Tag Archive for: JoeBidenCorruption

5 Things to Know About Special Counsel Investigating Classified Documents Held by Biden

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Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a veteran federal prosecutor to investigate whether any laws were broken when President Joe Biden held on to classified documents from his eight years as vice president.

Robert K. Hur, the new special counsel, isn’t as widely known as past special prosecutors appointed to investigate presidents, among them former FBI Director Robert Mueller or former Solicitor General Ken Starr, appointed to investigate allegations against Presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, respectively.

“I will conduct the assigned investigation with fair, impartial, and dispassionate judgment ,” Hur said in a public statement. “I intend to follow the facts swiftly and thoroughly, without fear or favor, and will honor the trust placed in me to perform this service.”

Hur is likely to have a higher profile in the coming weeks and months. Here are five things to know about him.

1. Clerked for Chief Justice Rehnquist
Hur began his legal career as a Supreme Court clerk for Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who first was appointed to the high court by President Richard Nixon and named chief justice by President Ronald Reagan. Both presidents were Republicans.

Hur also clerked for Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. Reagan appointed Kozinski to the 9th Circuit.

Hur is a graduate of Stanford Law School, where he was executive editor of the Stanford Law Review. Hur also received an undergraduate degree from Harvard in English and American literature.

2. Replaced Rod Rosenstein
On Nov. 2, 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Hur to be U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland.

Interestingly, Trump named Hur to replace U.S. Attorney for Maryland Rod Rosenstein, whom the president had appointed as deputy attorney general. It was Rosenstein who later appointed Mueller as special counsel to investigate Trump over allegations of “collusion” with the Russian government.

The Senate unanimously confirmed Hur to the U.S. attorney post in March 2018 after Maryland’s two Democrat senators endorsed his nomination by Trump.

“Marylanders have been anxiously awaiting confirmation of our next U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland. I am pleased that the Senate has unanimously confirmed Robert Hur for this lynchpin law enforcement position, as we need our U.S. attorney on the job now, working as a strong partner with state and local officials to keep our communities safe and secure,” said Sen. Ben Cardin, Maryland’s senior U.S. senator. “I look forward to working with Mr. Hur and am confident that he will focus on protecting Marylanders across our state by reducing violent crime, breaking up gangs, fighting the drug epidemic, enforcing civil rights, and rooting out corruption.”

The state’s junior senator, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, concurred with Cardin.

“Robert Hur’s confirmation is critical to our state and I thank my colleagues for unanimously approving his nomination to be Maryland’s next U.S. attorney,” Van Hollen said. “Working together with local, state, and federal partners, I’m confident we can move forward on the pressing issues facing our state—from improving public safety, to fighting the opioid epidemic, to protecting the rights of all Marylanders. I look forward to working with him.”

In the position of U.S. attorney, Hur was Maryland’s chief federal prosecutor and supervised 88 assistant U.S. attorneys and 72 support personnel. Those prosecutors handle cases that include domestic and international terrorism, narcotics trafficking, organized crime, gang violence, public corruption, cybercrime, financial and health care fraud, and civil rights violations. He remained in the job until 2021, when Biden became president.

3. Prosecuted Public Corruption

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a veteran federal prosecutor to investigate whether any laws were broken when President Joe Biden held on to classified documents from his eight years as vice president.

Hur’s office prosecuted former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, a Democrat, who was convicted of wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and two counts of tax evasion.

“Baltimore City faces many pressing issues, and we need our leaders to place the interests of the citizens above their own,” Hur said at the time of Pugh’s conviction, adding:

Catherine Pugh betrayed the public trust for her personal gain and now faces three years in federal prison, where there is no parole—ever. Law enforcement will remain vigilant to ensure that our citizens receive the honesty and professionalism they deserve from government officials and will prosecute officials who betray the public’s trust.

Hur’s office also oversaw the bribery prosecution and conviction of Maryland state Del. Cheryl Glenn, a Democrat, related to medical marijuana, opioid therapy clinics, and liquor licenses. Glenn solicited and accepted $33,000 in bribes, the Justice Department said.

“Cheryl Glenn solicited and accepted more than $33,000 in bribes in exchange for official actions instead of doing her duty and putting the interests of the public above her own,” Hur said after the July 2020 conviction. The U.S. attorney added:

We expect our elected officials to serve the public, not to use their positions of authority to line their own pockets. As this case demonstrates, we will work with our law enforcement partners to hold accountable those who betray the public trust. Cheryl Glenn will now pay the price for her greed by serving time in federal prison.

