For years, President Joe Biden has maintained a Sgt. Schultz defense to allegations that his family has profiteered on influence peddling with foreign countries and companies. Despite mounting evidence to the contrary, Biden maintains that he “knows nothing, nothing” about Hunter Biden’s business deals. He recently doubled down on this defense by even denying that family members received money from foreign sources. He repeated his denial even after the release of financial transfer reports from his own administration showing millions transferred from China. Now, emails have emerged that show that Biden personally helped draft responses to the controversial deals in 2015 when he was Vice President. It also appears that Biden officials like former Biden Communications Director Kate Bedingfield knew of his role as the President continued to deny any involvement.
The National Archives has released emails that show that then-Vice President Joe Biden approved an official statement in December 2015 about Hunter Biden’s position on a Ukrainian energy company’s board.
Biden has denied any knowledge or involvement in these business dealings at least seven times as a presidential candidate and as president.
For years, the media has continued to report President Biden’s repeated claim that “I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings.” At the outset, the media only had to suspend any disbelief that the president could fly to China as Vice President with his son on Air Force 2 without discussing his planned business dealings on the trip.
Of course, the emails on the laptop quickly refuted this claim. However, the media buried the laptop story before the election or pushed the false claim that it was fake Russian disinformation.
Some in the media have repeated those denials, including most recently the Associated Press which, in 2022, falsely stated that there was no evidence Biden ever discussed the deals with his son despite an actual audiotape proving that claim to be false.
The audiotape showed President Biden leaving a message for Hunter specifically discussing coverage of those dealings:
“Hey pal, it’s Dad. It’s 8:15 on Wednesday night. If you get a chance just give me a call. Nothing urgent. I just wanted to talk to you. I thought the article released online, it’s going to be printed tomorrow in the Times, was good. I think you’re clear. And anyway if you get a chance give me a call, I love you.”
Some of us have written for two years that President Biden’s denial of knowledge is patently false. It was equally evident that the Biden family was selling influence and access. There are emails of Ukrainian and other foreign clients thanking Hunter Biden for arranging meetings with his father. There are photos from dinners and meetings that tie President Biden to these figures, including a 2015 dinner with a group of Hunter Biden’s Russian and Kazakh clients.
People apparently were told to avoid directly referring to President Biden. In one email, Tony Bobulinski, then a business partner of Hunter’s, was instructed by Biden associate James Gilliar not to speak of the former veep’s connection to any transactions: “Don’t mention Joe being involved, it’s only when u [sic] are face to face, I know u [sic] know that but they are paranoid.”
Instead, the emails apparently refer to President Biden with code names such as “Celtic” or “the big guy.” In one, “the big guy” is discussed as possibly receiving a 10 percent cut on a deal with a Chinese energy firm; other emails reportedly refer to Hunter Biden paying portions of his father’s expenses and taxes.
Bobulinski has given multiple interviews in which he stated that he met twice with Joe Biden to discuss a business deal in China with CEFC China Energy Co. That would seem obvious evidence. In addition, the New York Post reported on a key email that discussed “the proposed percentage distribution of equity in a company created for a joint venture with CEFC China Energy Co.” That was the email on March 13, 2017 that included references of “10 held by H for the big guy.”
The new emails show that, as early as 2015, Bedingfield told Hunter’s top financial lieutenant Eric Schwerin via email that Joe Biden approved a statement regarding Hunter’s board position. Yet, for years, Biden’s communications office repeated his denial of any involvement or knowledge. That stands in contradiction to Bedingfield’s 2015 email acknowledging that “VP signed off on this — will give this quote to reporters in my name shortly.” Bedingfield left the White House in 2023.
The White House has continued the categorical denials. When confronted by Fox News’ Peter Doocy on the transfer records showing millions sent from China, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded:
“Look, I’m just not going to respond to that from here. Look, we have heard from House Republicans for years and years and years how — the inaccuracies and lies when it comes to this issue. And, I don’t even where to begin to even answer that question because, again, it’s been lies and lies and inaccuracy for the past couple of years and I’m just not going to get into it from here.”
The only reason that Biden would even attempt to maintain this clearly false defense is that he could count on a supportive media to blunt any attacks and limit inquiries.
