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Tonight on the Bidens…
The choir of panic in the background singing, “Russian disinformation! Disinformation! Disinformation!” is trying to drown out what Rob Long should be developing as a new sitcom, “All in the Biden Family.”
Highlights from Ebony Bowden, Tamar Lapin, and Bruce Golding in the New York Post:
A failed Hunter Biden business venture — which an ex-partner said involved Joe Biden — targeted “key domestic contacts” including Gov. Cuomo for potential projects across the country, documents reveal.
A May 15, 2017, memo naming potential contacts was sent by Joe Biden’s brother Jim to his nephew and three other men who all formed a limited liability company to partner with another firm on “global and/or domestic” projects involving “infrastructure, energy, financial services and other strategic sectors,” the documents show.
The other company was backed by a since-vanished Chinese energy tycoon and was to “be primarily responsible for arranging financing and execution” of the projects, according to the documents released by Tony Bobulinksi, who was CEO of the joint venture.
Then there is some dry stuff about matching up with different government initiatives that represent lucrative opportunities, mentioning Democratic governors, EU officials, heads of foreign states, and then there is this gem:
In response to the memos, Hunter Biden e-mailed the other partners the next day and expressed concern “that these lists of contacts and strengths are going to come back to haunt us.”
Hunter Biden suggested the lists “could easily serve . . . as the foundation for the divvying up of territory both geographically and commercially” by their partner in the joint venture.
“I may be paranoid but having worked in. [sic] The lobbying industry for years these attempts to create focus at the outset always and I mean always ended in disaster,” the e-mail says. [emphasis mine]
“We should be thinking what we want to focus on and not who knows who as direction for focus in my opinion.”
The memos and e-mails are among more than 900 documents Bobulinski made public this week and outline plans for a company called Oneida Holdings to provide consulting services to a company called Hudson West IV.
The documents show Hudson West IV was controlled by Ye Jianming, then chair of CEFC China Energy Co., and “Director Zang,” an apparent reference to CEFC’s executive director, Zang Jian Jun.
Ye disappeared after being taken into custody by Chinese authorities in early 2018, and CEFC, which was China’s largest private energy company, went bankrupt this year, according to reports.
Alas, the China side of the deal collapsed spectacularly leaving little in the way of a smoking gun with jury proof quid pro quo, but there are a few thousand more emails to sift through. I’m thinking Putin’s guys would have written even juicier and provided a tantalizing prospect of meat at the end rather than a case of conspiratus interruptus.
Published in Politics
The only Russian disinformation that the Democrats haven’t recognized yet is that which Hillary Clinton paid Christopher Steele for. That stuff was so poorly conceived that it wasn’t the product of an intelligence service. It was concocted by a collection of vodka-fueled Russians in a Moscow bar.
If this happened after Joe Biden left office, how would he use any influence of office unduly?
First off, notice that Hunter is searching for connections not operating an ongoing one. The minute Joe Biden is out of office, Hunter is reduced to drumming up business again because of the very point you mention. Just like the Clinton Foundation tanked the day after Hillary lost the 2016 election, losing tens of millions of dollars of pledges from NGOs and foreign governments.
Biden, Inc. wants to crank that spigot back up, and they have in mind connecting Chinese money to their friends and governors to rebuild their influence network and generate some revenue. These are not new skills he is applying. As he says in the note quoted by the article, he has done a lot of this. When the influence drops the network needs to be rebuilt starting at a much lower level. Crank it up to a high enough level and you might even find yourself with the influence required for another Biden presidential run. “Investors” like a China, chipping in when the value was low, would be betting on a return to power for a big return on their investment. We are finding cases where China paid individual professors millions of dollars for illegal favors, it’s hard to believe it stops there.
This is clearly a family business encompassing at least Joe Biden’s brother Jim, sister-in-law Sara, and son Hunter. And statements in the emails suggest that Joe is also benefitting financially from the deals, receiving a set cut. No wonder he won’t release his tax returns. What do the Bidens bring to these deals? What services beyond influence? They haven’t said yet.
Thank you for asking.
I think Biden’s tax returns are on his website. The case you make above could be true, but also might not be true. It lacks proof, right? I’m trending to take it as an example of how elites enrich themselves, but until there’s proof of illegality it seems like just a well timed insertion into the news cycle. Would have been more dispositive if it had landed in time to be proved or disproved.
I’m not aware of all that’s on the hard drive, but here is a partial description. The dates are a year or two before Biden left the position of vice president.
And this from Slate:
Again, 2015 was in the middle of Biden’s second term.
Nope. Not there. It would have been strange for him to refuse to publish them if he already had, but he’s a bit challenged. If you have a link, please share.
Yeah it would have.
And once again our stellar FBI sat on it’s thumb for 10 months and as far as we can tell at this point did nothing.
The only reason we know about this is the computer tech was smart enough to clone the hard drive and finally turn it over to someone who would move on it. Something the idiots at the FBI didn’t count on.
