Below is my column in The Hill on the impeachment inquiry and one striking pattern among the alleged crimes facing Hunter Biden: they all served to conceal the influence peddling efforts to sell access or influence to his father. The investigation and charging of Hunter Biden has, thus far, been strikingly surgical in avoiding this pattern of concealment.
New York Times columnist (and my former classmate at The University of Chicago) David Brooks said this week that the corruption scandal “merits an inquiry. It does not merit … an impeachment inquiry.” While I understand the distinction, I do not understand the basis for it in this situation. There are a variety of alleged crimes related to this corruption that may involve the President. There are also allegations like abuse of office that have been cited in past impeachments. We do not know if those connections exist but, if they do, they would clearly constitute impeachable offenses. Moreover, it is unlikely that we will get those answers without an impeachment inquiry. An impeachment inquiry does not inevitably lead to impeachment, but it does tend to lead to answers on whether impeachable conduct has occurred.
Here is the column:
In both the law and psychology, the concept of “willful blindness” is a long-recognized pattern of human conduct. It has been described as circumstances where “you could have known, and should have known, something that instead you strove not to see.”
The indictment of Hunter Biden on three counts of federal gun violations illustrates the myopic view of many in the media and the Justice Department.
Although there is a real possibility of additional charges against Hunter, the move to charge the gun violations reinforces a concern that the Justice Department continues to focus on charges that stay as far away from Hunter’s father, President Joe Biden, as plausible. The gun charges are conveniently self-contained and insulated for the administration.
The unseen pattern is becoming more and more troubling.
For years, many of us argued that Attorney General Merrick Garland’s refusal to appoint a special counsel in the Biden corruption scandal was baffling. Even some Democratic members of Congress and many in the mainstream media now admit that Hunter was engaged in a multimillion dollar influence-peddling scheme. He was also engaged in alleged criminal conduct.
However, the appointment of a special counsel on the influence-peddling would have required an investigation of the president himself. He was, after all, the one whose influence was being peddled as what Hunter’s friend and associate Evan Archer called the “Biden brand,” and he directly interacted with Hunter’s clients. It is impossible to pursue these payments and efforts without running into multiple references to the president or his various code names.
We also know that whistleblowers in the IRS said that they were told to avoid references to Joe Biden in their investigation of Hunter Biden. Moreover, they testified that the statute of limitations on the most serious charges related to these foreign payments were knowingly allowed to expire by the Justice Department, even though it would have been possible to extend the statute of limitations.
The Justice Department then attempted an absurd sweetheart deal to close off the case without felony charges or jail time. That deal collapsed after a federal judge confirmed that even the prosecutors themselves had never seen such a sweeping deal.
Garland finally yielded to the calls for a special counsel, then appointed David Weiss, who was responsible for the deal. He also did not expressly give Weiss a mandate to investigate the influence peddling or the president.
That brings us back to the gun charges.
Thus far, the Justice Department has surgically avoided charges that would implicate the president. This may simply be a coincidence, and correlation does not constitute causation. However, the other charges (including those that the Justice Department effectively killed by slow-walking its investigation) have an obvious potential connection: They all worked to help conceal the influence-peddling operation.
None of this means that this unifying theory is true, but it cannot be ignored by anyone investigating this corruption scandal.
First, there are the tax violations. While Hunter may be charged with some tax violations, the statute of limitations has now run out on the most controversial payments in the 2014 and 2015 period for foreign sources such as Ukraine’s Burisma. The obvious value in not claiming income is to avoid taxes. However, claiming income also highlights not just the receipt of these funds but their sources. Likewise, falsely claiming income as a “loan” can keep the money off the books or make it less likely to trigger scrutiny on the source and purpose of payments.
Second, there are the money transfers. The House has now detailed millions in transfers to Biden family members from a dizzying array of dozens of companies and accounts. The use of a complex labyrinth raises obvious concerns that it is a tactic used by individuals to conceal money transfers.
Third, many of us have noted that there seems ample basis for charging Hunter Biden under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, particularly given previous charges against such defendants as Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort. Registering as a foreign agent obviously invites much greater scrutiny over foreign dealings and the specific nations involved in lobbying efforts.
Again Hunter could still eventually face charges for avoiding taxes. But there is little evidence that the Justice Department has actively pursued these broader implications or motivations.
For many, the marginalization of these charges raises troubling concerns, particularly in light of the failed sweetheart deal and the allegations from the whistleblowers. Even if the tax charges are brought, the framing of the investigation has been on the income rather than the influence sought in these dealings.
Instead, there seems confusion rather than clarity in how the Justice Department has handled these allegations for years. Even CNN legal analysts are now calling the handling of the investigation at the Justice Department an “unholy mess.”
This also explains why the public has little faith in the Justice Department in the investigation of Hunter Biden. In a new AP poll, half of the public says that they lack confidence in the integrity of the Justice Department’s investigation. Another 59 percent is extremely or somewhat concerned that Joe Biden committed wrongdoing in these dealings.
