Special Counsel David Weiss appears to have finally made the long-awaited case exposing years of concealment and political corruption. No, it is not the case against Hunter Biden. The allegations of tax fraud in California are obvious and unavoidable. Weiss just made the case against the Justice Department and himself in protecting Hunter Biden from the most damaging charges of being an unregistered foreign agent. In a new filing, Weiss released evidence on Hunter seeking money to advance the interests of a Romanian on United States policy.
I have previously testified on the Foreign Agents Registration Act and have previously written about the disturbing disconnect in the treatment of the President’s son as opposed to figures like Paul Manafort.
The charge was always one of the greatest fears of the White House. If Hunter Biden was a foreign agent, it would magnify the influence peddling scandal and further link his conduct to work of his father as vice president and later president.
What was previously known about millions received from China, Russia, and other countries made such a charge obvious. In the past, the Justice Department has used the charge early and often in high-profile cases to pressure defendants and force cooperation or plea agreements. During the Trump Administration, an official could not go to Epcot without drawing a FARA charge from DOJ.
This charge has been a favorite of the DOJ before the President’s son was implicated in a massive influence peddling scheme with foreign figures.
Here is the definition used in such cases:
A “foreign agent” is defined as “(1) any person who acts as an agent, representative, employee, or servant, or any person who acts in any other capacity at the order, request, or under the direction or control, of a foreign principal or of a person any of whose activities are directly or indirectly supervised, directed, controlled, financed, or subsidized in whole or in major part by a foreign principal, and who directly or through any other person— (i) engages within the United States in political activities for or in the interests of such foreign principal; (ii) acts within the United States as a public relations counsel, publicity agent, information-service employee or political consultant for or in the interests of such foreign principal; (iii) within the United States solicits, collects, disburses, or dispenses contributions, loans, money, or other things of value for or in the interest of such foreign principal; or (iv) within the United States represents the interests of such foreign principal before any agency or official of the Government of the United States; and (2) any person who agrees, consents, assumes or purports to act as, or who is or holds himself out to be, whether or not pursuant to contractual relationship, an agent of a foreign principal as defined in clause (1) of this subsection.”
For years, I have expressed alarm at the special treatment afforded to Hunter Biden on the charges. Many of us have also criticized Weiss for allowing the most serious tax charges to expire despite being able to extend the statute of limitations. He has yet to offer a compelling reason why prosecutors would ever allow viable felony charges to expire when they could have extended that period.
Now, Biden is seeking to avoid conviction under the tax charges in California. He is repeating the claims that failed in his recent gun violation. He is claiming that he was an addict and not responsible for his criminal conduct, even though he was flying around the world collecting millions from foreign sources.
To rebut that claim, Weiss’ team said they plan to introduce evidence showing his sophisticated scheme to tap foreign sources interested in influencing the government and federal policy.
In the filing below, Weiss opposes the Biden team effort to exclude the evidence of his working for the Romanians. Senior assistant special counsel Derek Hines writes in the filing that “[t]he evidence of what the defendant agreed to do and did do for [the businessman] demonstrates the defendant’s state of mind and intent during the relevant tax years charged in the indictment. It is also evidence that the defendant’s actions do not reflect someone with a diminished capacity, given that he agreed to attempt to influence U.S. public policy and receive millions of dollars pursuant to an oral agreement.”
That sounds a lot like seeking the work of a foreign agent. Here is the language from FARA:
“The first category of evidence the defendant seeks to exclude is any “reference to allegations that Mr. Biden (1) acted on behalf of a foreign principal to influence U.S. policy and public opinion . . .” Motion at 3 (emphasis added). The government does not intend to reference allegations at trial. Rather, the government will introduce the evidence described above, including that the defendant and Business Associate 1 received compensation from a foreign principal who was attempting to influence U.S. policy and public opinion and cause the United States to investigate the Romanian investigation of G.P in Romania.” (emphasis added)
It is a curious argument. It is akin to saying that we know that he stole the car because he used it in the kidnapping. It leaves most people wondering why you did not charge on the kidnapping crime.
