Hunter Biden claimed his father never interacted with his son’s business partners and repeatedly denied his father’s involvement in those dealings. However, Hunter Biden confirmed Joe Biden met Bobulinski and multiple foreign business partners, and spoke to business associates on speakerphone.

“The sole reason Hunter wanted me to meet his father was because I was the CEO of Sinohawk, the Bidens’ partnership with CEFC. I was a business associate. In his transcript, Hunter confirms that that meeting with Joe took place and incriminates his Uncle Jim for perjury by confirming it,” Bobulinski said.

 

No kidding. And Just look at the story he's pretending shows corruption on President Bide 's part.


News
NRPLUS
Politics & Policy
Hunter Biden Confirms Joe Met Foreign Business Partners, Defends Putting Him on Speakerphone: ‘Nothing Nefarious’

Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, arrives for a closed deposition with members of the Republican-led House Oversight Committee conducting an impeachment inquiry into the president, at the O'Neill House Office Building in Washington, D.C., February 28, 2024. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)
Share

By James Lynch

March 1, 2024 8:11 AM

All Our Opinion in Your Inbox

NR Daily is delivered right to you every afternoon. No charge.

Testifying before lawmakers on Wednesday, Hunter Biden downplayed the fact that Joe Biden repeatedly spoke on speakerphone with his business partners and met with them at various dinners.



Trump-Endorsed Businessman Bernie Moreno Wins Ohio GOP Senate Primary[/paste:font]
Audrey Fahlberg
Supreme Court Allows Texas to Enforce Law Authorizing Local, State Police to Arrest Illegal Immigrants
Caroline Downey
Cabrini Fails on Purpose
Madeleine Kearns
NRPLUS
“Over the course of the last 30 years when speakerphone was invented on a cell phone? I’m certain my dad has called me. My dad calls me like I’m sure a lot of your parents do or a lot of you do with your children, and if I’m with people that are friends of mine, I’ll have him say hi,” Hunter testified, according to a newly released transcript of his testimony before the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees.



The first son then addressed the testimony delivered last summer by former business partner and friend Devon Archer, who recalled roughly 20 instances where Joe Biden spoke with his son’s business associates, including two dinners in 2014 and 2015 respectively. Archer and Biden worked on the board of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings together and investment firm Rosemont Seneca Partners.

“Devon, I think, what did he testify, that over the course of our ten-year relationship I was — maybe ten or 20 times that he can remember. He can’t recall the specific times that I put my dad on speakerphone when I was at a dinner or at a social event, so that means, over the course of ten years, twice a year, my dad would call me, and I would be in the middle of a dinner, and I always answer his call,” Hunter Biden testified.


“I always answer his call, based upon my life’s experience. And you’re telling me, so two times a year over the course of ten years, maybe more, or 15 years with Devon Archer, yes, that probably did happen.”

Hunter told lawmakers he would pick up the phone during his testimony if his father gave him a call while he was testifying.

“I’m surprised my dad hasn’t called me right now, and if he did, I would put him on speakerphone to say ‘hi’ to you and to Congressman Raskin and everybody else in the room. It is nothing nefarious literally. You understand my relationship with my family,” he stated.

Archer specifically described a spring 2014 dinner with Russian oligarch Elena Baturina in attendance and another dinner the next year with Burisma executive Vadim Pozharskyi and Kazakhstani oligarch Kenes Rakishev among the attendees.

Baturina wired $3.5 million to a shell company linked to Archer and Biden, and that company sent $1 million to Archer himself, bank records indicate. The rest of the money went to Rosemont Seneca Bohai, an account Archer and Biden used to receive foreign payments from Burisma and elsewhere, according to the bank records and testimony from IRS whistleblower Joseph Ziegler, an IRS agent who spent years on the criminal investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes.


Hunter Biden denied receiving any money from Baturina. Archer previously testified that Baturina’s relationship with Rosemont Seneca’s real-estate entity was outside of Hunter Biden’s business portfolio.