Hur’s office secured a conviction of former Maryland state Del. Tawanna Gaines, a Democrat, in October 2019 on charges that she illegally used campaign funds for personal profit.

Hur oversaw a case leading to the July 2018 conviction of former Maryland state Sen. Nathaniel Oaks, a Democrat, on wire fraud charges.

“Our democratic system relies on the integrity of our elected officials,” Hur said at the time. “Today’s sentence and our prosecution of former Maryland Sen. Nathaniel Oaks demonstrate that we will hold accountable those elected officials who use their offices to enrich themselves, rather than serve the interests of their constituents.”

Hur also oversaw cases against members of the Baltimore City Police Department in connection with a Gun Trace Task Force investigation and against corrections officers at numerous state prisons, including Eastern Correctional Institution, Jessup Correctional Institution, and Chesapeake Detention Facility.

4. Early Justice Department Career
During President George W. Bush’s administration, Hur went to work in a career position at the Justice Department as special assistant and later counsel to Christopher Wray, then the assistant attorney general in charge of the Criminal Division and now director of the FBI. There, Hur handled counterterrorism, corporate fraud, and appellate matters.

In 2007, Hur became an assistant U.S. attorney in Maryland, a position he held until 2014, over four years into the Obama administration.

As a career federal prosecutor in Maryland, Hur prosecuted gang violence, firearms offenses, and narcotics trafficking as well as white-collar offenses such as financial institutions fraud, public corruption, mortgage fraud, tax offenses, computer network intrusions, and intellectual property theft, according to the Justice Department.

5. After the Justice Department
After leaving the Justice Department in early 2021, Hur became a member of the University System of Maryland’s Board of Regents.

Hur went to work full time as a partner in the Washington office of the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, which has offices across the United States. He is co-chairman of the firm’s crisis management practice group.

At the law firm, Hur has been involved in white-collar criminal matters, regulatory proceedings and enforcement actions, internal investigations, and related civil litigation. He is a member of the firm’s white-collar defense and investigations practice group and its national security practice group.

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This article was published by The Daily Signal and is reproduced with permission.

Interrogated by Cruz, Diplomat Gives False Testimony About Biden’s Billion Dollar Bribe

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Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes

During a November 30th hearing of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a senior State Department official gave false testimony about a billion dollar bribery scandal involving Joe Biden. The official, George Kent, is President Biden’s appointee to be the next U.S. ambassador to Estonia.

At Kent’s nomination hearing, Senator Ted Cruz (R–TX) questioned him about Biden’s actions in Ukraine while Kent was overseeing anti-corruption efforts in Europe and working in Ukraine. At the time, Biden was the vice president and serving as President Obama’s point man for Ukraine.

This affair began in March 2014 when Biden gave a speech before the Ukrainian parliament in which he promised that the U.S. would help Ukraine increase its gas production. That same month, a corrupt Ukrainian oligarch placed Biden’s son Hunter on the board of his gas company and began paying Hunter $83,333 per month.

Cruz directly asked Kent, “Did Joe Biden do anything that benefited the corrupt oligarch who was paying his son a million dollars a year?” Kent attempted to dodge the question, but Cruz pressed him, and Kent replied, “He did not.”

Challenging Kent’s answer, Cruz pointed out that Joe Biden publicly bragged about getting the chief prosecutor of Ukraine fired while the prosecutor was actively investigating the oligarch. Quoting Biden’s own words captured on video, Cruz noted that Biden threatened Ukraine’s president and prime minister with withholding a “billion-dollar loan guarantee” from Ukraine “if the prosecutor is not fired.”

Cruz then asked Kent, “Do you think Joe Biden holding a billion dollars hostage to force the Ukrainian government to fire the prosecutor that is investigating the corrupt oligarch who’s paying his son a million dollars a year—did getting that prosecutor fired benefit that oligarch?”

Before Kent could reply, committee chair Jeanne Shaheen (D–NH) declared, “I’m not going to allow him to answer that question” and criticized Cruz for putting Kent in an “uncomfortable” position. Cruz repeatedly called out Shaheen for protecting Biden until she allowed Kent to give a “yes or no” answer. Kent then responded:

The prosecutor who was fired by the Ukrainian Parliament did nothing to investigate Zlochevsky [the oligarch], and everything that Vice President Biden, the State Department, and the U.S. embassy did acted in good faith to reduce corruption and help the Ukrainian people.