Of course, there is a difference with the Sgt. Schulz defense. Schultz was harmless and comical. The Biden influence peddling allegation is neither. Despite the striking lack of interest of many in the media, this is about millions of dollars paid to the First Family by foreign sources, including some with foreign intelligence ties.
Influence peddling has long been the favored form of corruption in Washington. While many Democrats repeatedly stress that influence peddling is not criminal, it is corrupt and the Bidens appear to be a class in themselves. Yet, even with the clear contradiction of the President’s repeated statements to the public, Democrats still oppose any investigation into the alleged influence peddling.
What made Sgt. Schultz funny is precisely why the Biden defense is collapsing. The refusal of the media to see what is now in plain view will convince no one. At some point, Democratic leaders will have to recognize the obvious or join the Bidens (and many journalists) in the cast of this theater of the absurd.
Peter Doucy asked about the latest hard evidence and requested a response. KJP refused, and said its all lies. Not sure what she says in the lie. This is evidence. She is not saying the evidence of phony. What is the “lie”?
It’s a law of physics: the harder they come after Trump, the guiltier they know Biden is.
Good article JT, but “The refusal of the media to see what is now in plain view will convince no one” misses the point. It is clear that we do not have an independent Fourth Estate. Our corporate media receives their talking points every day from their CIA handlers. These media lackeys simply read from prepared scripts. Mika and Joe are the funniest. Mika has the script from her handlers, and reads from it. Then Joe goes off on a mindless, fact-free rant. If Joe says anything off-script you can see Mika frowning. It’s the most hilarious show on TV. Official Dem DC takes the lead from these two clowns on Morning Joe every day. It’s getting to the point where even the brainwashed are starting to ask questions.
It seems like this all happened when Joe was still mentally competent.
“The National Archives has released emails that show that then-Vice President Joe Biden approved an official statement in December 2015 about Hunter Biden’s position on a Ukrainian energy company’s board.”
Turley didn’t post the statement or any of the emails he talks about. What did the statement say? He probably left it out maybe because the statement is vague and generic enough that it wouldn’t show what he claims these emails show. Some sort of deceit or deflection perhaps? This is emblematic of Turley’s carefully cherry picked narrative painting business deals and the ‘shocking’ reality that people can make millions of dollars and that people don’t have to explain themselves anymore than the Trump’s own children do when it comes to making millions.
Turley and a majority of republicans seem obsessed with knowing why he made so much money when their own former president did the same thing and never even bothered to raise an eyebrow. This is just pure political distraction from the more serious issues involving real criminal investigations and imminent indictments involving Trump. Already it seems, the DOJ has provided concrete evidence to a judge that Trump committed a crime that can land him in prison. The evidence must have been so overwhelming that the appeals court required motions to be filed within hours instead of months. Biden on the other hand just has people making assumptions about what he might have done or possibly did because….he made some money or his son made some money.
The issue with Biden or the Biden’s is nothing more than trying to pin something un that family because it’s unfair that Trump is going thru unpleasant scrutiny and experiencing consequences due to his own poor decisions. It’s unfair that only Trump gets this kind of treatment. Biden should be punished as well because…Trump is being treated unfairly. It’s just a petty need to be vengeful because they can’t stand the idea that Trump is the only one being treated…unfairly. Boo Hoo, hoo.
Turley and a majority of republicans seem obsessed with knowing why he made so much money when their own former president did the same thing and never even bothered to raise an eyebrow.
That’s an outright lie. Trump made money by doing honest business. He had something to sell, and he sold it at the going market price. Nobody gave him anything because he was president. And of course nobody gave him anything before he was president, because why would they?
Hunter Biden has nothing to sell. He has no skills or talents or knowhow whatsoever. So when all these foreign companies are paying him hundreds of thousands, or millions of dollars, it’s obvious that the money is not intended for him. He is merely the bag man, and the money is intended for his father. As we know from his conversation with his daughter, his cut of the takings was 50%. He complained that his father was taking 50% of everything he “made”, but considering that the only thing he was selling was his father’s services, allowing him to keep 50% was very generous.
And what is it that Joe Biden could do for all these companies, for which they were paying Hunter? We saw that with Burisma. They were in trouble, so they sent Hunter a distress call and Joe delivered the protection they had paid for. The same protection that the Chinese were also paying for, but may not have needed to invoke (as far as we know).
