Below is my column in The Hill on the expected formal vote this week on the impeachment inquiry. The vote is only to continue to look into the allegations that President Joe Biden knew of the influence peddling operation of his family and fostered those efforts. The final line of defense is to acknowledge that this was influence peddling but that Biden was only trying to support his son. The question for this vote is: how do you know? We have millions raised in what most view as corrupt influence peddling. Many of those payments are now confirmed by the Justice Department in the second Hunter Biden indictment. Only an investigation will establish the truth on the President’s knowledge and involvement. Yet, for years, Democratic members have opposed any investigation. They now face a moment of truth.
Here is the column:
Author Aldous Huxley once said, “you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad.”
Such a moment of madness has arrived in Congress as members prepare to vote on the formal approval of an impeachment inquiry. The second indictment of Hunter Biden shattered long-standing denials and narratives repeated by the White House and members of Congress. What is left in its wake is now plain to the public: corruption.
The vote is not whether to impeach President Biden, but whether members support the investigation into these growing allegations of corruption by the Biden family. According to recent polling, nearly 70 percent of voters (and 40 percent of Democrats) believe that Biden has acted unlawfully or unethically or both. Yet with almost half of the Democratic Party viewing Biden’s conduct as worthy of investigation, it is not clear whether a single Democratic member will vote to look into these allegations.
In September, I testified at the first impeachment inquiry hearing and stated that the evidence had clearly passed the threshold for such an inquiry. While there was no requirement to hold a formal vote to start this process (as the Democrats did with Trump), I encouraged the members to hold such a vote.
Since that hearing, the evidence has only mounted against President Biden. It is now clear that Biden lied when he maintained as a candidate, and later as president, that he had no knowledge of his son’s business dealings with foreign interests. Even Hunter himself contradicted the president on this claim.
It is also now clear that he lied in denying that his son never made money in China. The indictment confirms massive transfers from Chinese sources.
It is also clear that Hunter was engaged in raw influence peddling. This included threatening at least one Chinese businessman that his father was sitting next to him and would retaliate against him if he did not send millions to the Bidens.
President Biden also lied when he claimed this week that he had not had any “interactions” with his son’s business associates. There are emails, audiotapes and testimony now disproving that claim.
Millions of dollars flowed to Biden family members through a labyrinth of shell companies and accounts. Hunter Biden sent emails saying that up to half of his income went to his father while they used shared accounts and credit cards for expenses.
Even Biden associates now admit that they were selling “the Biden brand” and influence with Joe Biden. Advocates simply argue that they were merely selling the “illusion” of influence.
It is now time to see if a single Democratic member will stand against corruption and support an inquiry into the president’s role and later cover-up of this corruption. That includes the use of White House staff to spread false claims and attack critics.
I have previously discussed four possible articles of impeachment that warrant investigation.
One of the false narratives being bandied about is that there is no proof that the influence peddling of Biden’s son and brothers benefited the president himself. Thus, the argument goes, even though he was the subject of the influence peddling, Joe Biden did not legally or constitutionally benefit from the payments to constitute bribery or other crimes.
That is utter nonsense. The courts have repeatedly found that benefits to family members (far more modest than the millions in this case) can constitute bribery for a politician. That has also been the position of the Justice Department in past cases. Regardless of whether Hunter or his associates were speaking truthfully about handing over percentages of these funds to Joe Biden, he practically and legally benefited from the millions going to his family.
Even if members insist that they are not yet convinced, it makes no sense to insist that there is no direct evidence while opposing efforts to establish such evidence. These members have opposed any investigation into the allegations from the start.
Polling suggests most people believe there was a massive influence peddling operation built around Joe Biden, and that the president lied about not knowing about these deals. It is now time to get answers directly from the key players, from Hunter Biden to the president himself.
There is more at stake for the members than a Democratic president. The Democratic Party has already embraced censorship and abandoned its long advocacy of free speech. Democrats are now running on the pledge to expand censorship on social media. The question is whether, as a party, it will now vote to shield corruption, even with almost half of Democratic voters calling for answers.