Both dinners took place at Cafe Milano in Washington, D.C., a known hotspot for prominent public figures in the nation’s capital. The two dinners were among the dozens Hunter had at the restaurant. The younger Biden could not definitively recall Baturina’s presence at any dinners but he did confirm Rakishev was one of the guests at the 2015 dinner.

Joe Biden walked into the 2015 dinner and sat next to a guest who was there to view presentations from his son and other representatives of the World Food Program, Hunter Biden recalled. Rakishev met Joe Biden at the dinner for the World Food Program.

Rakishev wired Rosemont Seneca Bohai over $142,000 in April 2014 and Hunter Biden used the funds to buy a Porsche, the bank records show. He claimed the payment’s purpose was to help Archer out with the real-estate business. Ziegler testified that Hunter’s Porsche was purchased with the Rosemont Seneca Bohai money sent by Rakishev.

Hunter also confirmed that Pozharskyi, the Burisma executive, attended one of the dinners in question. An email sent by Pozharskyi to Hunter Biden in April 2015 indicates he met Joe Biden the night before, the New York Post first reported ahead of the 2020 election.

“What Vadym is talking about is that, the night before, he attended the World Food Programme dinner at Cafe Milano. My dad came to that and stopped by to say hello to people that were there that he had a longstanding relationship with. Vadym was one of the people sitting at the table, and he said hello to them,” Hunter testified in response to questioning from Representative Matt Gaetz (R., Fla.) about the email from Pozharskyi.


Gaetz and Hunter got into a disagreement over the nature of Pozharskyi’s encounter with Joe Biden and whether the dinners and speakerphone discussions meant Joe Biden was involved in his son’s foreign business dealings.

Burisma paid Biden and Archer millions of dollars in 2014 and 2015 but significantly reduced his salary significantly in 2017 shortly after his father’s vice presidency concluded.

While he insisted his father was not involved in his business dealings, Hunter did confirm during his testimony that he traveled to China on Air Force Two and introduced then-Vice President Biden to Chinese business partner Jonathan Li.


“I traveled with my father on that trip as I’ve traveled with my father my entire life,” he testified. “When we returned from an event to the hotel, there was a rope line, and Jonathan Li was in the lobby of the hotel where I was going to meet him for coffee. In that line I introduced my dad to Jonathan Li and a friend of his, and they shook hands and I believe probably took a photograph. And then my father went up to his room, and I went to have coffee with Jonathan Li.”

The pair were working on a private-equity deal at the time to facilitate cross-border investments. Li and Biden eventually created investment fund BHR Partners and Hunter Biden had a 10 percent stake in the venture. Then-Vice President Biden later wrote a college recommendation letter for Li’s son.

In summer 2019, Li loaned Hunter Biden $250,000 in a payment listing Joe Biden’s Delaware residence as the beneficiary address, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R., Ky) said in September. Kevin Morris, Hunter’s financial patron and a Democratic party donor, purchased the loan debt and the BHR stake, Hunter confirmed. Morris testified in January and confirmed the transaction took place when he bought the holding company containing Biden’s BHR equity.


Hunter also confirmed he and his father met business partner Tony Bobulinski in California when Joe Biden had a speech scheduled at the Milken Institute conference, a central element of Bobulinski’s testimony. James Biden, Hunter’s uncle, was also in attendance at the May 2017 meeting, which took place during negotiations over a proposed venture alongside Chinese conglomerate CEFC that eventually fell through. Instead, CEFC entered into a lucrative venture with James and Hunter Biden called Hudson West III that brought in millions for the Bidens, bank records and Hunter’s tax indictment show.

“My uncle and myself. I think my uncle was also staying at that hotel. And so yeah. I know that, if you go further, it says — but I think that the reality is that he didn’t — anyway, my dad went and shook hands with Tony,” Hunter testified. The night before, Hunter and Bobulinski had dinner together for their first in-person meeting.

