Tag Archive for: Hunter Biden

DOJ Blows Through Tens Of Millions On Biden Investigations, No One Ends Up In Jail

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The Biden administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) blew through tens of millions of dollars on investigations that ultimately resulted in no jail time for anyone, according to public spending records.

Over the last several years, the DOJ has opened investigations into President-elect Donald Trump, President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents and Hunter Biden’s drug use while purchasing a gun. Following Biden’s pardon of his son Sunday night, all three cases have now resulted in a wash of charges, costing taxpayers over $55 million, according to financial disclosures from the special counsel’s office.

Special counsel David Weiss, who was tasked with investigating the president’s son, spent $2,297,976 from October 2023 to March 2024 on his work, according to financial disclosures from the special counsel’s office. From August 2023 to September 2023, Weiss’ investigation cost taxpayers another $182,683, the financial statements show. Spending reports for costs since March 31, 2024, have not been released, as of early December.

Weiss first brought charges against Hunter Biden in September 2023, alleging that he knowingly lied about his drug use on a federal background check form before purchasing a Colt Cobra.

A Delaware jury convicted Biden in June and he was set to face his sentencing Dec. 12, eleven days before the presidential pardon.

The president, after months of claiming he would not pardon his son, wrote Sunday that he decided to do so because he believes his son was unfairly targeted because of their relationship. Weiss pushed back on the president’s accusation in a court filing Monday, additionally challenging Hunter Biden’s request to dismiss the California indictment in light of the pardon.

Special counsel Robert Hur, who investigated the 82-year-old president’s handling of classified documents, spent $2,475,303 from October 2023 to March 2024, $2,809,637 from April 2023 to September 2023 and $615,962 from January 2023 to March 2023, according to financial disclosures from the special counsel’s office. Hur ultimately decided to not charge Biden for his handling of classified documents, arguing that a jury would see the octogenarian president as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

Over his investigation, Hur conducted a five-hour interview with the president in which he appeared to forget when his vice presidency began and ended and the date of his late son’s death.

Since special counsel Jack Smith began his investigation into Trump in 2022, the DOJ has spent roughly $47.5 million on the operation, financial disclosures show. The investigation is expected to cost more than $50 million, as the latest spending reports detailing costs since September have not yet been released.

After Trump won the 2024 election, Smith moved to dismiss all charges brought against the president-elect in his election interference case.

“Dismissing the appeal as to defendant Trump will leave in place the district court’s order dismissing the indictment without prejudice as to him,” Smith wrote. “The appeal concerning the other two defendants will continue because, unlike defendant Trump, no principle of temporary immunity applies to them.”

AUTHOR

Reagan Reese

White House reporter. Follow Reagan on Twitter.

RELATED ARTICLE: Biden Lied About Beau Exchange With Robert Hur During Angry Press Conference, Transcript Confirms

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Joe Biden Pardoned Hunter Biden to ‘Protect the Family Business’: Congressman

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After repeatedly insisting he would never do so, President Joe Biden has pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, for any and all crimes he committed over the last decade and disdained his son’s prosecution as “a miscarriage of justice.” The president reversed course “to protect the family business” of influence-peddling and shaking down foreign leaders that netted the Biden family at least $27 million, said some of the president’s most thorough investigators.

Joe Biden announced he had offered Robert Hunter Biden “a full and unconditional pardon” on Sunday, December 1. The pardon covers “those offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024, including but not limited to all offenses charged or prosecuted (including any that have resulted in convictions) by Special Counsel David C. Weiss.”

Hunter Biden entered a guilty plea to nine federal tax charges — three felonies and six misdemeanors — related to $1.4 million in unpaid taxes on $7 million in income. The first son had also been convicted of three felony charges for lying on a federal application to purchase a handgun, when he falsely attested that he was not drug-dependent. In all, Hunter Biden faced up to 42 years in prison, although he likely would have served 52 months.

But the pardon extends far beyond the tax and gun charges, covering any crime Hunter Biden committed over the last decade, beginning from the time Hunter began his role as a conduit of payments from foreign leaders to the Biden family — an arrangement critics say sold access to the Obama-Biden White House.

But Joe Biden implied that his Republican political opponents had engineered the criminal charges in an attempt to “break” Hunter and drive him out of his sobriety. “For my entire career I have followed a simple principle: just tell the American people the truth,” said the president in a statement accompanying the pardon.

“No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son – and that is wrong,” Biden contended. “[R]aw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice.”

The family seemingly telegraphed the pardon in an Instagram post which Joe Biden’s daughter, Ashley, uploaded over the Thanksgiving holiday. “They tried to break us … but never will/can. Just made us even stronger, closer, and even more grateful for one another,” wrote the first daughter. Joe Biden echoed his daughter’s words in his statement, writing: “There has been an effort to break Hunter — who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me — and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.”

Joe Biden Repeatedly Promised Not to Pardon His Son

The pardon violates numerous promises from Joe Biden and his spokespeople that the president would not pardon his son of any wrongdoing. During Biden’s June 6 visit to commemorate D-Day in Normandy, an ABC News reporter asked him, “Will you accept the jury’s outcome, their verdict, no matter what it is?”

