Joe and Hunter Biden are being linked to corruption and terror attacks in Russia

Hunter-Biden

Important Takeaways:

  • Hunter Biden-linked Ukrainian company used for terror attacks in Russia – Moscow
  • Multiple entities, including Burisma Holdings, have been involved in funding terrorism, Russian investigators are claiming
  • So far, investigators have “established that the funds, flowing through commercial organizations, including the oil and gas conglomerate Burisma Holdings, operating in Ukraine, have been used in recent years to carry out terrorist attacks in Russia,” committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said. Terrorist activities have also reached beyond the country, aimed at the “elimination of prominent political and public figures, as well as causing economic damage,” she added.
  • The committee’s specialists have been working “in cooperation with other intelligence services and financial intelligence,” Petrenko noted. The scrutiny currently revolves around “checking sources of income and further movement of funds in the amount of several million US dollars,” and examining the potential involvement of “specific individuals from among government officials, people with civic and commercial organizations of Western countries,” the spokeswoman stated.
  • Burisma is probably best known internationally for its controversial ties to the current first family in the US. In the spring of 2014, following the US-backed coup in Kiev, the Ukrainian energy firm hired Hunter Biden and his business partner Devon Archer on its board of directors, offering $1 million a year in pay. Biden’s father Joe was President Barack Obama’s vice president at the time, and oversaw Washington’s Ukraine policy. He once famously bragged about getting a corruption prosecutor fired – which just happened to occur after that prosecutor began investigating Burisma.
  • Nikolay Zlochevsky’s company also offered protection payments to the government in Kiev, according to former Ukrainian MP Andrey Derkach. Zlochevsky paid some “800 million hryvnias [over $21 million] for terrorism financing” in “various jurisdictions,” Derkach claimed in January.
  • “The leaders of Ukraine’s security services make no secret of the fact that they carry out terrorist acts and political assassinations for extra-budgetary cash,” he said at the time. “Once again: Biden’s partners in the corruption business in Ukraine finance terrorist acts, thus avoiding responsibility for corruption in Ukraine.”
  • Derkach claimed it was common practice for the owners of large businesses in Ukraine to ‘donate’ to the war effort in exchange for immunity from prosecution. He pointed to a criminal case against Zlochevsky relating to a $6 million cash bribe that ended with the Burisma owner paying a $1,800 fine.

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New Poll says 6 in 10 Americans think Biden was involved in Hunter’s corrupt dealings, backing impeachment probe

Joe-in-Hunters-corruption

Important Takeaways:

  • Americans back Biden impeachment probe by 12 point margin and six in ten believe he was involved in Hunter’s shady deals: Devastating Daily Mail poll reveals voters think president’s son is ‘corrupt’, a ‘crook’ and ‘guilty’
  • Americans support an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden by a clear 12-point margin and six in 10 believe the president was probably inappropriately involved in his son Hunter’s business deals, according to a damning new DailyMail.com poll.
  • When voters were asked to use one word to describe Hunter, 53, the top answer was ‘corrupt’. Other popular responses were ‘bad’, ‘criminal’, ‘crook’ and ‘guilty’.
  • The stark results showing most voters think Biden was linked to Hunter’s overseas business activities comes as Republicans prepare to launch their formal impeachment inquiry.
  • Hunter was also spotted having lunch in Los Angeles on Wednesday as he faces a slew of tax-related charges in California, over allegations he failed to pay over $1.4 million to the IRS
  • The GOP has threatened to hold Hunter in contempt of court for defying a subpoena to testify in their probe behind closed doors.
  • On Wednesday, they demanded the White House hand over any communications suggesting that Joe was involved in the bid to duck the order.
  • The White House has insisted Joe was never ‘in business’ with Hunter or financially benefited from his deals, but their shifting defense has raised suspicion.
  • And since the start of 2023, Republicans have compiled a growing dossier of evidence they plan to use in the impeachment inquiry.

