Alternate World

The Facts

President Trump asked Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son.  He tied military aid that Ukraine desperately needs to “a favor.”  We know this, because he said it; it was on the modified transcript of his phone conversation with the President of Ukraine, issued by his own White House.  Who knows how much more the actual transcript would show.

President Trump then asked China to investigate Joe Biden and his son.  We don’t know what’s tied to that “favor,” though the US will begin negotiating with China over trade issues next week.  We do know that it happened, because he asked for it on the lawn of the White House, in front of the press corps.

The Spin

But when you listen to some Republican leaders, it sounds like what we all saw or read is not true.  Senator Marco Rubio thinks that Mr. Trump was simply “pulling the media’s leg” with the request from China.  And Congressman Jim Jordan seems to believe it was perfectly acceptable for Mr. Trump to ask the Ukrainian government to investigate his political opponent.

And of course, they all believe that the Mueller Report showed their was no “collusion” or “cooperation” between the Trump Campaign and Russia; and, of course, no obstruction.  This is despite Mueller’s statement that he only evaluated criminal conspiracy not “collusion,” and he wasn’t empowered to determine obstruction at all.

But it was on NBC’s Meet the Press that a real window into their “alternate world” was opened.  Host Chuck Todd interviewed Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson. Earlier in the week, Johnson revealed that he knew that Ukrainian military funding was being held up by the Administration, and “winced” when he found out about it.  Johnson has been a strong supporter of Ukraine’s battle against Russian incursions, but is also a strong supporter of the President.

Senator Johnson of Wisconsin

When Todd asked him about “wincing,” Johnson went on a minutes long tirade, shouting claims that the Ukrainians worked with the Clinton campaign against Trump in 2016.  He went on to bring up the “deep state conspiracy” led by former CIA Director John Brennan, and the text messages between FBI Agent Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.  When Todd tried to bring Johnson back to the “wince” question, he went on a different rant against the media.

After minutes of airtime, Todd said: “Senator, I have no idea why a (sic) Fox News conspiracy propaganda stuff is popping up here. I have no idea.  I have no idea why we’re going here.”

Johnson replied:  “Because this is underlying exactly why President Trump is upset and his supporters are upset with the news media.”

When Todd finally got back to the original question, and asked whether the President was holding up the military aid, Johnson stated: “When I asked the President about that, he completely denied it.  He adamantly denied it.  He vehemently and angrily denied it, he said I’d never do that.  So that’s the piece of the puzzle I’m here to report today.”

Then Johnson went onto present what he thought the President’s goal was:  “So unlike the narrative of the Press that President Trump wants to dig up dirt on his 2020 opponent, what he wants is he wants an accounting of what happened in 2016, who set him up.  Did this spring from Ukraine?”

CrowdStrike

Todd finally ended the interview, but it raised the question:  what are they talking about?  I’ve listened to hundreds of hours of news and discussion, read millions of words and written over half a million myself, but it is all “news to me” that the Ukraine was on “Hillary’s side.”  So to an “alternate world” we go, to figure out what the Hell they’re thinking.

The Democratic National Committee computers were hacked before the 2016 campaign.  Thousands of emails were stolen, and later published by Wikileaks and others to embarrass the DNC and the Clinton campaign.  The hack clearly impacted the results in the election of 2016.  The Mueller Investigation not only showed that Russian Military Intelligence, the GRU, hacked the computers and stole the emails, but actually brought indictments against multiple Russian officers.

CrowdStrike was the computer security company out of California, brought in by the DNC to investigate, clear the hacks, and secure the computers.   One of the actual hacked computer servers is on display today at the DNC headquarters, right next to the file cabinet that was opened during the 1972 Watergate break-in.  It’s not in Ukraine.

So here’s the theory.  The Ukrainian Government in 2016, under a different President and Party, were at war with Russia.  They wanted to make sure that the US would be against Russia and pro-Ukraine. “The Theory” states that CrowdStrike conspired with Ukrainian Intelligence to hack DNC computers, and then blame the Russians. (There’s a long article in the New York Times of 10/3/19.)

False Flag

Dmitri Alperovitch founded the CrowdStrike Company.  He came as a child to the US with his Ukrainian parents.  He is also a senior fellow of the Atlantic Council, a research group in Washington DC.  There is also a Ukrainian oligarch, Viktor Pinchuk, who serves on the Atlantic Council international Board. 