“Yes,” replied Biden weakly.

“And have you ruled out a pardon for your son?”

“Yes,” Biden repeated.

White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre stated at least five times over the last year that Biden would not pardon Hunter: last December 13, and this year on August 14, September 5, November 7, and recently as November 12. She also categorically ruled out the possibility that Biden would commute his son’s prison sentence.

“No one is actually surprised by the Hunter pardon. Biden’s political career was defined by abuse of power for personal gain. This was the most predictable thing ever,” said Joseph Backholm, senior fellow for Biblical Worldview and Strategic Engagement at Family Research Council. “We always knew it was a yes,” agreed Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.).

In fact, President-elect Donald J. Trump predicted the pardon. Fox News reporter Bill Melugin asked then-candidate Trump in October if, “in the name of unity,” he would consider pardoning Hunter Biden. “I’ll bet you the father probably pardons him. We’ll see what happens. But he’s a bad boy, no question about it,” said Trump. He went on to say he did not “want to hurt anybody” by prosecuting his political enemies, even if they are guilty — adding that ultimately, he declined to investigate Hillary Clinton for similar allegations that she funneled foreign bribes through the Clinton foundations.

“Biden pardoned his son because he knows Trump would’ve,” surmised detransitioner Chloe Cole.

But at least one veteran Republican lawmaker seemed taken aback at the news. “I’m shocked [President] Biden pardoned his son Hunter,” because he said “many times he wouldn’t,” and “I believed him,” said Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). “Shame on me.”

The announcement came late on the Sunday evening of a holiday weekend — a move usually taken to minimize its news impact. Biden explained the statement came out during a holiday weekend, because “once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further.”

But critical reaction from Republicans, and at least one Democrat, rained in.

‘Such a Miscarriage of Justice’

“Such an abuse and miscarriage of justice!” said President-elect Donald Trump on Truth Social.

Many harangued Biden’s social media post of May 31: “No one is above the law.”

“Unless it’s your son,” retorted Mary Vought, vice president of Strategic Communications at the Heritage Foundation.

The pardon “does complete the ark of corruption of the Biden family, doesn’t it?” asked Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, on Fox Business Monday morning. “This is a scam and a scheme, and he gussies it up in issues of family and addiction.”

Others noted the pardon weakened other aspects of the Democratic Party’s agenda. “The next time Democrats talk about increasing background checks on gun purchases please note their silence on this,” instructed former Trump White House spokesman Sean Spicer.

But the most damning critiques said President Joe Biden pardoned Hunter as a means of indirectly pardoning himself for receiving bribes from overseas, which he funneled through his son and brother, James.

Joe Biden pardoned Hunter “to protect the family business,” said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) in a statement emailed to The Washington Stand on Sunday night.

“Today’s pardon is just the latest in a string of efforts by the Biden administration to cover up and dismiss the years of criminal activity committed by the Biden family,” he said, noting that “evidence has shown President Biden was not only aware but clearly complicit” in his son’s criminal activity.” Thankfully, this decision cannot and will not undermine or cover up the mountain of evidence … that has shown the level of corruption committed in a blatant attempt to trade on the name and power of political office to enrich the Biden family.”

Other congressional investigators echoed those sentiments. “Democrats said there was nothing to our impeachment inquiry. If that’s the case, why did Joe Biden just issue Hunter Biden a pardon for the very things we were inquiring about?” asked Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Last August, Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) filed four articles of impeachment against Biden, one of which accuses the president of selling access to the U.S. government through Hunter Biden and his brother, Jim Biden.

10% for ‘the Big Guy’

Three House committees — the House Oversight Committee, Judiciary Committee, and Ways and Means Committee — released a 291-page impeachment inquiry report on August 19, detailing how the Biden family received at least $27 million from foreign funding over the years, as well as receiving $8 million in loans from Democratic funders. “President Joe Biden conspired to commit influence peddling and grift,” the report concluded. “The totality of the corrupt conduct uncovered by the committees is egregious.”

The most explosive email noted that Hunter Biden would save 10% of his Ukrainian business deals for “the big guy,” a reference business associates confirmed identifies Joe Biden.

Congressional reports have traced millions of dollars in transfers from foreign governments to the Biden family, including:

