I previously wrote a column marveling at the success of the Bidens in pulling off one of the neatest tricks in political history. I analogized it to how Houdini used to make his 10,000-pound elephant Jennie disappear on a stage in front of a live audience. The media and political establishment is now striving to top that performance by declaring $20 million in payments to Biden family members as an “illusion” of influence. At the heart of this scandal is the BFF, the Biden Family Fund.
Here is the column:
This week, President Joe Biden responded to calls for greater access to the media with a blockbuster interview with . . . the Weather Channel.
The interview immediately prompted critics to speculate that the president wanted to continue to talk about the weather — the same claim made after the disclosure of his participation in various dinners with his son’s foreign associates.
As the number of these dinners, meetings and outings increase, Joe Biden appears to have covered more meteorological subjects than Al Roker.
The problem is that conditions are worsening in Washington.
This week, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer released a third report on the ongoing investigations into the Biden corruption scandal.
The latest bank records indicate the Biden family has received more than $20 million, including from corrupt Kazakh figures.
Some of this money provided Hunter Biden with extravagant toys. On April 22, 2014, Kazakh oligarch Kenes Rakishev wired $142,300 to the Rosemont Seneca Bohai bank account.
That account then shows the exact same amount being wired to a New Jersey car dealership for a Fisker sports car for Hunter. Finding the Fisker unsuitable, Hunter traded it in for a Porsche.
Notably, these payments often coincided with dinners and meetings with Joe Biden.
Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina, the widow of Moscow ex-Mayor Yury Luzhkov, wired $3.5 million to Rosemont Seneca Thornton Feb. 14, 2014.
She later attended a dinner with Joe and Hunter Biden at Washington, DC, hotspot Café Milano.
For weeks, Joe Biden’s prior claims have been collapsing as his allies in the media and Congress struggle for an alternative spin on these new disclosures.
The president’s denials of any knowledge of his son’s foreign dealings finally have been exposed as a lie.
Even the Washington Post has acknowledged Biden lied when he insisted that Hunter never made any money in China.
It was always a boldfaced falsehood (and a confusing claim from a man who insisted that he had no knowledge of his son’s foreign dealings).
But the testimony of associate Devon Archer and new bank records forced the paper and others to recognize the falsehood.
There is also the confirmation that Biden’s long denials that he attended key dinners with Hunter’s business associates were false.
Most notably, the media are grudgingly admitting that Hunter was openly selling influence peddling and access to his father as part of what Archer called “selling the brand.”
The final line of defense is now that Hunter Biden was selling access to Joe Biden but it was an “illusion.” The reason, they claim, is there is no evidence of direct payments to Joe and Jill Biden.
There is, of course, nothing “illusionary” about tens of millions moving to Hunter and other family members.
But political spins are often built on illusions. The latest is that Joe Biden only benefits from these payments if they were directly deposited in his accounts.
For a family that Hunter explained was “the best” at this type of dealing, it is absurd to expect a deposit slip from a corrupt Ukrainian official to the account of Joe and Jill Biden, one of the most vulnerable accounts in the world to review and monitoring.
These claims, moreover, ignore emails discussing Hunter’s and his father’s use of joint accounts to pay for expenses, including how one account was used to pay Joe’s taxes. There is also Hunter’s complaint that he was using half of his earnings to support his father. Indeed, one trusted FBI informant said that, in planning a bribe, one foreign figure was told to avoid direct payments to Joe Biden. Today, that is as amateurish as an envelope of cash and the Bidens have been in the business of influence peddling for decades.
Responding to the new evidence, Washington Post columnist Phillip Bump led the charge in asking: Where’s the bribe?
In other words, as long as Hunter got the luxury car, Joe didn’t benefit or receive a bribe.
(Notably, Bump did not have the same high standards when he pushed the false claim over a photo op in Lafayette Park and later refused to concede with the rest of the media on the lack of Russian collusion with Donald Trump.)
Not even millions to Biden children and grandchildren would seem to satisfy Bump as an inducement for the then-vice president.
Yet the greatest illusion is the claim Joe Biden would only be motivated by a direct payment to one of his accounts.
Biden clearly benefited from millions going to the Biden Family Fund (BFF). Even grandchildren received some of the transfers funneled through a labyrinth of accounts.
Joe Biden is 80 years old. Despite holding only government jobs in his career, he is worth an estimated $8 million.
Forbes reported he earned $17.3 million over the four years he was out of office. He will never spend his fortune. Any additional money would have to pass to his descendants.
