Joe Biden "risked national security" and tried to "sabotage" President Trump as he was taking office by promising a Ukrainian official that, "As a private citizen I plan to staying deeply engaged in the endeavor that you have begun and we have begun," according to a new report.
Alex Plitsas of the Federalist was reporting on a just-released telephone call between Biden, just as the Barack Obama administration was ending, and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
The call, right after the 2016 election, "shows that Biden sought to sabotage the incoming Trump administration before Donald Trump even took office, and much worse," the report explained.
"During the course of the call, Biden badmouthed the incoming administration, saying, 'The truth of the matter is that the incoming administration doesn't know a great deal about [Ukraine]' and that they were unprepared for the transition."
While that alone was "inappropriate," the report said, Biden also told Poroshenko. "I don't plan on going away…"
Fox News reported the call was released by Ukrainian politician Andrii Derkach, who played audio of the call during a press conference Wednesday.
He was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department and identified as an "active" Russian agent.
Biden said at one point, "The incoming administration has been very, very slow on getting ready for transition. Quite frankly, like most of America they didn't think they were going to win the election, so they did not have a fulsome transition team. As a matter of fact, they changed their transition team."
Biden cited that change in the Trump transition team and how there was a time lag in getting confidential information into the hands of people waiting for security clearances.
"But if I go beforehand, I’m worried that they don't know enough, they will think I'm trying to game them. They will think I am trying to put them in a corner. They will question my motives in going before they are fully briefed. And I'm sure you understand that, you're a good negotiator," Biden said.
Fox claimed, "Derkach has been active in leveling unsubstantiated corruption allegations against Biden and his son Hunter Biden, who used to sit on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian natural gas company. That effort has included publicizing leaked phone calls."
But at the Federalist, Plitsas, a national security professional, Bronze Star Medal recipient, and U.S. Army combat veteran of the Iraq War, suggested Biden's words "attempted to set up a foreign policy backchannel for himself after he left office as a private citizen, which could violate the Logan Act."
That law, which never has been used in a court case, technically bans private citizens "from engaging in U.S. foreign policy," the report explained.
"To fortify his position and to make Poroshenko more confident that he should continue to deal with Biden once he left office, in the call Biden also intimated that there is a problem with the incoming administration: 'The reason I bother to tell you that is I have been somewhat limited on what I am able to tell their team about Ukraine,'" the report said.
It continued, "if Russian intelligence had actually penetrated the incoming Trump administration, Biden’s comments would have almost certainly tipped them off that something was amiss, placing our national security in grave danger.
"It is clear that Biden exercised incredibly poor judgment, placing a highly classified counterintelligence operation at risk; undermined the incoming administration; and attempted to set up a foreign policy backchannel for himself so he could remain involved in U.S-Ukrainian policy even though he was not sanctioned to do so by law," Plitsas concluded.
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