James and Hunter Biden both characterized Bobulinski as an arrogant, disgruntled former business partner. Oversight Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D., Md.) has also questioned Bobulinski’s credibility, leading to strongly worded responses from Bobulinski’s attorney.

House Republicans are pursing the impeachment inquiry into President Biden over the apparent role he played in his son’s foreign business dealings. The meetings and phone calls between Joe Biden and his son’s foreign business partners are a major aspect of the impeachment inquiry. Hunter Biden repeatedly insisted his father was not involved with his foreign business enterprise.

Comer (R., Ky.) said following the closed-door session that Hunter will testify publicly at some point in the future.




https://www.nationalreview.com/news...utting-him-on-speakerphone-nothing-nefarious/



And what about Tony Bobulinski?

Russian connections of course.


Texts Reveal More Russia Ties for Key Anti-Biden Witness
https://au.news.yahoo.com/texts-reveal-more-russia-ties-084608846.html

 

'Like you're chasing your tail': Newsmax host skeptical of Jim Jordan's impeachment push

Brad Reed
March 20, 2024 9:24AM ET



Jim Jordan (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)




Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) is trying to keep the GOP-led impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden going, but even a host at the conservative TV network Newsmax seems to think it's running out of steam.

In an interview with Jordan on Wednesday, Newsmax host Rob Finnerty pressed Jordan about how realistic it is that Biden actually gets impeached in the coming weeks.

"Is impeachment the next step?" he asked Jordan. "Are you going to hold a vote?"

Before Jordan could answer those two questions, Finnerty made the case that an impeachment vote was unlikely.

"I know it's up to Mike Johnson," he said. "But the margins, congressman: You lost Ken Buck last week, you lost Kevin McCarthy, George Santos was ousted. Unless you get Democratic votes, this is going to be real tough. So it kind of seems like you're chasing your tail at this point because this is not going to go anywhere."

READ MORE: Bipartisan lawmakers demand action after Raw Story mail crime investigation

Jordan did his best to put a positive spin on the situation.

"Fair question, we've got a small majority, everyone understands that," he said. "Our job, under the Constitution, is to do oversight of the executive branch. We're doing that, we're going to continue to do that. There's no time limit in the Constitution on how long you can do an investigation."

Finnerty's skepticism comes as GOP efforts to find evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors committed by Biden have fizzled, as earlier this year their star witness in the case was arrested and charged with fabricating claims to federal investigators about Biden accepting bribes from Ukrainian energy firm Burisma.

Rep. James Comer (R-KY), who has been taking the lead in the Biden impeachment probe, has been acknowledging that he doesn't currently have the votes to impeach the president and has instead tried to pivot to possibly making criminal referrals against Biden and his family instead, despite the fact that Department of Justice policy states that a sitting president cannot be criminally indicted.


https://www.rawstory.com/jim-jordan-biden-impeachment/

 

So, joes claim he and Hunter never talked business was a lie?
Ah. We recall Joe rescinded that claim and sustituted "I never benefitted from Hunters business".

And now Hunter's former business partner is calling out Hunter for lying under oath.

Which might explain Hunter's reluctance to testify again.

One thing we know for sure, no matter how much propaganda the american hunter spews, is that one of those guys is lying, and they did it under oath.

Oopsie.

 

I knew the Democrats would be locked and loaded ready and willing and able to fight back just like they have been in every hearing they made fools of the treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republicans in. They were ready to knock down every lie. But the progressive/liberal/Democrats just seemed to have more fun slaughtering them in this hearing.



Eric Swalwell Hits House GOP With 10 Reasons Why Biden Impeachment Inquiry Is 'Dunzo'
Ben Blanchet
Updated Thu, March 21, 2024 at 6:13 AM MDT·1 min read
243

• 
  

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) didn’t let up as he listed off the “top 10 reasons” why the Republican impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden is “dead” on Wednesday.