The Democratic Party that I was raised in and supported was more than the party of censorship and corruption. It fought for free speech and good government. There were principles that came before personalities.
That is why we have reached a point of inescapable clarity. There is no principled basis to oppose an investigation into these chilling allegations. Stripped of the false narratives and faux constitutional claims, what remains are raw politics and utter madness.
The only question is, who will step forward on the Democratic side to demand not impeachment but answers?
So let’s call the vote.
Jonathan Turley is the J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at the George Washington University Law School.
OT:
Project Veritas CEO Hannah Giles, who replaced James O’Keefe earlier this year, says she’s quitting the group after discovering “strong evidence of past illegality and past financial improprieties” that she’s given to law enforcement.
YAWN
That would be hard to do. PV was a private organization.
What is it that you think PV did illegally ?
Record Democrats admitting to misconduct ?
What is it that you think are financial improprieties
They accepted money and produced content.
Those who provided money were free to refuse or to condition their funds however they pleased.
Do you often confuse the poster with the person being quoted? Do you not understand what quotation marks mean?
I think he confused the poster with someone with half a brain. Which is why he should have yawned, just like I did.
𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐈𝐬 𝐒𝐚𝐫𝐚 𝐁𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧? 𝐉𝐨𝐞’𝐬 𝐈𝐧-𝐋𝐚𝐰 𝐄𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐬 𝐂𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐅𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐡 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐬
Trouble has followed Sara Catherine Jones since she married into the Biden family almost three decades ago.
Not long after her 1995 wedding to Jim Biden, she took a job with one of his brother Joe’s Senate donors, who later accused her of “fraud” and “unjust enrichment,” according to court records reviewed by RealClearInvestigations. In the years since, she and her husband have been accused of reneging on debts and failing to pay their taxes, court and property records show. Like their nephew, first son Hunter Biden, they have reportedly sold the promise of access to their powerful relative to companies, several of which have gone bankrupt, some of which are tied to foreign countries hostile to the United States.
Now, Sara Jones Biden has emerged as a key figure in the mushrooming Biden foreign influence-peddling scandal.
By: Paul Sperry, RealClearInvestigations ~ December 11, 2023
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2023/12/11/who_is_sara_biden_joes_in-law_emerges_as_central_figure_in_foreign_cash_deals_996942.html
Joe seems to be able to corrupt anyone and anything. Has anyone checked on the dogs?
Mr. Peetape aka Svelaz got up this morning and rushed to the computer to dump his keyboard diarrhea all over the blog. He pumped out lie after lie like the world was going to end before he could spit it all out. I can imagine HIM frothing at the mouth as he typed away in his mom’s basement, wearing the same pajamas he’s had on for 3 days with pizza delivery boxes all around him. I especially love the doublespeak about the House vote LMAO.
Here is another short stroll down memory lane, for those who missed it over the weekend.
Evidence isnt permissible unless its incontrovertible—-ATS
Circumstantial evidence alone is not enough to convict——Svelass
Republicans are the only ones calling for violence these days—-Dennis
Democrats call for violence when the cause is right—-Dennis in the same post
Gas prices spiked because Texas uses crude oil to make electricity—-Gigi
AR-15’s ruin the meat—-Dennis
The inflation rate was 8% when Trump left office—-Gigi
Biden only released the strategic oil reserve once—-Svelass
Archer never said it was Joe that was called from Dubai—-ATS
The State of Florida does property tax “appraisals”—-Svelass
You can’t convict without incontrovertible proof—ATS
Trump was convicted of rape—Svelass
The Jefferson County school board has a supermajority of republicans—-booger boy
Trumps attorney forgot to “check a box”——Dennis
An insult or name calling is not a personal attack—-Svelass
The DC NG answers only to the President—-Gigi
Christianity teaches to treat your fellow man the same way you treat Jesus—-Svelass
The ideal athlete is 6’2” and 175#—-Dennis
There is no way a fat person can shoot a 67 in golf—-Dennis
“Bright red Alabama is the “wild west”,” (when its bright blue Birmingham that accounts for 95% of the gun violence in Alabama)—-Dennis
Mr. Peetape says—-
“McCarthy never said he didn’t have the votes.”