  • $10 million from Burisma Holdings Ltd. Hunter Biden received $83,333 a month as a board member of Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company, despite having no knowledge of Ukraine or energy, at a time when his father served as vice president and Burisma faced a criminal probe from Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin. According to the FD-1023 form obtained by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, CEO and president of Burisma, Mykola Zlochevsky, said he paid $10 million “protection” money. A federal informant told the FBI in June 2020 that Zlochevsky told donors nothing would come of an investigation by a Ukrainian prosecutor named Viktor Shokin, saying, “Don’t worry, Hunter will take care of all of those issues through his dad.” In December 2016, Joe Biden would confront then-President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, leveraging $1 billion in U.S. aid to demand — and receive — Shokin’s ouster.
  • $1 million from Burisma Holdings’ corporate secretary Vadym Pozharsky to Hunter Biden, agreed to in spring 2014.
  • $3.5 million in February 2014 from Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina to the shell company Rosemont Seneca Thornton. Of that, $2.5 million went to the Bidens and $1 million went to Biden associate Devon Archer. The Obama-Biden administration did not sanction Baturina, even as it cracked down on others in Vladimir Putin’s orbit.
  • $3.1 million from Romanian real estate tycoon Gabriel Popoviciu in 2015. Popoviciu hired Hunter Biden to cause the Obama-Biden administration to “investigate the Romanian criminal investigation into Gabriel Popoviciu and thereby cause an end to the investigation of Gabriel Popoviciu in Romania,” according to court filings from Special Counsel David C. Weiss. Hunter Biden met with Romania’s ambassador to the United States one day after Popoviciu wired $179,836.86 to a business account controlled by Robinson Walker, LLC. In all, the Romanian oligarch sent the firm $3.1 million, split between Hunter Biden and two associates, Rob Walker and James Gilliar. Hunter Biden should have registered as a foreign lobbyist under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) but did not, because he was “concerned that lobbying work might cause political ramifications for the defendant’s father,” then-Vice President Joe Biden, who handled the administration’s Eastern European portfolio at the time.
  • Several million from China in two deals, the largest of which is from the China Energy Fund Committee (CEFC). That deal produced the infamous text message of Hunter Biden claiming Joe Biden was seated next to him as he demanded a CEFC official wire him money.
  • $142,300 — “the exact price of Biden’s sportscar” — from Kenes Rakishev of Kazakhstan, a close associate of that nation’s prime minister, in April 2014. Hunter purchased a hybrid vehicle known as a Fisker Karma the day after the deposit.

Although President Joe Biden has continuously insisted, “I did not interact with their business partners,” Hunter Biden testified to two House committees in March that then-Vice President Joe Biden met with Burisma Corporate Secretary Vadym Pozharsky, Chinese business figure Jonathan Li, Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina, and Kazakhstan oligarch Kenes Rakishev between 2013 and 2015. Last August, the House Oversight Committee released a list of 16 times Biden lied about his family’s business.

Biden also assisted his son’s business endeavors as vice president, Republicans charge. Joe Biden improperly used Air Force Two and Marine Two to transport Hunter Biden to 15 countries, where he often struck business deals that financially benefited the Biden family. Vice President Biden also used pseudonymous email addresses — Robert.L.Peters@pci.gov, robinware456@gmail.com, and JRBWare@gmail.com — to include his son on official business, records show. One involved a meeting with then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, copied to Hunter Biden’s email address at Rosemont Seneca Partners (hbiden@rosemontseneca.com), one of at least 20 shell companies the Bidens established.

At least nine members of the Biden family have benefited from Hunter’s business deals, according to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.):

  • Hunter Biden;
  • James and Sara Biden, the president’s brother and sister-in-law;
  • Hunter’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle;
  • His current wife, Melissa Cohen;
  • Hunter’s ex-girlfriend, Hallie Biden, who is his brother, Beau Biden’s widow; and
  • Three unnamed children or grandchildren of Joe or James Biden.

The federal government had investigated Hunter Biden for years due, in part, to the contents of his laptop, which Democrats derided as “Russian disinformation.” U.S. Attorney David C. Weiss of Delaware allowed the statute of limitations to run out on numerous charges. The Biden administration announced last August it had appointed Weiss as special counsel to investigate the Hunter Biden scandal. Attorney General Merrick Garland claimed Weiss requested his appointment to the role which, according to the Code of Federal Regulations (28 CFR § 600.3), is supposed to be “selected from outside the United States [g]overnment.”

Sweetheart Plea Deal Scuttled

In his pardon statement, President Joe Biden lamented that “a carefully negotiated plea deal, agreed to by the Department of Justice, unraveled in the court room — with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for bringing political pressure on the process. Had the plea deal held, it would have been a fair, reasonable resolution of Hunter’s cases.” However, the plea bargain — which also shielded Hunter Biden from prosecution on any future charges — fell apart last July when federal district Judge Maryellen Noreika questioned its constitutionality.

“No amount of lies or spin can hide the simple truth that the Justice Department nearly let the President’s son off the hook for multiple felonies,” said IRS whistleblowers Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley and Special Agent Joe Ziegler in a statement Sunday night. “Anyone reading the President’s excuses now should remember that Hunter Biden admitted to his tax crimes in federal court, that Hunter Biden’s attorneys have targeted us for our lawful whistleblower disclosures, and that we are suing one of those attorneys for smearing us with false accusations.”

The two took pride that, thanks to their work, “President Biden has the power to put his thumb on the scales of justice for his son, but at least he had to do it with a pardon explicitly for all the world to see rather than his political appointees doing it secretly behind the scenes.”

House Republicans picked up the case, which had been dropped by the Biden administration. Reps. Comer, Smith, and Jordan cited Hunter Biden’s false testimony to Congress as they jointly referred him for prosecution by the Justice Department on June 5. As this author reported at The Washington Stand:

“The evidence shows that he lied under oath three times, House Republicans say. They say Hunter lied about a text he sent telling a Chinese official he and his father would use all their power against the company unless they received payment for services rendered. ‘I sent the text to the wrong Zhao,’ said Hunter, claiming he texted a man who had nothing to do with the Chinese energy company and probably had no idea what the texts were about. The committee released WhatsApp records showing Biden contacted only one Zhao, named Raymond Zhao, whom he stayed in touch with for months. Zhao facilitated the release of $5 million from China to the Biden family.

