House Votes to Formalize Impeachment Inquiry into Joe Biden

13 Dec 2023

The House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to formalize an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden by a vote of 221 to 212.

The formally adopted status will enable House investigators to enforce subpoenas and gather evidence about whether the president is compromised and “traded official acts for foreign dollars,” according to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).

Republicans unanimously voted to adopt the resolution. In a surprise, Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO), who had been critical of the Republicans’ impeachment focus and earlier indicated he would oppose the resolution, voted with his Republican colleagues to formalize the inquiry.

Democrats voted in a block to oppose the resolution’s adoption.

The White House failed to provide investigators:

• Information about two loan agreements Joe Biden allegedly executed with James Biden for a total of $240,000.
• 99.98 percent of requested records from President Joe Biden, including alias emails.
• Documents about an alleged $5 million bribe Joe Biden accepted.
• Materials related to Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified documents.

Speaker, McCarthy opened an “impeachment inquiry” into the president on September 12, but lawmakers did not vote to approve the measure until Wednesday.

“I don’t see the evidence of it,” Democrat Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) told Semafor about the inquiry, “But yes, when your own son and your own brother are clearly, at the very least unethical and at worst, doing illegal things — my goodness, of course the country pays attention to it.”

“I have a pit in my stomach about it,” a Democrat strategist who worked on Clinton’s 2016 campaign told the Messenger about the chaos surrounding Hunter Biden. “This Hunter story has the legs to ruin things for Biden.”


Hunter Biden during the White House Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn on April 18, 2022. This years event theme, EGGucation, will transform the South Lawn into a school community, full of fun educational activities for children to enjoy in addition to the traditional rolling and hunting eggs. (Photo by Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

The vote occurred hours after a defiant Hunter Biden appeared at the Capitol for a press conference after failing to appear for a subpoenaed closed-door deposition Wednesday. Hunter’s business dealings and his father’s alleged knowledge and involvement will be a focal point for House investigators.

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) and Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) initiated contempt of Congress proceedings against Hunter after his failure to appear.


House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., left, confers with House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, as the Oversight panel holds an organizational meeting for the 118th Congress, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023. Jordan is leading investigative efforts of the Biden administration. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Recent polling shows Americans are highly skeptical of Hunter and Joe Biden:

• ABC News/Ipsos: A plurality of Americans are not confident about how the Justice Department handled the investigation into Hunter Biden.
• Yahoo/YouGov: A majority of voters believe President Joe Biden committed a crime with Hunter Biden.
• TIPP: 63 percent say Joe Biden violated FARA by assisting Hunter Biden in Ukraine deal.

House investigators opened a probe into the Biden family in November 2022. They revealed Joe Biden received money from James and Hunter Biden. They also showed that nine additional Biden family members received payments from the family’s foreign business ventures, including two of Joe Biden’s grandchildren.

More evidence against Joe Biden can be found here and here.

 

Treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republicans don't have any evidence of President Biden crimes. But the Democrats in the House have lots and lots of evidence of Trump and his family's crimes. which we will be seeing soon.

He is this going to be like that great big Red Tsunami of 2022 we heard so much about?

 

The treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republicans and their "impeachment inquiry" aren't looking good this morning.

AP
The Republican leading the probe of Hunter Biden has his own shell company and complicated friends
BRIAN SLODYSKO
Updated Thu, December 14, 2023 at 4:43 AM MST·9 min read
699
TOMPKINSVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Rep. James Comer, a multimillionaire farmer, boasts of being one of the largest landholders near his rural Kentucky hometown, and he has meticulously documented nearly all of his landholdings on congressional financial disclosure documents – roughly 1,600 acres (645 hectares) in all.

But there are 6 acres (2.4 hectares) that he bought in 2015 and co-owns with a longtime campaign contributor that he has treated differently, transferring his ownership to Farm Team Properties, a shell company he co-owns with his wife.

Interviews and records reviewed by The Associated Press provide new insights into the financial deal, which risks undercutting the force of some of Comer’s central arguments in his impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden. For months, the chairman of the House Oversight committee and his Republican colleagues have been pounding Biden, a Democrat, for how his relatives traded on their famous name to secure business deals.


In particular, Comer has attacked some Biden family members, including the president’s son Hunter, over their use of shell companies that appear designed to obscure millions of dollars in earnings they received from shadowy middlemen and foreign interests.

Such companies typically exist only on paper and are formed to hold an asset, like real estate. Their opaque structures are often designed to help hide ownership of property and other assets.

The companies used by the Bidens are already playing a central role in the impeachment investigation, which is expected to gain velocity after House Republicans voted Wednesday to formally authorize the probe. The vote follows the federal indictment last week of Biden’s son Hunter on charges he engaged in a scheme to avoid paying taxes on his earnings through the companies.

But as Comer works to “deliver the transparency and accountability that the American people demand” through the GOP’s investigation, his own finances and relationships have begun to draw notice, too, including his ties to prominent local figures who have complicated pasts not all that dissimilar to some of those caught up in his Biden probe.

Comer declined to comment through a spokesman but has aggressively denied any wrongdoing in establishing a shell company.