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Hunter Biden could be held in Contempt of Congress for not showing up for Subpoena

Hunter-Biden-640x480

Important Takeaways:

  • Hunter Biden’s failure to appear before House investigators will likely be a factor in formalizing the House impeachment inquiry vote Wednesday evening regarding President Joe Biden’s involvement in the Biden family business.
  • House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) pointed to six cases of mounting evidence on Tuesday against Joe Biden that “cannot be ignored”:
    • Biden family members and Biden business-linked entities received more than $15 million from individuals in Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Romania, and China.
    • Joe Biden spoke with Hunter Biden’s business associates at least 22 times.
    • Joe Biden lied about his involvement in the business.
    • Joe Biden received “direct monthly payments” from Hunter Biden’s “Owasco PC” business account, which received “payments from Chinese state-linked companies and other foreign nationals and companies.”
    • Investigators flagged the Justice Department’s “deviations” in the five-year investigation into Hunter Biden.
    • An FBI FD-1023 form alleges Joe Biden accepted a $5 million bribe while vice president.
  • House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) and Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) previously threatened to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress if he did not comply with both a public and private interview
  • If prosecuted and convicted for contempt of Congress, the punishment is up to a $100,000 fine and imprisonment.

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Joe and Hunter Biden drain America’s empathy as Comer reviles evidence of the family’s criminal enterprise

Hunter-Biden

Important Takeaways:

  • America is tired of Joe and Hunter Biden ‘weaponizing addiction’ as a get-out-of-jail-free card
  • People have been sympathetic and indulgent toward Hunter Biden all his life — and maybe that’s part of his problem.
  • But at 53, it’s time to grow up.
  • Hunter’s self-pitying op-ed in USA Today was ridiculous.
    • “What troubles me is the demonization of addiction, of human frailty, using me as its avatar and the devastating consequences it has for the millions struggling with addiction, desperate for a way out and being bombarded by the denigrating and near-constant coverage of me and my addiction on Fox News … and in the New York Post,” he wrote.
  • But our coverage is of corruption, not addiction.
  • It worked for Joe in the final debate of the 2020 election when he responded to pointed questions from Donald Trump about the millions Hunter had vacuumed up from China.
  • He claimed Hunter’s abandoned laptop, which he knew very well was Hunter’s, was a “Russian plant” and “a bunch of garbage” and cited the Dirty 51 letter penned by 51 former intelligence officials that he knew was cooked up by senior adviser, now hapless Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.
  • He feigned ignorance of the Chinese deals he helped Hunter secure, saying, “My son has not made money in terms of this thing about, what are you talking about, China.”
  • Really? The Big Guy was slated to take 10% of just one Chinese deal Hunter had with Chinese Communist Party-linked energy company CEFC, and Joe met Tony Bobulinski twice in LA to vet him as CEO of the joint venture between the Bidens and China.
  • Hunter’s first China deal came a few days after VP Joe flew with him on Air Force Two to Beijing and shook hands with his partner. Please.
  • But the icing on the cake was the addiction defense. Joe looked directly at the camera and told the folks at home: “My son, like a lot of people at home, had a drug problem. He’s overtaking it. He’s fixed it. He’s worked on it. And I’m proud of him.”
  • The appeal looks even more cynical today as evidence of corruption keeps piling up.
  • Comer last week released bank documents showing that $40,000 “in laundered Chinese money landed in Joe Biden’s bank account in the form of a personal check” from his brother Jim Biden.
  • Comer says that once he gets the latest tranche of bank records, he will issue two dozen subpoenas for Biden family members and associates: “It’s going to be a big week.