“They also say Hunter Biden fibbed when he claimed a shell company he set up with friend Devon Archer, Rosemont Seneca Bohai, was never ‘under my control nor affiliated with me.’ The committee released a document signed by the president’s son stating, ‘I, Robert Hunter Biden, hereby certify that I am the duly elected, qualified and acting Secretary of Rosemont Seneca Bohai, LLC.’

“Biden also denied trying to help any foreign business associates obtain a U.S. visa. ‘I’d never pick up the phone and call anybody for a visa,’ he said under oath. The committee released an email from Devon Archer stating, ‘Hunter is checking with Miguel Aleman to see if he can provide cover to Kola on the visa.’ The individual in question, ‘Kola,’ is Nikolay Zlochevsky, CEO of Burisma.”

Many of the charges are detailed in a September 2023 episode of the “Outstanding” podcast.

Legacy Media Reaction

The legacy media covered the pardon with maximum sympathy for Biden and predictably calumniated his Republican foes. Politico.com posted, “Republicans pounce on Biden pardoning his son, Hunter.” After pushback, the website changed the headline to “Republicans say Biden is a ‘liar’ after he pardons Hunter, his son.”

Jeff Zeleny — who once asked then-President Barack Obama what aspect of being president “enchanted” him most — called the pardon “poignant” and “a striking … ending to this Thanksgiving holiday.” Zeleny added, “Clearly, there was pressure inside the family. We were told, really, in recent weeks that Dr. Jill Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, was very supportive of the president doing something like this. The president was not sure.”

Alex Thompson of Axios told Semafor.com that the unfolding criminal conspiracy was “a central drama of the Biden administration which doubled as family tragedy and a love story.” Thompson went on to ding “bad-faith conservatives trying to humiliate” Joe Biden.

As far back as June, former CNN reporter John Harwood said that “people who insist Biden will pardon Hunter after specifically ruling it out are telling on themselves,” because “they can’t imagine someone acting on principle and keeping his word.”

But not all critics of the Hunter Biden pardon belonged to the Republican Party. “While as a father I certainly understand President [Biden’s] natural desire to help his son by pardoning him, I am disappointed that he put his family ahead of the country,” said Colorado Governor Jared Polis (D). “This is a bad precedent that could be abused by later Presidents and will sadly tarnish his reputation. When you become President, your role is Pater familias of the nation. Hunter brought the legal trouble he faced on himself, and one can sympathize with his struggles while also acknowledging that no one is above the law, not a President and not a President’s son.”

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

$27 Million for Biden Family Detailed in House’s Impeachment Report

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President Joe Biden engaged in a “conspiracy to monetize” his public office as vice president and enrich his family by at least $27 million, according to three Republican-led House committees that oversaw an impeachment inquiry.

Hours before Biden was set to speak Monday night at the Democratic National Convention, the House committees released the impeachment inquiry report, which also sharply criticizes the Biden-Harris administration for obstructing an investigation by Congress.

“As described in this report, the committees have accumulated evidence demonstrating that President Biden has engaged in impeachable conduct,” says the report released by the Oversight and Accountability; Ways and Means; and Judiciary Committees.

“The totality of the corrupt conduct uncovered by the committees is egregious,” the report continues. “President Joe Biden conspired to commit influence peddling and grift.”

A House impeachment vote is highly unlikely after his fellow Democrats last month forced Biden out of running for a second term. It comes the morning before the president is set to give a farewell speech on the opening night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, which is set to nominate his endorsed successor, Vice President Kamala Harris.

Nevertheless, the 291-page report on House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry details how various Biden family shell corporations raked in millions of dollars from foreign entities and individuals in China, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, and Kazakhstan. Most relevant, the report talks about the role Joe Biden played in assisting family members.

The Biden White House was dismissive of the report.

“After wasting nearly two years and millions of taxpayer dollars, House Republicans have finally given up on their wild goose chase,” White House spokesperson Sharon Yang said in response to The Daily Signal’s email inquiry.

“This failed stunt will only be remembered for how it became an embarrassment that their own members distanced themselves from as they only managed to turn up evidence that refuted their false and baseless conspiracy theories,” Yang said. “The American people deserve more from House Republicans, and perhaps now they will finally join President Biden in focusing on the real issues that American families actually care about.”

Although many of the findings in the final report have been released before, the contents of the Monday report elaborate on the totality of Biden’s role in the family business ventures. “From 2014 to the present, as part of a conspiracy to monetize Joe Biden’s office of public trust to enrich the Biden family, Biden family members and their associates received over $27 million from foreign individuals or entities,” the report says, adding:

“In order to obscure the source of these funds, the Biden family and their associates set up shell companies to conceal these payments from scrutiny. The Biden family used proceeds from these business activities to provide hundreds of thousands of dollars to Joe Biden — including thousands of dollars that are directly traceable to China. While [brother] Jim Biden claimed he gave this money to Joe Biden to repay personal loans, Jim Biden did not provide any evidence to support this claim. The Biden family’s receipt of millions of dollars required Joe Biden’s knowing participation in this conspiracy, including while he served as vice president.”