That follows an ABC News/Ipsos poll in which roughly half said they lack trust that the Justice Department will conduct the Hunter Biden investigation in a “fair and nonpartisan manner.” Finally, in a recent CNN poll, 61 percent of Americans believe Joe Biden was involved in his family’s business deals with China and Ukraine; only 1 percent of those who say he was involved believe that he did nothing wrong.
The public is not willfully blind to the evidence or the possible motives behind some of these alleged crimes. That is precisely why there is ample reason for the House to have launched its impeachment inquiry.
E.F. Schumacher wrote that “everything can be seen directly except the eye through which we see.” For the media and the Justice Department, it will become increasingly difficult to turn a blind eye to the evidence of corruption and influence peddling surrounding the Biden family, including the president himself.
These patterns and allegations can be disproven, but the public’s lack of confidence in the Justice Department increasingly appears justified. For most citizens wanting to see the truth behind these dealings, they will clearly have to look to Congress for the answers.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University.
Gigi says: “How on earth any servicemember or member of their family could support Trump, a well-established loser, is beyond me.”
Did I say anywhere that I support Tump? You are the biggest loser I am aware of. And you ARE a LIAR. I have told you several times I am not a Trumper. You insist otherwise simply because I call you out on your blatant lies about him. 8% inflation indeed.
Should I support Pedo Joe instead? The guy who checked his watch as REAL flag draped coffins passed by?
Joe, the guy who told grieving Gold Star families that his son came home in a flag draped coffin?
We call that STOLEN VALOR, Gigi, and service members and their families consider that DISQUALIFYING to be commander in chief.
You gonna stick around for the rest of this or are you gonna tuck tail and run like Dennis?
“If” I served??? Did you get that line from Dennis? I believe you meant to say “since” I served. Are you questioning my valor, similar to what you accuse Trump of? You would have gotten multiple TP showers, for sure.
Enjoy the right we fought for, for you to act like a tool, Gigi. You’re welcome.
In case you don’t get the reference, Gig, because Vox and Atlantic didn’t circular report it, Joe’s son DID NOT come home in a flag draped coffin, as he claimed. Nor was his death in ANY WAY related to his service, nor while he served.
“How on earth any servicemember” or any tool who never served, “could support that well established loser, is beyond me”.
Where you at Gigi? We are all waiting for you to tell us what STOLEN VALOR is.
Hint…it’s NOT “i knew 100s of people who died on 9/11”
Were you this dumb when you were Natacha, before the transition?
ALL HAIL THE “DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT!”
Christopher Langan, “Smartest man in America”
[Addendum (from Comments): “I have heard Canadian Psychologist Jordan Peterson making the same point as you do in your last paragraph re social constructivism and cultural marxism. What makes you think that this is done with the intent of bringing down the US, rather than their purported motive of compassion for marginalised groups?”
In Marxism, “the end justifies the means” is axiomatic. Marxists are allowed and in fact encouraged to lie – it’s explicit in their playbook. For a Marxist / communist, literally anything is justified to bring about the Dictatorship of the Proletariat … i.e., the dictatorship of Marxist activists and ideologues. (Yes, right-wingers lie too, but at least some of them actually feel guilty about it.)
Marxist strategists long ago announced their intention to subvert and control America by mass deception and the systematic infiltration of its power structure, including academia and the mass media. And what do we now see? Extreme leftward bias in the corporate media, monopolization of intellectual commerce and high-level employment by leftist indoctrination mills / credentials factories like Harvard, politicians openly funded and controlled by Marxist organizations and front groups, Marxist platitudes and policies coming out of their mouths and pens and legislative deliberations in great profusion, and the openly hostile presence of certain problematical “marginalized” groups which did not arise in the US, but are being imported by the millions with full governmental knowledge of their unassimilability and the danger they pose to American unity and security.
This unmistakably implies the presence of enemies within, and our “friends” the Marxists are looking very good for it … certainly better than anyone else. It remains only to note that as always, the Marxists are secretly in bed with the wealth-and-power elite, as we see by the fact that corrupt corporate fascists like George Soros are funding domestic socialist groups, paying rabblerousers and demonstrators to riot, and generally fueling unrest with no resistance or explicit disapproval by the government. The ultimate goal has become obvious: a 2-tier neofeudal society with corporate fascism at the top as always, and communism for all the “little people” down at the bottom (that way, people won’t ask why the rich have so much and they so little; they will concentrate on trying to stay alive while jealously watching each other to make sure that their rich masters have no annoying competition from lowly members of the proletariat).
Every time the Marxists take over and rule a nation, it’s only a matter of time before its citizens are disarmed, relieved of their freedom, and standing in bread lines, where they talk in very low voices lest the wrong word send them to the gulag, reeducation camp, or killing field. Meanwhile, the party elite – and of course, those by whom they are financially leveraged – fatten on the blood of the people, gorging until their wealth, power, and privilege exceed all bounds. This is the way it went in Russia, China, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Cambodia … and how it’s going right here, right now, in the Americas. It’s a massive, murderous, phenomenally abusive pseudo-utopian scam run by con artists with big ambitions and very little in the way of humanity, and it’s strictly for dummies.