After Democrats blasted him for being a hypocrite following the Daily Beast’s disclosure of the company last month, Comer countered by calling a Democratic lawmaker a “smurf” and saying that the criticism was the kind of thing “only dumb, financially illiterate people pick up on.”

The AP found that Farm Team Properties functions in a similarly opaque way as the companies used by the Bidens, masking his stake in the land that he co-owns with the donor from being revealed on his financial disclosure forms. Those records describe Farm Team Properties as his wife's “land management and real estate speculation” company without providing further details.

It’s not clear why Comer decided to put those six acres in a shell company, or what other assets Farm Team Properties may hold. On his most recent financial disclosure forms, Comer lists its value as being as much as $1 million, a substantial sum but a fraction of his overall wealth.

Ethics experts say House rules require members of Congress to disclose all assets held by such companies that are worth more than $1,000.

“It seems pretty clear to me that he should be disclosing the individual land assets that are held by” the shell company, said Delaney Marsco, a senior attorney who specializes in congressional ethics at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center in Washington.

Marsco and other experts were perplexed as to why Comer would place such assets in a shell company, especially since he disclosed his other holdings and does not appear to have taken other efforts to hide his wealth.

“This is actually a real problem that anti-corruption activists would love to get legislative reform on,” said Kathleen Clark, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis who specializes in government ethics. “It is hard to trace assets held in shell companies. His is a good example.”

Comer created the company in 2017 to hold his stake in the six acres that he purchased two years earlier in a joint venture with Darren Cleary, a major campaign contributor and construction contractor from Monroe County, Kentucky, where the congressman was born and raised.

It’s not clear how Comer came to invest with Cleary, who did not respond to an interview request. They have offered mutual praise for each other over the years, including Comer having called Cleary “my friend” and “the epitome of a successful businessperson” from the House floor.

Cleary, his businesses and family have donated roughly $70,000 to Comer’s various campaigns, records show. He has also lauded Comer on social media for “For Fighting For Us Everyday” and has posted photos of the two on a golf course together.

At the time he and Comer entered their venture, Cleary was selling an acre of his family's land to Kentucky so it could build a highway bypass near Tompkinsville, which was completed in 2020. He sold Comer a 50% stake for $128,000 in six acres he owned that would end up being adjacent to the highway.

Comer, a powerful political figure in this rural part of Kentucky, announced his bid for Congress days after purchasing the land.

Marketing materials described the land as “choice” property and play up its proximity to the bypass. The partnership sold off about an acre last year for $150,000, a substantial increase over its value when purchased, property records show.

Farm Team Properties has also become more valuable. On Comer’s financial disclosure forms, it has risen in value from between $50,000 and $100,000 in 2016 to between $500,001 and $1 million in 2022, records show.

As House Oversight Committee chairman, Comer has presented himself as a bipartisan ethics crusader only interested in uncovering the truth. As evidence, he has pointed to a long career as a state legislator and official who sought to build bridges with Democrats and to “clean up scandal, restore confidence, and crack down on waste, fraud, and abuse.”

Interviews with allies, critics and constituents, however, reveal a fierce partisan who has ignored wrongdoing by friends and supporters if they can help him advance in business and politics.

“The Jamie Comer I knew was light and sunshine and looking for common ground. Now he’s Nixonian,” said Adam Edelen, a former Democratic state auditor and friend, comparing the lawmaker to a disgraced former president who resigned from office amid the Watergate scandal.

In Comer’s telling, he is a man of self-made wealth who founded his first farm while still enrolled at Western Kentucky University and shrewdly invested in land.

After graduating in 1993, Comer got into the insurance business with Billy D. Poston, a family friend.

The two later had a falling out. When poor health prevented Polston from running for reelection as a state representative in 2000, Comer, then 27, took on Polston’s wife in the GOP primary, winning that race and the general election. For years, Comer took credit in interviews for defeating the 'incumbent.”

Comer cut his teeth in the bare-knuckled machine politics of Monroe County, Kentucky, and knew how to win allies, according to those who knew him.

When he was barely out of high school, Comer was writing campaign checks to state politicians, including a $4,000 contribution to a Republican candidate for governor in 1990, followed by another check in 1991 for $1,050, according to campaign finance disclosures published in local news stories. Both contributions listed Comer’s occupation as “student.”

Comer followed in the footsteps of his paternal grandfather, Harlin Comer, who was a leading figure in local Republican politics, as well as a construction contractor and bank officer.

When Harlin Comer died in 1993, the 21-year-old Comer took over as chairman of the Monroe County GOP. A wave of indictments against local Republican office holders, some of whom helped launch Comer’s political career and became close friends, soon followed.

Mitchell Page and Larry Pitcock were among those charged in the sweep. Page, then the county’s chief executive, and Pitcock, the former county clerk, were sentenced in 1996 to 18 months in prison for tampering with a state computer database so that they and their families could avoid paying vehicle taxes.

Rather than turning on Pitcock and Page, Comer has remained close to the men. He praised Page on the House floor in 2020 for his “principled leadership.”

Page did not respond to a request for comment. Pitcock could not be reached at phone numbers listed to him.