Kent’s reply is demonstrably false. In particular, his claim that the prosecutor was not investigating the oligarch is belied by the following facts:

  • The prosecutor general, whose name was Viktor Shokin, signed a sworn affidavit stating:
    • “The truth is that I was forced out because I was leading a wide-ranging corruption probe into Burisma Holdings, a natural gas firm active in Ukraine and Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, was a member of the Board of Directors.”
    • The president of Ukraine “was emphatic that I should cease my investigations regarding Burisma. When I did not, he said that the US (via Biden) were refusing to release the USD $1 billion promised to Ukraine. He said that he had no choice, therefore, but to ask me to resign.”
  • Just two weeks before he was forced out of office, the prosecutor general obtained a court order to seize some of Zlochevsky’s properties, including his land, houses, and a Rolls-Royce Phantom.
  • Hunter Biden’s laptop contains a November 2, 2015 email from a Burisma executive that instructed Hunter and his business partners to enlist “top US officials” to “visit” Ukraine and pressure Ukrainian officials to “close down” all “cases/pursuits against Nikolay in Ukraine.”

“Nikolay” is the informal first name of the oligarch, as proven by another email on Hunter’s laptop which states, “Nikolay is indeed sole shareholder but not of Burisma, but of Brocity company that ultimately holds 100% of Burisma.”

Replying to the email from the Burisma executive, Hunter and his partners explicitly agreed to do what Burisma asked of them and explained that they were “deliberately” concealing the names of the U.S. officials who will carry out this plan to “be on the safe and cautious side.”

One month later, Joe Biden did exactly what these emails specified. Furthermore, he did this by pressuring two of the three “key targets” that Burisma identified in its email to Hunter: the “President of Ukraine” and the “Prosecutor General.” In December 2015, Biden visited Ukraine and told Ukraine’s president and prime minister that he would withhold a billion dollar loan guarantee from Ukraine unless they fired the chief prosecutor. Biden later boasted, “Well, son of a bitch, he got fired.”

The prosecutor who replaced Shokin dropped all criminal charges against the oligarch, and years later, Biden praised this prosecutor as “solid.”

Biden’s illicit actions, which are substantiated by a wealth of other incriminating facts, accord with textbook definitions of bribery, extortion, and obstruction of justice. Yet, high-ranking government officials, journalists, big tech executives, and so-called fact checkers have systematically misled the public about what took place. Kent’s false testimony is the latest example.

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This article was published by Just the Facts and is reproduced with permission.

Biden, Harding, and a Ray of Hope

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Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes

Among the treasured books in my collection is Lost Men of American History, compiled by Stewart H. Holbrook — copyright 1946. Say again, 1946. I purchased it for 25 cents at an elementary school fundraising book sale.

One chapter is about the “most corrupt presidential administration in history” (up to that point), that of Warren G. Harding, described (in essence) by the author as an empty suit, an accidental president, controlled by corrupt cronies.

“Nor was Harding elected through any personal merit, for the American people, except for Ohioans, had never heard of him. But that mattered not at all. What elected Harding was the fact that the people were voting against a man who was not a candidate – Woodrow Wilson… So men voted in savage resentment against the memory of Wilson, and Harding was elected.”

In Biden’s case, he ran against a man who was a candidate – Donald Trump. However, Trump had been so vilified by Biden’s party and their ex officio department of propaganda – the American “news” media — that nobody voted for Biden; rather they voted against the bogeyman Trump. Thus, an empty suit controlled by corrupt cronies once again occupies the White House.

“Corruption on such a mighty scale automatically assured the Harding regime of a safe place in any history of the United States. But the historical importance of Harding himself rests on a firmer foundation.  …he seems to have been the only President who neither in private nor public ever gave utterance to anything that could be called an idea.”

Does that sound familiar?

“The Veteran’s Bureau was in disgrace. So was the alien property custodian’s office. So, very soon, was what somebody called the department of easy virtue – meaning the Department of Justice. The department’s FBI, it will be remembered, was headed in the Harding administration by the fragrant William J. Burns. Under Burns the bureau was turned into a smearing weapon, used against senators, congressmen and others who sought to find anything wrong with the administration.”