“Guys, it’s dead. And so I’m here to pronounce the time of death,” said Swalwell as he wrote “5:16 p.m.” on a board behind him.

The California Democrat spoke at a House Oversight Committee hearing where he told GOP lawmakers that it’s “time to pack it up” on a probe that has lacked evidence to directly link Joe Biden to benefiting from his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings while he was vice president.

Swalwell began naming his reasons including that one of the witnesses, Jason Galanis, was testifying “from the slammer” before noting that former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov was charged for lying about his Biden family bribe claims.

He later apologized to Republicans before naming his “No. 1” reason for why the inquiry is a bust: “Fox News isn’t even carrying this today.”

“In fact, one of their anchors as they broke away 10 minutes in, said ‘This is the same hearing over and over and over, at what point are you gonna fish or cut bait?’” Swalwell noted.

“So I just have to tell ya, it’s over. Impeachment’s over. Dunzo, bye-bye, rigor mortis, lights out, curtain drop, mic drop, peace, adios, sayonara, au revoir or a language that you all understand — do svidaniya.”

You can check out more of Swalwell’s “top 10 reasons” below.



Acyn
@Acyn
·
Follow
Swalwell lists the top 10 reasons why it’s over for impeachment Reason 1: Fox News isn’t even carrying this today












3:31 PM · Mar 20, 2024



https://www.yahoo.com/news/eric-swalwell-hits-house-gop-063108071.html

 

Funny how the dumbocrats don't see RICO as a crime.... Well at least when it comes to biden. LMAO!

 

What is hilarious beyond belief is you ate too stupid and ignorant to see AOC is absolutely right. In order to charge someone with RIC CO it has to be based on underlying crimes. Like Trump and his co defendants down in Georgia. They are charged as a criminal enterprise under RICCO but that is based on multiple felony crimes which are specifically laid out in the indictments. And I am actually going to post this exchange as well because AOC not only made a laughable fool of Tony Bobulinski she exposed his lies and the phony scam of the hearing. Because she challenged him multiple times and Bobulinski could not name an actual crime he is accusing President Biden of committing.


Not to mention Bobulinski got caught lying about his ties to Russia when some of his new texts were revealed.

 

Rico is not a crime??
Someone needs to tell Trump.
He'll be happy.

Hey american hater, where did you get your law degree?
Or your knowledge of criminal law?
Personal experience, or wrong story?
Or both?

 

Really President Biden is now guilty of RICO? Then why doesn't Charmian Comer bring up impeachment for a vote?

This was another just hilarious exchange.

'Hey Comer!' Dem puts GOP on spot as impeachment effort flails for evidence

Matthew Chapman
March 20, 2024 4:50PM ET



U.S. Rep. James Comer (R-KY), Chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, attends a media event at the National Press Club on January 30, 2023 in Washington, DC. Comer outlined his committee's agenda for the upcoming Congress including his plan to investigate President Biden's son Hunter Biden and his overseas business deals. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)




Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) put House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) on the spot on Wednesday, demanding a vote on impeaching President Joe Biden as Republicans scramble to gather evidence that hasn't yet been shown to exist.

The exchange came during a hearing with Tony Bobulinski, a former business partner of the president's son Hunter Biden. Bobulinski, a retired Navy lieutenant and the CEO of Sinohawk Holdings, has claimed that he has evidence Hunter's international business dealings improperly enriched the whole Biden family, including the president, but has so far not provided anything compelling and has faced accusations of lying under oath.

"If these hearings were a success, right, if what we've been doing for the last fifteen months had convinced the American people that Joe Biden committed a high crime and misdemeanor, you can be damn sure they would have called the vote by now, right?" said Moskowitz. "But they want it to go on. They either want it to go on because they don't have the evidence—"


Bobulinski took the moment to interject. "Are you asking me a question?"

"Oh no, I'm just looking at you," said Moskowitz. "But if you want to talk to me, we can talk."