The fact is that this is only one of an array of such contracts that have been detailed by the House Oversight Committee and other House committees. The other foreign dealings reportedly involved Hunter reaching out to government officials while his father was vice president. That includes the controversy over Joe Biden’s sudden decision to issue an ultimatum to the Ukrainian government.
In a 2018 interview at the Council on Foreign Relations, Biden bragged that he unilaterally withheld a billion dollars in US aid from the Ukrainians to force them to fire prosecutor general Viktor Shokin.
The Ukrainians balked, but Biden gave them an ultimatum: “I looked at them and said, ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money.’ Well, son of a bitch. He got fired.”
However, a State Department memo is shedding disturbing light on that account and shredding aspects of Biden’s justification for the action. It directly contradicts Biden’s insistence that he took this extraordinary stand because there was little hope for the anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine if Shokin remained prosecutor.
The Oct. 1, 2015, memo summarizes the recommendation of the Interagency Policy Committee that was handling the anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine: “Ukraine has made sufficient progress on its reform agenda to justify a third guarantee.” One senior official even complimented Shokin on his progress in fighting corruption. So Biden was told to deliver on the federal aid but elected to unilaterally demand Shokin be fired.
In testimony from Devon Archer, a business associate of Hunter Biden, we learned that Burisma executives made the removal of Shokin a top priority and raised it with Hunter. He described how the need to neutralize Shokin was raised with Hunter and how “a call to Washington” was made in response. While Archer also said that “the narrative spun to me was that Shokin was under control,” he and others also heard concerns over Shokin and the risks of the investigation.
Other transactions directly requested intervention on matters being addressed by the Obama-Biden Administration.
So, now, the Justice Department is citing some of these dealings to show a conscious and premeditated effort to shake down foreigners to influence U.S. policy. Weiss now maintains that “The defendant did receive compensation from a foreign principal to attempt to influence U.S. policy and public opinion, as alleged in the indictment, and this evidence is relevant.”
They have made more than the case against Hunter Biden. They have made a conclusive and overwhelming case against themselves in slow walking and minimizing charges against the President’s son.
Here is the filing: gov.uscourts.cacd.907805.181.0
So DOJ looks like other way when it comes to Hunter Biden and FARA.
But look at how thoroughly DOJ is examining Scott Ritter with respect to FARA:
https://spotlightnews.com/news/2024/08/08/fbi-raids-home-of-former-un-weapons-inspector-scott-ritter-amid-investigation-into-foreign-agent-allegations/
spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/news/2024/08/07/fbi-agents-search-scott-ritter-s-upstate-new-york-home
A 40 minute video of Ritter being interviewed byJudge Napolitano:
https://youtu.be/tgmFOq3J3-w
This Tulsi Gabbard deal should be the final fvcking straw.
Now TSA is investigating the whistleblowers.
The powers that be need a calibration.
GARM is being disbanded, woo hoo!
See John the eunuch Durham
Im uncertain why we are pretending we have a functioning United States.
Biden is incapacitated (has been for years) but yet he remains Chief Executive.
Democrats under Pelosi led a coup against Trump and eviscerated the US Constitution
Department of Justice is neither
Republicans, who allegedly control the US House, have not imprisoned Merrick Garland, Hunter Biden, Alejandro Mayorkas, US laws, Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi, et al for violating US House rules with the J6 etc, and continue to fund the US Govt even if we are bankrupt
Trump was almost assassinated and it is clear that Secret Service cant differentiate their rectum from their brain
Why the charade?
<>
JFK was assassinated. MLK was assassinated. Trump got shot by a right wing nut case.
You mean the one who donated to a left wing group
*You are demonstrating how dumb you are again!
Better to Remain Silent and Be Thought a Fool than to Speak and Remove All Doubt
If you think that patsy was the one who almost took out the former prez… well, there’s nothing I can really say here. Look at the state of the people you support. It would be Monty Pythonesque-comical if the same group wasn’t attempting to push an attack a nuclear power plant. Yes, you folks have lost your way.