If that’s really what you want, it can only be because you think you’ll be part of the inner circle, the Politburo, the Supreme Soviet. But the problem is, so do you all … and at best, only a handful of you will make it. So the question is, how much of your soul will you sell to make the cut? ;)]
“The end justifies the means.”
– Trotsky et al.
____________
The only goal of communists (liberals, progressives, socialists, democrats, RINOs, AINOs) in America is the destruction of the Constitution and Bill of Rights and the full, complete and irrevocable implementation of the principles of the Communist Manifesto.
The communists (liberals, progressives, socialists, democrats, RINOs, AINOs) may do or say anything as long as their end, the imposition of communism, is ultimately achieved.
This process was initiated in 1860 by Abraham Lincoln, who nullified and voided the Constitution and Bill of Rights, seized all power as a brutal, tyrannical dictator, and, through his successors and subsequent progressives, liberals, and communists, commenced the incremental implementation of the principles of communism.
It is now official that America is communist, including central planning, control of the means of production (i.e. unconstitutional regulation), redistribution of wealth, and social engineering.
America’s motto, absconded from Karl Marx, is “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs,” defining the extant American welfare state.
American freedom persisted for a mere 71 years.
Jonathan
I am not even going to give the useless rambling of Dennis the Beaky Buzzard the time of day today. Instead I would like to relay what everyone has been asking about. What the he!! is a TP shower??? Well, Tom finally told me.
On the submarine, the crew’s head was comprised of several water closets, made of stainless, and inside each was a toilet. The toilet was a stainless bowl, with a 3″ ball valve and a water line for flushing. The ball valve opened to a line that drained into Sanitary Tank #2. This tank, when full, would be pressurized with air, and blown out to sea. Obviously, when the tank is pressurized, opening a toilet ball valve would have disastrous consequences. So warning signs were placed on the door to each water closet while this operation was in progress. If a crewmember was especially in need of an attitude adjustment, these signs would be removed, and a watch would be stationed to warn anyone attempting to use the head EXCEPT the likes of ATS, bug boy, and Dennis. When one of these losers opened the valve, they would be covered in feces, urine, seawater, and, you guessed it…TP. The toilet paper would be the most distinguishable feature and would get imbedded in glasses, ears, nostrils, you name it. Hence the term TP shower. Now, this method of attitude adjustment, with its potential health risks, would have been reserved for the most irritating of dweebs. A trip to the corpsman for tetanus and typhoid innoculation would be arranged IF the treatment for their stupidity was effective.
Tom also wanted me to remind you, JT, that he fought for, and still defends, their right to be tools. If they had served on a boat, they would not have enjoyed that right.
Looks like ATS/bug face/smeagol/anon have gone on lunch break.
I am sure after they tag up, Gigi will be along with “they” lies.
Whats that cartoon where the sheepdogs tag up every day???
Found it!
ATS/bug/gigi are ralph/sam/george
Enjoy
LOL Jafo, thanks! didnt mean to double up, but hey, its worth watching twice. Notice how you don’t think those sheepdogs can see thru all that hair, but in the end, you realize they are just pretending they can’t.
👍
And right on cue, Gigi pops into a day old post, and tries to post they drivel, hoping no one will notice and correct they lies. This is Gigi’s MO for sure.
Does Gigi know what STOLEN VALOR is?
“Stolen valor”? You mean like when Trump lied about losing “hundreds of friends” on 911 and when he lied about going to Ground Zero to help out any way he could–a lie refuted by the actual first responders who were there? Then, there’s Trump’s comment when the second tower went down, in which he lied about now owning the tallest building in Manhattan. Laurence O’Donnell called out the lie about losing “hundreds of friends”, after which Trump changed his tune, claiming he lost “many friends”, which is also a lie because Trump doesn’t have ANY real friends.
No, I mean like Joe saying he “went to ground zero the next day”.
We can do this all day, Gigi the tool.
However, as I suspected, you don’t know what STOLEN VALOR is. Its not claiming to know someone who died, or even whether you went to ground zero.
Please tell us all what STOLEN VALOR really is, Gigi….
By the way, your Trump obfuscations mean NOTHING to me. I don’t care what Trump said. He is not my President. Stick to the subject, and stop acting like a tool.
I take it that your BLATANT LIES about Trump are justified, because Vox and Atlantic, and their unnamed sources, said he lied?
>”Then, there’s Trump’s comment when the second tower went down, in which he lied about now owning the tallest building in Manhattan.”
Don’t remember that one, but I do remember Trump, a ‘builder’ by trade, saying “steel frame buildings don’t come down like that”. (had a short clip of that .. . but it seems to be scrubbed.)
Kind of thought he was crazy until I read the final, much revised NIST report 2010-2014.
If anyone believes the well built, steel framed bldg #7 came down from debris office furniture fire .. . I’ve got some ocean front property in Mousey, Ky for sale.
*tend to agree with Nancy Pelosi, announcing her re-election bid today, out of necessity I suppose .. . “we have a “sickness” and there must be an “intervention”.”
“we have a “sickness” and there must be an “intervention”.—Pelosi
In possibly the most galactic example of stone cold zero self awareness.
