{"id":2236157,"date":"2024-05-03T04:10:02","date_gmt":"2024-05-03T08:10:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/impeachment-whistleblower-knew-of-biden-ukraine-corruption-trump-wanted-probed\/"},"modified":"2024-05-03T04:14:19","modified_gmt":"2024-05-03T08:14:19","slug":"impeachment-whistleblower-knew-of-biden-ukraine-corruption-trump-wanted-probed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/impeachment-whistleblower-knew-of-biden-ukraine-corruption-trump-wanted-probed\/","title":{"rendered":"Impeachment whistleblower aware of Biden-Ukraine corruption Trump sought to investigate"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fimpeachment-whistleblower-knew-of-biden-ukraine-corruption-trump-wanted-probed%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2236157&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Revelations from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/facebook-caved-to-turkish-government-demands-blocked-group-to-protect-business-interests\/\" title=\"Facebook Caved To Turkish Government Demands, Blocked Group To Protect Business Interests\">newly disclosed emails show<\/a> the intricate involvement of the impeachment whistleblower, Eric Ciaramella, in \u2063Biden-related matters in Ukraine. His interactions with top Biden officials and Ukrainian prosecutors are scrutinized, shedding light on potential intersections with\u2062 the\u200c impeachment inquiry. Ciaramella&#8217;s\u200b role in aid distribution and anti-corruption efforts adds \u200cdepth to the unfolding controversy.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-content\">\n<p>The \u201cwhistleblower\u201d who sparked Donald Trump\u2019s first impeachment was deeply involved in the political maneuverings behind Biden-family business schemes in Ukraine that Trump wanted probed, newly obtained emails from former Vice President Joe Biden\u2019s office reveal.<\/p>\n<p>In 2019, then-National Intelligence Council analyst Eric Ciaramella touched off a political firestorm when he anonymously accused Trump of linking military aid for Ukraine to a demand for an investigation into alleged Biden corruption in that country.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-182620871\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-7b062eeb400b69d3d348aecde2db2178 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-7b062eeb400b69d3d348aecde2db2178\"><\/div>\n<p>But four years earlier, while working as a national security analyst attached to then-Vice President Joe Biden\u2019s office, Ciaramella was a close adviser when Biden threatened to cut off U.S. aid to Ukraine unless it fired its top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, who was investigating Ukraine-based Burisma Holdings. At the time, the corruption-riddled energy giant was paying Biden\u2019s son Hunter millions of dollars.<\/p>\n<p>Those payments \u2014 along with other evidence tying Joe Biden to his family\u2019s business dealings \u2014 received little attention in 2019 as Ciaramella accused Trump of a corrupt <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/exclusive-read-the-memo-provided-to-vp-pence-noting-that-he-has-the-opportunity-to-save-the-country\/\" title=\"EXCLUSIVE: Read the Memo Provided to VP Pence Noting that He Has the Opportunity to Save the Country\">quid pro quo<\/a>. Neither did subsequent evidence indicating that Hunter Biden\u2019s associates had identified Shokin as a \u201ckey target.\u201d These matters are now part of the House impeachment inquiry into President Biden.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt now seems there was material evidence that would have been used at the impeachment trial [to exonerate Trump],\u201d said George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, who has testified as an expert witness in the ongoing Biden impeachment inquiry. \u201cTrump was alleging there was a conflict of interest with the Bidens, and the evidence could have challenged Biden\u2019s account and established his son\u2019s interest in the Shokin firing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ciaramella\u2019s role \u2014 including high-level discussions with top Biden aides and Ukrainian prosecutors \u2014 is only now coming to light thanks to the recent release of White House emails and photos from the National Archives.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-9590a37ecccb1c6462bcda75be0ebac5 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-9590a37ecccb1c6462bcda75be0ebac5\"><\/div>\n<p>The emails show Ciaramella expressed shock \u2014 \u201cYikes\u201d is what he wrote \u2014 at Biden\u2019s move to withhold the $1 billion in aid from Kyiv, which represented a sudden shift in U.S. policy. They also show he was drawn into White House communications over how to control adverse publicity from Hunter taking a lucrative seat on Burisma\u2019s board.<\/p>\n<p>Yet there is no evidence Ciaramella raised alarms about the questionable Biden business activities he witnessed firsthand, which is in sharp contrast to 2019. In that instance, he was galvanized into action after being told by White House colleague Alexander Vindman of an \u201cimproper\u201d phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. During the call, Trump solicited Zelensky\u2019s help in investigating Burisma and Hunter Biden\u2019s role in the company.