Over orange juice, coffee, and pastries in a downstairs room of the historic Naval Observatory residence on that sunny Tuesday morning, conversation revolved around Holtzman lobbying VP Biden to back his close friend, then-Kazakhstan Prime Minister Karim Massimov, to be Secretary-General of the United Nations.

The unspoken subtext of the conversation between the four men was that Hunter and Archer were working on a lucrative energy project in Kazakhstan on behalf of Burisma, the corrupt Ukrainian energy company that was paying them $1 million apiece.

With Massimov’s backing they would create a potentially lucrative new Kazakhstani subsidiary, Burisma Eurasia, and bring American drilling equipment overland through Russia to exploit the gas deposits.

[“NO EVIDENCE!!1!1!! None at all! Joe just loves his son! Republicans are pouncing! Trumptrumptrumptrumptrump!” I’m just getting ahead of the Protection Racket Media coverage. — Ed]