D. Brooks & J. Turley – Misses the point
The question to in my opinion is not:
“The corruption scandal “merits an inquiry” or does it “merit an impeachment inquiry.”
The ‘inquiry’ should pertain to “The System”. There is an obvious Systemic Problem on-going in D.C., and it is the Elephant in the Room,
that Everybody is dancing around (including: D. Brooks/J. Turley).
A small slice of “The System” (a glimpse) was captured by Evan Archer when he called “It” the “Biden 𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝,”
Indeed in the Open Market Place of Capitol Hill & K-Street; How many “𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬” are out there?
Do they compete with each other? What is the level of competition?
There are 535 Members of Congress plus the White House Cabinet and Staff. (possible 𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬)
One way to measure it is by result – The Budget (32 Trillion) ,
However that’s not very definitive as to Whom are the Players subverting and manipulating “The System”.
32 Trillion is just the Burn Rate (The Bleeding).
So an “inquiry” is needed, but one that puts “𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦” on Trial.
They will most likely keep dancing around the Elephant,
because We all know what happens when you “meddled with the primal forces of nature.”
{Credit: NETWORK (1976): Arthur Jensen pitch to Howard Beale via oldmanfromkansas)
Another aspects of “The System’s” Malfeasance & Exploitation:
𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐏𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐉𝐏𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐬 𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐁𝐨𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦 𝐃𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐂𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐮𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐒𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐈𝐭𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟
The full day conference sponsored by nonprofit watchdog Better Markets last Wednesday was a unique opportunity to gain brilliant insights from academic experts who have battled on the frontlines of the most unprecedented and ongoing era of corruption in U.S. financial history.
By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: September 18, 2023
https://wallstreetonparade.com/2023/09/professors-point-to-jpmorgan-chase-as-poster-boy-of-a-financial-system-dependent-on-corruption-to-sustain-itself/
Conference Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t9YghlG_mo&t=1020s
Malfeasance & Exploitation (me, Me, ME – Selfish Greed)
Add to that all of the insider knowledge trading making everyone rich.
Jonathan, I guess what it is, is the Double Standards that; irritates, enrages, and infuriate US the most.
Here WE have the D.C. Beltway Bourgeoisie, free to spread a little grease ($32 T) to keep the Wheels turning.
But the Common Proletariat Man, well He’s got to be tightly controlled, watched, and kept contained because He “Can’t Be Trusted”.
“The Swamp Can” but “You Can’t” – and what They are doing to Trump only amplifies that message.
The Swamp Nazis says: NO GREASE FOR YOU !
𝐔𝐒 𝐃𝐞𝐛𝐭 𝐑𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐯𝐞 $𝟑𝟑 𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞, 𝐒𝐨𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐁𝐲 $𝟏 𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐈𝐧 𝟑 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐬
By: Tyler Durden – Monday, Sep 18, 2023
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/us-debt-rises-above-33-trillion-first-time-surges-1-trillion-3-months
𝐌𝐜𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐲’𝐬 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐀𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐝 𝐚 𝐒𝐡𝐮𝐭𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐇𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐒𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐟 𝐆.𝐎.𝐏. 𝐎𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
By: Carl Hulse – Reporting from the Capitol Sept. 18, 2023
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/18/us/politics/mccarthy-shutdown-spending.html
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦’𝐬 Willful Blindness of the Fiscal Budget
You ridicule the Chinese and Russian Governments as being rigid and authoritarian, but you don’t have anything to say about the Free Market Orgy in Washington D.C.. If you’d like to buy the Biden Brand all you have to do is supply all the; Cocaine, Russian Hookers, Cash, and Luxury Accommodations and Voilà there you have it. It Yours! (including Wars), courtesy of the U.S. Budget.
I’m tellin Ya – How great it that!
The term: ‘Budget’ implies 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭, without constraint there is no purpose or meaning of a Budget.
It’s just one big Swamp Orgy.
Let me start with a Question “Why did the Turkey cross the road?” It would seem there’s an easy answer, but your conclusion may be wrong.
In an investigation one may ask “Joey did you eat all the cookies in the cookie jar” his answer may be truthful or not, but it cannot be determined until you look in the cookie jar, if you didn’t have the authority to look in the cookie jar you could not determine if all the cookies have been eaten or just some. Without an inquiry of Mom to look in the cookie jar it’s just guess work, but the evidence of crumbs on Joeys chin raises questions if there any Cookies left.
The Turkey crossed the road because he didn’t want to be known as a Chicken!!!
THE SAME DIRTY COPS. THE SAME POLITICAL CORRUPTION.
HISTORY WILL NOT REMEMBER PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN FONDLY
Beginning as early as 2008, Puerto Rico Municipal Agencies started issuing knowingly fraudulent Municipal Bonds to cover up the internal theft taking place throughout the Puerto Rico government. The major Wall Street banks knowingly participated, allowing them to earn billions in fee income initially and billions more later from knowingly trading these fraudulent bonds.