For most wealthy people in their final years, the challenge is not raising more money but getting that money to your children without heavy taxes or delays.
This money was going to his BFF. That is a benefit and probably of greater value to a man of Joe Biden’s age and wealth.
None of this has stopped politicians, press and pundits from insisting that absent a direct payment to the president’s account, there is no corruption or crime.
After all, $20 million going to a president’s family is like complaining about the weather in Washington.
Jonathan Turley is an attorney and professor at George Washington University Law School.
I’m not so certain that Joe Biden was motivated by monetary greed, -as much as he was by the idea of being president.
He found a way to do it.
Looking back on his legacy, I see a very insecure man constantly looking in the mirror, -constantly beefing up his credentials, his smartness ( -starting with plagiarizing someone else’s work while still a student in law school), lying about his achievements, his ability to accomplish things; wholly creating stories from his imagination; taking credit for things not of his doing; breaking out into his big flashy smile,- all for effect ……..
Virtually all of his entire public life has been plagued with the “illusion” of himself that he alone created/orchestrated.
He got what he wanted (the presidency), but methinks he will go down in history with the kind of legacy he did not want (or was too cerebrally-lacking to anticipate).
lin says:
“I see a very insecure man constantly looking in the mirror…” Biden sees The Joker of Batman fame after his transformative face lift, nose job and hair plugs.
Again, the swamp is wielding corruption as a tool of power. The corruption is the message. They are showing they can get away with it as a message to ordinary Americans not to challenge them in any serious way.
To quote the MAIN ATTEAM MEDIA. When Trump was presidet. TkHE WALLS ARE CLOSING IN
GEB,
They do in fact do appear to be closing in.
I think that is why our leftist friends seem so desperate at ‘whataboutism.’
How many comments has the various anonymous posted between the good professor’s articles today?
It seems to me that the payments leg of the bribery charge has now been amply proven. For the reasons Turley states, it is silly to think that only payments to a Biden account could make the case.
What is left to be demonstrated is that Joe Biden provided benefits in exchange for the payments.
Archer explained that the first benefit was the intimidation of enemies that derived from being seen to be protected by VP Biden. In his view, without this, Burisma would not have survived as long as it did. But I don’t think this benefit is enough to meet the requisite element of a crime.
To impeach and convict for bribery, there should be evidence that VP Biden did something to protect or otherwise help those who paid his family. There is evidence of this that should be further investigated:
1. The Form 1023 indicates that Biden extorted Zlochevsky for $10m, including half to himself and half to his son, to stop prosecutions in Ukraine. Relevant witnesses are the CHS, Zlochevsky, Pozharski and Ostapenko (said to have been at one point an advisor to Zelensky). There are also said to be tape recordings and payment records. The House should grant immunity and withhold all funds from Ukraine to get testimony, tapes and records.
2. Shokin has said many times that Poroshenko told him that Biden insisted that he stop investigating Zlochevsky and Burisma or be fired. Shokin should be granted immunity and called in to testify.
3. Archer testified that on Dec 4 Zlochevsky and Pozharski made a special night-time visit to interrupt Hunter’s evening to get him to call D.C. urgently to relieve legal pressure. This followed a series of communications from Pozharski about that. Hunter made the call, in the presence only of Zlochevsky and Pozharski. Phone records for that call should be subpoenaed by the House. It was likely made from Hunter’s phone to Joe’s private phone provided by Hunter. Peter Schweizer has provided Comer with the number for that private phone. Zlochevsky and Pozharski should also be called to testify. It was shortly after this call that Joe Biden, seemingly without any authorisation, threatened Poroshenko to withhold $1b in loan guarantees unless Shokin was fired.
It seems to me the evidence above is sufficient to launch an impeachment inquiry, which will maximise the power of the House to get further information.
Daniel,
Excellent analysis.
The evidence is mounting.
Daniel – from your spelling I can tell you’re from the British Commonwealth. Do you live in the U.S. now? I’m just curious because you seem remarkably well informed of what’s happening on this side of the pond.
“But I don’t think this benefit is enough to meet the requisite element of a crime.”
Why not? (asked respectfully)
JB (via cutouts) and his family receive money from Burisma. JB then gets fired the prosecutor who was investigating Burisma.
The psychological intimidation effect of being seen to be protected by Joe Biden, without actual acts of protection by Biden, does not seem to me to be enough. That’s why Congress should now focus on Biden’s firing of Shokin.
