Below is my (slightly updated) column in the New York Post on three myths being widely repeated in the Biden impeachment inquiry. These false narratives have been eagerly repeated in the media despite lacking legal or factual support. In the interest of interjecting a modicum of reality into this debate, here is why these defenses are illusory.
Here is the column:
With the formal approval of the impeachment inquiry into the conduct of President Joe Biden, the alarm and denial in Washington has reached an almost hysterical level.
Despite overwhelming evidence of a corrupt Biden family influence-peddling operation worth millions of dollars, not a single Democratic member voted for an inquiry into the allegations.
Nearly 70% of voters (and 40% of Democrats) believe Biden has acted unlawfully or unethically or both.
Yet every Democrat voted to stop any further inquiry.
Even in our blindly partisan times, that is no easy rationalization.
That’s why members are repeating three myths like a mantra on the Hill.
They’ll likely continue as the House moves to compel testimony of key parties.
When I testified at the first Biden impeachment inquiry hearing months ago, I said the threshold for an inquiry was obviously satisfied by the evidence of these massive payments and the contradictions of the president’s past claims.
Indeed, at least four articles of impeachment could be established if the House confirms critical facts.
That is the point of an inquiry: to compel not impeachment but answers. That’s why I encouraged the House to hold this formal vote.
Three myths, however, will have to be set aside.
Joe Biden did not benefit from the influence peddling
After years of suppressing this scandal, the media and even some Democrats now admit Hunter Biden and his uncles have long been involved in influence peddling.
The United States has led global efforts to criminalize and deter this common form of corruption for years.
Recent testimony from Biden associates confirmed they were selling “the Biden Brand” and Joe Biden regularly called into meetings and met with business associates.
The last line of defense has been to argue that while millions may have been sent to Biden family members in raw influence peddling, there is no evidence Joe actually benefited from the money as opposed to his children, brothers and grandchildren.
This false narrative is being repeated despite the fact courts have rejected this claim in actual criminal cases.
Not only have payments to children and other family members been viewed as benefits to a defendant, but the same is true in impeachments.
I served as lead counsel in the last judicial impeachment tried before the Senate.
My client, Judge G. Thomas Porteous, had been impeached by the House for, among other things, benefits received by his children, including gifts related to a wedding.
It’s about Hunter Biden’s addictions, not actions
Democrats are again insisting that a complex, multimillion-dollar influence-peddling operation was simply the product of Hunter being a blacked-out drug addict for years.
The argument obviously cuts both ways.
Even if Hunter was some addict thinking only about his next fix, it only highlights that these foreign figures were giving millions for access to his father, not the advice or expertise of his son.
But Hunter’s own counsel has undermined this claim by arguing in Hunter’s gun case that he had emerged from his addiction just in time to sign the allegedly false gun form.
Much of the misconduct occurred when Hunter was, by his own lawyers’ account, suddenly clear-headed and responsible.
The evidence belies claims that Hunter was not responsible for these transactions or the underlying influence peddling.
It shows a knowing, organized effort with the involvement of his uncles and, in some cases, his father.
The effort to portray Hunter as some purse-snatching junkie does not fit the evidence as he flies around the world to meet with corrupt figures and secure millions.
It’s all about Hunter’s truck
The latest myth is particularly maddening.
The House Oversight Committee released new evidence showing payments to the president out of Hunter’s business accounts.
The committee used the payments to show these business accounts were being used for personal payments and there was an intermingling of funds.
Democrats and the media immediately latched onto payments where Hunter was allegedly paying back loans to help pay for his truck.
Members told the Ways and Means Committee this was merely “a father’s love” and not anything impeachable.
It’s a cynical effort to focus on a few thousand dollars while ignoring the millions the committees detailed in months of investigation.
Democratic members make it sound like the impeachment inquiry is based on a couple alleged truck payments. It is not.
The truck payments are a handful among dozens of transfers found from these accounts to Hunter or his family members.
The point is the proceeds of influence peddling may have been used to pay back the president, who was supporting his family members.
Dollars are fungible. The money in these accounts were intermingled with personal expenses, including payments to Hunter’s father.
Once again, President Biden would be viewed as benefiting from the millions of dollars going to his family even without direct payments.
The question is his knowledge and involvement — not those benefits.
That not a single Democrat is demanding answers about this corruption is disappointing but hardly surprising.