The SEC knew about this ongoing fraud as early as 2012, and Freedom of Information (FOIA) document requests turned up 185,000 pages of discussions among SEC employees regarding these crimes in 2012. However, no action was taken. According to FOIA documents from 2013, a senior Treasury Official and a senior SEC Official specifically discussed a 2013 bond issuance, agreed that the bond was fraudulent, and allowed it to proceed. Again, according to FOIA documents and committee testimony, the SEC and DOJ received a 2015 document from the Puerto Rico Government admitting that their government agencies were issuing fraudulent bonds and were running a Ponzi Scheme to raise money from new bond offerings to pay off the old bonds before they defaulted. The Puerto Rico government requested help from the SEC and the DOJ to investigate and prosecute those responsible, but both agencies ignored the Puerto Rico government’s request and knowingly allowed the fraudulent bonds to continue to be traded. In 2015, the SEC received a detailed whistleblower complaint regarding all this criminal activity. In 2016, the SEC attended a videotaped meeting discussing all the felonies that led to the Puerto Rico bond defaults and, ultimately, the Puerto Rico bankruptcy. However, once again, both the SEC and the DOJ refused to act.
In total, seventy-five billion dollars in these ‘fraudulent bonds’ were issued by the government of Puerto Rico. American senior citizens purchased most of these bonds and ended up losing somewhere between forty and fifty billion dollars. The losses can be tracked by state, and states like Florida, New York, and California saw their residents lose billions of dollars. Similar losses were experienced by every state in the country.
In late 2015 and early 2016, all one hundred United States Senators were provided with the Puerto Rico documents, a copy of the videotaped meeting recapping all the crimes, and much more. However, they all failed to act. So much money was flowing from the major Wall Street banks to the Senators during the 2016 election cycle that not only did the Senators pressure the DOJ and SEC to halt all their investigations and prosecutions, but they also passed legislation that would protect the Wall Street banks from lawsuits for their participation in these crimes. This legislation was known as PROMESA. To make these crimes among some of the worst in American history, the bond proceeds raised for the Puerto Rico Electric Grid were redirected to pay earlier bondholders (a Ponzi Scheme) or simply stolen. According to a Harvard Study, the resulting failure of that electric grid cost well over four thousand lives. Now we have federal agencies and U.S. Senators knowingly participating in crimes that foreseeably resulted in thousands of deaths.
When a federal agency is sued, it is the responsibility of the Department of Justice to defend that agency. In a pretrial motion, the DOJ and SEC claimed that the victim suing the SEC was alleging unproven theoretical crimes that would have required the cooperation of many federal agencies to work. They stated in signed court documents that the lawsuit (5:22-CV-01700-JWH-SP) should be immediately dismissed. However, the DOJ failed in their attempt, and now the politicians that knowingly funded their political campaigns with stolen money and the victims will have their day in court.
The Biden Administration and the Attorney General assigned the same corrupt U.S. Attorney to derail this case, and end all investigations and prosecutions. That U.S. Attorney is Martin Estrada, a Biden nominee, who is also accused of blocking Weiss from bringing charges against Hunter Biden in the Central District of California. When the SEC moved to have the case prosecuted, Sue Curtin, the SEC investigating attorney was told to take the case to Mr. Asiyanbi (DOJ Attorney). The email conversations between Mr. Asiyanbi (DOJ Attorney) and Mrs. Curtin are 99.9% redacted but if Sue Curtin is to be believed, she was making a case to Mr. Asiyanbi that those involved with these crimes should be prosecuted. Mr. Asiyanbi made sure that those requests went nowhere. There would be no investigations or prosecutions. Mr. Asiyanbi is an avid Biden political supporter and makes no attempt to hide it. He is very active with the Biden election committee and has been asked personally by the Biden team to attend several political events. In one event Mr. Asiyanbi was so passionate about his support, he got arrested. Joe Biden is implicated in these crimes, as well.
Richard R. Lawless is a participant in this lawsuit and an investigative journalist who writes for major publications such as the Chicago Tribune, the Daily Caller, the New York Observer, and many other publications and websites.
—
Sincerely,
Richard Lawless
30279 Redding Avenue
Murrieta, CA 92563
951-440-5230
richardrlwless@gmail.com
Ok ATS, bug, smeagol, Anon, whoever the f you are. I will admit, although I am very smart (thanks whichever one of you said that), I am also a little lazy. I am not going to analyze the freakin’ avatar next to your non-name, to try to figure out who you are. So help me out a little here. Please take credit for each of these, whichever of you said it:
1. “lying isnt a crime unless you are lying about a crime”
2. “lying on a form isn’t perjury”
3. “evidence isn’t evidence unless its a crime”
4. “evidence isn’t evidence unless its incontrovertble”
5. “you can’t convict without incontrovertible proof”
Just say “1,3 and 5 are me” and such, and I promise not to confuse you ever again.
OK fine
$50 to your favorite charity for each of these that are claimed. C’mon, this is much easier than the question none of they could answer the other day.
Maybe time to stop using the squishy term ‘Influence Peddling’ and rely on basic English: BRIBERY.
Easier to understand now.