"I think you haven't read recent data that shows that the American people are well aware of the Bidens' corruption," said Bobulinski.

"Perfect!" exclaimed Moskowitz. "So then ask the chairman why he hasn't called for impeachment, Tony! He's right here. Ask Comer! Hey Comer, why haven't you called for impeachment? I'll do it, watch. Hi, I'm Tony. Hey Chairman, why haven't you called for impeachment, when are you going to have the hearing? When is the vote going to happen? I mean, you believe it, he believes it. He says it every day on TV. I just don't know when we're going to have the vote!"

This comes amid a broad sense among both lawmakers and pundits that the Biden impeachment probe, which seeks to find evidence that Biden laundered international bribes through his son's business deals, is coming up empty.

Watch the video below or click here.


https://www.rawstory.com/biden-impeachment-hey-comer/

 

The hypocrsy exhibited here by american hater would be laughable if he wasn't so delusional.

 

So shooter, when is the repuke investigation into Jan 6th going to be held?

Any ideas?

 

Crazy camp follower troll dismissed.
Again.

 

So shooter, are Trump supporters delusional? Or did Trump really did win the 2020 election?
And what evidence do Trumptards claim the 2020 election was stolen?

Any ideas?

 

Dismissed.
Again.

 

I am going to have to do some digging around and find everything I can on Parnas. I follow things like this really close. But Parnas is like a different ballgame. He not only brings the receipts. He's got more actual receipts than I could have imagined existed. And he uses them to not only document the plot he names names along the way including members of Congress. And I knew some of them were vaguely connected but Parnas ties them right into the corruption and knowingly into the Russian plan. I had no idea he cold bust them on that and I bet they didn't either.

Lev Parnas 'rolling out the receipts' by posting email 'Republicans don't want you to see'

David McAfee
March 22, 2024 7:48PM ET



Lev Parnas speaks to the media in front of the Thurgood Marshall United States Court House in New York on Feb. 3, 2020. - John Lamparski/SOPA Images/Zuma Press/TNS




Lev Parnas, who says he worked with Rudy Giuliani to build a Joe Biden conspiracy theory, is unleashing the "receipts."

Parnas, who recently said that he told the FBI in 2019 that the GOP's anti-Joe Biden informant should not to be trusted, also made headlines when he testified at an impeachment hearing.

After the hearing, Parnas took to social media to post an email he says the Republicans "don't want you to see."

ALSO READ: Here's why conservative elites are bailing on Trump now

"Here you have it, the email that the republicans don’t want you to see!" Parnas posted on Friday. "Stay tuned more to come! #LevRemembers #ShadowDiplomacy"

The post included an email screenshot from Parnas to The Hill's John Solomon and others.

"Wow," Parnas wrote. It was apparently in response to Solomon saying he "got all 261 pages of bank records that the FBI gathered showing transfers from Burisma Holdings to a JP Morgan Account in NYC (via Cyprus) and then into Hunter Biden's and Devon Archer's personal accounts."

"There's at least $3.2 million that came from Burisma into US between April 2014 and August 2016," he added. "One of the recipients looks to be a retirement account called Biden LLC. There are also payments for an $85,000 watch and a $125,000 antique car. Source says it is evidence of classic looting."

Days earlier, Parnas accused Solomon and others of knowingly pushing a false narrative about Biden.

In response to the Parnas post, legal and political experts suggested that Republicans brace themselves.

"[Parnas] starts to roll out receipts -- in this case, that John Solomon claimed he got private records re Hunter Biden from the FBI by March 2019," according to legal analyst Marcy Wheeler, of EmptyWheel.

