Politico Notices, Gee Willickers, Biden Says He's Not Involved In His Family's Foreign Buckraking Operations, But Weirdly All of His Aides Are Involved In the Grift

Yeah, how about that. It's almost as if Joe Biden is "The Brand" the family is selling to overseas clients and both his family members and his aides are getting rich off selling access.

I mean, it's like that, but it isn't that, because Biden has said he's not involved in Hunter's (or James') foreign shakedown operations and therefore any word to the contrary is a Conspiracy Theory offered Without Evidence, as Jake Tapper's chyrons put it.

And if Hunter's own emails say that 10% of his payments will go to "the Big Guy," and everyone involved says that "the Big Guy" is code for Joe Biden?

Well that has all the Hallmarks of a Russian Disinformation Campaign.

Biden insists he's not involved in his family's business dealings. But his aides are a different story.

The overlapping roles are under scrutiny as the president distances himself from his family's dealings.

By Ben Schreckinger

For years, Joe Biden shared a bookkeeper with his son, Hunter. He also shared a personal lawyer with his brother, Jim. And when Jim Biden wanted to know more about one of Hunter Biden's associates, he hired the former head of Joe Biden's Secret Service detail to investigate.

Since 2019, Joe Biden has repeatedly distanced himself from his family's business dealings, saying that he has never so much as discussed them with his relatives or with anyone else. But House impeachment inquiry interviews, public records and emails reviewed by POLITICO show that members of his inner circle were regularly enmeshed in those dealings: Many of the president's closest staffers and advisers have doubled as his relatives' business associates, both during and after their stints working for the man at the center of the Biden family orbit.

Those overlaps reflect an all-in-the family approach to business and politicking that dates back a half-century to the president's first Senate bid, run primarily by his parents and siblings. Since then, his political patrons have at times forged business ties with his relatives, who in turn have converted some of their business partners into campaign supporters. And over a lifetime in public life, some of the president's aides have taken on roles as surrogate members of the tight-knit Biden clan.

The Bidens' approach complicates their efforts to distance the president from his family's ventures.

It's incredible the contortions they put themselves through to avoid coming to the obvious conclusion. They won't say he's lying, no way. Instead they'll say, the obvious contradiction between Biden's claims and the actual facts "complicates" Biden's preferred narrative.

As Jim and Hunter Biden's foreign dealings have caused controversy and several of their business partners have been convicted of federal fraud and corruption crimes in recent years, any potential links between their business dealings and the president have come in for renewed scrutiny.

To allay concerns about any intermingling of their affairs, the Bidens have said that they observe strict interpersonal firewalls to avoid discussing business among themselves.

But with so many former and current aides in the mix -- and with the surfacing of private communications in which Jim and Hunter Biden suggest they represent their powerful relative in business matters -- onlookers are forced to take family members at their word that those firewalls always held.

In one instance, Jim Biden testified that he hired the former head of his brother's Secret Service detail, Dale Pupillo, to investigate a Chinese executive that Hunter Biden was doing business with in 2017.

Jim Biden said during his February impeachment inquiry interview that he commissioned Pupillo in advance of accompanying Hunter Biden to Hong Kong so that his nephew could meet with the executive, Patrick Ho.

Despite hiring a private investigator and traveling halfway around the world for the meeting, Jim Biden said he never asked Hunter Biden what Ho -- then on the cusp of being arrested, and later convicted, on federal corruption charges -- and his nephew were meeting about. He said the decision not to inquire about the meeting came down to a desire to quarantine his affairs from those of his nephew's.

"That may be hard for you to believe," he told an incredulous Republican staffer. "But that's the way we operate in my family."

That's the way they operate in Tony Soprano's family, too. "No don't hand the money to me directly, give it to my nephew Joe."

...

The hiring of Pupillo and the purpose of the Hong Kong meeting was subjected to extended scrutiny in Jim Biden's congressional interview.

A Republican staffer voiced a suspicion that the real reason Pupillo was hired was to provide intelligence about the Justice Department's probe that could then be communicated to Ho face-to-face.

"Was this person used to investigate Patrick Ho to try and identify whether or not there was a federal investigation before you and Hunter Biden went out to go visit Patrick Ho so that you could inform Patrick Ho if there was an indictment or a federal investigation, maybe, that was under seal?" the staffer asked.