They’re not the same and that’s the key thing in the things being investigated here. If Hunter Biden was paid to talk to Obama, his father, Kerry, etc. to talk to the Ukrainian parliament members to vote to drop the investigation of his company, that’s influence peddling. Not illegal. If Biden was paid to drop the investigation, that would be bribery. But of course Biden had absolutely no authority to drop the investigation – only the Ukrainian parliament did – so…
Ditto all the other countries mentioned ad nauseum in these discussions.
Hunter Biden’s IRS lawsuit appears to misquote whistleblower, altering facts about FBI
https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/hunter-bidens-irs-lawsuit-appears-misquote-whistleblower-altering-facts-about
“The facts indicate that Biden’s lawsuit appears to confuse the FBI officials’ names and misrepresent Shapley’s comments.”
Interesting development.
OK everyone, I want you to read Dennis post below out loud, but in the voice of Beaky Buzzard. Tell me you don’t see the resemblance!!
Thats pretty funny Anon, with all sincerity.
Would have earned you a TP shower on the boat though. That is, if we could have understood you, through the EB green tape over your big mouth.
Bwahahahahahaha
Tom,
I do not hear any voices when reading ATS.
I do envision a pasty, balding, grossly over weight, late 20 early 30 something, in his parents basement, sitting at his computer with piles of Hotpocket wrappers and empty 2L soda bottles everywhere.
On the walls all around him are various DNC talking points and slogans, posters of Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and of course Clinton.
He has a dartboard with a picture of Trump taped to it, but due to his medications it is a Nerf dartboard and darts.
On his computer, he alt-tabs through the official DNC slack channel for his orders/talking points, the good professor’s blog and digital copies of DNC and teacher union approved children’s porn.
Upstaged by Upstate. Well done sir.
That visual not quite as bad as the Nadler one, but please be careful. I have a long memory.
Keep those delusions coming, chubby. We were ALL entertained by that!
I gave you credit for your funny, although blatantly unoriginal comment. You can’t even admit he gotcha, which only proves his point.
This has got to be bug face, right???
The response was too juvenile to be anyone else.
How about that shower, now Anon?
Also, imagine that Turley is the big buzzard in that video, it makes it even better!
One point I will give you, Welcome Back Kotter, back in a time when real writers wrote real comedy.
Include Archie Bunker, The Jeffersons, Three Company, Soap, Alice, Cheers, Night Court, The Golden Girls to name a few.
To this day, have a bad day at work? Watch a few episodes of any of those and your face will be hurting from laughing so much.
Dear Prof Turley,
The mountain of ‘evidence’ (see also Rules of Evidence) and credible allegations implicating Joe Biden selling his personal ‘brand’ in far-flung nations around the world is, as they say in the hills, too big to be swept under the rug. Especially in Ukraine.
Again, the problem with impeaching Joe Biden (unlike Trump) is the ‘cover up’ at the highest levels of government, namely the DoJ, FBI, IRS and over 50 top intelligence officials who claim[ed] Hunter’s Laptop is ‘Russian disinformation’. Even the ‘willfully blind’ media no longer believe that .. . although any printed mea culpas are as scarce as hen’s teeth.
Even members of Congress may well be implicated in the cover-up. In retrospect, the entire 1st impeachment of Trump seems tailored to ‘cover-up’ Biden’s involvement in that war-torn country. Imho, ‘they’ (I have a detailed list, beginning with Schiff and Pelosi.) impeached the wrong guy.
So, afaict, our only hope is Apex congress needs to grow a spine and do something. For example, do they really know where The Laptop is, or not? The FBI won’t say one way or the other.
Time is of the essence.
*Zelenskiy fired Ukraine’s Defense Minister yesterday (‘corruption’), bringing the total number of defense officials fired for ‘corruption’ since Feb. 2023 to 27 .. . that we know of.
Indeed… Biden should be charged with -treason- instead of this silly farce of impeachment. Two witnesses to the same overt act is all that is required to bring charges of treason… I’d say their are millions of witnesses to Biden’s treasonous action in Afghanistan, leaving $85 billion of weapons for the enemy, abandoning our staff and allies… not to mention all the bribery and corruption with Burisma, Ukraine, CCP, etc. He should be facing a firing squad.
Jonathan: Seems you are the odd man out in calling for an impeachment of inquiry of Pres. Biden. Even your conservative classmate David Brooks thinks a House inquiry is not justified. The problem for you and the MAGA Republicans in the House is that there is no support for even getting a vote to start an impeachment inquiry–letting alone finding any evidence of “high crimes and misdemeanors” by Biden. That’s why McCarthy had to proceed without a House vote–in violation of a DOJ opinion that an impeachment inquiry is invalid without a House vote. McCarthy caved to the MAGA crowd because Gaetz and others threatened to take away his job if he didn’t act. Despite the fact the two weeks previous McCarthy said he would not begin an impeachment inquiry without a vote.
It’s kind of ironic that back in 2021 you called the Democratic House vote to impeachment DJT over Jan. 6 was a “snap impeachment” not a “process of deliberative judgement”. My have times changed. Now you think an impeachment inquiry is justified based only on vague allegations and insinuations, not only any credible evidence of crimes by Joe Biden. You admit there is insufficient evidence now to impeach Biden. But you seem to think the MAGA Republicans and Jim Comer will eventually find it. It’s simply a fishing expedition–not the kind of “deliberative judgment” you called for in the DJT impeachment inquiry.