Pitcock and his family members have donated about $9,000 to Comer’s political campaigns and held one of Comer’s first fundraisers when he ran to become state agriculture commissioner, records show. Comer dismissed questions about the propriety of having Pitcock sponsor a fundraiser for him, noting to CN2 News that it helped him raise nearly $60,000.

Comer eventually hired Pitcock’s son to work for him in the agriculture commissioner’s office, records show. Members of the Pitcock family have since attended a House Republican fundraiser with Comer in Washington and posed for photographs with him inside the U.S. Capitol.

In 2011, a voter fraud case roiled local politics and swept up Billy Proffitt, Comer’s longtime friend and former college roommate. Proffitt pleaded guilty in December 2011 and was sentenced to probation.

A few years later, Proffitt came to Comer’s defense from allegations that nearly derailed the future congressman's political career. During the 2015 Republican primary for governor, a local blogger began posting about accusations that Comer had abused a college girlfriend.

Comer vehemently denied the allegations. And in the hopes of discrediting the stories, he leaked emails to a local paper that suggested a rival campaign had been coordinating the coverage with the blogger, according to The New York Times. The leak allegation may have discredited the other candidate, Hal Heiner, but ended up hurting Comer’s campaign.

The coverage angered the former girlfriend, who wrote a letter to the Louisville Courier-Journal in which she asserted that Comer had hit her and that their relationship had been “toxic.” She also told the newspaper that Comer became “enraged” in 1991 after he learned she had used his name on a form she submitted before receiving an abortion at a Louisville clinic.

Proffitt, however, told the newspaper that he had never seen Comer be abusive toward Thomas.

“That doesn’t sound like Jamie at all,” said Proffitt, using Comer’s nickname, adding that he had never heard about the allegations of Thomas getting an abortion.

Comer ended up losing the primary by 83 votes to Matt Bevin, who went on to win the general election. It was the only campaign that Comer has lost.

The lawmaker and Proffitt remain close friends and business associates.

Profitt’s family’s real estate company is spearheading the efforts to sell the land held by Farm Team Properties.

In a brief interview, Proffitt called the focus on Comer’s shell company “much ado about nothing,” adding that the lawmaker “is a loyal friend and a good man who comes from a really, really good family.”



https://www.yahoo.com/news/republican-leading-probe-hunter-biden-050519940.html

 

Impeachment claims pulled apart one by one in scathing takedown by WaPo columnist

Sky Palma
December 14, 2023 3:38PM ET



Rep. James Comer, R-Ky (Mandel Ngan / AFP )


As Republicans ramp up efforts to have Joe Biden impeached, Republican lawmakers don't have much to offer when they're pressed to provide the evidence for what Biden allegedly did, according to The Washington Post's Philip Bump.

So what is their much-hyped evidence pointing at? Asked that question, lawmakers’ answers varied dramatically, which is what happens when you ask a novice fisherman what he hopes to catch, the columnist wrote.

Bump's cites the recent appearance of Florida GOP Rep. Byron Donalds on CNN, where he said that Biden “there’s plenty of proof” of Biden wrongdoing involving “bribery, co-conspirator to [Foreign Agents Registration Act] violations — and we can go on and on.”

But, Bump pointed out, he did not go on.

Also read: Liz Cheney trashed for denouncing Trump supporters — after she supported him

Bump then goes on to reference other comments to media made by Republicans, particularly House Oversight Committee James Comer (R-KY), and pulled them apart with fact-checking.

Among them were accusations of the amount of money the Biden family has illegally "taken in," their allegedly shady business practices and accusations that the president is "compromised."

"No evidence about Joe Biden’s unacceptable actions but, instead, that Joe Biden is somehow linked to a seedy universe of criminality — a link and a universe they’re still struggling to manifest," Bump said.

Read Bump's full fact-check over at The Washington Post.



https://www.rawstory.com/impeachment-2666593499/

 

As I have been saying President Biden and the Democrats learned their lessons from the Benghazi days when they wrongly assumed the American people could see through their politically motivated sham investigation. So they tried to stay above the fray. And all that did was let the treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republicans set the narrative and drag Hillary Clinton down with their lies in 30 second bites which is what most Americans see.

So this time President Biden and the Democrats are ready willing and able to fight back. Just like this. I saw it on three different channels last night including on a major network.

You say the Biden family has 20 shell companies which means he must be corrupt. Really?? Then what about this since Trump is already a proven fraud?


What Trump's disclosure of his 500 LLCs can and can't tell us
What Trump's disclosure of his 500 LLCs can and can't tell us about his income and his businesses.

President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York, on Jan. 11, 2017.Evan Vucci / AP file


May 16, 2018, 1:06 PM MDT / Updated May 16, 2018, 1:06 PM MDT
By Ben Popken
President Donald Trump's latest financial disclosure includes details on the 500 or so limited liability companies (LLCs) he owns, and their revenue. But what exactly is an LLC, and does disclosing these numbers provide more — or less — information about Trump's businesses?

An LLC is a type of company structure with two special properties, explained Gene Marks, a certified public accountant. First, income can "pass through" the LLC to the owner's individual tax returns, which means that business gets taxed at the individual's personal income tax rate, which in many cases could be lower. Second, if the company goes out of business, the partners' losses are generally limited to what they invested. If the partnership is sued, in most cases a plaintiff can't come after the partners' individual assets.