"Absolutely not," Jim Biden responded. "This was for my personal edification, because I do not like to walk into blind buildings, okay?"

...

"It's odd," suggested a Republican staffer, "that you would go to such lengths to hire a private investigator to look into Patrick Ho, but then you wouldn't even just ask Hunter Biden, your relative, like, 'why are we going and who is this guy?'"

"The way that we deal in my family, it wasn't odd," Jim Biden responded. "To others it might be."

Strategic ignorance.

"If I accept this letter from you, Kate, a prosecutor could use that to prove that I know Michael's current whereabouts."

By the way I believe that Jim Biden didn't know just as much as I believe Tom Hagen didn't know where Michael was.

...

POLITICO previously reported on the accounts of three former executives at Americore, a troubled hospital chain that Jim Biden worked closely with, who said that Jim Biden spoke of various plans to involve his older brother in the company.

One of the executives told POLITICO that Jim Biden, who was negotiating for a large equity stake in Americore in 2018, said at the time that his older brother would get a piece of the company, too.

...

A June 2018 email shows that Monzack helped negotiate a proposed deal that would have given Jim Biden's company 35 percent of Americore.

Monzack is a lawyer representing, get this, Joe Biden.

The article also discusses Francis Person, one of Joe Biden's "body men" -- bodyguards who maintain a close presence to the client -- who Biden once said was "like a son."

That body man is also in "business" with Hunter Biden.

A series of WhatsApp messages between Person and Hunter Biden from the summer of 2017 show that discussions of potential partnerships lasted for years and included offers of personal financial help for Hunter Biden from Person's Chinese business partner, Harves executive Bo Zhang.

The messages were included in an exhibit provided to the House Ways and Means Committee by IRS special agent Joseph Ziegler, who investigated Hunter Biden's tax matters. Ziegler said in an affidavit that the WhatsApp messages summarized in the exhibit were obtained via search warrants.

In the messages, Hunter Biden detailed his daunting personal debts, while Person expressed a desire to work with Hunter Biden and said that Zhang was eager to provide the financially distressed political scion with monetary assistance.

"I've got one loyalty brother. That's to my family. Your family," Person, who did not respond to requests for comment, wrote in one July 27, 2017, message. "I talked to Bo previously about the 37K -- he didn't flinch. I will talk to him about 56K and possibly 100K. It really depends on his liquid assets in the US ... I will ask. His only problem is getting large sums out of China (especially right now)."

Next: Eric Schwerin. Hunter Biden's "business partner" who coincidentally also takes care of Joe Biden's personal finances.

Firewall, baby! Three feet of legal concrete reinforced with ethical steel separating Joe Biden from Hunter Biden's business dealings!

Schwerin, who met Hunter Biden when they both worked in the Clinton Administration's Commerce Department, went on to work as his lobbying partner.

At the beginning of the Obama administration, the pair co-founded Rosemont Seneca Partners, an investment and consulting firm. Schwerin also oversaw Rosemont's finances and helped manage Hunter Biden's personal finances. In those roles, Schwerin participated in and managed the tax implications of some of Hunter Biden's controversial overseas dealings.

During the Obama years, Schwerin took over Joe Biden's bookkeeping as well, he told congressional impeachment investigators in January, saying that the volunteer role entailed bill-paying and tax preparation.

Schwerin testified that Hunter Biden did not cover expenses for his father. "I do not recall anything," he said. "It's possible there were small things here and there, but I don't recall anything major." Schwerin added that Hunter Biden paid for a family cell phone plan used by his father and that his father would reimburse him for it.

Meanwhile, Schwerin's day job kept him involved in Hunter Biden's overseas business dealings.

In one episode, Schwerin referred Burisma -- a Ukrainian energy firm that installed Hunter Biden on its board in 2014 as it navigated corruption allegations -- to the Democratic lobbying firm Blue Star Strategies for help with government relations, according to his testimony.

The referral worked out. Blue Star helped Burisma fend off a corruption investigation in Ukraine, before its work with the energy firm itself became the subject of a Justice Department probe. Blue Star belatedly registered as a foreign agent, but the DOJ probe was reportedly closed with no finding of wrongdoing.

The DOJ is a organized criminal gang.

I wonder how many of these Selfless Civil Servants are dipping their beaks:

posted by Disinformation Expert Ace at 12:15 PM

| Access Comments