“well, there’s nothing I can really say here.”
Nothing coherent, anyway.
While to a large extent I agree with you that Republicans have been remiss in their responsibilities – They impeached Mayokas. The failure to address that impeachment rests with Democrats.
Republicans should also have impeachedf Biden, and Garland. at this time though that is mostly irrelevant. The Fact that Biden is still in office is a democrat failure today not a republican one.
At this time congress is focused on getting re-elected – so little will be done between now and November.
QAnd the poolitical =goal right now is to acoid the disaster that Harris/Walz would be.
But I am at odds with you with respect to seeking criminal punishment for much of the conduct of Democrats.
I am at odds with Turley regarding FARA – FARA is unconstitutional. It requires you to register with Government to do things that you have a right to so. I would oppse registering guns.
But Turley’s FARA analysis DOES demonstrate that the Biden family WAS engaged in public corruption.
There is a difference between taking money to lobby government, and actually bribing those in power to use that power to someone else’s advantage.
As Turley has pointed out before – though SCOTUS has correctly made bribery difficult to prove, It is still bribery if a Family member is paid to get a public official to levverage public power to the benefit of the party paying.
The evidence regarding the Bidens is far more egregious than that against Sen. Menedez.
At the same time, one of the problems with efforts to prosecute the Nioden’s is that everyone knows they they go nowhere. Ultimately Joe will pardon the family and himself.
Personally I expect that will occur BEFORE this trial. The Trial will be bad for Biden’s legacy, And even though Joe is no longer running for re-election it is also bad for democrats. My guiess is that the competent democratic leaders call Joe and say – NOW is the time to pardon Hunter and end this. The Damage to Harris and democrats will be less than allowing the trial to proceed.
Regardless for the start most everyone has known Hunter is not going to jail.
With respect ot the many many deep state puppets – very little of this conduct is criminal. Most of these people should be fired,
And there should be very thorough investigations.
My recomendation some time ago was that after the election Trump should appoint a “Truth and Reconciliation” commission.
That should conduct completely private hearings for about a year. Anyone appearing before that commission and testifying honestly gets immunity for whatever they have honestly testified to – so long as they cooperate fully – including in future prosecutions.
At the end of this – a report is issued – referals are made to DOJ for prosecution, and to Congress for legislation, ALL the testimony is made public and anyone who has not come forward is subject to prosecution.
Unfortunately I do not think that much of the conduct unearthed will be criminal. There is a difference between those in government may not do X and doing X is a crime.
I know that Republicans are rightfully angry at the lawless conduct of the deep state – not all of whom are democrats.
Our founders defined Treason increedibly narrowly and they put it in the constitution – they did so because throughout history political disagreements have been elevated to Treason to criminally prosecute people who hold the wrong views.
We should not use lessor laws in the same way.
At the same time I think that congress needs to legislate better oversight of those in the executive.
Frankly I think we need to legislate causes of action against those in government that go outside the political process.
The deep state needs handicapped by more than congrsional obversight, but by oversight by State AGs and ordinary citizens.
The theme of the constitution was to pit power against power so that nothing could be done short of near universal agreement.
The left has been gradully destroying most of those checks and balances over the past 2 centuries to create more abiliuty for the excecutive, judiciary and even those weithin the executive and judiciary to unilaterally excercise power to some political end, and to hide what is occuring.
We need more chains for the federal govenrment. We need a more potent FOIA. And we need more ability to expose and thwart unconstoitutional actions.
But most of this is not criminal.
SCOTUS kicked Murty on standing grounds – as many on the left have observed congress has some control over the jurisdiction of the courts.
Congress casn pass laws that allow State AG’s to sue the federal government to protect the rights of their citizens.
@ John: Functioning checks and balances leave the nation safe. What you say is IMO one of the most important things people do not realize.
“The left has been gradully destroying most of those checks and balances”
A pardon can’t happen until the trial is completed and they are convicted.