Your column today doesn’t add to your claims against Pres. Biden. You simply keep repeating “allegations” that Jim Comer has not been able to back up with actual facts. And he has been investigating the Biden family for almost a year. Do you really think he will ever find any crimes by Joe Biden? So what we have here is a case of blaming the father for the sins of the son. That’s not enough to justify an impeachment inquiry. I suspect that if McCarthy were to hold a vote it would fail. That would leave you with a lot of egg on your face!
Hey Dennis, can I get you some coffee? How about a TP shower?
Does anyone else find it strange that ATS/bug face/smeagol take a break from their doo doo dropping when Dennis shows up?
Dennis McInlyre says: “calling for an impeachment of inquiry”
What exactly is an impeachment of inquiry? Isn’t that your job, Beaky Buzzrd?
Dennis McInlyre says:
Jonathan:
uh uh nope, uh nope, nope nope nope, uh uh nope nope nope.
duhhhh doop duh doop duh doop duh, doop da da, doop da, doop da, doop da doop da doop da.
My, have times changed. Did anyone listen to Dennis when he was wrong on the Steele Dossier, Russia hoax, Ukraine, laptop, what Biden knew, and more? If you did, you were wrong.
Does anyone trust Dennis’s opinion, facts, or mental stability?
No? I didn’t think so.
I quit reading Dennis when what he wrote read more like bad alternative fiction than reality.
You don’t read Dennis’s comments and perhaps not mine either. I don’t read Tom’s (or his sockpuppets’) or most of George’s comments.
“I don’t read Tom’s”
You couldnt even be truthful about one lousy inconsequential thing, could you?
Because u seem to respond a lot, but that would explain why your responses are so dumb.
And i know you read Dick Head, the name alone prolly turns you on.
Now, prove you dont read mine, and respond. Idiot lmao
Anonymous/smeagol/bug face lawn boy
Just sit back and give your fingers a rest today. I can take it from here and just keep repeating your same worthless drivel over and over. And my posts will stay.
See, this is the problem with just cutting and pasting the DNC talking points. When the discussion gets to the 3rd and 4th level, you eventually say something stupid like
“lying isnt a crime unless you are lying about a crime”
“lying on a form isn’t perjury”
“evidence isn’t evidence unless its a crime”
“evidence isn’t evidence unless its incontrovertble”
“you can’t convict without incontrovertible evidence”
Twist on, Beaky Buzzards!
This is why Dennis is sly enough to not engage, and just drops his keyboard diarrhea and leaves. He knows he will eventually say something stupid like “I’m so smart I had a cushy PR job at the Presidio”. I would accuse him of stolen valor except, well, thats not valor.
The rest of the crew should follow his lead.
What are you afraid of Dennis?
Who, in your brilliant estimation, did Hunter and Z call from Dubai, and why did they call?
“U.S. officials with dementia may pose national security threat, Pentagon-funded study finds
The report states that “an increasing number of cleared personnel-that is, personnel who hold or have held security clearances-have or will have dementia.””
https://justthenews.com/government/security/us-officials-dementia-may-pose-national-security-threat-pentagon-funded-study?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter
—–
I wonder who might have dementia? I wonder who has a drug problem? I wonder about troubled families and who they are? Isn’t it amazing that the first ones to come to mind are the Biden’s?
Here bug/smeagol/whoever…let me save you the trouble
“you have no evidence that Joe is demented!!!”
“being demented is not a crime or an impeachable offense!!!”
Yeah, and they are the dysfunctional First Family.
I think the question of weaponization of the FBI was answered long ago, but here is another bit of evidence.
“FBI received evidence from second informant in Biden case but shut him down, ex-agent testifies
“It shocked me a bit because … the purpose of a confidential informant is to support a case,” ex-Agent Tim Thibault told Congress. He’s not the first law enforcement official to meet roadblocks created to protect Hunter Biden.”
https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/monfbi-had-second-informant-biden-case-was-asked-shut-source-down?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter
Interesting.
More evidence of a corrupt FBI covering for the Biden Crime Family.
According to the Left:
“Influence peddling is not illegal.”
J6 was an “insurrection.”
Call bribery “influence peddling,” to get your guy off — and retain power.
Call trespassing and (worst case) a riot an “insurrection,” to criminalize the other guy — and to retain power.
The Left is adept at playing games with words — to retain power.
Sam,
Yep.
“Influence peddling is not illegal.” they whine!
But it is corruption.
And we all see it.
Even moderate Democrats see it. That is why they WANT someone else to run and not Joe Biden.
His polling numbers are terrible. His handling of the economy is dismal which also reflect in the polls. The evermore mounting body of evidence of corruption is only going to hurt him even more in the polls. The impeachment inquiry will show even more evidence.
In the end, come election day, most American’s will vote with their wallets in mind. Add that to the obvious corruption of not only the Biden Crime Family, but the government institutions working hard to cover for the Biden Crime Family, most voters will vote for anyone but Biden or just not vote at all.