So, we see, the FBI has been used before (and fairly routinely since) as a smearing weapon, launching “investigations” into anybody who threatened to expose the corruption of the faction that controlled it. Such investigations never went anywhere, but by the time the charges were dropped or disproven, the subject’s life had been ruined, and the threat neutralized.

“That is why I believe the administration of Warren G. Harding to have been one of the most valuable the Republic has ever had. It demonstrated our strength as a nation, our lasting qualities, in a manner that left no doubt. If we Americans could live through that period, and those of Coolidge and Hoover, including the long horror of Prohibition – if we could pass through those trials and find our system still workable, then he is a skeptic indeed who doubts that the United States continues to have a future.”

Just so. If we could get through the Harding administration, then there is at least some hope that we might survive the Biden administration.

 

Biden Family Connections to U.S. & China Energy Deals

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Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

Here’s a head-scratcher.

Weren’t we told by President Joe Biden that the release of a million barrels of oil a day from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) from April onward, “will help address supply disruptions caused by Putin’s further invasion of Ukraine and the Price Hike that Americans are facing at the pump?”

Why then in June—during an American energy shortage—did Biden’s Department of Energy headed by former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, agree to transfer between a fifth and a sixth of the reserve oil that he bragged about releasing to boost America’s supply offshore to Europe and Asia?

More disturbingly curious, of the 5 million barrels of crude already to be tapped from SPR for export abroad, why would Energy Secretary Granholm sign off on a sale of 950,000 of those barrels to China—much less to Unipec (the trading arm of the China Petrochemical Corporation, better known as Sinopec), where former V.P. Biden’s son Hunter’s private equity firm, BHR Partners, bought a $1.7 billion stake in Sinopec seven years ago?

Unipec’s bid was selected by the Energy Department as one of 12 among 126 submitted to receive part of the SPR offering based upon the “price-competitive sale.”

Although Hunter’s lawyers told The New York Times that he “no longer holds any interest, directly or indirectly” in BHR Partners, a company he co-founded in 2013. The Washington Examiner reported that he remained listed as a part-time owner through another company, Skaneateles, an LLC he solely owned as recently as last March.

According to the Examiner: “Business records from China’s National Credit Information Publicity System accessed Tuesday continue to identify Skaneateles as a 10% owner in BHR, and Washington, D.C., business records continue to list Biden as the only beneficial owner of Skaneateles.”

Biden’s Energy Department has refused compliance with requests in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by a nonprofit government watchdog, the Functional Government Initiative, to compel records concerning administration officials’ decision to tap the oil reserves in the absence of a sudden disruption in supply such as a hurricane or cyber attack.

And of all places, why send our emergency oil to China, a country that is Russia’s main market to support its war against Ukraine that Biden blames for American pump pain?

Joe Biden and his history of curious family connections with the DOE (Department of Energy) and China readily trace back to his years in the Obama administration.

Remember back in 2009 when Fisker Automotive, a start-up company to be located in then V.P. Biden’s Newport, Delaware, backyard was gifted with an unsecured $529 million DOE loan guarantee to develop two lines of plug-in hybrid cars that would ”result in approximately 5,000 jobs created or saved for domestic parts suppliers and thousands more to manufacture a plug-in hybrid in the U.S.?”

Four years later, when Fisker filed for bankruptcy, not a single one of those thousands of efficient cars ever rolled off assembly lines, and those thousands of jobs “poofed” into thin air promises.

Sadly, at least for taxpayers—perhaps less so for the Biden family—there’s more to this story.

Whereas intricacies of the Fisker’s settlement deal are tangled, bankruptcy documents curiously listed Joe Biden’s son, [Robert] Hunter, along with a brother of Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden as creditors.

Also, curiously, Fisker was later purchased at auction by Wanxiang, a Chinese conglomerate, after reportedly being ”enticed” by Fisker creditors.

As I reported on this column in Jan. 2021, Wanxiang also reportedly has ties to Hunter Biden.

The foreign company had invested $1.25 billion into a different company that was a client of Seneca Advisors, Hunter’s private equity firm he co-founded in 2019 with Christopher Heinz, the stepson of former Secretary of State John Kerry when Joe was vice president.

Other notable Fisker Chapter 11 creditors included former Clinton Vice President Al Gore and venture capitalist John Doerr, a ”big-ticket” Obama donor, and later a major contributor to Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign.