<\/p>\n<p>Some former congressional investigators say Ciaramella effectively helped cover up a scandal far worse than what Trump was impeached over. What\u2019s more, he failed to disclose that he had a potential conflict of interest stemming from his connection to the matter Trump asked Zelensky to probe when he lodged his complaint against Trump. RealClearInvestigations was the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.realclearinvestigations.com\/articles\/2019\/10\/30\/whistleblower_exposed_close_to_biden_brennan_dnc_oppo_researcher_120996.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">first to identify<\/a> the then-33-year-old Ciaramella as the anonymous impeachment \u201cwhistleblower,\u201d something major media continue to keep under tight wraps.<\/p>\n<p>Ciaramella worked under CIA Director John Brennan when President Obama made Biden his point man on Ukraine in 2014, the same year Burisma hired Hunter. The next year, the CIA detailed Ciaramella, a longtime advocate for aid to Ukraine, to the White House, where he worked closely with Biden and his staff as a top adviser on key Ukrainian policies. After Biden left office, he stayed on at the GOP White House until mid-2017 even though he\u2019s a Democrat, working as a Ukrainian and Russian analyst on Trump\u2019s National Security Council. Co-workers there accused him of trying to sabotage Trump, including allegedly leaking sensitive information to the press.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-4be4538d73af8afa51557cd2f0a2f1b8 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-4be4538d73af8afa51557cd2f0a2f1b8\"><\/div>\n<p>RealClearInvestigations has reviewed more than 2,000 pages of newly disclosed archived emails from the former vice president\u2019s office related to Ukraine, of which more than 160 contained references to Ciaramella. They reveal that his role advising Biden\u2019s office potentially intersects with the current impeachment inquiry in several areas. Chiefly, Ciaramella focused on aid to Ukraine and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/senate-democrats-republicans-clash-over-sweeping-election-reform-bill\/\" title=\"Senate Democrats, Republicans clash over sweeping election reform bill\">anti-corruption reforms<\/a> in the country. In that capacity, he:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Hosted, cleared into the White House, and met face-to-face there with senior Ukrainian prosecutors.<\/li>\n<li>Gave a \u201creadout\u201d of the meeting to his superiors, who in turn pushed for Shokin\u2019s firing.<\/li>\n<li>Traveled with Biden to Kyiv during the 2015 trip during which Biden demanded Shokin\u2019s firing.<\/li>\n<li>Wrote media \u201ctalking points\u201d for Ukrainian officials.<\/li>\n<li>Huddled with the top Biden officials involved in discussions concerning the $1 billion aid package and Shokin, including: Amos Hochstein; Victoria Nuland; Geoffrey Pyatt; Bridget Brink; and Michael Carpenter.<\/li>\n<li>Corresponded with Biden officials coordinating responses to negative media reports about Hunter\u2019s cushy and controversial Burisma job.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Former Obama-Biden administration officials have confirmed in recent closed-door congressional testimony that Ciaramella was a key part of Biden\u2019s process for making policy in Ukraine. In 2016, for instance, a White House photo shows him taking notes at a White House meeting Biden held with then-Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk to discuss Ukraine\u2019s anti-corruption reforms and other issues.<\/p>\n<p>Ciaramella also worked directly with top Obama and Biden administration diplomats on Ukraine, including senior State Department official Victoria Nuland. \u201cEric was regularly the clearing authority to get me into the White House for interagency meetings on Ukraine,\u201d Nuland revealed in a 2020 Senate deposition. Asked if she ever discussed Ukraine policy and Shokin with Ciaramella, Nuland testified: \u201cOf course, I did. He was part of the interagency process. He was also on my negotiating team for the six, seven rounds of negotiations I did with the Russians on [the disputed Ukraine region] Donbas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ciaramella was directly involved in talks concerning the massive U.S. aid package to Ukraine that Biden conditioned on the removal of Shokin, who at the time had seized the assets of the corrupt Burisma oligarch employing Hunter Biden. He also arranged and participated in White House talks with Ukrainian prosecutors visiting from Shokin\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<p>White House visitor logs confirm Ciaramella escorted Shokin\u2019s deputy prosecutor, David Sakvarelidze, into the White House for a January 2016 meeting. A White House <a href=\"https:\/\/www.finance.senate.gov\/imo\/media\/doc\/Transcripts%20combined.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">agenda<\/a> for the meeting lists Ciaramella as \u201cpoint of contact\u201d for the Ukrainian delegation. He also checked in Andriy Telizhenko, the Ukrainian Embassy official who says they discussed Burisma and Hunter Biden during the meeting and struggled to understand why his U.S. counterparts were suddenly hostile to Shokin after praising him in earlier talks.