There is a reason why during his 2020 campaign people turning out for him in person was so low and had nothing to do with COVID.
“In the end, come election day, most American’s will vote with their wallets in mind.”
The question then becomes will there be enough to overcome the avalanche of its-just-a-“coincidence”-there’s-so-many-absentee-ballots, all-with-the, well-looky-there-the-exact-same-signature, from-the-same-single-family-household, and-all-for-only-the-Blue, candidate?
The Courts didn’t care about that and many other ‘coincidences’ in 2020. Will they this time around?
Why are we pretending that the fix is not in already. In fact, why are we talking about this instead of doing just what the left does – protesting loudly and continually about the lies from old joe, the overreach of our government, the decisions of regulators that are strangling business etc. Until we get as clamorous and insistent as the left we will ALWAYS be left in the dust when it comes to voting out the criminals. We talk a good talk but that is where it always ends… the weakness of the Republic party is like the false pride of Amelia DeCoursey.
“For the media and the Justice Department, it will become increasingly difficult to turn a blind eye to the evidence of corruption and influence peddling surrounding the Biden family, including the president himself.”
Um, that would imply either of them has even a smidgeon of integrity, Professor. Since they don’t and likely won’t, it’s “business as usual”: Government enriching it’s own while hysterically laughing and pointing in the faces of taxpayers.
pointing indeed. just look at how Joe still parades that POS son of his around Washington and the word. The audacity alone makes him unsuitable.
Any father who really “loves his son” would not parade him around, he would have him in rehab.
Agreed. (Since I don’t have a WordPress account and have no desire to start one, please accept this heartfelt “like”. 😊)
That just indicates the self serving CYA mob mentality and untouchability.
They’ve had the ongoing crime schemes for so long they believe they are invincible and it appears to be true.
Smeagol, dammit, look i told you and i am tired of saying it.
The incantation doesn’t work unless you click your heels!!!
“Turley has acknowledged it’s not illegal”
Is this the same Turley that you imply is an idiot every day??
Or is it the same Turley who says there is cause for further investigation, including impeachment inquiry.
And, by the way, Turley says that “influence peddling” is illegal when
a) it involves FARA violations and/or
b) the peddling is being done by a public officer
You can have your opinion about whether the influence peddling involves a or b, and it can even stink like rotten cheese if you want, but you dont get your own realities like
“evidence isnt evidence unless its a crime”
“evidence isnt evidence if its not incontrovertible”
“lying on a form isn’t perjury”
So don’t forget to click your heels, Smeagol.
Tom,
Him and the rest of the DNC Brown Shirts do seem to be getting more and more desperate as of late in the face of the obvious evidence and Bidens polling numbers.
Only truly committed fanatics like Hitler Brown Shirts would claim the contrary to the obvious reality.
I said at the beginning of last week it was gonna be fun watching them twist in the wind. They are nothing if not predictable.
Might as well start calling them “Biden’s Brown-Nosed, Brown Shirts”. We could make t-shirts for them to proudly wear!
I’d buy a couple.
You must willfully be blind, def, and dumb not to see the mounting body of evidence.
ATS- “that would imply that influence peddling is illegal, it’s not”
+++
Is it illegal to bribe a public official?
Is it illegal for a public official to accept a bribe?
Is it illegal for a public official to solicit bribes?
‘Influence Peddling’ by any other name is what? A crime. The officials to whom the people entrust the government are not to sell the United States to the highest bidder.
Stop with the euphemism ‘influence peddling’ and go to the basic truth: “bribery”.
ATTN: Professor Turley
Hunter’s friend and associate
Archer called the “Biden brand,”…
s/b DEVON ARCHER
‘Did Biden EVER have the mental capacity to drive a school bus?’ is the appropriate way to state the the question.
Biden has been a con man his entire career. He has always been a shape shifter to the extent that I doubt he even has any real positions or moral values. You superimpose that circumstance on increased responsibilities and advancing age, what do you get? You get Joe Biden.
“Did Biden EVER have the mental capacity to drive a school bus?’”
You didn’t hear the latest?? He DID drive a school bus. And an 18 wheeler. And a race car. and a fire truck. And a hearse when his son “came home in a flag draped coffin”.
Unfortunately the school bus was electric, so he couldn’t get those black kids to their assigned, segregated school.
“[T]hey all served to conceal the influence peddling efforts to sell access or influence to his father.” (JT)
During WW II, the Allies used “a fleet of dummy tanks to [. . .] draw an attack away from a vulnerable area . . .”
The Left has learned well the art of decoy and deception.
Influence peddling is not illegal. Selling access is not illegal either.
It is when you’re
a) a unregistered foreign agent and/or
b) the public officer is the one selling it
Before you say “no evidence” Beaky Buzzard, dont forget to click your heels
uh, nope, uh uh nope, uh nope, nope nope…—-Anonymous
Hunter Biden wasn’t required to register as a foreign agent. He wasn’t and never was a public officer.
LMAO and what was Manafort you idiot???
Its like talking to a tomato.
Beaky Buzzard! LOL! Thanks, Tom. That just made my day! 😂