According to George Eliason, a US journalist based in east Ukraine, Ukrainian Intelligence made a deal with CrowdStrike by contacting them through the Atlantic Council connection. 

The deal was to stage a “false flag” operation, with the hacking and email release done by CrowdStrike in Ukraine, but made to look like the Russian’s did it.  That way the US would continue to be inclined to support Ukraine over Russia.

That the Mueller Investigation found this to be complete fantasy is one thing.  But the fact that the entire operation was damaging to the Clinton campaign, the candidate more likely to support Ukraine as President, makes it even more unlikely.  

But the President and his cohorts, particularly Rudy Giuliani, are determined to take George Eliason’s word over Mueller’s, the US Intelligence and the “Five Eyes” intelligence agencies (US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.)  It fits their narrative.  They insist that the “intelligence community” is hiding the “real” truth. It’s at the heart of the “Deep State” conspiracy.

So when the President asks for an investigation of CrowdStrike, he’s asking the Ukrainian Government to own up to their supposed transgressions, and absolve Russia from 2016 election intervention.  Even if it the “theory” were true, the Ukraine “confession” seems unlikely. It’s not in their best interest, and the theory isn’t true.

Ms. Alexandra Chalupa

The second concern that the President’s apologists’ raise has more basis in fact.  There is a former DNC staffer named Alexandra Chalupa who is the daughter of Ukrainian immigrants to the US.  She was doing legal work on her own behalf in Ukraine starting in 2014.  Over the next two years, she became a contact and source for government officials, reporters, and private operatives working in the Ukraine. She also passed information to her former employers at the DNC.

Paul Manafort worked as the political consultant to the Russian backed Ukrainian President, Victor Yanukovych.  When Yanukovych was forced out and fled the country in 2014, a journal was found that showed Manafort was paid millions of dollars under the table.  

Chalupa helped the journal make it to US media. Its revelation led Manafort to resign as Chairman of the Trump Campaign.  Ultimately, Special Counsel Mueller indicted Manafort with failure to pay taxes on those funds.  It was one of the charges that put him in jail for seven years.

Chalupa was helped by US Embassy personnel to connect reporters to Ukrainian Government officials.   Through the “Trump prism” that sounds nefarious. But at the time, the US Government policy supported the Ukrainians against Russia.   The US was “against” Yanukovych, and so against his employee, Manafort. But, according to Giuliani and Trump, this is proof of the “deep state” plot against the Trump campaign.

Their claim of proof that Democrats “colluded” with Ukraine is based on questions raised in a Politico article from January of 2017. It was written before Trump’s inauguration and five months before the beginning of the Mueller investigation.  

The Bidens

And, of course, there is the claim that Joe Biden intervened to have a Ukrainian Prosecutor fired. The conspiracy states he did that before charges could be filed against his son, Hunter, who was working in Ukraine.  

The facts are that as Vice President, Biden did intervene to have the Prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, removed. Biden even threatened to withhold US funds unless Shokin was fired. This was because Shokin wasn’t investigating corruption in Ukraine, particularly Russian backed corruption. Biden not only represented the US view, but also the European Union. They all wanted Shokin gone.

 However, Shokin now states in a sworn affidavit that he was investigating Biden’s son. Rudy Giuliani waives the affidavits around in interviews on Fox News.  The problem is, Shokin wrote the self-serving affidavit as part of a Ukrainian court case to get his job back.  Other investigations by the Ukrainian government and the press show that Hunter Biden didn’t do anything illegal, and that Shokin wasn’t actually investigating his company, Burisma.

Back To Reality                      

CrowdStrike, Chalupa, Biden:  the three “pillars” of the Alternate World of Ukraine and Donald Trump.  Like any good propaganda, it has just enough of the smell of truth to make it seem real.  

But it requires this of the reader. They need to say that the FBI, the CIA, Robert Mueller, and almost all of the “real news” in the world are wrong. They need to believe a chosen few like Mr. Elaison have the “right” answer.  That is the essence of this conspiracy theory.   The scariest part: President of the United States believes this, and he sets the policy of the United States.  No wonder it seems like someone is in an alternate world.  

It’s either them, or us.