All House Republicans voted against the first impeachment of President Donald Trump, which was over his 2019 phone call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in which he mentioned Joe Biden and son Hunter Biden’s dealings in Ukraine.

Next month, Hunter Biden is set to go on trial on federal tax charges and for allegedly violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act in connection with these activities.

The new report from the Republican-controlled House states that the Democrat-controlled House set a precedent when it impeached Trump in 2019 for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. It also accuses the Biden-Harris administration of obstructing the three House committees’ investigation. The president met with his son Hunter before the younger Biden defied a House subpoena to testify, the reports notes.

Hunter Biden eventually gave a deposition to House investigators.

The report notes that the Biden-Harris administration obstructed the committees’ probe of the president’s retention and sharing of classified information by “refusing to make relevant witnesses available for interviews and by erroneously asserting executive privilege over audio recordings from special counsel [Robert] Hur’s interviews with President Biden.”

The report quotes House Democrats’ 2019 report, which said, “The House may properly conclude that a president’s obstruction of Congress is relevant to assessing the evidentiary record in an impeachment inquiry” and that when “the president illegally seeks to obstruct such an inquiry, the House is free to infer that evidence blocked from its view is harmful to the president’s position.”

House Republicans’ report released Monday says: “Applying the precedent here, the House is free to conclude that the witnesses and information currently withheld from the committees are adverse to the president.”

Apart from the $27 million in foreign funds that went to the Bidens, the report notes that Biden family members scored another $8 million in loans from “Democratic benefactors.”

“Millions of dollars in loans have not been repaid and the paperwork supporting many of the loans does not exist and has not been produced to the committees,” the report concludes. “This raises serious questions about whether these funds were provided as gifts disguised as loans.”

This article was originally published in The Daily Signal.

AUTHOR

Fred Lucas

Fred Lucas serves as chief news correspondent and manager of the Investigative Reporting Project for The Daily Signal.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Biden DHS Board Painted Trump Supporters, Military And Religious People As Terror Threats, Docs Show

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A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) advisory board characterized supporters of former President Donald Trump, as well as those who are in the military and religious people, as posing potential domestic terrorism risks, according to internal documents obtained by America First Legal (AFL).

The board, called the “Homeland Intelligence Experts Group,” was created in September 2023 to provide DHS with “expert” analysis on subjects such as terrorism and fentanyl trafficking. The panel included former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan and former CIA Operations Officer Paul Kolbe, all of whom signed an October 2020 letter casting doubt on the legitimacy of the Hunter Biden laptop and suggesting its release was a Russian disinformation ploy.

Internal documents obtained by AFL show the board characterizing “supporters of the former president” as constituting “most of the Domestic Terrorism threat” in the United States. The documents also classified traits such as having served “in the military” and being “religious” as “indicators of extremists and terrorism,” citing unnamed research.

Military personnel are less likely to be supporters of radical political causes than other Americans, according to a 2023 RAND Corporation study. Nevertheless, suspicions of extremism in the military were popular among Democrats in the wake of the Jan. 6 riots, as 15 Democrat lawmakers signed a letter in 2021 urging Inspector General Sean O’Donnell to “take action on this wave of violent extremism” in the military.

AFL on Thursday released the first collection of documents that detailed the committee’s desire to increase information collection on Americans, including getting “mothers” and “teachers” to report on children suspected of extremism under the pretext of “public health.” The committee cited the model of the “See Something, Say Something” campaign after 9/11, which was an initiative by the DHS to encourage American citizens to report potential terror threats.

The DHS panel was shut down following a lawsuit from AFL in conjunction with former Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell. The lawsuit alleged the group violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which governs how federal advisory committees can legally operate.

“These inflammatory records reveal the interworkings of the illegal partisan committee that we proudly stopped,” AFL Executive Director Gene Hamilton told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “All Americans should be alarmed about the contents of these records. All efforts to weaponize the federal government against political opponents of the ruling regime should be stopped.”

Brennan and Clapper were also signatories of the 2020 letter that alleged the Hunter Biden laptop contents may have been part of a Russian disinformation campaign. The contents of the laptop were verified by the Daily Caller News Foundation along with other media outlets.

The DHS did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

WALLACE WHITE

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

A brief history of tragic presidential relatives, from Alice Roosevelt to Hunter Biden

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A Delaware jury found Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, guilty on June 11, 2024, of three felony counts related to lying on a federal firearms application in 2018 – making him the first child of a president to be convicted of a felony.

While Hunter Biden marked on the application that he was not using illegal drugs at the time, the jury determined that he was, in fact, lying about his drug use.

Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, issued a statement shortly after the jury’s announcement, saying that they supported Hunter and that they would “continue to respect the judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal.”

The president has previously said that he would not pardon his son if he were found guilty of a federal crime.