Shokin wasn’t investigating Burisma. That’s why the EU and US wanted him fired: because he wasn’t dealing with corruption.
There is a video out there of Shokin stating he WAS investigating Burisma and was told by Poroshenko that Biden demanded his firing.
What a surprise: corrupt Shokin lies.
Surely you can outline how the new “solid” prosecutor put Hunter and other Burisma corrrupteds in prison then huh ?
No, you cannot.
I’ve seen the Burisma office raid videos that occurred right before Shokin was fired.
You’re clueless.
“Kazakh oligarch Kenes Rakishev wired . . .”
“Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina {. . . ] wired . . .”
Yet, mysteriously, those two Biden benefactors were excluded from both the Obama and Biden list of sanctioned oligarchs.
Uranium: With the stroke of a pen, Biden just kneecapped America’s uranium production. Guess who are two of the world’s biggest producers of uranium. Here’s a hint: Russia and Kazakhstan.
Can you say quid pro quo?
P.S. Who’s the “Putin stooge,” now?
Biden is a Putin stooge? The guy who is the lead funder of the Ukrainian resistance?
When you live in the bubble you do you really need to try to get out more.
Unlike other political scandals in American history, with the Bidens, it’s not the cover-up.
It’s the crime.
Demanding and receiving millions of dollars in bribes from China, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, and more.
Justice can’t come soon enough.
Philip Bump is no journalist. He is literally the scum of the earth. I will never forget the instance at the Olympics when the sister of the North Korean mass murderer dictator made a visible gesture of disrespect for Trump; Bump’s reaction was “Go Girl”. What kind of scumbag would applaud a member of one of the most cruel regimes in modern history because of his dislike of the American President?. Only the lowest of the lows and a prominent reporter for the Washington ComPost!
The Democrat Party needs an enema. They own Washington, they own corporate media, they own the eggheads, and the only thing standing between them and totally-corrupt power is a swing voter who couldn’t care less.
T.S. Eliot and Herman Melville had their doubts about democracy. I fear I will live long enough to see them proven right.
The democratic/dictatorial duality forced by dreams of redistributive change of capital and control, bennies for babies (i.e. wicked solution), diversity, corruption, and complacency/comfort.
I can hear the bongos, man 😉
Well, we’re not a democracy for some of those reasons, so…
Due to his age and frail condition, Joe should get something like a twenty million dollar fine and six months in prison, followed by a couple of years house arrest with an ankle monitor, followed by five years probation. Which would be much better than he deserves for shaking down America’s enemies for millions of dollars in exchange for altering American foreign policy in their favor.
The momentum is mounting like a snowball rolling down a steep slope and reminds me of how things occurred during the Nixon-Watergate investigation and cover up. It is difficult to dance around facts. What is more disturbing than his grifting tens of millions of dollars in bribes over the years is the coordinated coverup by government agencies, media, and the practice of omertà. When one or more conspire, it is no longer a conspiracy theory. The real losers are the American people.
Joe took his biggest payoff by selling his shriveled soul to those who promised him the Presidency so long as he read what he was told to read and say whatever he was told to say. Was it worth it Joe? Your days on earth are numbered (as are all of ours) and soon you will pass away. What history say about you?
In the world of medicine, for example, providers are required to report all their perks and the monetary values are published (Open Payments CMS). If a pharmaceutical representative comes to the office with coffee and donuts, the doctor has to sign a form with his or her name for that amount. The same is true for lunches or dinners, etc. There are to be no more Caribbean fishing trips or exclusive wine and dine events that are off record. Those who lecture at events such as the academies, must state their financial disclosures before speaking. If these expenses occur on behalf of influencing the doctor, they must be entered into the public record.
Why does this not happen with politicians? It is a known fact that the money spent by pharmaceutical companies have a significant impact on how medicine is prescribed, otherwise they would not spend so much on direct patient advertisement and on sponsoring events and all the goodies. How much of big business is kept going by them knowing the right people in government to pay and when and how to pay them? It happens all the time. We are no better than any of the third world countries that openly admit to doing things requires a quiet way to grease the palms of those who make things happen.
Again, it is the conspiracy of media and those within the government agencies holding the line that is the big story here and as with Watergate, the coverup is the place to really look.
That should be E.M.
” The media and political establishment is now striving to top that performance by declaring $20 million in payments to Biden family members as an “illusion” of influence.”
