Poland’s former president Aleksander Kwasniewski joined the board at Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings around the same time as Hunter Biden and just broke his silence regarding the suspicion about the younger Biden’s prominent, lucrative position despite his lack of industry knowledge or experience.
According to Kwasniewski, the reason Hunter Biden was selected to join the Burisma board, was, indeed, because of daddy Joe’s political influence.
Despite this, Kwasniewski claims there was no wrongdoing. In his own words,
“I understand that if someone asks me to be part of some project it’s not only because I’m so good, it’s also because I am Kwasniewski and I am a former president of Poland. And this is all inter-connected. No-names are a nobody. Being Biden is not bad. It’s a good name.”
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Here's more from the former President of Poland's interview with The Associated Press:
Aleksander Kwasniewski, a former Polish president who is on the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, said Thursday that Hunter Biden was indeed chosen to join its advisory board because of his name. He said that is simply how the world of business works.
But Kwasniewski (kvash-NYEF-skee) insisted in an interview with The Associated Press that Biden was an active board member who helped the company, and that he never used his relationship with his father, Joe Biden, to further the company’s interests.
“I understand that if someone asks me to be part of some project it’s not only because I’m so good, it’s also because I am Kwasniewski and I am a former president of Poland,” he said. “And this is all inter-connected. No-names are a nobody. Being Biden is not bad. It’s a good name.”
Kwasniewski also said Burisma members never tried to use Hunter Biden to curry favor with the administration of Barack Obama when Joe Biden was vice president.
“He was a normal member of this group,” he said. “We didn’t ask him — and he never said anything — about his father.”
Only at dinners was Biden sometimes asked how his father was doing and on one occasion Biden spoke about the death of his brother, Beau, Kwasniewski said.
He said Hunter Biden carried out research and brought a unique American perspective to the company, including in the areas of corporate governance, capital markets and gas drilling equipment, where Americans are world leaders.
“He collected information,” Kwasniewski said. “He was useful for us because he knew something that we didn’t know.”
Biden’s time on the board from 2014 to 2019 has become a focus of the impeachment hearings into President Donald Trump. Trump is under scrutiny for pressing Ukraine’s young new president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to carry out investigations into the Bidens and Burisma, withholding for a time nearly $400 million in military aid as a war drags on in Ukraine’s east against Russia-backed separatists.
Breitbart also had the following to say:
A prominent member of the board of directors of Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian oil and gas conglomerate at the center of the impeachment inquiry, admitted on Friday that Hunter Biden was tapped to join the company because of his father’s political influence.
Aleksander Kwasniewski, a former president of Poland who joined Burisma’s board around the same time as the younger Biden, told the Associated Press it was normal for corporations to seek out well-connected figures for advisory positions. The former president admitted that both he and Hunter Biden secured their posts with Burisma, which at times paid as much as $83,000 per month, due to the influence afforded by their names.
“I understand that if someone asks me to be part of some project it’s not only because I’m so good, it’s also because I am Kwasniewski and I am a former president of Poland,” Kwasniewski said. “And this is all inter-connected. No-names are a nobody. Being Biden is not bad. It’s a good name.”
The former president proceeded to claim that Hunter Biden was an integral part of the board, despite having no background in the energy sector and never once visiting Ukraine during his five-year tenure with Burisma.
“He collected information,” Kwasniewski said, claiming Hunter Biden helped the company with corporate governance. “He was useful for us because he knew something that we didn’t know.”
Kwasniewski’s comments come as Burisma and it ties to Hunter Biden have taken center stage in the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. The company became central to the proceedings when Trump suggested the Ukrainian government investigate how Hunter Biden was able to secure a seat on its board of directors in the first place.
Democrats claim the president’s suggestion amounted to asking a foreign power for dirt on a political opponent, which they argue is an impeachable offense. Trump and his allies, on the other hand, have countered that Hunter Biden’s appointment, coming around the same time former Vice President Joe Biden was tapped to lead Obama-era policy towards Ukraine, and his relative inexperience in the energy industry warrant investigation.
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