What really gets under my skin is Weiss has not yet charged anyone else in the family. Other than having to pay the fines, they will get off.
AND since Trump was impeached over telling the DOJ to look into the Biden family corruption, someone needs to publicly exonerate Trump for that impeachment!
A pardon can’t happen until the trial is completed and they are convicted.
That is not true at all. Not only can the president pardon someone before trial, he can even pardon people who have not been arrested, or even identified. It is firmly established and has been the actual practice for over 200 years that the president can grant a general pardon for anyone who committed a particular crime.
So there is nothing preventing Biden from pardoning himself and Hunter and Jim for all crimes they may or may not have committed.
Hunter was never going to face FARA charges because it would lead back to Joe Biden. In addition it would open a can of worms for every politician in DC who has a family member doing work for a foreign company or country. DOJ would spend decades, if at all, untangling that mess.
Maybe but they still should! AND since Trump was impeached over telling the DOJ to look into the Biden family corruption, someone needs to publicly exonerate Trump for that impeachment!
Here is Svelaz-George’s lie of the day. I will be posting this new topic at the end of each day until he stops lying and making ignorant statements of “fact”.
A commenter said:
“Biden abandoned Bagrum Air Base. The Chinese now have it.”
Svelaz said
It’s Bagram dumba$$ and no he didnt’ abandon it. He was following Trump’s plan to leave Afghanistan.
Here, Svelaz clearly blames the Bagram decision on Trump. Then he posted a White House memo stating that there was NO PLAN for leaving Afghanistan, and in the same post claimed that the Doha agreement was “the plan”. He clearly didin’t understand the difference between an “agreement” and the “plan” for implementing that agreement. Maybe now he does.
From congressional testimony:
Milley was the nation’s top-ranking military officer at the time, and had urged President Joe Biden to keep a residual force of 2,500 forces there to give Afghanistan’s special forces enough back-up to keep the Taliban at bay and allow the U.S. military to hold on to Bagram Air Base, which could have provided the military additional options to respond to Taliban attacks.
Biden did not approve the larger residual force, opting to keep a smaller force of 650 that would be limited to securing the U.S. embassy. That smaller force was not adequate to keeping Bagram, which was quickly taken over by the Taliban.
It was Biden and KAMALA who decided to abandon Bagram on July 1st, against the URGING of his top military advisors. Trump left office 6 months prior, but Svelaz blamed the Bagram decision on Trump (after claiming he didn’t blame Trump).
LISTEN —->
Former Democrat Illinois Governor Blagojevich reveals Obama-led machine behind coup to install Kamala as nominee:
“This is KGB Police-State style politics…if we don’t fix this: say goodbye to freedom in America because… The Obamas from the backroom control everything.”
https://x.com/bennyjohnson/status/1821554031178768767
from the replies to the interview video above:
“I’ve been saying this since Biden was illegitimately installed. Why else has Obama stayed in DC? Doesn’t Valerie Jarrett live with them? I think so. But to anyone really paying attention to the power players we know it’s been Obama all along. I’ve long held Obama is the worst thing that has ever happened to America.”
What was it Obama famously declared? “We are just 5 days away from fundamentally transforming….”
WE ARE WATCHING THE DESTRUCTION FROM WITHIN HAPPENING RIGHT NOW. WAKE UP, AMERICA.
Listen to what Blago says Dems like Pelosi, Schumer, Obama, and their DNC, say about the “news media” —->
“We control them. They work for us.”
In other news, scientists discover the sun rises in the east and water is wet.
Seriously, this is the least surprising news of the day. Not even the fact the DOJ is involved, now that Biden is out of the race.
We’ve got some serious problems in this country and I no longer believe the root cause is voter ignorance apathy and dependence. We need to look no further than the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory. https://www.thoughtco.com/frankfurt-school-3026079
What are the serious problems in the country affecting you personally. Let’s hear it.
“For years, I have expressed alarm at the special treatment afforded to Hunter Biden on the charges. Many of us have also criticized Weiss for allowing the most serious tax charges to expire despite being able to extend the statute of limitations. He has yet to offer a compelling reason why prosecutors would ever allow viable felony charges to expire when they could have extended that period.”