<\/p>\n<p>Emails from the time show Ciaramella appeared surprised to hear about the linkage between the $1 billion loan to Ukraine and the dismissal of Shokin. Though Biden maintains he insisted Kyiv oust Shokin because he was too soft on weeding out fraud in entities that included Burisma, Ciaramella suggested he didn\u2019t share the view that Shokin was corrupt. \u201cWe were super impressed with the group,\u201d Ciaramella added, \u201cand we had a two-hour discussion of their priorities and the obstacles they face.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters body-xs m-0 text-start\">\n<div class=\"col-12 col-md-4\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"col-12 col-md-8\">\n<div class=\"article-thumbnail-caption d-flex align-items-center justify-content-md-end label-xs mt-15\">         <i class=\"mdi mdi-camera me-10\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i>         <span class=\"visually-hidden\">Image Credit<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hsgac.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/imo\/media\/doc\/2020-09-22-Pyatt%20Interview%20with%20Exhibits.pdf\">U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs\/Committee on Finance, Page 134<\/a>       <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>On Jan. 21, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hsgac.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/imo\/media\/doc\/2020-09-22-Pyatt%20Interview%20with%20Exhibits.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">emailed<\/a> Ciaramella and other White House aides an article from the Ukrainian press \u2014 \u201cU.S. loan guarantee conditional on Shokin\u2019s dismissal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYikes. I don\u2019t recall this coming up in our meeting with them,\u201d Ciaramella <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hsgac.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/imo\/media\/doc\/2020-09-22-Pyatt%20Interview%20with%20Exhibits.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">replied<\/a>, referring to the White House meeting he hosted with top Ukrainian prosecutors.<\/p>\n<p>But in a closed-door 2020 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hsgac.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/imo\/media\/doc\/2020-09-22-Pyatt%20Interview%20with%20Exhibits1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">deposition<\/a> before the Senate, Pyatt sounded skeptical that Ciaramella was in the dark about the decision. \u201cI think you have to ask Eric what he meant by \u2018Yikes,\u2019\u201d Pyatt <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hsgac.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/imo\/media\/doc\/2020-09-22-Pyatt%20Interview%20with%20Exhibits1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">told<\/a> Senate investigators. He said that he believed conditioning the loan guarantee on Shokin\u2019s removal \u201cobviously came up in those meetings\u201d hosted by Ciaramella, suggesting that Biden\u2019s aide knew of the quid pro quo before Pyatt circulated the article about it from the Ukrainian press.<\/p>\n<p>The day before he hosted the Ukraine prosecutors, Ciaramella received an agenda from a State Department official that asked him to \u201cnote the importance of appointing a new PG [prosecutor general], reiterating that Shokin is an obstacle to reform,\u201d according to emails. The agenda also called on Ciaramella to \u201cask the del [Ukrainian delegation] what <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-administration-official-reveals-why-fbi-targeted-former-president\/\" title=\"Trump Administration Official Reveals Why FBI Targeted Former President\">high-level cases<\/a> are on the docket for prosecution,\u201d which raises suspicions in some quarters that Biden\u2019s advisers were fishing for information about Shokin\u2019s plans for prosecuting Burisma oligarchs, something Hunter Biden had been asked to find out.<\/p>\n<p>In a Jan. 21 email, Pyatt told Ciaramella to \u201cbuckle in\u201d because, as he later explained to Senate investigators, the deal was a \u201cdifficult issue\u201d and \u201cthere was going to be political controversy around this [news].\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The former ambassador demurred when asked if conditioning the $1 billion on Shokin\u2019s firing was Biden\u2019s idea or came from his office. \u201cIt was the \u2014 our interagency policy,\u201d he testified, adding, \u201cI don\u2019t remember when the vice president would have weighed in on this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, Pyatt allowed that it was a sudden change in policy. \u201cAt the beginning,\u201d he said, \u201cit was not our expectation that Shokin\u2019s removal would be necessary.\u201d Indeed, an Oct. 1, 2015, memo summarizing the recommendation of the Interagency Policy Committee on Ukraine stated, \u201cUkraine has made sufficient progress on its [anti-corruption] reform agenda to justify a third [loan] guarantee.\u201d Ciaramella was a member of the IPC task force, which monitored Shokin\u2019s office. The next month, moreover, the task force drafted a loan guarantee agreement that did not call for Shokin\u2019s removal. Then, in December, Joe Biden flew to Kyiv to demand his ouster.