Former GOP lawmaker Denver Riggleman had this to say:

"His emails. Lev was there, folks," he wrote on Friday. "And were the records really what the 'FBI gathered?' Hard to know that anything said by Solomon on sourcing or validation is true here."



https://www.rawstory.com/lev-parnas-gop-email-receipts/

 

It is a constant source of amusement to watch the treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republicans exploit the stupid ignorance of their low information voters. First they promised them they would impeach President Biden because the Democrats did it to Trump. But you can't really impeach a president unless you can show actual crimes and misdemeanors. So they spend months saying they found high crimes and misdemeanors which just kept blowing up in their faces when their lies were exposed. So they can't impeach President Biden so now its we will make criminal referrals. Knowing that might sound good to their low information voters when its actually more comical than impeachment because that would also require actual evidence of crimes. But their low information don't know almost anyone can make a criminal referral. Where it goes in the trash can at DOJ. Which lets them just keep lying to their voters and string them along.



Criminal referrals create new headaches for GOP impeachment investigators
Rebecca Beitsch
Sun, March 24, 2024 at 10:00 AM MDT·8 min read
467

• 
  

Republicans are weighing criminal referrals to the Justice Department instead of articles of impeachment against President Biden, a move that would provide an off-ramp for a struggling investigation but force the GOP to demonstrate the president or his family broke the law.

The GOP probe has been facing growing skepticism within the party, with some Republican lawmakers voicing concerns that they have yet to see investigators answer the nagging question of whether there was illegal conduct. Others have expressed doubts the matter will ever come to a vote given that key GOP members remain unconvinced.

Criminal referrals could help avoid an embarrassment on the House floor — like when the GOP lost an initial vote to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.


But the strategy would require the GOP to expound in detail what crimes they believe were committed by the Biden family, along with citing specific statutes and outlining evidence.

It’s a task that might be more difficult than impeachment itself, a problem Democrats are zeroing in on.

“With the impeachment bus running on empty, our GOP colleagues now are apparently preparing to save face by ending the impeachment farce with criminal referrals. But criminal referrals require evidence of crimes,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.), the top Democrat on the Oversight and Accountability Committee, said last week.

House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) has hinted at the off-ramp in recent week, calling criminal referrals the “best path” in a recent interview with Newsmax.

“It’s always been about holding them accountable,” Comer said.

“The way that we’re going to do [it] has always been the best route for accountability. We’ve proven the wrongdoing, now it’s time to hold people accountable. That’s what we’re gonna do.”

A skeptical audience
Criminal referrals would require making a case to what could be an even more skeptical audience than House Republicans — a team of seasoned attorneys who would weigh whether such charges could be proven in court.

It’s also not entirely clear who Republicans would refer, though the possibilities range from President Biden himself to family members and associates of his son Hunter Biden.

“They’ve already got what they asked for, which was a special counsel on that,” Raskin said of the investigation into Hunter Biden that has resulted in multiple charges in two states.

“And if they had what they thought were felony offenses against the president of the United States, why wouldn’t they impeach him?”

“I think it’s an attempt to find a soft landing for them when the whole investigation has already crashed,” he added.

Many of those eyed by the GOP for charges have already been prosecuted by the Justice Department, including Hunter Biden on numerous charges related to his failure to pay taxes, as well as gun charges.

And several of his former associates have already faced legal scrutiny. His former business partner Devon Archer was sentenced to just over a year in prison on charges related to defrauding a tribe. Archer’s business partner in the effort, Jason Galanis, is already serving time.

“They’ve committed a lot of financial crimes, a lot of crimes, and they need to be held accountable,” Comer said. “Hunter Biden and Jim Biden have been investigated by numerous government agencies for decades and nothing happens but Galanis and Devon Archer are both going to prison.”

While Comer described Hunter Biden as an equal partner in the venture, his attorneys said he was not involved in the scam that led to sentences for Archer and Galanis, though his name was used by the two without his knowledge in brokering the deal. Hunter Biden also said in his deposition that he only briefly met Galanis a decade ago.

“It always happens that way. Someone has to pay the price. It’s always the Biden associate and never the Biden,” Comer said.