In any case, the word for all this is bribery, which is a crime. Whereas Trump was engaged in legitimate business.
Svelaz: I would just remind you that Trump is making these critical, national-security, budget-stretching, foreign policy decisions every day right now (oh, wait, that is Biden. Dang.). Yeah, if Trump or his kids did illegal things, prosecute them for sure. But my focus (and I am appalled it’s not yours) is what’s going on TODAY, right F*ing now. You are a moron my friend. It’s not Trump allowing illegals from China across the border. It’s not Trump spending billions on Ukraine and provoking Russia. It’s not Trump letting Chinese spy balloons traverse the country’s sensitive military bases. What is wrong with you buddy? Got your head stuck in the past? You are just like the election deniers you detest. You just can’t let it go and focus on what’s happening right now.
You realize when you take the time to reply to Svelaz, that you’re replying to a 14 year old kid.
RE: SVELAZ’ ” Nobody cares” Perhaps at your local happy hour. However, elsewhere, yes we do care and Bobulinski bore witness to the Biden family machinations the night before the election in 2020. Only one cable network saw fit to carry his commentary. However the Charmin will roll out remains to be seen.
The fact the nation has been getting progressively poorer since America’s CEO’s sent our production to China to make their bonuses, it is even more aggravating that a flakey election elected a geriatric ghost who is pulling the entire country into a social and economic hole we may never get out of.
It only took two years to crash the global USD$ system, have China brokering peace deals, look like goofballs and babies on the world stage, bring us to the brink of nuclear war with Russia and China, print up trillions of unbacked dollars and hike up inflation petering on money and banking system collapse, reveal the most corrupt and bribed president in living memory, create a Administration headed by freakshow characters and incompetent ideological buffoons.
At least he is less abrasive than Trump, and that is the most important thing.
Gee Trieste: You hit the nail on the head: no more mean tweets. That’s all we need for a super-strong country.
Well said. Keep saying it loud and often. The brainwashing is strong in those on the left.
“Administration headed by freakshow characters and incompetent ideological buffoons.”
Starting with the demented, lying, cadaver, Joe Biden sitting on top of the trash heap.
Power is being grotesquely abused by ideologically brainwashed people.
We are dealing with a cabal of people who have no respect for the *civil liberties* and the *actual rights* of others.
“Administration headed by freakshow characters and incompetent ideological buffoons.” I agree. These folks are mostly retreads from previous administration who have waited their whole lives to get one hand on the wheel and cram down their progressive crap ideas through executive orders and circumventing congress (who are just as bad and let them do it). Country run by these unelected folks, not Joe, who is busy contemplating what jello to have with lunch (they do let him decide that, and it keeps him happy.).
Look,this is growing tiresome. Anyone with a functioning brain stem knows how dirty, corrupt and compromised this old grifter is. Why we dance around this issue is partly because our federal bureaucracy is infiltrated with partisan prog/left tools who will bog down any and all justifiable inquiries until 2025 and the most disturbing reason is that so many in the swamp are entangled in this and other similar situations that there exists a situation of mutually assured destruction should anyone begin turning over the rock and exposing the corruption within the swamp. Nothing is going to happen here just as nothing happened to hillary. We should be ashamed to have allowed our government to slide so far into the slimy mess that it is.
Funny is it not?
Some claim Trump is an idiot and a liar.
Yet after years and years of attempted “get Trump!” they fail. The latest attempt appears to be some kind of twist on SOL, making a misdemeanor into a felony, and a letter by Cohen that just might make Cohen the defense’s star witness.
Is Trump really an idiot? Or a mad, genius mastermind to avoid years and years of indictment?
You be the judge!
Compare and contrast that to Biden. They have SARs, they have banking wire transactions, emails, even a recording, lies, all amounting to real evidence of criminal activity.
Seems to me, some one could build a real case with supporting evidence against Biden.
More so than against Trump.
But we all know, that just like hillary, nothing will be done to disturb the fetid waters of the swamp. We need to drain the swamp and disinfect it before anything can move forward, anything else is spinning our wheels convincing ourselves that posting and blogging about it will get something done.
“Now, emails have emerged that show that Biden personally helped draft responses . . .” (JT)
Wait for it. We’re about to enter Stage Two of “Operation Whitewash the Corruption.”