Trump uses a bevy of LLCs to house and manage his assets, as many wealthy individuals and businesses do, particularly in real estate. The Mar-a-Lago resort is owned by Trump under an LLC structure. So are his golf courses, licensing deals, one of his helicopters, and some of his bank accounts.


But reviewing a spreadsheet of the names and income streams of Trump's LLCs doesn't actually shine much light on the president's overall financial situation because we don't get to see how much actually ended up in his bank account at the end of the day.

"If he's not using his personal income tax returns," said Marks, "We're never going to know how much he's making or not making."

More than half of the LLCs that Trump reported to the Federal Election Commission were also registered in Delaware, which doesn't require LLCs to publish any financial information or disclose the owner's identity, as The Guardian reported in 2016. Registering an LLC in Delaware isn't itself unusual; many Fortune 500 companies do so.

A 2015 report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a non-profit, non-partisan, tax policy think tank, said Delaware’s tax code made it “a magnet for people looking to create anonymous shell companies, which individuals and corporations can use to evade an inestimable amount in federal and foreign taxes.”

Releasing just the list of LLCs also withholds other vital information, tax attorney Steve Moskowitz told NBC News: Without Trump's tax returns, we don't know which foreign assets or bank accounts he owns or where they're located. We don't know how much foreign tax he has paid and to which countries. We can't verify which charities he's funding. And without his taxes we can't calculate how much he may have saved on pass-through entity income as a result of the new tax law he signed in December.

"The disclosure lacks any specifics," said Moskowitz.



https://www.nbcnews.com/business/taxes/what-trump-s-disclosure-his-500-llcs-can-can-t-n874391

 

GOP senator says Biden can’t be impeached for pre-presidential actions
Alexander Bolton
Fri, December 15, 2023 at 10:23 AM MST·2 min read
3.7k

Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) is warning House Republicans that President Biden could not be impeached and removed from office for any conduct or crimes committed before he was elected president in 2020.

Mullin’s statement in an interview with Newsmax pours cold water on a House GOP investigation into Biden’s family’s business dealings, particularly Hunter Biden’s work with foreign companies, while Biden was vice president during the Obama administration and immediately after.

He warned that any high crime or misdemeanor that may serve as the basis for articles of impeachment “has to be committed while he was in office, the current office he holds.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/gop-senator-says-biden-t-172306141.html

 

House Republicans warned they've trapped themselves by pursuing Biden impeachment

Tom Boggioni
December 17, 2023 8:47AM ET



Reps. James Comer and Jim Jordan (Comer photo by Tom Williams/AFP, Jordan photo by Mandel Ngan/AFP)


According to former Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA), the current Republican House leadership has made a critical mistake by giving the go-ahead to an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden that will likely end badly for them.

In a column for MSNBC, the former Republican lawmaker said he sees no legitimate case to hold impeachment hearings, there is no indication that every House Republican will vote to send it to the Senate and there is no way he sees the Democratic-controlled Senate allow it to succeed.

According to Dent, the House GOP caucus is now caught in a trap of its own making with no way to call it off without looking ridiculous.

After writing, "thus far, the GOP has failed to prove its case,' he added, "the GOP has launched its rocket, and there will be no recalling it. House Republicans will at least have to attempt to impeach. And that attempt will likely drag this whole process out into the primary — and Trump trial season — further muddying the political waters."

According to Dent, there is no guarantee every House Republican will "see this through," while adding that, with a slim majority, "there is no margin for error."


Pointing out that some members of the GOP caucus may not vote for impeachment, he added, "Would Johnson ask his members to vote for an impeachment resolution that might not pass the House? Even if a resolution did pass the House, the Senate will never convict with these facts (we hope)."

"That means, ultimately, GOP members representing Biden-won districts are most likely to determine the final outcome of impeachment. Right now, it’s hard to imagine any scenario where impeachment works to their benefit," he added.

You can read more here.



https://www.rawstory.com/gop-biden-impeachment-2666615002/

 

Graham says Biden impeachment inquiry narrative ‘falling apart’
by Miranda Nazzaro - 12/17/23 11:44 AM ET

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Greg Nash
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) discusses subpoenas relating to an ethics investigation of the Supreme Court during a Senate Judiciary Committee business meeting on Thursday, November 30, 2023.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Sunday said he believes the “narrative” at the center of the House’s impeachment inquiry into President Biden is “falling apart,” arguing if there was a “smoking gun” in the inquiry, there would be more clear discussions.

“If there were a smoking gun, I think we’d be talking about it,” Graham said on NBC News’s “Meet The Press.”


“But … the narrative that Hunter Biden presented is falling part. The idea that Joe Biden knew nothing about the business dealings is falling apart. I’m not worried about impeaching the president right now,” Graham continued, adding he is more concerned with the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

Graham noted he hasn’t “really been paying that much attention” to the House’s investigation into Biden and his family’s foreign business dealings.

“They have to prove that President Biden somehow financially benefited from the business enterprises of Hunter Biden. We’ll see,” the senator said.

The House last week formalized its impeachment inquiry into Biden with a 221-212 vote along party lines to approve a resolution authorizing the inquiry.