But Democrats argued the Justice Department has already thoroughly reviewed the conduct of Hunter Biden and his business associates.

“If they refer Hunter Biden to the Department of Justice for any of the underlying conduct it is entirely duplicative because the Department of Justice did a five-year financial colonoscopy of Hunter Biden to determine whether he violated FARA, whether he did anything wrong or illegal relating to his financial businesses overseas,” Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), a former federal prosecutor, said in referring to the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

“Ultimately, they concluded that they could only charge him with tax fraud as it relates to his financial conduct. And so to the extent that they would refer any of the underlying conduct, it is purely, purely political, because the Department of Justice has already done that investigation,” Goldman said.

Republican leaders have stressed that they have not fully committed to any one plan.

“We’re still looking at all options and what makes sense,” House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told The Hill.

Approaching it cautiously
The idea hasn’t been wholeheartedly endorsed by all who have otherwise championed the impeachment investigation.

Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.), a Judiciary member, stressed the need to approach the matter cautiously.

“Criminal referrals are something that require careful analysis and are not done whimsically or on sort of an extemporaneous, spur of the moment kind of approach,” he told The Hill.

“But they are an important part of oversight — even if you take the historic cases in which criminal referrals have not been acted upon by a Justice Department that is on the same partisan side as some of those who might be referred — because it lays out an historical record. And so I think there are a number of situations that might merit that consideration. At this point in time it’s premature to say anything else.”

Democrats argue Republicans have a “show your work” problem.

“If they get into detail about why they believe that a referral is necessary, they will undermine themselves because there is no evidence,” Goldman said.

“So the only way that they will be able to make a criminal referral is if they do a very generalized referral because once they have to lay out any of the evidence, it will crumble on itself.”

Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.), a former federal prosecutor and member of the Judiciary Committee, said the move would stall due to a lack of evidence for the Justice Department to advance.

“It’s a dead end for them,” he said, adding that the Justice Department would reject it “relatively quickly.”

“I would think the Department of Justice would respond but, I mean, it would be just to dismiss it on its face, because they don’t have anything at all to send over.”

Other Republicans have expressed hesitation about doing the sort of generalized referral Goldman referred to.

“I wouldn’t support general criminal referrals,” Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.), who sponsored the legislation to formally kick off the impeachment inquiry, adding that he believes some of the behavior in question should have required registration as a foreign agent and that, in some cases, “criminal referrals are warranted.”

He also noted that Comer and Jordan are racing a political clock, needing to wrap their work and issue a report on their findings ahead of the election.

“I think all of this stuff is laced with different pitfalls. That’s why you do the report. You make a decision and you stand by it,” he said.

But there are some ways Republicans may be looking beyond the election, especially if their recommendations may be viewed differently by the Justice Department of a potential second Trump administration.

“It’s all part of teeing it up to reopen Hunter’s investigation,” Goldman said, suggesting future prosecution was the rationale behind his lawyers seeking broad criminal immunity under a plea deal that collapsed under judicial review.

“And that is the only reason why that plea agreement fell apart is that Hunter Biden, understandably, insisted on protection, not only from the prosecutors who were doing his case but in the future from Donald Trump, who has demonstrated a willingness to use the Department of Justice as his own investigator and to go after his own political enemies.”

Raskin said referrals aren’t needed because former President Trump has expressed a willingness to politicize the Justice Department if he’s reelected.

“The argument that’s being made for a criminal referral strategy is that if and when — god forbid, a million times — that Donald Trump were to take over the White House again, that at that point, they could order prosecutions of people,” Raskin said.

“Of course, Donald Trump has already said he’s going to weaponize and politicize the Department of Justice to go after his enemies and so it would be consistent with that. He doesn’t need referrals from this committee to do it. It’s much more of a face-saving measure. I mean, they’ve been on this 15-month wild goose chase, and they have found no geese.”


https://www.yahoo.com/news/criminal-referrals-create-headaches-gop-160000146.html