Stage One: It never happened.
Stage Two: It happened. But _________ (fill in your favored rationalizations and deflections).
Many of us have been screaming about all this, especially since Tucker Carlson had Bobulinski did an interview w/him. I feel like our entire form of government has collapsed – we’re no longer a nation of laws & justice – we live in a government controlled environment w/absolutely no representation. Yep, there are a few that seem to have our best interests at heart, but they are very few & far between & their voices are either muted or weak. It’s very discouraging.
The sinister alliance between the Democrats and the media has to end! President Biden has created numerous national security risks and is, himself, a national security risk. He projects weakness on the world stage, as the axis of evil increases in size. He has taken a wrecking ball to this country. I don’t think that we can ride out the remainder of his term. It’s time to impeach Joe Biden. The border situation alone illustrates that he is not faithfully executing the laws of the land.
Catherine Cassidy: Yes, impeach him. Except the GOP does not have the fortitude, nor the motivation…which to me makes them as guilty for letting it go on as Joe is for doing it. Like they say in politics: Never solve a problem you can blame on the other side. This whole thing is a show, and likely they are ALL corrupt and looking the other way so they might escape.
You have a point, BL. However, the Republicans have a majority in the House, but not in the Senate. An impeachment in the House is possible, even plausible. A conviction in the Senate is not likely. Perhaps the reason for the GOP’s hesitation is the fear that the VP may not perform well in the role of President. On the bright side – the former Speaker of the House is no longer in the line of succession.
House could impeach but the current Senate would never remove Biden. But coming soon the Dems will remove Kam, Slide in Mochell or Hillary, then the Senate will be willing to remove JB under 25th amendment. Then they slide in the newly implemented VP and wa la she is running as incumbent.
“The Biden influence peddling allegations is neither. Despite the striking lack of interest of many in the media, this is about millions of dollars paid to the First Family by foreign sources, including some with foreign intelligence ties.”
There is a “striking lack of interest of many in the media” for the same reason there is a lack of interest in the Trump family business dealings. It’s not illegal or criminal. The only reason Turley seems to be complaining about this lack of interest is because he wants this be an issue, only because it involves a democrat. Trump has has as many suspicious financial transactions and deals involving his family including influence peddling schemes. Nobody really cares because it’s not illegal and there is still no claim of what exactly is the crime he or others think has been committed. It’s obvious there is evidence to prove the insinuations and assumptions. That is why there’s this concerted fishing expedition. To find the crime that they can’t prove they say has been committed.
🤡
+ 1 million kenb5602!!
Interesting set of logic.
Bribery is illegal, but if done through enough layers, and the quid is separated far enough from the quo, then it is legal.
Trump was impeached twice for a phone call and a speech. He is being grand juried for another phone call, and grand juried and possibly indicted for the crime of paying off an extortion without telling anyone about it. He was investigated publically for 3 years on vapor allegations of being a spy, that the investigators knew to be false. His house was raided for documents that were alleged to be classified. Every little thing he did was alleged to be criminal. But, nothing was shown to be illegal even after dozens of intense investigations and projects launched against him. Death by a thousand paper cuts, through insinuations and assumptions and preliminary legal processes and investigations, to find a crime that they can’t prove occurred.
But no foul, because neither Biden nor Trump did anything illegal, that can be proven.
And yet somehow, there seems to be much more one of those parties has had to work at to disprove, to defend, to spend money and resources, to demonstrate presumptive innocence and recover reputation.
And the other just sailed through the allegations, evidence testimony, documents and accusations, without any active defense or effort except straightfaced denials, and just waiting for them to go away.
Somehow, one thing is just not like the other.
Well said. Keep sharing loud and often.
(Unfortunately your thinking is far too clear and rational for you to ever be permitted to teach students at any elite school. Cannot be allowed!)
You ARE aware that Professor Turley is NOT a Republican nor a conservative, right?