– Professor Turley
_____________________
Ah, “Swift Justice!”
When does the legacy of Lincoln enjoy swift justice and suffer correction?
Secession was never prohibited; secession was never unconstitutional; secession was never rebellion.
Lincoln’s military occupation of the territory of a sovereign foreign nation was flagrant and illegal.
American freedom persisted for a mere 71 years.
The consequences of Lincoln’s “Reign of Terror,” including the failure to enforce existing immigration law on January 1, 1863, and the invalid, illegitimate, illicit, unconstitutional, and improperly ratified “Reconstruction Amendments” engendered by Karl Marx, must be extirpated.
Lincoln was the inflection point for the commencement of the progressive implementation of the principles of communism; Lincoln commenced the abject treason of “fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”
You may not contradict antithetical, unconstitutional communist America; you permitted and perpetuated it.
So, give the finger to 14 million demoncrat voters, dump them in the trash can, install the cackling heyna with criminal misconduct not becoming of America, and then to make it up to the furious and stubborn demented joe blow off 700 years of prison charges against his son, like you did for him, claiming mental illness incompetence. Run back to viewing the cackling hyena, also insane, grab the fat jowled pigman whose burned the best city of his state down while he babbled mostly peaceful and locked everyone in their homes with his nazi edicts.
Launch fake polls while you worship the new beast, openly lying in total coordination every second your piehole spews then chop off some kids private parts on the side so your blood demons stop tormenting you for 2 seconds. Hail satan, you’re going to win ! But only if you steal it even more this time, 17 percent theft required.
Trump could rape your mom and you’d blame her.
I’m blaming your mom right now for bringing someone who thinks like you into the world.
Do the Democratic Candidates inspire any leadership skills, or said another way would you trust them in a platoon or squad setting as leaders. At the top of the ticket there is a [Laugher] whose running mate is a [Charlatan]. They’d make a great pair for Vaudeville, dancing to a tune of an imbecilic beat with lyrics spewing falsehoods galore. Oh, (Hallelujah) the most progressive woke fools of the party have risen to the top, promising Whipped Cream Puffs filled with hot air and Rose Petal paths if we would just believe their obfuscated woke platform.
The total of the Democratic Party must be removed from office they are in the process of destroying this great country with their obscene ideas.
God help us All!!!
To the topic: I would think that the Biden’s would be looking for a closure of all outstanding charges against any of the family as soon as possible, with guilt the president could pardon, without determination of quilt or innocence there could be no pardon. I know, President Biden said he wouldn’t, if you believe that I’m sure there’s a salesman selling a bridge for cheap.
Since when are the Super Wealthy ever brought to trial and convicted of their crimes? How about “never?”
“Since when are the Super Wealthy ever brought to trial and convicted of their crimes? How about “never?”
You talk through your A$$ and will never stop. Proving you wrong: Martha Stewart, Leona Helmsley
Why does anyone bother to deal with such ignorance?
Because you love arguing and love to put other people down. That’s your reason for being here.
*Your comments exist to put others down, whether the comments are about Turley, Trump or anyone else. You are looking in your mirror. But you have an additional problem. You don’t know what you are talking about. Look at your question above and how easy it is to refute it, which shows you are dumb. Have you ever heard of Stewart or Helmsley before? Of course, but you made your dumb comment anyway.
It is time for you to do some introspection and examine how you continuously make yourself look like a fool.
Does the name Trump ring any bells?
I’m surprised that, since he did little to no work for the cash, the Romanians don’t take him out. They look like fools. Now that the Secret Service is suspect, the Romanians could take out Hunter and blame the SS.
without determination of quilt or innocence there could be no pardon.
That is not true. There is nothing preventing Biden from pardoning himself, Hunter, and Jim — and for good measure Jill as well — for all federal crimes they may have committed in their lives up to the current date. The only things he can’t pardon is future crimes, and state crimes.