NBC news story on Hunter Biden

[Res Ipsa]

A concise opinion piece: So where's the bribe, James Comer?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... -analysis/

Highlights:

It has now been more than three months since House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) issued a release in which they accused President Biden of having been “allegedly engaged in a bribery scheme with a foreign national.”

That allegation was based on an FBI interview of an informant who had spoken with Mykola Zlochevsky, founder of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. If validated, it would mark not only a significant legal violation on the part of Biden, but the first time that Comer’s breathless efforts to tie Biden to foreign payments was actually demonstrated.

It was not validated. Comer and Grassley — who were already familiar with an FBI form detailing the contents of the interview — spent a few weeks demanding that the FBI release the interview to the public. The FBI, concerned both about putting the informant at risk and about making public unsubstantiated claims, decided to offer a redacted version of the memo for legislators to see. Comer and Grassley then started complaining about the redactions as they demanded more people be able to see the interview. Eventually, Grassley just went ahead and released a lightly redacted version on social media.

The idea that Biden (and his son Hunter Biden, who served on Burisma’s board) had been bribed took hold as an article of faith on the right. Fox News has mentioned “bribe” or “bribery” in the context of “Biden” more than 1,100 times since the allegation was first made — despite the lack of evidence beyond that FBI interview document and despite the erosion of the credibility of the allegation in at least two ways. Hunter Biden’s business associate Devon Archer testified under penalty of perjury that Joe Biden wasn’t involved in his son’s business. Meanwhile, an old conversation between Zlochevsky and an ally of former president Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani was unearthed in which Zlochevsky denied having any contact with or receiving any assistance from Joe Biden.

After three months, a period that clearly included more assessments of income received by Hunter Biden (though a lot of the $20 million was already reported), there’s not a whiff of the alleged $5 million paid to Joe Biden by Zlochevsky. It’s less than a phantom.
There’s no alleged bribe to Hunter Biden, either. The new report from Comer delineates regular payments to Hunter Biden and Archer in 2014 and 2015 totaling about $3.3 million. The document points at whistleblower testimony claiming that the pair earned $6.5 million from Burisma. That’s not $5 million for Hunter Biden — and it’s not obviously a “bribe.” The pair sat on the company’s board and, according to Archer’s testimony, did board-related work for Burisma, however obviously derived from Hunter Biden’s last name their work might have been.

Speaking on Fox News last month, Comer and House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) implied that the alleged bribe was paid so that Biden, then vice president, would push for the firing of Ukraine’s prosecutor general. This has been debunked repeatedly, for nearly four years. The timeline presented on Fox didn’t match actual events, and Archer had testified that the eventual firing was understood to be detrimental to Burisma, not beneficial.
But it’s all Comer’s got. His team tried to dig up this bribe that they have convinced their allies exists, without luck. So he issues a news release about the “Biden family” and suggests that bribery claims don’t need actual proof and prepares for his next Sean Hannity interview.

[Res Ipsa]

The plea deal has fallen through. Weiss asked to be appointed special prosecutor and Garland has done so. The government has filed a motion to dismiss the Delaware case so it can be refilled in the courts with proper venue.

If the cases go to trial, we’ll get a better look at the actual statute of the evidence.

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap ... 1.31.0.pdf

[Doctor Steuss]

The plea deal has fallen through. Weiss asked to be appointed special prosecutor and Garland has done so. The government has filed a motion to dismiss the Delaware case so it can be refilled in the courts with proper venue.

If the cases go to trial, we’ll get a better look at the actual statute of the evidence.

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap ... 1.31.0.pdf

Somehow, this is evidence of the Deep State, and Biden's weaponization of the DOJ.

Somehow.

[Res Ipsa]

The plea deal has fallen through. Weiss asked to be appointed special prosecutor and Garland has done so. The government has filed a motion to dismiss the Delaware case so it can be refilled in the courts with proper venue.

If the cases go to trial, we’ll get a better look at the actual statute of the evidence.

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap ... 1.31.0.pdf

Somehow, this is evidence of the Deep State, and Biden's weaponization of the DOJ.

Somehow.

The screeching is the point — even if they get what they’ve demanding. The case is filed in Delaware, but the alleged crimes weren’t committed there. Weiss is the prosecutor in Delaware. This gives him the ability to file criminal cases in jurisdictions where they won’t be dismissed.

The screechers don’t want Hunter to be tried because then the public will get to hear his side of the story. They want to selectively leak exaggerated information for political advantage.

They promised proof that Joe Biden accepted a 5 million dollar bribe, and they repeatedly fell on their faces. I think they hope we’ll forget how badly they failed if they just keep screeching.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

Here’s an actual politician doing bad things:



How fast will the GOP refer him to the FBI?