But Biden is now facing an impeachment inquiry that will finally demand answers, not myths, on the Biden family’s influence-peddling operation.
Jonathan Turley is an attorney and professor at George Washington University Law School.
I would think that even though we have a preponderance of evidence of “past” criminal influence peddling and bribery with antagonistic foreign agents for Biden even when he bragged about it we would then have to get a ruling from the supreme court on whether a sitting president can be charged in a Criminal case vice(or with) impeachment?
Everyone is so distracted by the Colorado case that we are ignoring the Biden case. Professor, do you agree with me that the Constitutional impeachment imperative is Biden has to be impeached for crimes during his “presidency” not as VP or Senator. All this evidence is from the past. We need to find the Quid pro Quo during his administration. Does the Quid and Quo have to come during the administration or can the Quid (bribe) be prior to his becoming President and the Quo be during such as selling our strategic oil to a Chinese oil company his son was still on the board of or leaving the wife of Moscow mayor off his sanctions list after Russia invaded Ukraine? I teach the constitution to my high school students and they all receive a pocket constitution from the school.
Democrats are amoral and use Trump to justify it. Joe Biden is proven to have lied about his credentials, is a plagiarist, and extorted Ukraine to protect his son and Burisma. Yet here he is, President, corrupting federal law enforcement and everything he touches while the party elite applauds and the rank and file offer at least tacit approval.
“Stop listening to anyone who tells you the Biden regime is stupid or incompetent or confused.
The Biden regime is fully aligned with the CCP in its effort to destroy America on purpose.
Chinese men of military age are now flooding through our border.
Prepare accordingly.” @EmeraldRobinson
Elvis Bug aka Lawn Boy says:
“Yesterday he posted the R.C.A.W.T. dictum from Rickover. A good pneumonic when it originated”
You make it so easy. I’ve got your IQ at a solid 80. Best stick to the small words.
Here is a mnemonic to help you remember. EBEB—Elvis bug eats boogers.
pneumonic
1
: of, relating to, or affecting the lungs
pneumonic plague
: PULMONIC, PULMONARY
2
: of, relating to, or affected with pneumonia
Furthermore, we called them acronym’s, though this particular one was loosely pronounced “R-Cat”.
Furthermore, we didn’t put periods in our acronym’s. Periods are for kunts, like you. LMAO Bwahahahahahaha
But see, you won’t find these tidbits in Vox or in your “fever dreams” where you just make sh!t up.
Yeah I post from my phone with a brutal spell check, thanks for editing for me, scat man.
You’re welcome for ALL of the schooling.
Funny, because just the other day you claimed that you couldn’t post from your phone, because it had been blocked.
I bet you really are a hoot in person bro. I think we’d get along. Unless you’re one of those libtards that “can’t date” a conservative….
The ‘schooling’ is probably directly opposite of what you think is…, as is how you read my post about my phone…
As for conservatism…, it’s been pretty much wiped out from the right’s agenda.
“The ‘schooling’ is probably directly opposite of what you think is…, ”
True dat. You know what they say…”you can lead a jacka$$ to water…”
RCAWT FAIL
Hey Tommy, still slacking on those questions I see…
Why should anyone care what you have to say?
Why is your opinion better than the data collecting methods at factcheck.org?
Bug
“Why is your opinion better than the data collecting methods at factcheck.org?”
I’ve already replied, Mr. Change-the-subject.
I didn’t give my opinion. I gave a fact. CPI “when Trump left office” (Jan 2021) was 1.4%
Not an opinion pinhead. A fact. I offered the source (bols) as evidence.
You gave what you *thought* was fact when you said, “7.6%, which is what the CPI was at when Trump left office”. You offered a link to fuctcheck.org as evidence.
I then pointed out to you, that not only was that number from Oct 2020, and not “when Trump left office” but it was also not the CPI. It was a cumulative total of the rise in consumer prices from Jan 2017 to Oct 2020.
RCAWT….you failed again.
The ensuing sh!t show was you doing what you are doing now. Trying to obfuscate for your 3rd grade mistake by sea-lioning (a low IQ move).
But I’ll play. My opinion ain’t worth didily squat compared to any accurate facts at fuctcheck.org with one caveat….unless you’re too dumb to know what you’re looking at.