“McCarthy didn’t hold it because they didn’t have the votes.”
Svelass, the local jester, actually posted both of these statements this morning, in separate posts.
Need I say another word?
“That’s why McCarthy didn’t hold a vote. He was going to, but upon realizing he didn’t have the votes he chose not to hold one.”
He also said that^^^
And Mr. Peetape wonders why I call his posts steaming turds. He actually referred to it as in insult. LMAO, yea it is…to turds.
If the past 10 years has shown us nothing else, its that you couldn’t get 70% of the country to agree on the color of the sky.
But now 70% or more think
1. The country is headed in the wrong direction
2. Bidenomics is a disaster
3. Biden is a crook
So please, Svelaz aka Mr. Peetape, and Dennis aka Mr Alpha Bank, please tell us how it feels to be in the 30%?
Tom, you need to do what I do, take two pills of Svelazbegone every morning and you too will feel refreshed.
I am done addressing his nonsense directly after today, hullbobby. Pretty sure he is an overpaid troll, and I’m just adding to his pennies.
I will henceforth wait until the end of the day, and put one refute to all of his garbage at the top of the blog, along with some comical ridicule that seems to get his goat.
🤙
Tom, ridicule works best. It taxes his brain while he tries to figure out an answer. He can’t.
Seth, what evidence proves that to be true? This is Tic-Tac-Toe, not chess, for Svelaz. His entire schtick is to lure people into playing.
Ridicule leaves him without a response. Tom below says “he doesn’t care how stupid he looks.” But Svelaz cares except frequently he doesn’t recognize his stupidity. One can’t provide him fodder to respond.
Ridicule, ridicule and ridicule. The man is a fool.
Ridicule leaves him without a response.
51 comments by Svelaz, mostly responses. Svelaz is this blog’s Rabbit Hole. If he’s so stupid and foolish, why bother chasing him down that hole?
Because Meyers needs Svelaz as much as Svelaz needs Meyers.
pearls. swine. you get the picture.
Olly, If I ever sink to the level of Meyers in my late age, please shoot me.
Estovir, finding me will prevent you from sinking to a lower level so you can rise to understand the meaning behind the words written by the prophets and other sages. They spoke harshly to the people for worshipping idols and other sins against God, but they had empathy and compassion for those who might be fat, American, etc. Do you recognize that many Americans fought and died for this country, even the fat ones?
A good Catholic vanquishes pride with humility. Check with your local priest.
I agree with you completely, but how many of those 51 comments by Svelaz were responses to me? To my count, zero.
You might remember a while back, he was so insulted by my remarks that he said he wouldn’t respond. Since then, I have been at peace, able to comment mostly without a reply and mostly with short facts demonstrating his ignorance or duplicity.
Estovir has this idea that Svelaz is important to anyone, and that keeps Svelaz going. He isn’t. He is the least important commenter because nothing he says can be believed by anyone, including those who have a significant agreement with him.
Oh, I ridicule him a lot. Mostly with his own words. But he is a lot like Dennis, he doesn’t care how stupid he looks.
Does it really matter if any Democrat or Republican votes for or against the inquiry? To those with blinders on not so much, they’ll just go blindly into the future. Anyone with any semblance of intelligence, open eyes and a brain can decipher there was nefarious activities by the President and his associated. The general public knows full well that none of the documented charges would have transpired without the acquiescence of then Vice President Biden and subsequently his presidency. Without President Biden, his son, brother, and others had nothing worth investing in, they had no historical employment or knowledge in the fields they formed partnerships or corporations in, and on top of that did they offer to invest any capital in the ventures other than start-up costs in forming the entities? This whole conglomerated mess is indicative of where the whole of government (federal, state, local) has been corrupted by the bureaucratic state AKA “THE SWAMP”!