[Res Ipsa]

Interesting development in the criminal case:

The lawyer who represented Hunter Biden in plea negotiations to end a five-year Justice Department investigation into tax and gun offenses stepped down early Tuesday, saying that he intends to testify as a witness on behalf of the president’s son.

....This week, Abbe Lowell, a veteran lawyer in Washington who has represented a wide range of clients, including Jared Kushner, filed court documents indicating he now represented Mr. Biden in the case.

Lowell is taking the position that the diversion agreement requires no approval by the judge and is legally enforceable. (There were two "agreements" -- the plea and the diversion agreement.) It appears that Clark will be testifying as to what the prosecution represented during the plea negotiations.

Another interesting tidbit: the prosecution first approached Hunter about a plea deal shortly after Shapely's team was removed from the IRS investigation. This is looking more and more like something stinky happened during the investigation, perhaps involving the two "whistleblowers," which led Weiss to decide to offer a plea deal.

[Res Ipsa]

The Washington Post's fact checker compared what Comer and official committee announcements have been saying about what the committee has found with what the staff member memos actually say.

The Hype:

“The Committee has identified over 20 companies affiliated with certain Biden family members and their business associates.”
— Majority staff of the House Oversight Committee, Second Bank Records memorandum, released May 10

“We’ve identified about 20-plus shell companies that the Bidens have created to launder the money they were receiving from foreign nationals down to their personal bank account.”
— Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, interview on Fox Business, May 11

“The Committee has now identified over $20 million in payments from foreign sources to the Biden family and their business associates.”
— Majority staff of the House Oversight Committee, Third Bank Records memorandum, released Aug. 9

“The Biden family received over $20 million from our enemies around the world. What did they do to receive the money?”— Comer, interview on Newsmax, Aug. 10

The Reality (as shown in the memos written by Republican staffers):

There were not 20-plus shell companies. There was one. No funds were transferred to any member of the Biden family through that single shell company.

For instance, the second staff memo never says that Hunter Biden used “shell” companies — a term often associated with shady or illegal activity, even though a shell company is a legitimate entity. Comer once described such an entity as “a fake company … they don’t make anything. They don’t produce anything. They don’t provide a good or service.” He is not wrong about many shell companies, but the memo lists real companies, with active websites and real business functions. (The third staff memo refers to just one “shell” company, which we will describe later.)

Rosemont Seneca Thornton LLC is the one company specifically named in a staff memo as a shell company. As we have reported, this entity was created in 2013 to invest in BHR Partners, the Chinese fund. But almost as soon as Rosemont Seneca Thornton was created, the partners decided to dissolve it, according to a person with access to the board minutes. Thornton Group, one of the investors, was run by Jim Bulger, who brought expertise in investing in China. But the original structure had added unexpected regulatory burdens to Thornton, and so Bulger’s lawyers advised that the group split up, this person said. Archer, in his interview, confirmed this to committee investigators, saying the creation of the LLC was “a mistake.”

We’d previously reported that Archer kept the vehicle alive for his own real estate business, without telling Hunter Biden or Bulger, according to two people knowledgeable about Archer’s activities. After a Senate report alleged that Rosemont Seneca Thornton received a $3.5 million payment from Baturina, Archer told Bulger that he had used Rosemont Seneca Thornton to transfer funds from Baturina to purchase real estate in Brooklyn, according to a participant in the conversation.

Although the Committee traced over $20 million in foreign payments, only $7.5 million went to Biden family members -- almost all of it to Hunter. The Committee was unable to trace any funds to Joe Biden.

That works out to be about $23 million in total payments from foreign sources. Of that, nearly $7.5 million can be fairly attributed as going to “Bidens,” but virtually all of it went to Hunter Biden. No money has been traced to Joe Biden.

Comer and his cronies made multiple claims that they had proof that Joe Biden accepted bribes. They lie.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

Does Ajax have the integrity to admit they are lying about JB?

[ajax18]

The second involved a business venture that Hunter tried to set up with a Chinese energy tycoon in 2017 (after Joe Biden was no longer vice president). One email mentions that the equity split would include “10 held by H for the big guy ?” A former business partner of Hunter’s named Tony Bobulinski came forward to claim “the big guy” was Joe Biden. But a subsequent email from Hunter says his “Chairman” gave him “an emphatic no,” and a further email clarifies that the chairman is his dad.

So this would confirm that Joe Biden did in fact know a lot about Hunter's overseas business dealings? In fact Joe Biden was the "chairman," of the Biden family influence pedaling corporation.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

So, that would be “No.”

- Doc