The vote came after months of investigations led by House GOP members into widely disputed allegations that Biden improperly benefited from or used policy to benefit the foreign business dealings of family members, most notably his son Hunter Biden. House Republicans are also looking into accusations that the Department of Justice slow-walked a tax crimes probe into Hunter Biden, who was indicted on charges of evading taxes on foreign business earnings.

Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in September asserted the various GOP probes into Biden would fall under the umbrella of impeachment, but he did not hold a formal vote at the time.


Last week’s vote came just hours after the president’s son made a brief appearance at the Capitol, where he gave a public statement railing against House Republicans instead of appearing for a scheduled deposition for a subpoena from House Republicans.

Hunter Biden said last week he sought to testify in a public setting, while Republicans are seeking a closed-door deposition instead. The White House has embarked on a campaign of attacking the impeachment inquiry, which it maintains is a “political stunt.”



https://thehill.com/homenews/senate...-impeachment-inquiry-narrative-falling-apart/

 

And another one bites the dust,.



Witness in House GOP impeachment inquiry says no evidence Joe Biden involved in family business dealings
Ken Tran, USA TODAY
Updated Tue, December 19, 2023 at 7:24 PM MST·3 min read
550

• 
  

WASHINGTON – Republican investigators leading the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden interviewed another witness on Monday as they hunt for evidence showing the president financially benefited from his family’s business dealings.

The committee on Monday interviewed Carol Fox, a trustee for Americore, a now bankrupt healthcare company. She was asked about her knowledge of the president’s brother, James Biden, and a $600,000 loan Americore gave to James Biden.

Fox, according to three sources with direct knowledge of the interview, said she possessed no knowledge that the president was directly involved in those dealings.

The transcribed interview, which happened behind closed-doors, took place in Boca Raton, Florida, according to one of the sources.

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, sent a letter to Fox in early November, requesting her testimony about James Biden and his business associate Michael Lewitt’s business dealings with Americore and the $600,000 loan.

Americore gave James Biden the loan, which is at the heart of Fox’s testimony, after he made a promise to the financially struggling company that he could secure funding from the Middle East by leveraging his family name.

Fox identified no services James Biden ever provided to Americore, according to a source familiar with the investigation, who also noted that investigators were already aware Fox, who was a bankruptcy trustee, would not know anything about the president.

After James Biden didn't follow through on that promise, Fox filed a lawsuit against him and alleged he "could 'open doors' and that he could obtain a large investment from the Middle East based on his political connections. The two parties eventually agreed on a $350,000 settlement.

"The Committees' objective with witnesses related to Americore has been to show that the Bidens contribute nothing but fraud. Carol Fox testified to just that," a spokesperson for the Oversight Committee said.

A part of the $600,000 loan that GOP investigators have zeroed in on was a $200,000 loan Americore deposited in the personal bank accounts of James Biden and his wife, Sara Biden, on March 1, 2018. On that same day, James Biden issued a check to the president of $200,000 noted as a “loan repayment.”

Fox, according to another source familiar with the investigation, had no role in tracking the money to subsequent transferors, in this case, Joe Biden in 2018.


Flanked by, L-R, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA), Rep. James Comer (R-KY) speaks during a news conference with House Republican leadership at the U.S. Capitol November 29, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Bank records previously reviewed by USA TODAY suggest that the payment was indeed a loan repayment. On Jan. 12, 2018, the president made a wire transfer of $200,000 to James Biden through a bank account maintained by his personal attorney.

Comer has contended that the president should provide additional documentation about the payment. He has scoffed at the suggestion it was for a loan repayment and argued the money’s dubious origins already implicate Biden in his family’s business dealings.

Fox’s testimony, which did not provide evidence implicating the president in his brother’s business ventures, follows a pattern from the probe which has failed to produce evidence directly establishing a link between Joe Biden and his family.

For instance, Devon Archer, a longtime business associate of one of the president’s sons, Hunter Biden testified under oath to the House Oversight Committee in August in a closed-door meeting that lasted more than five hours. In that meeting, Archer told investigators he never heard the president discuss business with his son.

While Hunter Biden would at times call his father and put him on speakerphone in business conversations, Archer told the committee that the president only exchanged pleasantries on the phone.

In another instance, in the House Oversight Committee’s first hearing – and so far the only open hearing on the matter – to justify the impeachment inquiry, Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law professor at George Washington University testified that while he believed the inquiry was justified, he saw no evidence to support drafting articles of impeachment.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/witness-house-gop-impeachment-inquiry-010704456.html

 

James Biden Caught on FBI Tapes


Rick Friedman/Corbis via Getty Images
19 Dec 2023


The FBI is in possession of tapes that captured James Biden negotiating business ventures involving Joe Biden, according to a report in the Washington Post, which initially failed to authenticate the “Laptop from Hell” for 532 days.

The tapes reveal how members of the Biden family worked to rake in millions of dollars while Joe Biden, referenced as the “Big Guy” by at least five Biden associates, held federal office, according to the House Oversight Committee:

• The Biden business earned $24 million dollars between 2015 and 2019.
• The business used more than 20 shell companies.
• Associates sold the “Biden brand.”

