A bombshell new report from the New York Post reveals that President Joe Biden pulled in campaign money from a Russia lobbyist just months before his administration moved to cancel sanctions on the Russian company currently constructing the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
Citing records from the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the Post reported that Biden’s 2020 campaign raked in at $4,000 in donations directly from Richard Burt ahead of November’s presidential election.
The development marks another promise broken for Biden, who had previously said he wouldn’t accept money from lobbyists.
Excuses, excuses
Earlier in the campaign season, Burt reportedly gave $10,000 to a Democrat-aligned political action committee called Unite the Country.
The lobbyist previously served as U.S. ambassador to Germany under then-President Ronald Reagan, the Post reported.
Pressed for comment by the Post, a spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) confirmed the FEC records were accurate.
“When Richard Burt donated to Biden Victory Fund, he failed to acknowledge that he was a registered foreign agent and was therefore ineligible to contribute,” the spokesperson told the Post. “Because Burt also listed a different employer than on his [Foreign Agents Registration Act] registration, he was not flagged during our vetting process.”
The spokesperson also said the money was returned to Burt after they learned of the matter from the Post‘s reporters.
Oh, the hypocrisy
For conservatives who watched former President Donald Trump face incessant allegations that he was too friendly with Russia, the Post‘s report that Biden took money from a lobbyist for the Kremlin just months before relaxing sanctions on a Russia-backed pipeline raises serious questions. And for good reason.
According to the Washington Examiner, Biden tried to explain his decision to cancel the sanctions — which even his energy secretary has denounced — as inevitable, since the pipeline is nearly complete.
“To go ahead and impose sanctions now, I think, would be counterproductive now in terms of our European relations,” the president told reporters earlier this month, according to the Examiner. “And they know how strongly I feel. And I hope we can work on how they handle it from this point on.”
Biden has nonetheless claimed that he is opposed to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. But his actions speak louder than his words — and at this point, it’s hard to believe many Americans are buying what he’s trying to sell.
The post Report: Biden took donation from Russia lobbyist months before waiving Nord Stream 2 sanctions first appeared on Conservative Institute.
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