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What they accuse Trump for is what Hunter has been doing

Russia to Hunter Money Graph

Important Takeaways:

  • Joe DINED with oligarchs who paid Hunter: New bank records detail part of the $20 MILLION in foreign cash to Biden family – including $142,000 from Kazakh oligarch to president’s son that he used to buy Porsche after DC dinner
  • New detailed bank records show $20 million in payments to the Biden family and their partners from foreign actors in places like Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan during Joe’s time as vice president.
  • House Oversight Republicans released documents suggesting Hunter and his former business partner Devon Archer used shell companies to ‘hide’ millions in payments from overseas companies and oligarchs – though none of the newly released records directly link payments to Joe Biden.
  • The new evidence backs up Archer’s bombshell testimony to the committee that Hunter was raking in large amounts of cash from foreign deals, and how his father Joe was present in-person during dinner meetings and sat in on at least 20 phone calls with foreign associates.
  • Hunter Biden used $142,000 wired from a Kazakh oligarch to his shell company to buy a Porsche before setting up a dinner with his father Joe, the bank records show.
  • The bank records also reveal links between Russian billionaire Yelena Baturina and the Biden family, as well as detail $1 million yearly payments to Hunter and Archer for their positions on the Ukrainian oil company Burisma’s Board of Directors.
  • They show Baturina – the wife of a former Moscow mayor who has links to Vladimir Putin – wired $3.5 million to Rosemont Seneca Thornton, a shell company belonging to Hunter and Archer, in February 2014.

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Special Prosecutor incurred over $9 million in costs on case against Trump

Ecclesiastes 5:8 If you see the poor oppressed in a district, and justice and rights denied, do not be surprised at such things; for one official is eyed by a higher one, and over them both are others higher still

Important Takeaways:

  • Special counsel Jack Smith tallied about $5.4 million in personnel, rent and other expenses on his own budget and prompted about $3.8 million in spending by other Justice Department agencies in the roughly four months after he was tapped by Attorney General Merrick Garland last November to lead the classified documents probe as well investigations related to efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, according to figures DOJ released Friday.
  • Those figures may dramatically underestimate Smith’s total spending since they only account for his activities through the end of March
  • The report also highlights the unusual nature of Smith’s investigations and the strong reactions they have generated.
  • The new report doesn’t indicate how much the Justice Department spent on the related investigations in the months before Smith, a former head of DOJ’s Public Integrity Section, agreed to leave his job as a war-crimes prosecutor in Europe and return to Washington to take over the politically sensitive Trump probes.
  • By contrast, a special counsel appointed in January to look into President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents discovered in his Delaware home spent $615,000 through March and led other parts of DOJ to incur about $572,000 in expenses

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Economists Warn Biden’s Admin’s Student Debt Forgiveness Will Only Increase Inflation, Courts Could Also Chime In

President Biden announced his plan to forgive up to $20,000 in student loan debt for millions of Americans. But, some lawmakers and economic experts have raised concerns over its potential impact on inflation and the cost of college tuition. CBS News correspondent Christina Ruffini joined CBS News’ Caitlin Huey-Burns on “Red and Blue.”

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Joe Biden Announces Release of Another 15 Million Barrels of Oil from Strategic Reserves to Boost His Chances in Midterm Elections

Joe Biden announced another release of more oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve ahead of the 2022 midterms in an effort to (artificially) bring gas prices down.

 

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Israeli rightist seeks to outlaw opening of U.S. Palestinian mission in Jerusalem

By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – An Israeli right-wing opposition legislator is seeking to outlaw the planned reopening of a U.S. mission in Jerusalem that has traditionally been a base for diplomatic outreach to the Palestinians.

Israel’s new cross-partisan government led by nationalist Prime Minister Naftali Bennett also opposes the re-inauguration of the consulate, potentially buoying Likud lawmaker Nir Barkat’s effort to scupper the move, though it would strain relations with Washington.

The consulate was subsumed into the U.S. Embassy that was moved to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv in 2018 by then-U.S. President Donald Trump, steps hailed by Israel and condemned by Palestinians.

With an eye towards repairing U.S. relations with the Palestinians, and rebuilding mutual trust, President Joe Biden’s administration says it will reopen the consulate while leaving the embassy in place.

Barkat’s legislation, filed in parliament last month and with voting as yet unscheduled, would outlaw opening a foreign mission in Jerusalem without Israel’s consent.

“I think that the current Israeli government is weak. It depends on the left, it depends on radicals on our side,” he told Reuters. “We must do everything we can to maintain the unity of the city of Jerusalem.”

