Did Nancy Pelosi’s Son or Husband Work For Burisma?
There is a disinformation campaign going around that a Pelosi worked for Burisma. It’s false.
The rumor was started by freelance writer Patrick Howley, who at the time was writing for his own start-up far-right website, Big League Politics and on National File, another little-known far-right conspiracy site.
First, it is Pelosi’s son Paul Jr., not her husband Paul, who is at the center of Howley’s claims. However, neither Pelosi has ever worked for Burisma.
In October 2019, Howley posted this on Twitter:
NRGlab is a green energy landscape firm based in Holland
In 2017, Paul Pelosi was promoting NRGlab, a green Dutch company, which invented a generator powered by crystal growth. In concept, the invention created a lot of excitement, although ultimately it never took off. NRGlab acquired the rights to build a manufacturing plant in Ukraine, but never did. Ukraine is briefly mentioned in a promotional video for the invention, partially narrated by Paul Jr., and with opening comments by Nancy Pelosi. NRGlab never did energy business in Ukraine, as Howley claimed, and has never been directly involved in the oil or gas industries. Rather, it bills itself as investing in “green energy transition” — which means having a focus on helping companies move toward wind, solar, hydropower, geothermal, and marine energy sources. NRGlab is primarily a landscape firm that specializes in researching and designing large spaces that host multiple technologies such as wind turbines, solar panels, biomass and energy storage facilities.
Viscoil was a California company
Paul Pelosi Jr. did once serve on the board of a California-based holding company, Viscoil, but that company was dissolved in 2010 and re-formed in Singapore under a different name. Apparently the green energy designs that Viscoil had underway were folded into NRGlab. According to Dun & Bradstreet, the new company has only two employees, and FactCheck reports that it is currently focused on manufacturing supplements. Paul Pelosi has no part in the new entity, and it’s reported that the former company only did business with other American companies.
In 2017, Paul Pelosi traveled to Ukraine as the new executive director of Corporate Governance Initiative, a Scottsdale, Arizona consulting firm that helps corporations improve their accountability and transparency practices. Pelosi stated he was in Ukraine for the dual purpose of working on business initiatives and an international youth soccer exchange. There is no proof that Nancy Pelosi accompanied him on that trip, and the promotional footage of both Paul and Nancy in the NGRlab video was filmed in the United States.
In November, and again in December, Howley began re-posting his baseless tweets as “articles” in National File. The disinformation has also been circulated on Facebook, where it has been routinely “grayed out” as false by the platform.
Howley’s disinformation campaign smearing the Pelosis has been picked up and circulated by a range of far right and conspiracy sites, including The Federalist Papers, OANN, Granite Grok, and Russia Today. Fact checking sites have universally condemned the information as false.
Patrick Howley has a history of dubious claims and disinfo tactics
After Howley began his disinformation campaign on Twitter and National File, it was rapidly picked up by far-right leaning publications The Federalist Papers and The Daily Caller. It was also picked up on unmoderated forums like Reddit.
Patrick Howley has a disturbing history. In 2018 he accused a university professor of Heather Heyer’s death. He brought a misdemeanor assault charge against UNC-Chapel Hill lecturer Dwayne Dixon, after the Charlottesville murder. In his testimony, he claimed that Dixon grabbed his phone away from him, grabbed his arm, and began striking him with the phone. The phone video he provided to the court showed him chasing Dixon and shouting questions, but it did not show Dixon striking Howley. Howley also claimed that Dixon chased James Fields, the man charged with striking Heather Heyer with his car, into the crowd and that it was Dixon’s actions toward Fields that caused Heyer’s death. The assault charge was dismissed by the judge. Howley continued to circulate the video and claims.
Howley was suspended by Breitbart for harrassing tweets directed at fellow Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields, after an incident in which she claimed that Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s campaign manager, had grabbed her and pulled her to the ground. Afterwards, Howley claimed in a Daily Caller rant that the GOP had compiled an “oppo folder” on him, and were “trying to destroy my life”. The suspension was lifted four days later, however, after Michelle Fields resigned. After the election, Howley resigned from Breitbart. “I resigned after it was explained to me the day after the election that it was time for me to resign or be fired,” he said.
He was later called out for his routinely over-the-top misogyny, and sexist comments made in the Daily Caller. After attacking Buzzfeed writer Rosie Gray, Howley was forced to remove the offensive tweets, delete his account, and apologize to Gray.
It should be noted that the Daily Caller itself has a less than sterling record. The publication, founded and owned by Fox opinion host Tucker Carlson, is rated “mixed” for accuracy by Media Bias/Fact Check for “numerous failed fact checks”. Daily Caller had published several articles and essays by James Kessler, one of the speakers at the “Unite the Right” white supremacy rally in Charlottesville where Heather Heyer was killed. After the rally, Daily Caller removed all of Kessler’s pieces, and disavowed any connection with him, but they were recovered from internet archives by ProPublica and Media Matters. Kessler also wrote for the white nationalist site VDare and appeared as a purported expert on Alex Jones’ Infowars network.
Patrick Howley currently freelances for Epoch Times, a newspaper associated with the Chinese Falun Gong movement.
