American citizen.
3. In 2014, she was doing pro bono work for another client regarding the Ukrainian crisis when Manafort’s work for a former pro-Russian Ukrainian president caught her attention.
4. Chalupa was suspicious of a Russia connection with Trump campaign, so she began researching it. She occasionally shared her findings with the Clinton campaign and the DNC, but was not working for either. She was doing this as a private citizen.
5. While Chalupa shared her information with the DNC, the DNC didn’t include any of the information she shared in their dossiers. They also didn’t publicize any of it. She stopped consulting for the DNC after the party convention in July.
6. She spoke with Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S., who shared her concerns but didn’t think Trump would win anyway. But then Trump hired Manafort, and all of the sudden Chalupa was in high demand for the information she had found.
7. Within a few weeks of her meeting with the ambassador, the administrators of her private email account started warning her about attempts by “state-sponsored actors” to break into her email account.

• • WikiLeaks eventually hacked into and released some of her emails.

8. Her family cars were broken into and ransacked, and someone tried to break into her home. She felt these were intimidation tactics, and she later started receiving death threats.

So What About the Bidens?

1. Hunter Biden took a position on the board of Ukrainian company Burisma during a time when his father, Joe Biden, was working on getting the Ukraine government to get rid of their corrupt prosecutor general.
2. Ukraine officials say there’s no evidence either Joe or his son Hunter did anything wrong, and that they wouldn’t even know what they should be investigating should they open an investigation.
3. Joe Biden did his work with Ukraine out in the open, in accordance with U.S. foreign policy, and with both presidential and bipartisan congressional approval.
4. At worst, having Hunter on Burisma’s board was ethically questionable. Legal experts say that it wasn’t illegal, though.
5. Many of our foreign allies backed Joe Biden’s push to have Ukraine’s prosecutor removed. It also made it more likely that Burisma would be investigated, not less likely.
6. Hunter joined the board after the corrupt owner was forced out of his government office in 2014, along with the pro-Russian president.
7. On the board of Burisma, Hunter “provided advice on legal issues, corporate finance, and strategy during a five-year term on the board.”
8. Board meetings were held two times a year, and there were multiple calls, constant dialog, and sharing of advice throughout the year.
9. Three people say Hunter never visited Ukraine.
10. People interviewed say Hunter’s presence on the board didn’t protect the company from multiple investigations. During his time there, several investigations were opened into the owner (over tax violations, money-laundering, and licenses given to Burisma during the period when Zlochevsky, the owner, was a government minister).
11. Burisma started bringing in high-profile directors to its board, and that included both Biden and his associate Devon Archer. The company’s reason for the additions to the board was to strengthen corporate governance. Burisma was also looking to expand, and Hunter helped with that.
12. Here are Biden’s bona fides: he’s a trained lawyer, he had served on a previous board in the U.S., and he created an investment company with two people who graduated from Yale with him.

Does Ukraine Have The DNC Server?

No, no they don’t. This brings us to CrowdStrike.

1. Apparently, Trump believes that CrowdStrike was the vehicle used by Ukraine to infiltrate the U.S. elections. Trump’s theory goes that CrowdStrike’s owner is Ukrainian so they’re hiding the DNC server in Ukraine. In reality, one is American and one was born in RUSSIA (and is now a U.S. citizen).
2. Also, according to the conspiracy, Ukraine has “the server” that the “FBI can’t find” and that the DNC is trying to hide from the FBI.

• • In reality, there is no physical server. I’m beating this one like the dead horse it is. EVERYTHING is stored in the cloud. If anyone has a physical server, it’s the company providing cloud services, whoever that might be.
  • The FBI examined the image of the server. CrowdStrike examined the image of the server. That’s how it works in these modern times.