I’ve tried to help you with that, but you insist on (now) septuple-ing down on stupid.
Party on
As to your other question…
John Say answered better than I could about why anyone might “listen to me”. Feel free to go slobber all over his post if you’d like.
To paraphrase it, I use actual facts to form my opinions, derived directly from THE source whenever possible, but never from fuctcheck.org or Wikipedia (John explains why).
Your turn.
We are still waiting for you to post either
a) a single time you’ve ever changed your opinion based on a discussion here
b)a single time I have ever posted a demonstrably/objectively/provably false “fact”
Still waiting
I figure after 400 responses have been posted, few if any will pay attention to this one being posted early Saturday morning:
Hakeem Jeffries – what do we know about this person?
He appears to have inherited what Pelosi established — the rock solid Democrat wall of uniformity —
Turley and other sentient observers know in their rational brains that of the 212 Democrats in the House, some of them, in fact more than just a handful, are uncomfortable with ‘towing the line’ — their constituents aren’t attacking Comer — they are by their inability to answer the simple question: if Joe is innocent as the driven snow, why not prove it?
Jonathan
I will title this White Privilege
Here was the schedule for the POTUS for Friday.
10:00 Daily intelligence brief
12:30 Lunch with VPOTUS
If you’re wondering, where is the rest? Thats it. And its not unusual.
His approval rating is now 33% (same as number who believe the pee tape is real)
He trails Trump outside the margin of error in every swing state.
His prospects for re-election are crumbling around his ears yet he appears to be taking the Nero tack.
Word has it he is becoming increasingly agitated and concerned about the charges against Hunter. No sh!t. He knows where it leads.
Yet who is really surprised by his behavior? This is the same guy who paraded around the Naval Observatory pool naked, in front of female Secret Service agents. Apparently he either thought they would never tell, or he didnt give a rats behind what the American people would think when they found out.
Why would he care, he’s goddam Joe Biden.
This is the guy who, knowing his son was a drug addicted sleezeball at the time, took him on a trip on AF2 to Beijing. He didnt care what it looked like, he’s goddam Joe Biden.
This is the guy who took point man on Ukraine, and, upon being warned by the State Department that Hunters sudden appearance on the Burisma board was not a good look at all, had only this to say. Son, are you sure you know what you’re doing? He didnt care what it looked like, he’s goddam Joe Biden.
This is the guy who, even during the rockiest times of his presidency, could be counted on to go to the beach on “vacation”. Vacation from 2:00PM lids???
I dont recall him even once calling off one of his 400 days of “vacations” to see to an emergent issue. He did leave one to go to the Hawaii disaster, then right back to his “vacation”. No matter. He’s goddam Joe Biden.
No way a guy with this much audacity would have the audacity to think he could get away with peddling his own influence, which IS a crime, right?
This is the guy who has paraded his shameless, disgraced, tax evading son all over Washington and around the world for 3 years, thumbing his nose at hard working, suffering Americans and demonstrating EXACTLY what white privilege is. White privilege Biden style.
I reject anonymity here, but I won’t Login, either. Attribute these comments to DougD…
I find the conversation in the comments both amusing and disappointing. It’s just a microcosm of what he have created with the internet. Empowering stupidity with the anonymity of the net. Posters are more likely to post nonsense and even resort to name calling and insulting for shock value. Trolls did not die with the USENET.
Sadly, like most of the rest of the net, reasonable debate seems out of reach. It’s actually a reflection of the mainstream media.
I remember when I used to be able to watch *most* of the network news, and be able to hear both sides of a topic on a single channel or even program. I miss that.
But when DJT was elected President, it all ended. The 2016 election surprised them tremendously. I think most of the media was trying to play to the future, trying to court the (younger) liberal voters, while FOX seemed to recognize that alignment, and chose to focus on the (older) conservative voters.
Interestingly, it seems as though the country, and therefore the viewing public, was evenly divided. At least, that is what the media believed. As it turns out, that’s not how it settled.
Because, it seems the younger liberal block doesn’t consume media the same way the older conservatives do. So although the 2016 election showed a relatively even split of the publics loyalties (+ or – 5% let’s say), the ratings and revenues do not reflect that division.
So as big media aligned – CNN, ABC, CBS, (MS)NBC, NPR, NY Times & WAPO all aligned as liberal Democrat Echo Chambers. While FOX and NY Post aligned conservative.