The Democrats tell you they’re trying to save Democracy while they diligently try to take away your freedom of speech. They say that Trump will become a dictator if he is elected while the last two Democratic Presidents have said they have a phone and a pen so to hell with the constitution (see loan forgiveness). What are the two characteristics always present in a dictatorial takeover. The first is the ending of the freedom of speech and the second is an effort to put the leaders of the opposition party in prison. What American political party has made an attempt at meeting both of these criteria. Professor Turley is saying we are at a place where the rubber meats the road concerning which party really is the party of Democracy. We shall soon see but I am not optimistic that the want to be dictators will vote to uphold the founding document of our nation due to their desire to attempt to ignore it up in the past.
I see a lot of angry people fed up with a GOP stuck on defense, more motivated to attack conservatives than apply justice to Democrats.
“How is the lie I told yesterday relevant to the lies I’m selling today??”
—–Svelass
How many releases, Mr. Peetape?
I don’t consider the Democrats the “good guys” anymore, like I did when I was 18. The party has become corrupt; it’s the Democrats now, more than than the Republicans, that are in bed with the CEO’s, the high tech titans, the million dollars lawyers and lobbyists. The swamp has taken over the Democratic party, it is no longer the reform party. I recall in the last cycle of elections the Democrat raised hundreds of millions of dollars from CEO’s and the super wealthy – so much so you wanted to throw up. The Democrats tried to buy the US Senate – and succeeded (only b a whiser) – it was sickening to watch. I am a former blue collar work, so are all my friends, none of us will vote for the Democrats anymore – the party is steeped in corruption, it is no longer a vessel for regular working folks.
Wolfman,
I recall reading a transcript during the 2016 election by one of the candidates. It was very, very, pro-big corporations, Big Tech, MIC.
And it was Hillary Clinton.
If it was not for the fact I knew it was her, it read like a OLD time Republican speech.
Also notice Turley’s silence on the abortion case getting Texas dog hammered.
YAWN
Exactly. It shows Turley is anti abortion/women’s Healthcare unless it’s income and address determined.
Notice Turley has completely lost his 1st ammendment boner over the university president’s grilling by stefanik in congress.
YAWN
Exactly. It shows Turley’s interest in the first ammendment isn’t genuine.
Not a word about the Marion County Record in Kansas either, Turley only cares about Free Speech if his master’s at FOXNOOZ gets upset.
Nice turd, Fishwings. Looks like that one circles the bowl twice.
^^ Take home message: Tommy fixates on the toilet after, you know…
Thanks for the take home turd, green anonymous
You’re welcome.
+100
The grilling of the Ivy deans had nothing to do with free speech. Except to expose Acedemia speech codes are grossly missapplied across the political spectrum.
The question the Deans refused to answer was simple. Does advocating for the genocide of Jews, trigger YOUR speech codes. To be clear, misgendering a person will get you fired or kicked out of college, but calling for extermination requires a lengthy nuanced examination.
The Deans refused to support their own standards.
Not a free speech issue.
Free speech issue you f$%king total moron.
Free speech issue you f$%king total moron.
So you are saying college speech codes violate the Constitution?
No.
Anonymous, you must be hungry because Iowan just ate your lunch. MORON.
You can be expelled for using the wrong pronoun on campus but not for saying gas the Jews. This is a university speech code issue.
I think Professor Turley should address this issue because it appears to me that one of the reasons the college presidents were saying that context matters is because of their concern about running afoul of free speech and the first amendment. If that concern is unfounded, Professor Turley could explain and advise these and other presidents of that.
Exactly
LOL
D’s need to lean into this. A failed investigation as this will surely be will strengthen Joe going into the election.
Not only that, D’s should push for something along the lines of the Church committee’s look into intelligence abuse and structure it around the concept of dark money In general. R’s don’t want this at all.