Joe Biden has long defended his son amid his drug addiction and other personal issues, including a paternity scandal and ongoing court battle over child support.

The president responded to the news of Hunter’s charges on June 20, 2023, by saying he is “very proud of my son.”

I am a scholar of the American presidency and have looked at how the children and other family members of presidents have been thrust into the nation’s spotlight, often unwittingly. Their shortcomings, vices and sometimes even physical appearance have been fodder for gossip columns, political opponents and comedians.

Hunter Biden is not the first child of a president to be charged with a crime. Jenna and Barbara Bush pleaded “no contest” in 2001 to misdemeanor charges of underage drinking and using a false ID. Amy Carter was arrested for protesting in 1985, and before his father was president, Donald Trump Jr. was arrested for public drunkenness in 2001.

But nearly all presidents have had incidents involving their kids and other family members that attracted public scrutiny. Some of the events fall into questionable prank category, like when Tad Lincoln, the son of Abraham Lincoln, sprayed dignitaries with fire hoses.

Other incidents are less innocuous and amusing.

Youthful indiscretions

James Madison raised his troubled stepson, John Payne Todd, as his own. Todd regularly engaged in gambling, drinking and womanizing. Madison went deeply into debt trying to pay off Todd’s vices, including once bailing him out of debtor’s prison. In the mid-1800s, Todd’s debts eventually forced his widowed mother to sell the family estate, Montpelier.

Todd even had a lawyer visit his mother on her deathbed to rewrite her will, making himself her sole heir.

Alice Roosevelt, the oldest child of Theodore Roosevelt, also presented some complications for her father during his presidency in the early 1900s.

Alice had a strained relationship with her father and his second wife, Edith. When her parents suggested sending her to a boarding school, Alice responded: “If you send me, I will humiliate you. I will do something that will shame you. I tell you I will.”

In a time when women were expected to be demur, Alice smoked, drank, partied and even sometimes wore a pet snake as an accessory.

Theodore Roosevelt once said, “I can do one of two things: I can be president of the United States or I can control Alice Roosevelt. I cannot possibly do both.”

Alice was later banned from the Taft White House after burying a voodoo doll in the likeness of the new first lady, Helen Herron Taft, on the property.

Neil Bush, son of George H.W. Bush and brother to George W. Bush, also has a colorful history.

Neil was the director of a large savings and loans company that collapsed in 1988, after it made improper and illegal loans. This cost taxpayers more than US$1 billion at the time and resulted in an embarrassing payout to federal banking regulators.

People also criticized Neil because of his ties to Chinese investors and his limited knowledge about industries that employed him, leading to accusations of influence peddling.

Neil Bush, like Hunter Biden, was also the subject of paternity accusations during his divorce.

That’s my brother

Presidential brothers have been another particular sore point for some presidents.

Lyndon Johnson’s brother, Sam Houston Johnson, was often quite talkative after he had a few drinks. The president eventually had to use the Secret Service to follow his brother to ensure he didn’t disclose any embarrassing information to the press .

Billy Carter, former President Jimmy Carter’s brother, reveled in his notoriety. As the president’s brother, he toured the country to make money and hawk his own Billy Beer.

He urinated on a runway before the press corps while waiting for people.

When Carter was running for reelection in 1980, Billy took money from the Libyan government and became a foreign agent for the country – while also making inflammatory and antisemitic statements to justify his behavior.

Billy’s association with Libya ultimately led to a Senate investigation and complicated his brother’s failed reelection campaign.

Roger Clinton, the younger half-brother of former President Bill Clinton, also engaged in questionable activities. In the 1980s, before the Clinton presidency, Roger sold cocaine to an undercover officer.

Later, during the Clinton administration, Roger’s Secret Service codename was “Headache.”

Bill Clinton pardoned Roger for his drug offenses right before leaving office in January 2001.

Keeping it in the family

Presidents are like everyone else. They, too, have family members who do or say things that eventually become stories for the dinner table – or tales people want to push under the rug.

Hunter Biden could potentially serve a maximum of 25 years in prison for this crime, though that is unlikely, since he is a first-time offender. He could also face a fine of US$750,000.

And he is still not free of other controversies. The Republican-controlled House is focusing its impeachment inquiry of Joe Biden on Hunter’s business deals in foreign countries. However, Republicans – who quickly responded to Hunter’s verdict as evidence of broader wrongdoing in the Biden family – have yet to produce evidence that fuels their impeachment case.

Hunter Biden has said that he is accountable for his actions, and I do not think it is fair to conflate the administration with the activities of an adult son.

He is not the first presidential relative who has caused turmoil, and he won’t be the last.The Conversation

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.  

Is Hunter Biden’s conviction really relevant to the upcoming presidential election? 