Perhaps it’s little wonder then that Joe Biden picked an experienced boondoggler, former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, as his DOE secretary.

During her governorship from 2003 to 2011, Granholm handed out hundreds of millions of dollars to politically favored startups to create ”green jobs,” of which many failed.

One of those companies was A123 Systems, a fledgling electric-car battery manufacturer that received a $249 million DOE grant plus another $125 million in Michigan state tax credits.

As coincidences never seem to cease, A123 went bust in 2012 about the same time its customer—none other than Fisker Automotive also did —and also, like Fisker, its assets were purchased by Hunter’s Seneca Partners reported client, China’s Wanxiang group.

Then-Gov. Granholm also offered battery manufacturer LG Chem $125 million on top of the $150 million in DOE stimulus dollars it received. LG Chem apparently ran out of clean energy when its employees were caught watching movies and playing games around the clock because they ostensibly had little productive to do.

Mascoma, a biofuels startup, got $20 million from Granholm and up to $100 million from DOE for a plant that was never built to convert biomass into cellulosic ethanol.

Granholm also approved $100 million for a renewable energy park that was scrapped.

Other dim projects included some shady solar energy bets including United Solar Ovonic, Evergreen and GlobalWatt.

According to the Mackinac Center, a Michigan think tank, only 2.3% of Granholm’s investments in the state’s main incentives program met their job creation promises.

Speaking of dim projects, the shadiest of all may be Joe Biden’s choice of Jennifer Granholm to head his transition to a green energy future, one that relies on Beijing’s control of 90% of those solar panels we import and 80% of the rare earth minerals needed for the millions of electric vehicles we’re supposed to buy to plug in to our already overtaxed energy grids.

Whether prompted by colossal incompetence, concerning conflicts of interest, or resulting from confounding coincidences, such policies compromise any confidence that we dare trust those in charge.

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The article was published by CFACT, Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow., and is republished with permission.

New Emails Provide Smoking Gun Evidence that Joe Biden Was Directly Involved in Hunter’s Corrupt Business Dealings

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Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes

Smoking gun evidence of Joe Biden’s involvement in his son’s shady business ventures has emerged in the form of a college recommendation letter for the son of a Chinese executive. According to emails obtained by Fox News, the elder Biden wrote the letter to please BHR CEO Jonathan Li, who did business with Hunter Biden’s firm Rosemont Seneca.

Hunter held a 10% stake in BHR as recently as last year, the White House previously acknowledged. Hunter’s attorney told the New York Times in November that he had since divested.

In an email dated Jan. 3, 2017, and sent to Hunter Biden and his business associates Devon Archer and Jim Bulger, Li wrote: “Gentlmen[sic], please find the attached resume of my son, Chris Li. He is applying the following colleges for this year.” Li listed Brown University, Cornell University, and New York University, as the schools his son was considering. Li attached an “updated version” of his son’s “CV” in a subsequent email.

In a response that cc’d Hunter and Archer, Bulger said they have “received the updated version of the CV.”

“Lets [sic] see how we can be helpful here to Chris,” Bulger wrote.

Joe Biden has repeatedly denied discussing Hunter’s business ventures with his son.

A month and a half later, on Feb. 18, 2017, Eric Schwerin, who served as president of Rosemont Seneca, replied to Li: “Jonathan, Hunter asked me to send you a copy of the recommendation letter that he asked his father to write on behalf of Christopher for Brown University.”

“The original is being FedExed to Dr. Paxson directly at Brown,” Schwerin wrote. “It should be there by Tuesday at the latest (given Monday is a holiday here in the U.S.). Let us know if you have any questions. Best, Eric.”

Dr. Christina Paxson is the president of Brown University.

Li replied: “Hi Eric, Just see the email. It is just great! Thank you very much!”

“And Hunter, thank you very much too,” Li continued. “All the best to you all.”

The string of emails directly ties Joe Biden to his son’s corrupt influence operation.

The man who initially released the incriminating and explicit contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop to the media, told

the Daily Mail earlier this week that he has an additional 450 gigabytes of deleted material he plans to make public.

Jack Maxey says this includes 80,000 images and videos and more than 120,000 archives emails from the computer. Maxey came into possession of the hard drive after he was asked by former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, and New York City police chief Bernie Kerik, to access the contents.

He told the Daily Mail he fled from the United States to Switzerland out of fear that the Biden administration would retaliate against him.

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Continue reading this article at American Greatness.