<\/p>\n<p>If what Ciaramella expressed in his email (which he knew would be part of archived White House records) was a genuine reaction, it appears that Vice President Biden went against the recommendation of one of his top NSC advisers on Ukraine. If Ciaramella were genuinely alarmed, he might have blown the whistle on his boss like he did on Trump, but he stayed mum. If, on the other hand, Ciaramella were a party to the quid-pro-quo discussions, as Pyatt suggests, then he had \u201ca direct conflict,\u201d noted Derek Harvey, the former congressional investigator involved in the first impeachment. Either way, Ciaramella clearly found himself in the middle of a major controversy.<\/p>\n<p>Just weeks prior, White House photos indicate that Ciaramella traveled with Biden on the same December 2015 Air Force Two flight the vice president took to Kyiv to threaten Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to ax Shokin. Republicans have accused Biden of pushing Shokin\u2019s ouster to block scrutiny of his son\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>\u201cBiden called an audible and changed U.S. policy toward Ukraine to benefit his son on the plane ride to Ukraine,\u201d House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer said, and \u201clater bragged about withholding a U.S. loan guarantee if Ukraine did not fire the prosecutor [Shokin].\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Biden and his supporters have repeatedly claimed Shokin had to go because he wasn\u2019t cracking down on corruption and that everyone else in the administration, as well as Europe, agreed Shokin should be fired. This remains the prevailing narrative in major U.S. media. But around that time, Shokin had conducted a raid of Burisma oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky\u2019s home, seizing his house, cars, and other assets.<\/p>\n<p>IRS Special Agent Joseph Ziegler, who examined Hunter\u2019s emails as part of his investigation of Hunter for tax evasion, said Shokin was identified as a \u201ckey target\u201d in emails exchanged between Hunter and Burisma officials in November 2015 \u2014 the month before Biden traveled to Ukraine to demand Shokin\u2019s removal. Just days before Biden arrived in Kyiv in early December 2015 to demand Shokin\u2019s ouster, Hunter allegedly called his father from Dubai following a meeting there with Burisma official Vadym Pozharskyi, who asked him to pressure his father to shut down Shokin\u2019s investigation. Vice President Biden was familiar with Pozharskyi, having met with him in April 2015 during a dinner at the Cafe Milano in D.C. arranged by Hunter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe unstated goal was to have the Ukrainian prosecutor removed in an effort to close the criminal case against [Burisma founder] Zlochevsky,\u201d Ziegler said in recent testimony before the House impeachment inquiry. After Shokin was pushed out of office, the Burisma investigation dried up.<\/p>\n<p>Ciaramella tried to marshal a defense for Biden in the whistleblower complaint he sent to Rep. Adam Schiff in August 2019. He listed among Trump\u2019s concerns at the time of the fateful July phone call \u201cthat former Vice President Biden had pressured Poroshenko in 2016 to fire Shokin in order to quash a purported criminal probe into Burisma Holdings.\u201d But Ciaramella attempted to pour cold water on the notion by referencing a Bloomberg News article that quoted a \u201cformer senior Ukrainian prosecutor\u201d who falsely claimed \u201cthat Mr. Shokin in fact was not investigating Burisma at the time of his removal in 2016.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>White House emails reveal that Ciaramella was looped into messages sent by Biden\u2019s communications team, who were concerned that Hunter Biden taking a position on corrupt Burisma\u2019s board created unseemly optics and undercut their boss\u2019s mission to clean up corruption in Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>In a Dec. 8, 2015, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.archives.gov\/research\/vice-presidential-records\/biden-records\/2022-0121-f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">email<\/a>, for example, Biden\u2019s communications director, Kate Bedingfield, copied Ciaramella on a link to a New York Times article headlined, \u201cThe Knotty Ties Between Joe Biden, His Son and Ukraine.\u201d Bedingfield is quoted in the story, authored by James Risen, denying Hunter had traveled with his father to Ukraine in an attempt to downplay his influence. She also said Ukrainian officials never raised his position on the Burisma board with Biden as an issue of concern. Risen got spun, however, on the issue of compensation for Hunter, reporting that it was \u201cnot out of the ordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the time, Burisma was paying Hunter, who had no energy sector experience, $1 million a year just for lending his name to its board. It turns out that Hunter never traveled to Ukraine for a single meeting in the five years he sat on Burisma\u2019s board. Republicans suspect Biden got the prosecutor ousted to keep the money flowing from Burisma to the Biden family.