AUTHOR

Shannon Bow O’Brien is Associate Professor of Instruction, The University of Texas at Austin

EDITORS NOTE: This Mercator column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

A Multi-National Syndicate of Socialist Criminals

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As a former Soviet defense attorney, who loves America, I have been writing about Socialist Charlatans fighting the American political system for decades. Alas, people don’t know the Italian world Charlatans, which are Con men or women—criminals. They don’t like America and fight us in all aspects of our lives. Time is short, the 2024 election is coming in five months and I have to use the help from outside friends, who share my opinion, to identify Socialist Criminals for the American people. The first outside friend is:

Americas Tree Press Home of Canada Free Press

Evil comes in all forms, and in this case, it’s a sneaky ice cream-eating career politician doing the bidding of despicable globalists

Biden’s Border Band-Aid, Too Little, Too Late, And Done for The Wrong Reasons by Milt Harris — Bio and Archives, June 1, 2024

“This plot by the Biden administration and the Democratic party is nothing more than a ruse. They are trying to put lipstick on the pig they created and are hoping that the American public will swallow yet another lies from the master of lying. The Biden administration and the Democratic party are made up of the most dangerous group of narcissists in American history. They have an agenda and come hell or high water; they will push it unceasingly. This is all part of that plan. Having nonchalantly allowed over 10 million illegals into the country, they now want to put a band-aid over a gushing wound and walk away unscathed. Don’t let them get away with it… Vote them out!”

I have been writing about Democrats’ plot against the American Constitutional republic for forty-three years. Yes, I am writing about the Evil of Stalinism, which comes in all forms, and in this case, it’s a sneaky ice cream-eating career politician doing the bidding of despicable globalists. Mitt Harris is right, the globalists are despicable, they are led by Vladimir Putin in their fight against Western civilization and American capitalism. Read my columns about Vladimir Putin, he is a crony-capitalist, keeping alive the old system and KGB mission by only changing the name of the agency to a current FSB. President Trump is an existential threat to both Putin and Dem Biden: they are colluded to fight Republicans and American capitalism. They are a Multi-National Syndicate of Socialist Criminals!

Please, keep in mind: There are no Mexican Cartels, those are the Russian Cartels in Mexico and the Russian criminal gangs like MS-13 are infiltrating American soil and inflicting enormous damage to us—a deliberate Putin/Biden plot. Mexico is a failed state, it has been infiltrated by the Soviets since 1950-60th. Today we have a global invasion on our sovereignty by Russian terrorists and Socialist criminals. If you want to learn the story of how the Soviets infiltrated Mexico, read my column Stalin’s Cult of Personality in Biden’s White House March 11, 2024. Read about the Spanish Civil War and Spanish Orphans. Also read my column: Treason: The Putin/Biden Partnership May 18, 2024. 

The next friendly help, an eloquent one, came from Conservative Magazines, Jun 4, 2024

Here Are the Connections Between the People Behind Trump’s Prosecutions

Politics Here Are the Connections Between the People Behind Trump’s Prosecutions. Conspiracy is a strong word, but the interlocking cliques are undeniable.  – The American Conservative, Matt Wolfson, Conservative Magazines, Jun 4, 2024

“The prosecutions of President Donald Trump seem resistant to interpretation because of their strange combinations of intricacy, sordidness, and impact. The cases are filled with details that overwhelm and repel: affairs, thefts, hush money payments, cardboard boxes near toilets, the alleged complicity of property managers and valets. At the same time, their political effects are enormous, even overwhelming. Taken as a whole, the cases discourage sustained engagement, which may explain why many Americans have seemed disassociated from them, despite the drumbeat coming from both established and insurgent media.”

I can’t compete with Mitt Wolfson in eloquence and I won’t describe the rest of the text. You should read it. I only tell you that the piece written by Mitt Wolfson is very thoroughly researched, I would call it a brilliant investigation of the people behind Trump’s prosecutions. There are more than dozens of people with names unknown to me and explanations of their activities during many years. They are all Democrats connected to Biden—the unity of an inner circle.

Donald J. Trump, his lawyers, and supporters should read the piece and become familiar with “ the interlocking cliques.” I love this sentence: “Conspiracy is a strong word, but the interlocking cliques are undeniable.” Maybe, now Americans will grasp the meaning of Socialist Charlatans—these “interlocking cliques are undeniable.” I have been writing about them for the last forty-three years…

Moreover, the piece of the Democrats’ unity gave me the name of a KGB’s member there, I have written about him in some columns years ago. His name is Rahm Emanuel. Though this is my opinion about him, but…President Biden appointed him an Ambassador to Japan!? It looks to me quite important to discuss that connection. Treason is a strong and dangerous notion, it is Evil of different forms, united by human indent. I have used the notions of treason and “Fifth Column” in America since January 2021 of Biden’s presidency and Rahm Emanuel is inside the unity of all Democrats. They are a Multi-National Syndicate of Socialist Criminals!

On 8 July 2022, Shinzo Abe, the former prime minister of Japan and a serving member of the Japanese House of Representatives, was shot to death while speaking at a political event. His assassination shakes Japan and humanity. Shinso Abe was a world leader, a close friend of America and friend of Western civilization. As a Multi-National Syndicate of Socialist Criminals managed by the KGB’s Mafia/Army—the Evil Doer, assassination of Shinzo Abe shocked me, too, and I expressed my opinion writing a column: Global Operations of the KGB Mafia/Army July 22, 2022.

