Hunter Biden Associate Arrested

Long article, numerous tweets

https://conservativebrief.com/financial-client-73188/

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White House memo says GOP 'telling the truth' on Hunter Biden
Katherine Doyle | NBC
Wed, May 24, 2023 at 3:50 PM MDT

WASHINGTON — For months, the White House has accused Republicans of wielding Congress’ oversight powers to pursue politically motivated attacks against President Joe Biden.

Now the White House says that the Republican congressman helming the probe into the Biden family’s finances is making their case for them.

In a new memo obtained first by NBC News, White House spokesperson Ian Sams said MAGA Republicans in the House led by Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer are “admitting” that congressional investigations into the Biden family’s finances are an attempt to damage the president politically.

"[E]xtreme MAGA House Republicans are being caught doing something they rarely do: telling the truth,” he said. “They are admitting through their own words and deeds that these so-called ‘investigations’ are actually intended not to reveal facts but to hurt the President’s political standing.”

Comer’s comments linking the probes to Biden’s poll numbers in a Fox News interview made this explicit, Sams continued.

Asked Monday about the impact of his probe on Biden’s political standing heading into 2024, Comer said it had “absolutely” moved the needle.

“There’s no question,” he said. “You look at the polling, and right now Donald Trump is 7 points ahead of Joe Biden and trending upward; Joe Biden’s trending downward. And I believe that the media is looking around, scratching their head, and they’re realizing the American people are keeping up with our investigation.”

Comer has previously argued that his investigation isn't politically motivated.

Sams argued that shows the Republican motives.

“Despite previously insisting that his investigation ‘isn’t political’ and that the ‘only people that see this as a partisan investigation are the media and the hardcore Democrats,’ on Monday morning around 4:00 a.m., Comer took to the Fox airwaves to boast that his investigations are ‘moving the needle’ not because he has uncovered facts but because he claimed (falsely, by the way) that President Biden’s poll numbers are “trending downward,” he said.

House Oversight Committee Republicans led by Comer are investigating foreign payments made to Biden’s family members, including the president’s son Hunter Biden and brother James.

A memo released earlier this month by Comer argues that Biden family activities in Romania “bear clear indications of a scheme to peddle influence from 2015 to 2017.”

Comer has suggested that Biden may have been improperly influenced by his family’s overseas business ties while serving as vice president. But despite teasing a paper trail for months, the Kentucky Republican has yet to reveal any payments made to Biden directly, before or after leaving the Obama White House.

Sams pointed to reports drawing a parallel between Comer’s comments and a moment eight years ago when Kevin McCarthy linked House Republicans' Benghazi investigation to Hillary Clinton’s sliding poll numbers.

Republicans quickly backed away from the comments, describing the tie-in as a “disappointment.” Soon after, McCarthy dropped out of the speakership race.

A House Oversight Committee spokesperson defended Comer’s probe into the Biden family, saying it's up to the White House to provide transparency.

“No amount of Washington spin can change these facts or erase these bank records,” the spokesperson said. “The White House must provide the American people with transparency now. The Oversight Committee will continue to pursue the truth and accountability for the American people.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

Greene Reveals What ‘Staggering’ Bank Statements Indicate Regarding Hunter Biden Trafficking Schemes
Jon Dougherty, May 24, 2023

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene leveled a stunning allegation against first son Hunter Biden this week regarding what she described as information gleaned from “staggering” bank statements.

The Georgia Republican said during an interview that the statements indicate Hunter was involved in sex trafficking schemes, citing the documents, as well as suspicious activity reports that show money being transferred between him and prostitutes.

“This is true human sex trafficking of people that are not even citizens. And the question is, were they being held in some sort of sex slavery?” Greene said during an appearance on conservative commentator Benny Johnson’s podcast.

“These are the crimes that the FBI and the Department of Justice should be investigating and prosecuting with Hunter Biden because the evidence is all there, and the women are easily accessible. You can talk to them and call them in as witnesses,” she added.

She went on to say that at least some of the women are from Ukraine and Russia, where both Hunter Biden and, reportedly, President Joe Biden were involved in other ventures. She also referred to Hunter Biden as a “purely disgusting, vile human being” who is an embarrassment to the country.

“I am just so ashamed, absolutely ashamed, that our country has a President of the United States whose son has participated and committed these crimes, and he walks in and out of the White House every single day as often as he wants,” Greene said.

“This is such an embarrassment to our nation. It’s an embarrassment to women. It’s an embarrassment for men. Because this is not who we are,” she added.

Meanwhile, the Department of Justice is nearing a decision over whether to charge first son Hunter Biden following lengthy investigations into potential crimes over taxes and a gun purchase.

The decision over whether or not to proceed comes after federal prosecutors met last week with attorneys for Hunter Biden, the New York Post reported earlier this week.