But now that it’s out there both the DNI and the FBI have stated the laptop is real and it’s not it’s not Russian disinformation
DNI John Ratcliffe says info on Hunter Biden laptop isn’t Russian disinformation
Oct 19,2020
FBI Says Hunter Biden Laptop Not Russian Disinformation
The FBI has possession of the Hunter Biden laptop referenced in the New York Post reporting and has determined the laptop is not a Russian disinformation effort and the emails as reported in the media are “authentic,” Fox News reported Tuesday.
Joe Biden is the head of a crime family including his brother Joe and son Hunter.
What line on the 1040 is there for “foreign bribes and payments for political influence?”
Remember, Al Capone went to jail for Tax Evasion, not bootlegging, prostitution or murder.
A recap on this season’s The Bidens
1996-1998: MBNA Corp.
Fresh out of college, credit-card giant MBNA put him on its payroll as “senior vice president” earning more than $100,000 a year, plus an undisclosed signing bonus. Delaware-based MBNA at the time was Biden’s largest donor and lobbying the Delaware senator for bankruptcy reforms that would make it harder for consumers to declare bankruptcy and write off credit-card debt…
1998-2001: Commerce Department
Hunter also capitalized on the family name in 1998 when he joined President Clinton’s agency. In spite of having no experience in the dot-com industry, he was appointed “executive director of e-commerce policy coordination,” pulling down another six-figure salary plus bonuses.
He landed the job after his father’s longtime campaign manager and lawyer William Oldaker called then-Commerce Secretary William Daley, who’d also worked on Biden’s campaigns, and put in a good word for his son, according to public records.
2001-2009: Oldaker, Biden & Belair
After Republican President George W. Bush took over the Commerce Department, Hunter left the government and joined Oldaker to open a lobbying shop in Washington, just blocks from Congress, where he gained access to exclusive business and political deals.
Federal disclosure forms show Hunter Biden and his firm billed millions of dollars while lobbying on behalf of a host of hospitals and private colleges and universities, among other clients. In a 2006 disclosure statement submitted to the Senate, Hunter said his clients were “seeking federal appropriations dollars.”
Hunter won the contract to represent St. Joseph’s University from an old Biden family friend who worked in government relations at the university and proposed he solicit earmarks for one of its programs in Philadelphia. The friend, Robert Skomorucha, remarked in a press interview that Hunter had “a very strong last name that really paid off in terms of our lobbying efforts.”
… William Oldaker did not just make Hunter a rich lobbyist. Oldaker also secured a $1 million loan for him through a bank he co-founded, WashingtonFirst, that Hunter sought for an investment scheme, which later went sour.
Joe Biden deposited hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign and political action committee donations at WashingtonFirst, while funneling hundreds of thousands in campaign and PAC expenditures to Oldaker, Biden & Belair. Joe Biden’s payments to Hunter’s lobbying firm, including more than $143,000 in 2007 alone, were listed as “legal services” in Federal Election Commission filings.
2003-2005: National Group LLP
While serving as a partner at Oldaker, Biden & Belair, Hunter also registered as a lobbyist for National Group, a lobbying-only subsidiary which shared offices with OB&B and specialized in targeted spending items inserted into legislation known as “earmarks.”
Hunter represented his father’s alma mater, the University of Delaware, and other Biden constituents and submitted requests to Biden’s office for earmarks benefiting these clients in appropriations bills.
(Continued next comment.)
(Continued)
2006-2007: Paradigm Companies LLC
In 2005, when Joe Biden was thinking about making another run at the White House, after a 1987 bid that ended in plagiarism charges, his lobbyist son was looking for a new line of work too…
So the Bidens hatched a scheme to buy a hedge fund, “whereby Hunter would then assume a senior executive position with the company.” And Lotito helped broker the deal. Despite having no Wall Street experience, Biden was appointed interim CEO and president of the Paradigm investment fund and given a $1.2 million salary, according to SEC filings. Lotito joined the enterprise as a partner, and agreed to shepherd Hunter, still in his mid-30s, through his new role in high-finance.
“Given Hunter Biden’s inexperience in the securities industry,” the complaint states, it was agreed that Lotito would maintain an office at the new holding company’s New York headquarters “in order to assist Biden in discharging his duties as president.”
2009- : Rosemont Seneca Partners LLC
Hunter co-founded the investment firm five months after his father moved into the White House and incorporated it in his father’s home state of Delaware, which has strict corporate secrecy rules.
2009-2012: Eudora Global
On his resume, Hunter also lists himself as “founder” of yet another investment firm. But Eudora’s articles of incorporation show it was actually set up by a major Biden donor, Jeffrey Cooper, who put Hunter on his board after his father became vice president.
A self-described “friend of the Biden family,” Cooper also happened to run one of the largest asbestos-litigation firms in the country — SimmonsCooper LLC — and had courted Biden to make it easier to file asbestos lawsuits by defeating tort reforms. As a leader on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Biden had blocked reform of asbestos litigation every time bills reached the Senate floor.