James Biden, who received a subpoena to appear before a House impeachment inquiry, controls Lion Hall Group, an entity that investigators suspect of wrongdoing. According to the Post, many of James Biden’s business ventures operated via the Lion Hall Group, including some negotiations caught on tape by the FBI.

Richard “Dickie” Scruggs, a Mississippi trial attorney, tried to use James Biden’s influence with Joe Biden to close a deal that forced “tobacco companies to pay billions of dollars,” the Post reported.

The Post also told readers their story does not prove Joe Biden “knew” about the “alleged money trail” or did anything wrong:

The deal with Lion Hall also illuminates the Bidens’ decades-long relationship with Scruggs, once one of the country’s most powerful trial lawyers, who made his fortune taking on corporate interests and making friends in politics. Scruggs took James Biden on a boat trip while discussing a potential partnership on asbestos lawsuits; flew Joe Biden on his private plane to a fundraiser; and met with Biden family members at a University of Mississippi football game, Scruggs and his associates said in interviews.

But James and Sara Biden’s ties to Scruggs also later brought them to the periphery of a sweeping federal investigation, one that eventually led to the trial lawyer’s epic downfall in 2008 over a bribery scheme.

As FBI agents circled in on Scruggs and his associates over a plan to deliver $40,000 in bribes to a local judge, they also secretly recorded conversations with James Biden — who, at the same time, was trying to create a consulting firm with the Scruggs partners. Neither James Biden nor his brother was charged or accused of wrongdoing in the case, which led to prison for Scruggs and several of his associates, including James Biden’s would-be partners.

House investigators opened a probe into the Biden family in November 2022.

They revealed Joe Biden received money from James and Hunter Biden. They also showed that nine additional Biden family members received payments from the family’s foreign business ventures, including two of Joe Biden’s grandchildren.

 

The treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republicans are going to get slaughtered with their impeachment scam. The standard in this country is proof beyond reasonable doubt. And they have no proof of President Biden doing anything wrong at all. And probably what is most significant is how easily their lies are exposed.



Assessing 6 Claims by the GOP in the Biden Impeachment Inquiry
Luke Broadwater
Fri, December 22, 2023 at 6:15 AM MST·7 min read
19



President Joe Biden speaks to the press as he departs Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport, Dec. 20, 2023. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times)

• 
  

WASHINGTON — As they search for evidence they can use to impeach President Joe Biden, House Republicans have repeatedly pointed to evidence that they say undercuts his claims that he never had anything to do with the foreign business dealings of his son, Hunter.

As vice president, for example, Biden did briefly meet with some of his son’s business associates, although there is no testimony that he had any substantive discussions with them or that he changed government policy to benefit any of his son’s ventures.

Still, Republicans have continued to mine voluminous records related to the younger Biden, including a trove of messages from a computer hard drive, to try to make a case that his income from abroad was at the heart of an influence-peddling operation that enriched the entire Biden family, including his father.




Republicans have used quotes culled from text messages or emails to add a confessional quality to their presentations — evidence, they say, that Hunter Biden was essentially admitting that he and his father were engaged in political corruption.

But an examination of some of the highest-profile examples cited by Republicans shows that they have been taken out of context, or that Republicans have omitted key messages in email or text chains that often cast the communications in a more innocuous light.

‘Half your salary’

In one example, Republicans point to a 2019 text message Hunter Biden sent to his daughter in which, they say, he confesses to sharing half of the millions he received from overseas business deals with his father.

“I Hope you all can do what I did and pay for everything for this entire family Fro 30 years,” he wrote in the typo-filled message. “It’s really hard. But don’t worry unlike Pop I won’t make you give me half your salary.”

Rather than referring to money Hunter Biden received from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma or from a venture with a Chinese partner, Hunter Biden was alluding to his financial support for his own children and his school days, when his father allowed him to keep half the paycheck from part-time jobs but asked that he turn over the other half to help pay for room and board, according to a review of Hunter Biden’s messages and interviews by The New York Times.

‘10% for the big guy’

The phrase “10% for the big guy” is almost ubiquitous in Republican circles, stemming from the accusation that Hunter Biden gave his father a 10% stake in his business deals.

It originates from a 2017 email sent by James Gilliar, a business associate of Hunter Biden’s, who proposed including the “big guy” — presumably Joe Biden, the former vice president — in a business venture under the name Oneida Holdings.

“10 held by H for the big guy?,” Gilliar wrote.

But he told The Wall Street Journal in 2020 that his suggestion never went anywhere. The former vice president did not get involved with their business, and the proposed deal never produced any profit for anyone to split.

“I would like to clear up any speculation that former Vice President Biden was involved with the 2017 discussions about our potential business structure,” Gilliar said in 2020. “I am unaware of any involvement at any time of the former vice president. The activity in question never delivered any project revenue.”

In an interview with the FBI, Rob Walker, Hunter Biden’s former business partner, described suggestions of getting Hunter’s father involved with the business as “wishful thinking.” He stated he “certainly never was thinking at any time that the VP was a part of anything we were doing.”

‘I can work with you father alone !!’