Attorneys representing Hunter huddled with prosecutors from the US Attorney from Delaware, David Weiss, in his office in Washington to discuss the ongoing investigation that has spanned two presidential administrations and lasted for over four years.

Insiders familiar with the matter who spoke to The Washington Post said that Weiss is close to determining whether he will pursue charges against Hunter on felony and misdemeanor tax offenses, as well as lying on a federal gun purchasing form, or drop the case entirely.

Word of a charging decision comes after “FBI investigators reportedly expressed ‘growing frustration’ over the pace of the inquiry, and an IRS whistleblower came forward to allege Hunter has received ‘preferential treatment’ under the auspices of Attorney General Merrick Garland,’” The Post noted.

On Tuesday, Garland directed reporters to direct inquiries about the investigation to Weiss’s office and reaffirmed his previous statements to Congress that there were no political motives behind any delays in the Hunter investigation. Notably, Garland was not present at the meeting between Hunter’s lawyers and the Delaware prosecutor in Washington, The Post added.

“It is also unclear how Hunter’s abandoned laptop has aided the probe after the FBI seized its hard drive in late 2019,” the outlet noted further.

Hunter has been seen by his father’s side in recent weeks, including during a trip to Ireland where President Joe Biden publicly praised his son and said he was “proud” of him.



The tax investigation into Hunter’s international business dealings with Chinese and Ukrainian entities began in 2018, examining any potential violations of tax and money laundering laws. At the same time, a separate investigation into Hunter’s possession of a firearm was launched after his former sister-in-law and lover, Hallie Biden, disposed of his handgun in a dumpster behind a small grocer in Delaware, prompting a search by Secret Service agents and the disclosure of its sale to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

According to a gun purchase form from October 2018, Hunter answered “no” to the question, “Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?”

In previous federal cases, felony charges for lying on a gun form have been brought, as seen in the case of rapper Kodak Black. He received a three-year prison sentence in 2019 for falsely purchasing four guns at a Miami store.

Extensive Hunter Biden laptop archive with nearly 10,000 photos published on new website
By Josh Christenson
June 1, 2023 1:12pm

https://nypost.com/2023/06/01/hunter-biden-laptop-photo-archive-published-on-new-website/

Quote :

Nearly 10,000 photos taken between 2008 and 2019 will be hosted at www.BidenLaptopMedia.com after a former Trump White House aide apparently spent months scanning the digital archive, redacting some images and publishing the rest.

Unfortunately, the photo website mentioned in the article is suddenly "not available":

The e-mail files are still up: https://bidenlaptopemails.com

Hunter Biden's explicit laptop images released by former Donald Trump employee
Our Foreign Staff @ The Telegraph
Sat, June 10, 2023 at 5:51 AM MDT

A former Donald Trump aide has published almost 9,000 images of Joe Biden’s son Hunter online, after claiming it took months to censor compromising images of him nude and with drugs and prostitutes.

The photographs come from a cache of material obtained from a laptop the US president’s son reportedly took to a computer repair shop in Delaware.

The contents were passed to the media and a number of the photos were published ahead of the presidential election in 2020 in an attempt to embarrass the Biden campaign.

The latest images were published online by Marco Polo, a Right-wing non-profit organisation founded by Garrett Ziegler, a former employee of Mr Trump.

They show the younger Mr Biden, 53, naked and apparently taking drugs and in the company of sex workers. Hunter’s battle with drug addiction is well documented.

The photographs are dated between 2008 and 2019. Mixed in with the explicit images are a selection of family pictures, showing members of the Biden clan - including the president - holidaying in Rome.

Other photographs were purportedly taken in locations including Hawaii, Kosovo, China, London and Paris.

Mr Ziegler defended the decision to release the images, telling the Daily Mail: “If the American people want to know what their first family is like, they’re going to get it. And we’re not going to be taking out photos that paint the Bidens in a good light.”

The photographs are presented in chronological order and include geolocation tags, allowing users to see where they were taken on a world map.

Mr Ziegler said it took “months” to go through the images and edit out any graphic material.

Earlier this year, lawyers for Mr Biden wrote to the US Justice Department calling for a criminal investigation into close allies of Mr Trump and others who accessed and disseminated data from the laptop.

Judge sets July 26 court date for Hunter Biden's initial court appearance
ABC News
LUCIEN BRUGGEMAN, AARON KATERSKY AND SOO RIN KIM
June 21, 2023 at 2:20 PM

A federal judge on Wednesday set a court date of July 26 for Hunter Biden to make his initial court appearance related to the plea deal he agreed to Tuesday, following a five-year Justice Department investigation.

The hearing was ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika of the District of Delaware, hours after she was assigned to the case.

Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, agreed to a plea deal regarding a pair of tax-related misdemeanors and a pretrial diversion agreement on a felony gun charge. Noreika will have the power to either approve or reject the plea agreement prosecutors brokered with Hunter Biden's legal team.