“18 U.S.C. § 201…
(c)Whoever—
(1)otherwise than as provided by law for the proper discharge of official duty…
(B) being a public official, former public official, or person selected to be a public official, otherwise than as provided by law for the proper discharge of official duty, directly or indirectly demands, seeks, receives, accepts, or agrees to receive or accept anything of value personally for or because of any official act performed or to be performed by such official or person;…
(3) directly or indirectly, demands, seeks, receives, accepts, or agrees to receive or accept anything of value personally for or because of the testimony under oath or affirmation given or to be given by such person as a witness upon any such trial, hearing, or other proceeding, or for or because of such person’s absence therefrom; shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than two years, or both…”
In Dixson v. United States, 465 U.S. 482 (1984), the Supreme Court concluded that “[t]he term public official is not limited to persons in a formal employment or agency relationship with the Government.” 465 U.S. at 494. The Court identified the appropriate inquiry as “whether the person occupies a position of public trust with official federal responsibilities.”
The crime is bribery.
Neither Trump nor anyone in his family has any suspect dealings that indicate bribery. They have income from legitimate business. The Bidens don’t.
Eagerly awaiting the “I am not a crook” moment
Well, I would say that Joe Biden’s long-standing denial of his involvement with Hunter’s “investment” arrangement worked quite well with a totally compliant mainstream media. If the arrangement has finally timed out, they can’t really complain. The Bidens made millions and Lunch Bucket Joe got elected President of the United States. Corruption really paid off in the Biden’s case !! It was a winning formula. It will, however, make it a bit difficult for all of his Legacy writers to spin what a great guy after being bought off by the Chinese Communist Part (but they’ll try of course). Thank you, Jonathan, for an excellent article.
Oh but they will spin, spin, spin until their brainwashed, muddled minds can spin no further.
See Jon Meacham, for one example. Or that left wing nut case, Beschloss who spouts ideological nonsense that dumbs down the masses — which of course gets him lots of airtime. His online bio says “Beschloss has been a frequent commentator on the PBS NewsHour and is the NBC News Presidential Historian. He is a trustee of the White House Historical Association and the National Archives Foundation and he also sits on the board of the Smithsonian ‘s National Museum of American History.” Beschloss is a lunatic leftist with a big megaphone.
JT writes: “At some point, Democratic leaders will have to recognize the obvious or join the Bidens (and many journalists) in this cast of this theater of the absurd.” That point will be after Biden leaves office or until the Dems decide to get rid of him.
The MSM will continue to serve as Biden’s PR regardless of the evidence. Pseudo fact checkers like Glenn Keesler of the Washington ComPost and truly egregious propagandists like Jenny Rubin will continue to attack the messengers with vicious lies, while much of the electronic media will simply ignore the story. The vast majority of the population will remain uninformed and I predict very little or no consequences. Trump in the meantime will find a way to further distract from this most corrupt and frankly evil administration further minimizing the likelihood that the Biden’s will ever have justice visited upon them. Very dispiriting.
Unfortunately you are correct Alank. I recently thought that since Biden’s corruption is now in plain sight and beyond dispute, the truth would spread and his lies would fall like a house of cards. Not so. His bribery scheme is almost irrelevant. Its revelation only intensifies the MSM’s efforts to bury the story and the right’s publicizing it. The people who are offended deeply by this malfeasance are never going to vote for Biden anyways. The rest of the population will chalk it up to a Fox News/right wing blogosphere conspiracy. The linchpin to all of this not collapsing is the complicity of the MSM. And they will never break ranks. Never
Alank and Dennis,
Well said.
And, if MSM were to break ranks, then they would have to admit they were wrong, and even complicit in hiding the various BCF scandals.
If four years of Russiagate and the Hunter laptop is any indication of to what degree they will admit to . . .
Well, maybe if they have a change of staff and leadership.
This is what happened to Twitter. Total corruption, complicity, lying and bias.
Yet the new management didn’t have to defend any of it, and is making a clean presentation of what horrors occurred in the prior administration of it.
Never underestimate the ability of a lefty to lie to us or even lie to themselves.
C’mon Turley,
You know the Democratic playbook since Bill Clinton was to deny, deny and deny everything even in the face of evidence.
They have no shame and all (Clinton, Obama and Biden) used the role of President to fatten their own wallets.
The MSM is complicit in this deception.
-G
Maybe Biden needs to add the Clinton finger wagging routine. That should do it.
The last honest Democrat was Tulsi Gabbard and she has left the party.
And Gabbard is a better person for it.
Truth be told…!!!