Another message Republicans have highlighted is a 2018 text sent from James Biden, the president’s brother, to Hunter Biden, who at the time was in the throes of addiction to alcohol and crack cocaine: “I can work with you father alone !! We as usual just need several months of his help for this to work.”

At a House Oversight Committee hearing, Republican lawmakers implied this message was in reference to business dealings, but another text in the chain makes clear James Biden was referring to working with Joe Biden to get help for Hunter Biden as he struggled to keep up with his bills, get sober and find a place to live.

Concerns of a bank investigator

Republicans have also drawn attention to the concerns of a bank investigator about Hunter Biden’s business activities, which involved securing millions of dollars from a Chinese firm in exchange for work the investigator flagged as potentially nonexistent.

“The activity on the account appears unusual with no current business purpose,” the investigator wrote.

But Republicans omitted other emails in the chain that were later released by Democrats on the Oversight Committee. They show a robust debate inside the bank about the legitimacy of the business activity. One response described the activity connected to Hunter Biden’s account as “reasonable and consistent with the business profile.”

$240,000 to Joe Biden

Despite assertions that anywhere from 10% to half of the money from Hunter Biden’s business deals went to his father, Republicans have failed thus far to show any profit for the current president.

They have documented three instances in which family members paid money to Joe Biden — while he was not in office — but they have often omitted the context that the exchanges were loan repayments, not a cut of income.

Rather than showing Joe Biden was enriched by his family’s foreign business dealings, the documents released by House Republicans so far have showed the opposite.

After leaving the vice presidency, Joe Biden made more than $15 million, mostly through speaking engagements and book sales, some of which went to support his extended family.

By contrast, Hunter Biden spent much of his money on alcohol, drugs, prostitutes, fancy cars and other self-indulgent expenses, and failed to pay his taxes on time, resulting in his federal indictment this month on tax charges.

James Biden also found himself from time to time in need of a loan. According to House Republicans, at one point, James Biden had just $46 in a personal account.

House Republicans have pointed to two payments — one for $200,000 and another for $40,000 — that James Biden made to Joe Biden while he was not in office. They have characterized the $40,000 check as “laundered China money.” But they did not note evidence showing Joe Biden had first lent money to his brother before being repaid.

The House Oversight Committee has also released documents that showed that one of Hunter Biden’s businesses, Owasco PC, made three payments of $1,380 to Joe Biden in 2018. But other documents indicate the money was to pay back his father for helping to cover the cost of a Ford truck.

‘I am sitting here with my father’

One WhatsApp message that has received much attention was provided by an IRS investigator who testified before Congress under whistleblower protections. In it, Hunter Biden invoked his father, who was then out of office, while pressing a potential Chinese business partner in 2017 to move ahead with a proposed energy deal.

“I am sitting here with my father and we would like to know why the commitment has not been fulfilled,” the message states. On its face, the message seemed to suggest Joe Biden was in league with his son pressuring for a payment to the family.

But Democrats have argued it is more likely an example of Hunter Biden’s bluster than an accurate statement of Joe Biden’s involvement in a shakedown. A lawyer for Hunter Biden says he does not remember sending the message.

Joe Biden has denied he was present at the time.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/assessing-6-claims-gop-biden-131520220.html

 

Oh the irony.
Here we see the despicables claiming that those vermin deplorables have taken e mails out of context, hidden exculpatory evidence, and even claimed that if there was any wrong doing, it was while Joe wasn't a government employee.
Huh.
So does that mean they're going to open up the secret vault and let us see ALL of the January 6 evidence they collected?
No?
Magine that.

"The standard in this country is proof beyond reasonable doubt."
As declared by american hater from his perch on the high moral ground
​

But not if your name is Trump. If your name is Trump you can be dragged into court cases attacking your character and reputation, alleging that at some point many years ago you groped and sexually assaulted a poor little woman who, decades after the fact, decides to write a book and needs publicity, so who better than to accuse but the President? And we don't need no dates, or times, or evidence beyond her say so, and if that rascal Trump dares to defend himself why we'll just add a defamation charge to it.

Or we'll pay foreign agents to write up a bunch of allegations and insinuations that have no basis in fact or proof, and we'll slip it under the door of the FBI and they'll use it to spy on Trump and even to try and impeach his ass. Fuck the man's reputation, he's a pussy grabbing pompous gas bag (siddown Clinton, you got nothing to add here) and we are morally OUTRAGED and will destroy the fucker no matter what it takes.

Or we'll threaten to shut down the business empire he's built over his life by claiming fraud. No matter that there isn't a victim, no one is complaining but a politically motivated persecutor and a clearly biased judge who should not be anywhere near the case, and the worst that can be said is Trump thinks his name is worth BILLIONS.

And we can always pull in a senate investigation to interrogate people in secret, gather evidence, in fact SIEZE evidence, pick what we want out of the piles, create a professional circus show out of our edited "evidence", lock all the rest away for 50 years, or destroy it, and claim it proves the man tried to lead an insurrection and overthrow the government so he could be GOD.

And we can raid his home with storm troopers at dawn and seize his presidential records and GODDAM!! LOOKIT!! TOP SECRET SHIT!! NOW WE GOT THE FUCKER!! *Ignore that little man over in the corner pointing out that every president since Truman has left office with TOP SECRET SHIT and/or DESTROYED inconvenient records that would be embarrassing if disclosed. Including Biden.