Israel regards all of Jerusalem as its capital. Palestinians want East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in a 1967 war along with the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as capital of the state they seek.

Ahmed Al-Deek, adviser to the Palestinian foreign ministry, said Barkat “represents the position of far-right parties in Israel which seek to block any chance of reaching a two-state solution”.

Barkat said polling showed some 70% public support for the bill – enough to garner votes from within the coalition. Asked for Bennett’s position, his spokesman cast the bill as a PR stunt, saying: “We don’t comment on trolling.”

U.S. officials have been largely reticent on the issue, saying only that the reopening process remains in effect.

Asked whether precedent existed in U.S. diplomacy for opening a mission over objections of a host country, the State Department’s Office of the Historian declined comment.

Barkat’s bill recognizes that there are a handful of countries with Jerusalem missions, like the former consulate, that predate Israel’s founding in 1948.

In what may signal a bid to persuade Israel to reconsider the former mission as a candidate to rejoin that group, Thomas Nides, Biden’s pick for ambassador, noted in his Sept. 22 confirmation hearing: “That consulate has existed, in one form or another, for almost 130 years.”

Barkat was unmoved, saying: “We respect what happened before 1948 (but) never did we give anybody consent to open up a diplomatic mission for Palestinians in the city of Jerusalem.”

(Additional by Ali Sawafta; Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Mark Heinrich)

U.S. envoy Sullivan to meet China’s top diplomat Yang amid Taiwan tensions

BEIJING (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden’s national security adviser will hold talks with China’s top diplomat in Switzerland on Tuesday and Wednesday, the South China Morning Post said, at a time of rising tension over several issues including Taiwan.

“They aim to rebuild communication channels and implement consensus reached between presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden,” the newspaper reported on Tuesday, citing an official familiar with the arrangements for the meeting between Jake Sullivan and Yang Jiechi.

Both the White House and the Chinese foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Ties between China and the United States deteriorated sharply under former U.S. President Donald Trump, and the Biden administration has maintained pressure on China on a range of issues from Hong Kong and the Xinjiang region to the origins of COVID-19.

China has also been angered by increased U.S. support for Taiwan, believing the United States is colluding with forces there seeking the island’s formal independence, a red line for Beijing.

“Our commitment to Taiwan is rock solid and contributes to the maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and within the region,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters on Monday.

“We have been clear privately and publicly about our concern about the PRC’s (People’s Republic of China) pressure and coercion toward Taiwan, and we will continue to watch the situation very closely,” she said.

Trade tensions are also at the top of the U.S.-China agenda, with U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai traveling to Paris Monday to participate in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development meetings later this week.

On Monday, the USTR unveiled the results of a months-long “top-to-bottom” review of China trade policy, pledging to hold “frank” talks with Beijing about its failure to keep promises made in Trump’s trade deal and end harmful industrial policies.

The Global Times, a tabloid published by the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily, said in a commentary China was willing to build mutually beneficial trade with the United States but would not make concessions on principle and was not afraid of a drawn-out contest.

“The China-U.S. trade war has lasted for more than three-and-a-half years. Instead of being weakened, China’s economy has taken a step forward in comparison with the scale of the U.S.,” it said.

The meetings this week will be yet another round of in-person talks between officials from the two powers since Biden took office, with little in the way of concrete progress in the earlier sessions.

In late July, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, the second-ranking U.S. diplomat, held face-to-face meetings with Xie Feng, a Chinese vice foreign minister, in the Chinese port city of Tianjin.

No specific outcomes were agreed and the prospect of a meeting between Biden and Xi was not discussed, senior U.S. administration officials said at the time.

In March, during high-level talks in Alaska, Chinese officials including Yang Jiechi railed against the state of U.S. democracy, while U.S. officials accused the Chinese delegation of grandstanding.

(Reporting by Ryan Woo in Beijing and Aakriti Bhalla in Bengaluru and Steve Holland in Washington; Editing by Kim Coghill, Robert Birsel, Heather Timmons and Steve Orlofsky)