Let’s take a look at the trump children, Bush Jr, etc. Legendary influence peddlers all. Let’s look at bribe factory that was the trump inauguration fund.
Muhf$%k’n bug
Let’s take a look at the trump children, Bush Jr, etc. Legendary influence peddlers all.
Because reasons.
Trumps have generated exactly zero SAR’s
Bidens have generated ~150 SAR’s
Trump has been doing international Business for Decades and have an extensive paper trail to prove it.
Bidens? Zero history until James Biden with zero past experience, stated to get no bid contracts with the military in middle east theaters of war.
But lets be clear, Members of both parties have been enriching themselves through non profits and NGO’s, collecting grants and bids from Federal agencies. This is not news
Trump must go because he wants to crash the grift train DC swamp rats are living off.
Because reasons. Lol. You could’ve/should’ve stopped your response right there rather than pollute the blog further with your butt breath.
However it does show you’re quite adept at mainlining fox chirons into your system. Unfortunately it just comes off as desperate and out of touch with reality. Party on.
Best if you ignore the lack of any evidence the Trumps have done anything they havent been doing for decades. Personal attacks are always illustrative
Aww…, I’m just trying to speak to you in your own language.
And just because someone has always been a criminal doesn’t excuse criminal behavior.
People lost their minds when a college president had the gall to contextualize her position.
What are you claiming? if you have an allagation, clearly explain the crime. Its the most pathetic whataboutism ever attempted
Many are beginning to ask the question; what foreign and domestic policy decisions has this Regime made that can be attributed to the influence-peddling operations? Certainly the Regimes actions toward gutting our own oil & gas production, blowing up the Nord Stream pipeline out of Russia, while the BCF was making bank with a Chinese energy firm and Burisma in Ukraine, must be flushed out. Who in the United States and in Ukraine are profiting off of the billions being pumped into this Ukraine proxy war?
This Tucker Carlson interview will tell you exactly what form of “democracy” the Democratic party is desperately trying to “protect.” This should appall everyone.
Gonzalo Lira is an American citizen who’s been tortured in a Ukrainian prison since July, for the crime of criticizing Zelensky. Biden officials approve of this, because they’d like to apply the same standard here. The media agree. Here’s a statement from Gonzalo Lira’s father.
(00:00) American Zelensky critic jailed in Ukraine
(05:14) Where is our State Department?
(08:40) Lira arrested after criticizing Biden
(11:49) Is Ukraine the democracy we’re told it is?
https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1733581286256607619
In the meantime Government spending is raging out control just like the border. Let’s adjourn Congress for the holidays and ignore these problems and hope we all forget about them till some future day. They will just keep kicking this impeachment inquiry down the road just like every other serious issue
“The Democratic Party that I was raised in and supported was more than the party of censorship and corruption. It fought for free speech and good government. There were principles that came before personalities.”
*********************
Yeah they fooled me, too. Who knew they were just Copperheads bent on power for power’s sake? Their idea of free speech is when they are talking. Their idea of good government is when they run things and get the perks from the Military-Insutrial Complex. They are wolves among the sheep and we’re for dinner. Maybe we can regain our moral path but it will take less Dims, more regular people and some guts for a change.
I agree with Will Rogers that “I’d rather be the man who bought the Brooklyn Bridge than the one who sold it,” but Rogers never said I had to buy the Verazzano Narrows Bridge, too.
“It is now time to see if a single Democratic member will stand against corruption and support an inquiry into the president’s role and later cover-up of this corruption. That includes the use of White House staff to spread false claims and attack critics.”
***************************
Vegas says the over/under bet is zero! Standing up for anything takes courage and principle –some things the Dims have cancelled along their merry way.
I agree with the good professor, there is enough evidence to warrant an inquiry. Let us see what the inquiry shows.
The Democratic Party really fooled you didn’t they. Democrats have always been two faced
I’m not holding my breath, virtually every Democrat in congress puts party over country. I’d be surprised if even one Democrat votes for the inquiry.