And if all else fails, cause we know we can't beat the fucker in a legitimate election, why we'll just keep him off the ballots by declaring he's guilty of insurrection without a trial and viola! No Trump on the ballot.

Or what the hell. We'll just push a bunch of propaganda out that links Trump to Hitler, and Nazi's and Facism. Fuck him. The pussy grabbing pompous gas bag fucked with the wrong people, he isn't likeable at all, and we will destroy him for his arrogance.

Why, we'll just initiate 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44 investigations until we get something to stick.

One does not fuck with Hillary Clinton or despicables, eh?

Proof beyond a reasonable doubt is indeed the standard this country has stood by for centuries.
But not when your name is Trump.

 

Now be careful Odi.
If you piss off the forum propaganda slingers they'll challenge you to "debate" them.
If you refuse they will attack your reputation.
If you accept they'll drag you down to their level and beat you into the mud with their experience at propaganda.

 

People who can't and/or won't back up what they say are in fact and in deed cowards. And far from any actual debate treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republicans won't even answer simple straightforward questions.


And yes even an impeachment requires proof beyond reasonable doubt. And the treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republicans in the House don't even have ANY proof of President Biden committing high crimes and misdemeanors. And all their "investigations" are is serious doubt.




I've said this before. The treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republicans are too stupid and ignorant (two different things) to make the move from screaming lies into the right wing false propaganda noise machine echo chamber into a formal investigation. Their lies work in the right wing false propaganda noise machine because they are screaming them to blind brainwashed parrots that suspend all disbelief and don't question them.

But that does not work in Congressional hearings where the Democrats get equal time to expose their lies, false propaganda, and psychological projection. And their lies especially don't stand up in something as serious as trying to impeach a president where the media is going to carefully examine every claim. And when those claims are carefully examined they just crumble.



GOP’s supposed smoking gun in Biden impeachment inquiry revealed to be a dud

Carl Gibson, AlterNet
December 23, 2023 10:51AM 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)


House Republicans have been criticized for authorizing an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden with no evidence of the "high crimes and misdemeanors" that typically merit the process. A recent New York Times report has now revealed that one of their chief pieces of evidence doesn't pass muster when analyzing it in its proper context.

While questioning a forensic accountant in September, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Florida) alleged that a text message from Hunter Biden to his daughter, Naomi alluding to giving half of his salary to his father constituted "a potential money laundering operation or potential pay-for-play operation." hinting at illegal "money going from son to father."

“I Hope you all can do what I did and pay for everything for this entire family Fro[sic] 30 years,” Hunter wrote to his daughter in the January 2019 text message. “It’s really hard. But don’t worry unlike Pop I won’t make you give me half your salary.”

The New York Times' Adam Entous delved into the history that led to the text, which Hunter Biden sent while he was in the throes of addiction to alcohol and crack cocaine. At the time, the Bidens were on vacation at a ski resort in Wyoming, when Naomi's younger sister Finnegan texted her that she had injured herself in a skiing accident. While Finnegan's mother, Kathleen Buhle — who divorced Hunter in 2017 — wanted her to receive treatment for her broken tibia in Washington, DC, where she lived, her father wanted her to be treated by a New York-based orthopedic surgeon recommended to Hunter by the doctor handling his drug rehabilitation treatment. Finnegan ultimately chose to go to DC, which angered Hunter and prompted him to send that text in a drug-fueled rage.


Hunter Biden's reference to giving his father half his salary stems from his time as a college student at Georgetown University in DC, where his freshman year roommate Ted Dziak recalled to the Times that Hunter frequently worked odd jobs even though his father had been a US senator for more than a decade at the time. Dziak said Hunter referenced "a million times" that his father said he could "keep half of the paycheck" from his jobs but "hand over the other half for 'room and board.'"

The Times reported that Hunter Biden frequently invoked that story when his daughters attended Sidwell Friends — a tony private school whose students typically come from wealthy families — and worried that his children were becoming spoiled. Naomi Biden told the Times that during her senior year at the University of Pennsylvania, her father encouraged her to get a job at a local Greek restaurant in order to be more self-sufficient.

"He said, 'now that you’re working, I’m taking away your allowance,’” Naomi said. "And I just thought that was the craziest concept that I'd ever heard. So I'm doing this good thing and you’re taking away my allowance? I was so mad at him, so angry, and I specifically remember him in that instance saying, 'when I was in college, I worked every single day, and I even had to give Pop half the money because he was paying for my college education.'"

"I don’t necessarily believe that he gave my Pop half," she added. "It's the classic parent saying, 'you don’t know what it was like for me when I was growing up. I just had it so much harder than you.' Throughout childhood, we would hear that a lot.”

Click here to read the Times' full report.



https://www.rawstory.com/gops-suppo...ment-inquiry-revealed-to-be-a-dud-2666794114/

 

If you look above at the genius' last post...he's arguing with himself and defending himself.

 

Well if you put me within 1 mile of Biden with my Barrett 50 caliber with my armor piercing rounds I'll end the situation