You’d think a lawyer like Turley would be precise with words. There isn’t an accusation that $20 million went to the Biden family, there’s an allegation that $20 million went to organizations that Biden family members are associated with, however loosely. It would be like saying Jared Kushner received $2 Billion when in fact he personally may only have gotten $200-300 million. See the difference? Turley cares about one and has no interest in discussing the other.
enigmainblack, do you think that Turley is just mistaken, or is his opinions on purpose.
FishWings, I think he purposely lied.
What organizations, exactly? The 20+ LLC shell companies?
That money went to each and every member of the Biden family — except Joe.
ding ding, hello?
“there’s an allegation that $20 million went to organizations”
I didn’t realize that bank records are no longer considered proof that the money went to accounts associated with the Bidens.
Tell me what bank records have you seen as opposed to those described by others that haven’t produced them. How much money exactly did Joe get, or Hunter, and do you even care about Jared and Ivanka?
Meanwhile, Justice “Thomas’ leisure activities have been underwritten by benefactors who share the ideology that drives his jurisprudence. Their gifts include: At least 38 destination vacations, including a previously unreported voyage on a yacht around the Bahamas; 26 private jet flights, plus an additional eight by helicopter; a dozen VIP passes to professional and college sporting events, typically perched in the skybox; two stays at luxury resorts in Florida and Jamaica; and one standing invitation to an uber-exclusive golf club overlooking the Atlantic coast.”
https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-other-billionaires-sokol-huizenga-novelly-supreme-court
And once again, Thomas failed to disclose them on his financial disclosure forms. But that’s not a scandal that Turley wants to discuss. It’s OK when conservative justices do it, right?
Try to stay on topic please.
And once again, Thomas failed to disclose them on his financial disclosure forms.
We know Garland is not scared. Garland should indict Thomas.
The difference is that Thomas was never gonna vote with Sotomajor whether he was given tickets or not. The Bidens have started a war in Ukraine and sold-out the public interest to Blackrock and china.
Unfortunately, none of this matters when one party can rig an election, own the “justice” system, and prosecute its political opponents. Hunter and Joe could rob the treasury in broad daylight, inject millions of Americans with poisonous “vaccines,” and start wars all over the planet, and the current state of political and media collusion in the US allows them to get away with all of it just by uttering a fact-free, media-endorsed argument that Trump is worse.
Surprising that Joe didn’t also discuss the weather on the Weather Channel.
You don’t seem to have figured it out Bob. Both are wrong, but it seems the least Lodi’s is Justice Thomas. We have never had a president who seems so oblivious to his own criminality.i am sure Thomas knows he is crossing a line. Biden, on the other hand , is clueless.
What line is Thomas crossing ?
There is a gigantic gulf between accepting gifts of comparatively low value from actual friends
and soliciting tens of millions from thugs in unfriendly countries in return for abusing government power.
Has Thomas ruled on a case that anyone who has given him gifts has been a party to ?
I you wish to set the rules such that no one in govenrment can accept a gift from anyone – while in office – do so, but you will have to amend the constitution to do so.
You are free to criticize Thomas and Sotomayor and Ginsberg, and … for what they are doing, but it is perfectly legal.
What Biden has done is NOT.
Where is Joseph Biden? Where is Jill Biden? Hunter Biden? How much dirty money has the Biden family and their extensively cooked books received?
Forbes estimated Fidel Castro’s personal net worth at $900 million. That’s a lot of socialist rationing for one person. Luxurious living arrangements were especially appealing to Castro. But for security reasons (after hundreds of assassination attempts), Castro’s paranoid personal life and residences were top secret. Even Cuban citizens didn’t know where he resided.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/keithflamer/2016/11/26/10-surprises-about-castros-extravagant-life
Fidel Castro once claimed that he lived a life of exemplary revolutionary frugality on a salary of $36 a month. “Lies,” said Juan Reinaldo Sánchez, 65, who served as a bodyguard for the former Cuban leader for 17 years and has published a book of memoirs portraying Castro as a sort of feudal lord who ran the island as a personal fiefdom. Castro personally controlled about 20 luxury homes, a Caribbean island getaway with a pool in which dolphins swam, the 88-foot yacht Aquarama II and several fishing vessels whose catch was sold for dollars deposited in his accounts, according to Sánchez. “He always claims he lives frugally. Lies. He lives in a luxury that most Cubans can’t even imagine,”
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/fidel-castrorsquos-ex-bodyguard-tells-of-dictatorrsquos-life-of-luxury/
Meanwhile Washington DC is a criminal hell hole, where violent crime YTD 2023 surpasses 2022 by an astonishing >37%
Americans live in fear of their own Federal government while Biden family lives in luxury with impunity. Anyone who crosses the
CastroObama-Biden Regime gets charged with sedition and is hauled before puppet judges and a rigged court system. American voters need to take note of their nation as compared to 2020 and before Obama.Socialist ideology, like so many others, has two main dangers. One stems from confused and incomplete readings of foreign texts, and the other from the arrogance and hidden rage of those who, in order to climb up in the world, pretend to be frantic defenders of the helpless so as to have shoulders on which to stand.