<\/p>\n<p>Career State Department officials led by George Kent, who was stationed in Ukraine at the time, tried to get Biden\u2019s aides to raise the issue of potential family conflicts with the vice president. Despite their concerns, Biden never asked his son to step down from the Burisma board, which would have made all questions go away. And despite Kent and other officials identifying Burisma founder Zlochevsky by name as a corrupt actor in Ukraine, Biden himself never publicly called Zlochevsky out as corrupt while Hunter served on his board and pocketed millions in payments from him. For all his talk of fighting corruption in Ukraine, Biden failed to distance himself from one of the most corrupt oligarchs in the country.<\/p>\n<p>Harvey, who served as the staff investigator for the Republican side of the House Intelligence Committee during the 2019 Trump impeachment hearings, said: \u201cThe [Biden] impeachment inquiry should compel Ciaramella to testify since we now know he was involved in communications about Biden using the $1 billion in aid to extort Ukraine into firing Shokin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harvey said Ciaramella would make a valuable material witness against Biden in the probe, which centers on whether Biden used his White House clout or political influence on behalf of his son\u2019s foreign paymasters. White House photos indicate Ciaramella took notes during his meetings with Biden, his staff, and Ukrainian officials \u2014 materials that lawmakers could subpoena along with his testimony.<\/p>\n<p>Another former staff investigator noted that Ciaramella is no longer protected by federal whistleblower laws. He has left the government and now works as a <a href=\"https:\/\/carnegieendowment.org\/experts\/2254\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">senior fellow<\/a> focusing on Ukraine and Russia for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, where he is consulting with White House officials and pushing for billions more in U.S. aid for Ukraine \u2014 including \u201ca Marshall Plan for the Ukrainian military.\u201d Through a spokesperson, Ciaramella declined to comment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNone of the whistleblower protections apply to this particular situation,\u201d said Jason Foster, former chief investigative counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee and a whistleblower expert. He also noted that the Whistleblower Protection Act doesn\u2019t shield whistleblowers from any other conduct they might have been involved in, including their own conduct. Nor does it give them a legal right to anonymity.<\/p>\n<p>A spokeswoman for the House Oversight Committee, which is leading the Biden impeachment inquiry, declined to say whether Ciaramella is on the witness list. \u201cI don\u2019t have anything for you on this at this time,\u201d said House Oversight Communications Director Jessica Collins. However, Comer has publicly described the \u201cwhistleblower\u201d impeachment of Trump as a \u201ccover-up\u201d operation for the alleged Biden blackmail scheme in Ukraine involving U.S. aid and the Burisma corruption probe.<\/p>\n<p>What Ciaramella witnessed and what he documented in notes he took during high-level Biden-Ukraine meetings could now be relevant to the active impeachment inquiry of President Biden. The House may have little choice but to hold the kind of hearings the Democrats blocked during the earlier impeachment by keeping Ciaramella\u2019s identity \u2014 and his own potential conflict \u2014 secret.<\/p>\n<p>As the catalyst for Trump\u2019s impeachment, Ciaramella could now be a reluctant witness for Biden\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p><em>This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.realclearinvestigations.com\/articles\/2024\/04\/17\/impeachment_whistleblower_was_in_the_loop_of_biden-ukraine_affairs_that_trump_wanted_probed_1024937.html\">article<\/a> was originally published by RealClearInvestigations.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-c74f32226a8ffefa591004bb2f5f66fd fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-c74f32226a8ffefa591004bb2f5f66fd\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">    \t\t\t\t\t   \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The whistleblower central to Trump&#8217;s initial impeachment was linked to Biden-related dealings in Ukraine that Trump aimed to investigate. Recent emails from Joe Biden&#8217;s office shed light on the connection. In 2019, Eric Ciaramella, a former National Intelligence Council analyst, ignited controversy by accusing Trump anonymously<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1401,"featured_media":2236158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/President-Trump-Remarks.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2236157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/President-Trump-Remarks.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2236157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1401"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2236157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2236157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2236158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2236157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2236157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2236157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}