As a non-legal expert, I have no idea whether this message represents a potential crime (perhaps running afoul of foreign agent status declaration laws), or if it's just Hunter Biden's legal but slimy influence peddling -- exploiting his family name to rake in large sums of cash from Chinese entities. We know that Hunter made threats involving his father to get the payments he desired. We also know that Hunter orchestrated in-person appearances by his father to influence 'business' negotiations with overseas interests on multiple occasions, according to Biden family associates. Here's another sordid peek behind the curtain at how the president's son operated:
🚨BIDEN FAMILY COVER-UP🚨
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) June 27, 2023
In a WhatsApp exchange dated 8/3/2017, Hunter Biden tells CEFC associate Gongwen Dong, aka Kevin:
"The Biden's are the best I know at doing exactly what the Chairman wants from this [partnership]."
CEFC is a CCP-linked Chinese Energy Company. pic.twitter.com/ZzRvpMeuNn
He's griping that this Chinese entity was trying to reduce his compensation by $5 million, insisting that the full $10 million be paid, bragging that he could easily "make $5 million in salary at any law firm in America" so let's not "quibble over peanuts." The very next day, one of Hunter's shell companies received a six-figure wire transfer from this very same Chinese organization, according to the House Oversight Committee. Hunter Biden boasted in the messages that his family was "the best I know at doing exactly what the Chairman wants." More context:
Who is “the Chairman?” Ye Jianming is a Chinese billionaire tied to a CCP-intelligence gathering agency.
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) June 27, 2023
Ye stated that that CEFC China’s vision "is to obtain overseas resources and serve the national strategy.”
He wanted to expand China’s reach and influence around the world.
Meanwhile, back at home, the younger Biden was cheating on his taxes -- flagrantly and deliberately, per IRS whistleblowers. We told you yesterday about our interview with a former US Attorney who believes the president's son was glaringly under-charged by his father's Justice Department. The woman who led the DOJ's tax division for seven years is similarly appalled, writing in the Wall Street Journal at the judge in the case should reject the sweetheart agreement:
The Justice Department’s alleged foot-dragging and refusal to permit IRS special agents to follow the evidence allowed the statutes of limitations for 2014 and 2015 to expire, notwithstanding that Mr. Biden’s defense counsel had, according to Mr. Shapley, agreed to more than one extension. Far worse, Mr. Garland’s failure to designate Mr. Weiss a special counsel essentially guaranteed that Mr. Biden wouldn’t be prosecuted for any of his alleged tax crimes. The “criminal information”—the charging document in the absence of an indictment—prepared by Mr. Weiss’s office, to which Hunter Biden will reportedly plead on July 26, states that Mr. Biden received but didn’t pay federal taxes on “taxable income in excess of $1,500,000.00” in 2017 and in 2018. House Oversight Committee Republicans claim to have seen Treasury Department suspicious-activity reports suggesting that Mr. Biden received vastly more than that during the years the IRS was investigating. Judges can reject plea agreements. That would be an appropriate disposition here. And Congress, in fulfillment of its oversight obligation, must learn and share with the American public what evidence the IRS gathered, what evidence its agents weren’t permitted to obtain, and what charges might have been brought if they had.
A big part of the reason why this whole saga goes far beyond the foibles of a president's troubled son isn't just about the suspicious payments (at least some of which appear to be earmaked for Joe Biden himself) and the apparent lies the president has told about his awareness of these schemes. It's also about the serious allegations of political interference and special treatment the president son has received by those tasked with enforcing the law. Such enforcement is supposed to be equal and even, meted out without fear or favor. The facts of this case, bolstered by the whistleblowers' testimony, suggest both fear and favor may have ruled the day. Shapley, one of the whistleblowers, calls the interference in his investigation "shocking," He says, "we needed to" take steps to probe these dealings' possible connections to the 'Big Guy,' but they were explicitly denied the ability to do so. In case you missed it yesterday, this is worth watching:
“There were personal expenses that were taken as business expenses: prostitutes, sex club memberships, hotel rooms for purported drug dealers.” — IRS Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley https://t.co/twHLH0fTdA
— Tristan Leavitt (@tristanleavitt) June 28, 2023
It does appear as though CBS News is at least taking these issues a bit more seriously than the New York Times, whose journalists saw fit to put "whistleblowers" in scare quotes, as a means of diminishing their credibility and the authenticity of their claims:
NYT seems skeptical that Shapley and the other whistleblower are actually whistleblowers. From an article earlier today (that funny enough confirmed some of what Shapley has claimed) https://t.co/nH55AVQAJq pic.twitter.com/F2gYyYJIe9
— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) June 28, 2023
I easily found several examples of whistleblowers (no "quotes") being labeled as such in the Times, when said whistleblowers were blowing the whistle on Trump. But when Democrats are involved, or the narrative isn't helpful to the tribe, the Times sometimes (but not always) reverts to "whistleblowers," a not-terribly-subtle form of sneering. I'll leave you with this, which carries almost no weight whatsoever in my mind:
Joe Biden just SCREAMED at a reporter for asking if he was involved "in [Hunter Biden's] Chinese shake-down text message." pic.twitter.com/pDWuC759SQ
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) June 28, 2023
Could it be that the president won't tell the truth, or can't keep much of anything straight at times?
Both last night at a fundraiser + then again this morning at the White House, President Biden referred to Ukraine as "Iraq" and said "my new best friend the prime minister of China" before correcting himself to say the Prime Minister of India.
— Nancy Cook (@nancook) June 28, 2023
Perhaps it's a bit of both.
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