Noreika was appointed to the federal bench by President Donald Trump, but in the past has supported presidential candidates on both sides of the aisle.

Despite her appointment by a Republican, Noreika's nomination was initially endorsed by two Democratic U.S. lawmakers, Delaware Sens. Chris Coons and Tom Carper, according to paperwork Noreika filed as part of her confirmation process.

She has in the past has contributed to both Republican and Democratic presidential candidates, giving $2,500 to Mitt Romney in 2012, $2,300 to John McCain in 2008 and $1,000 to Hillary Clinton the same year, according to campaign disclosure filings.

Noreika also donated several thousand dollars to Tom Cotton's Senate campaign between 2013 and 2014, and $1,000 to Rick Santorum's Senate campaign in 2005.

She has not made any federal political contributions in the last nine years.

A native of Western Pennsylvania, Noreika attended Lehigh University and Columbia University before enrolling at the University of Pittsburgh Law School, where she graduated summa cum laude in 1993. She spent more than 25 years in private practice in Wilmington, Delaware, where her practice focused on patent law, before her nomination to the district court in 2017.

As part of his plea deal, the younger Biden will acknowledge his failure to pay taxes on income he received in 2017 and 2018, according to the agreement. For the gun charge, he will agree to pretrial diversion, with the charge being dropped if he adheres to certain terms.

He will likely avoid jail time if Noreika signs off on the deal.

The agreement would potentially end a years long probe by the Justice Department, according to court documents filed Tuesday.

Attorney general denies whistleblower claims of interference in Hunter Biden investigation
LINDSAY WHITEHURST
Fri, June 23, 2023 at 1:35 PM MDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Merrick Garland pushed back Friday against claims from IRS whistleblowers that the Justice Department interfered with the investigation into Hunter Biden, saying more broadly that attacks on the department’s independence are corrosive.

The Republican-led House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday released a transcript of testimony from Gary Shapley, an IRS official who, among other things, claimed that Garland had denied a request from U.S. Attorney David Weiss of Delaware to be appointed special counsel. That designation would have would have given Weiss the same status as the prosecutor leading the investigation into former President Donald Trump.

Weiss never made such a request, Garland said Friday, and always had full authority to file charges wherever and however he saw fit against President Joe Biden's son. And Garland added that if Weiss — first appointed U.S. Attorney by Donald Trump — agrees to testify before Congress, the Justice Department will not stand in the way.

“He was given complete authority to make all decisions on his own,” Garland said. “I don’t know how it would be possible for anybody to block him for bringing a prosecution given that he has that authority.”

More broadly, Garland forcefully rebutted criticism from Republicans that a plea agreement for the president's son on tax and gun charges made public this week reflects political influence in the American justice system. Republicans have denounced the deal as evidence of a “two-tiered system of justice.”

“Some have chosen to attack the integrity of the Justice Department … by claiming we do not treat like cases alike. This constitutes an attack on an institution that is essential to American democracy and essential to the safety of the American people,” Garland said. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”

In a separate statement Friday, Biden's lawyer denounced the idea that the investigation cut any corners, and said it would be “dangerously misleading” to make conclusions based on the Shapley transcript.

The transcript included a message Hunter sent to a business associate alluding to “sitting with his father,” seemingly suggesting that his father was aware of his business dealings. Shapley acknowledged the investigation didn’t turn up evidence to prove that, instead finding that it was likely untrue.

Joe Biden has said he’s never spoken to his son about his foreign business. Asked Friday if the president stands by those comments, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre replied: “What I will say is nothing has changed. Nothing has changed, and I will leave it there.”

Weiss' office referred request for comment about the whistleblower testimony to a June 7 letter he wrote to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan saying he had “ultimate authority” over the investigation.

The testimony from IRS agent Shapley and a second unnamed agent who worked on the case detailed what they called a pattern of “slow-walking investigative steps” and delaying enforcement actions in the Hunter Biden case, though it was unclear whether the conflict they described amounted to internal disagreement or a pattern of preferential treatment.

Shapley said Weiss told him and others during an October 2022 meeting that he had been denied special counsel status and didn’t have final authority on charging decisions. Transcripts released Thursday include an email with Shapley's notes from the meeting, and a response from a supervisor saying his notes “covered it all.”

A representative for Shapley called on Weiss and the Justice Department to explain the discrepancy.

Biden’s attorney, for his part, said claims the investigation wasn't thorough are “preposterous and deeply irresponsible.”

The Hunter Biden plea deal came days after the special counsel on the Trump case filed a historic 37-count indictment alleging mishandling of classified documents, which the former president has denied. Trump has likened the Hunter Biden agreement to a “mere traffic ticket."

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Associated Press writers Farnoush Amiri and Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.