2009-2016: Boies Schiller Flexner LLP
When Joe Biden became vice president, Hunter landed a high-paying, no-show job at the New York-based law firm, a Democrat shop long tied to the Clintons. Another major Biden donor, the firm gave him the title “of counsel.”
2013-2019: BHR Partners
After Obama named Biden his point man on China policy, Rosemont Seneca set up a joint venture worth $1 billion with the Bank of China called BHR – and Hunter was named vice chairman and director of the new concern.
Following in the shadow of his father’s political trajectory, Hunter’s new venture won the first-of-its-kind investment deal with the Chinese government at the same time Biden was jetting to Beijing to meet with top communist leaders.
2014-2019: Burisma Holdings
This is all from the following article at The Federalist.
https://thefederalist.com/2020/10/20/joe-bidens-boosters-financed-his-prodigal-sons-entire-career/
You get the filing, you check the Schedule C carry line, hey Joe, what’s on the C that adds up to $37M? He says miscellaneous and away we go.
Thanks for sharing.
Well, the whole article is worth a read.
[And I thought a more or less comprehensive listing was helpful here.]
https://joebiden.com/financial-disclosure/
Joe Biden took his crack addicted son and put him contact with the CCP numerous times, making the perfect target for Kompromat, and creating a huge National Security risk for America.
Yeah that would work for a Democrat.
Cute couple.
Biden was referred to as “The Senator from MBNA”.
Also 2006
His one qualification, “he rode a lot of trains”.
Hunter Biden’s only qualification for obtaining a seat on the Amtrak board of directors in 2006 was that he often rode trains.
That’s according to his father Joe Biden’s Delaware colleague in the Senate, Tom Carper, who offered the sole nomination speech for the younger Biden when his name was presented in the Senate Commerce Committee. In his prepared remarks, Carper said Biden would be an “excellent addition” to the board, but was unable to list any reason beyond his frequent use of trains.
“More significantly, Hunter has spent a lot of time on Amtrak trains,” Carper said after listing schools Biden attended. “Like his father, Rep. Mike Castle and myself, Hunter Biden has lived in Delaware while using Amtrak to commute to his job in Washington, D.C.”
Thank you. Information on the returns led me to this, apparently written last September to neutralize an expected line of attack on Elizabeth Warren on financial disclosure by revealing Joe’s own dodginess:
If transparency were a concern for him, Biden would not be playing these games.
Hey @roblong, this would make a great Long View column . . .
He might not want to upset Chairman for the People’s Republic of America while he’s breaking in his new security apparatus.
This is an interesting (and seems fair) review of the issue:
https://tangle.substack.com/p/the-hunter-biden-emails
And there’s this about the emails:
https://www.citizensjournal.us/hunter-biden-emails-could-be-absolutely-verified-if-rudy-giuliani-released-the-metadata-expert-says/
Which works in with the timing of the release (before Election Day so it can make an impact but too close to confirm or dismiss).
This one flounders when it gets to the firing of the Ukrainian prosecutor, I checked a USA Today article for comparison and its essentially the same take. The problem is that Biden used US $$$ to ensure that the prosecutor investigating Hunter’s Barisma was fired, facts not in dispute. The assertion that the prosecutor was not pursuing corruption in his own government was actually a Russian take because he wanted more pro-Russian officials in place. Joe was a big help in that.
Critical emails have been publicly corroborated by recipients. Metadata just means that an email was sent here, relayed there, and landed there. It doesn’t prove identity of sender or receiver, and mass requests for thousands would take time. Publication of the metadata also has potential privacy implications.
Plus, one of the articles Zafar listed cited a Washington Post article — that relied in part in dismissing the allegations against Biden — on asserting that Shokin was no longer investigating Burisma; this has been denied by Shokin who states that he was actively investigating Burisma at the time of his firing.
This in a great post and the Hunter timeline in the comments. I’ve been trying to square two memories and had started a post but will ask the question here.
I remember Biden being laughed at in 2008 because he was at the bottom of a list of Congressmen’s net worth. The jab was that he was too stupid to play the corruption game, after all he’d been in Congress for 40 years and hadn’t made out like a bandit. Then during this campaign a lot of talk was about the Biden family cashing in on Joe’s name and full of corruption. I thought that maybe Obama had taught Joe something but it’s clear that stuff has been going on since the 1990s. Maybe Joe didn’t want to keep a layer between him and the graft. Did I remember 2008 correctly? His net worth did jump tremendously after leaving the Vice Presidency, right?
He supposedly made something like $11M (IIRC) giving speeches. I’ve heard him speak. I wouldn’t characterize him as being spellbinding. I doubt you could get $11M worth of information out of Joe if you held him up by his ankles and shook him ’til Christmas. I can think of a couple of ways to launder money with a setup like that. A proper investigator can probably think of a few more.
In 2019 Federal return he earned $4,580,000 (line 1) and paid $9250 (line 20). Isn’t that how the NY Times would describe it if this were Trump returns?
How cute. That’s so 2015.