So the ‘Blue Team’ is large, splitting their audience among many, while the ‘Red team’ is not. Additionally, the blue team audience is smaller, not because of numbers agreeing with the ideology, but because of their age and therefore, preferred delivery medium for their news.
Which, I have to credit Elon Musk, for his sacrifice and donation to American Free Speech. Buying Twitter to expose the guvmint’s abuse and violations of free speech was masterful. I love how the left continues to decry free speech.
FWIW, I think it SHOULD be okay to shout fire in a crowded theater, whether it is on fire or not!
I miss the days of past. When debate and dialog was civil. When you could watch the News and actually feel like they provided BOTH sides of an issue. When it was NOT acceptable to weaponize government agencies to further one ideology over another. When we could have debate amongst ourselves, and not escalate beyond talking points.
Here’s the sadness: the liberal DEMS are pissed. They ARE pissed at the Biden Family. They freaking ruined it all, taking the corruption, pay to play, and nepotism to UNHEALTHY levels.
Wasn’t Romney’s kid playing like Hunter does? Not to the same level, but dirty, too. And I’m sure he’s not the only Republican pushing that line.
Sadly though, America won’t be able to see a just and fair debate. The media will continue to editorialize as they ask their questions. A good example is the results of the 2020 election.
A good portion of America believes that election was loaded with fraud. I believe it was, as well. Was it enough to change the outcome? I suspect so. I mean, isn’t the objective of cheating to actually win?
Unfortunately, the judiciary feared the fall-out of such a determination, so they refused to even entertain the notion.
As I remember it, before the election, the courts avoided addressing irregularities by declaring there was no harm. Then after the election, they refused to investigate, and then declared there was no evidence of fraud. Wow, that sounds familiar
Refuse to investigate Joe Biden’s potential involvement in treasonous behavior, and then declare there is no evidence! Why not? It worked before.
I reall was saddened how Mr Bill Barr was so angry about President Trump’s gruff communications and mean tweets, that he was able to use his fantastical crystal ball to declare the 2016 election had no evidence of fraud. I sure wish I had such telepathic insight. Literally tens of thousands of polling locations, districts, parishes, and precincts, but within hours Mr Barr, and the liberal media, is POSITIVE there was no fraud.
And now, when the media refers to President Trump’s claims of election and voter impropriety, it always includes the adjectives ‘baseless claims’ of. Because the USA Today, Rachel Maddow, and Joey & Mika know everything!
You know, those people at the NY Times and CNN who told us, an untested vaccine will protect us from catching Covid, spreading Covid, and won’t hurt us. The ones who lauded those 50+ deep starters who assured us the Hunter laptop must be Russian in nature.
Hunter declares the GOP is attacking his reputation and character, because the hooker and naked crack pipe pics had nothing to do with that.
The BLUE team continues to accuse the RED team of misbehaving. Yet, as it turns out, everything they accuse, they are actually guilty of committing themselves.
America does not trust the guvmint ant more. It fears the guvmint, because it can observe the abuse of the people with their own eyes. DOJ, FBI, IRS, CIA, NSA have been weaponized against the political enemies of those running the show.
I honestly DO believe the blue team was win at any cost in 2020. They were successful. Unfortunately, they chose such a corrupt Manchurian candidate, no one is really running the show. And they have done such a piss poor job running the show, they will surely enjoy defeat in 2024. Even if they cheat, their aren’t enough dead voters to make up the difference anymore.
And really, polling? Hahaha. Them is made up numbers. Without landlines, representative samples are not possible. Add to that the disdain for the current state of our country, does anyone actually think those being polled are answering truthfully?
Those are my two cents. Not responsible for typos, cuz I typed this on a cellphone. Not responsible for anonymous’ trolling response, because he doesn’t have anything else to do. (Multiple accusations to others to ‘get a job’ and going back to, he accuses what he is guilty of. Leaving steaming #%@**÷s ! )
Login is simple. You can put in any string of letters that is formatted as an email address and then DougD as the username. Same anonymity, less explanation, better identification.
WHY NOT GIVE THEM 690 quadrillion?
In other news, Hunter was told today that if he was convicted, he faces up to 17years. He turned to his attorney Lowell, winked and said “17 years? The last time I heard that it was followed by “and, her tits are real””