– Jose Marti
Estovir, Well stated!
Yep. Lived it. So sad that we are on the way here. But I don’t point the finger one way. Both parties are guilty. It’s just that one gets a pass from the State Media.
Estovir: Good one, especially the words in the Marti quote, “…who, in order to climb up in the world, pretend to be frantic defenders of the helpless so as to have shoulders on which to stand.” To me, that quintessentially describes today’s pseudo-socialist agenda.
It’s actually the BCF — the Biden Crime Family.
Last night, the Fifth Circuit struck down 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3) as unconstitutional in US v. Daniels. That’s the same gun statute Hunter Biden (and many others) was charged under, LOL.
Wow it’s just amazing who the new law “interpretations” benefit.
I used to know what a vaccine was, but they changed the definition.
The media and the Bidens are clearly ‘friends with benefits.’
Certainly JT can write about anything he wants. He seems to have a love affair with Hunter at the moment. Meanwhile his buddy Clarence Thomas appears to take lavish vacations all over the world paid for by people that have a direct benefit from his court decisions. Is this a problem for JT? I don’t know. JT seems to be making pretty good money at Fox News so perhaps he his just hoping everyone will think that Demos are corrupt when they get in power but Repos aren’t? How about all the money spent at the trump hotel in DC when trump was president? How about all the money trump’s daughter and son in law got from the the Saudis?
Looks like Bob has had a nerve touched by JT. How about, How about, How about……………………….
No, no nerve touched, just an observation that JT seems obsessed with Hunter Biden. As many on this site were as well. As proof, how about Marjorie Taylor Green showing the X rated Video to her cohorts in the Capitol? Who doesn’t love a bit of X rated material from the Presidents son. If you don’t think trump did as much or worse than Biden, you are certainly free to live with blinders on.
“…. JT seems obsessed….”
Project much?
Bob: “Obsessed with Hunter Biden”? Nice way to trivialize the biggest political scandal of the era. It’s not as though we were talking about small potatoes like paying off a hooker or legally challenging an election (which Democrats have done time and again). Biden’s crimes include influence peddling on a large scale by none other than the president of the US. Your liberal media is trying make these crimes disappear by not reporting them or downplaying their significance — all eyes on Trump so we don’t see how the cretin in the WH sold his office for millions. As bad as Trump? Only in the twisted minds of people who believe men can be women, police should be defunded, and street crime is not a problem.
The interest is in the world-class corruption of the Biden family, led by President Biden himself. That Hunter Biden is the lynchpin around which it all happened/happens is due to the 4th Estate’s heroic efforts to pretend President Biden had nothing to do with it. The media/press has the ability to cover a story with a pillow until it stops moving – they do it all the time. Except that this story requires a pillow bigger than even they can manage.
What she showed in Congress was less X rated than what the typical progressive wants 5 year old kindergarten kids to read
Yes the pee pee tapes, I’m sure you have a copy. What you lost it!
Sounds like Bob is embarrassed by Hunter’s dirty pictures. He wouldn’t object in a murder trial for the dead body to be shown, but to show a bad picture of the President or his family doing something they aren’t supposed to do? … to that Bob takes offense as he turns red all over.
If true, the whole Trump family would be behind bars as we know who controls the alphabet agencies.
The good professor does not have a love affair with Hunter.
The good professor is pointing out the obvious corruption of a obviously corrupt family that has been in politics for decades.
I notice how you TDS types seem to loose all critical thinking skills and only mention Fox News. You always conveniently forget the good professor also writes columns for The Hill, USA Today, The NY Post and the Messenger. He also has a teaching gig, and I am assuming paid speaking gigs he does around the country.
If you really want to talk about all those other ‘whataboutisms’ why dont you pay for a instance of WP on a server, pay for the internet connection, and a WP sysadmin and talk about all those things you want to talk about.
Bob – you say that Justice Thomas takes lavish vacation “paid for by people that have a direct benefit from his court decisions.” Who? What decisions? What direct benefit?