The Putin/Biden partnership began in Ukraine, when Obama appointed Biden as a point man to fight Ukrainian corruption. You can’t imagine the level of Soviet corruption of pro-Russia dealers in Ukraine. The owner of Burisma was a pro-Russian man. By his quid-pro-quo speech Biden has exposed himself as a man helping Putin and pro-Russian dealers to suffocate young Ukrainian democracy. The Putin/Biden partnership is still alive, coinciding the agenda of both: Biden is printing money to bankrupt American capitalism and Ukraine gives him the opportunity; besides, he has some money back in his coffer. Putin, a KGB man, treasured these ties. Evil comes in many different forms, read my column: The Truth: Putin’s Socialist Revolution in America, August 11, 2022

Biden’s Mental Capacity?

It is not a matter of age, but a matter of Biden’s mental acuity. It was obvious for me that President Biden is in cognitive decline. A former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe and Representative Ronny Jackson, a former M.D. of the White House are right: Biden’s mental fitness is a matter of national security. Biden’s mental capacity is the subject of discussion on all TV channels, radio, and computer. People across America are having eyes and ears. Americans are very fair people, who love their country and are quite upset by the Biden domestic policy, 72% think that we are on the wrong track. They don’t know Soviet Socialism, which I called Soviet Fascism, Biden has been implementing during three-and-a-half years in America. Biden’s absence of mental capacity hit the world stage on 6,6,2024 as he struggled through the D-Day ceremony. What a shame!!!

The veterans of WWII noted decisive changes in the country: one of them said: “I don’t recognize America.” June 6, 2024 marks 80th Anniversary of D-Day, an invasion that was a turning point of our Victory in WWII. The world had sacrificed thousands of lives fighting German Fascism to secure our freedom and freedom of occupied Europe. I am a victim of German Fascism and the Victory in WWII I felt as my personal victory, victory of humanity. My family arrived from Leningrad (St, Petersburg) to Gaisin, Ukraine for vacation on June 21,1941, three houses before Germany announced a war against the Soviet Union. Gaisin is located several miles from the border. The story of our survival you can read in my book Baltic Winds Testimony of a Soviet Attorney Xlibris, 2002.

Having lived in America for four decades, I celebrated every date connected to the Victory in WWII. Moreover, I realized that America had help me to survive then in the Soviet Union. I will never forget the American “ tushonca” a can of pork with a lot of fat inside, provided the Soviets by Land Lease. Many Soviet people survived, eating those cans of pork with a lot of fat, as there was not much other food in the USSR. Getting accommodation in America was a God Blessing for me.  And listening Biden, who didn’t mention Israel and millions of Jews killed by German Fascism in his speech on D-Day has greatly stressed me. Instead, Biden tries to alarm people that democracy is in danger by Trump’s MAGA. Biden repeats over and over shocking lies about Trump in order to push Radical propaganda on the public. I have interpreted it as a non-stop infiltration and influence of Russia.

The Russian influence began somewhere in the 1960th by fraudulent Stalin’s idea of abortion and pro-choice. It was time when the Russian Intel began its infiltration into the Democrat party and you can see how abortion discussion has been influenced by Russia’s fraud. The premise of abortion is clear—prevention of pregnancy. Socialist Charlatans just moved the time span one bit further and the Republicans, as usual, swallowed a fraudulent hook. The real pregnancy comes to life by the sexual act and the actual choice is a prevention of sexual act. It is action taken before the sexual act that prevents pregnancy and not actions after the fact. Abortion has been discussed in the wrong territory. Read my column.

Russia is a terrorist state, described by me for the last forty-three years. The FBI Director warned us: “The threat of terrorism increased dramatically.” The FBI Director Mr. Wray now afraid of coordinated attacks here at home. Mr. Wray has no clue about the KGB’s Mafia/Army—the Evil Doer and its activities during the last several decades described in my books and columns. The FBI has expended incredible resources to track down and destroy the lives of peaceful January 6 protesters since 2021. Yet they haven’t arrested a single one of the child rapists who Jeffrey Epstein trafficked all those little girls to in five years!  In my opinion, the Jeffrey Epstein clan is a part of a Multi-National Syndicate of Socialist Criminals.

To expose a Multi-National Syndicate of Socialist Criminals, you have to go back in time to expose an ideological chain of Socialist Charlatans. Start with the Bill Clinton presidency and the Clinton Foundation, which I called the “eyes and ears of the KGB.” Clinton established the Clinton Mafia, consisting predominantly of lawyers to help Socialist Charlatans and analyze their activities. You now meet some of them: Lanny Davis, who defended Michael Cohen and Abbe Lowell, a defender of Hunter Biden. Read my columns about those lawyers and read about Bill Clinton in my book: Baltic Winds Testimony of a Soviet Attorney, Xlibris, 2002. By the way, the FBI didn’t want you to read the book and the FISA Court made me a Foreign Agent with consequent sabotage and banning my writings…

Stalin’s agenda to destroy American Capitalism has been a model for Biden’s presidency since the first day in the White House by closing a Key Stone pipeline and waging war on fossil fuel. In fact, Biden’s policy has initiated a global crisis: the natural resources fossil fuel, gas, and coal are the driving force of the global economic engine and there is nothing else now to substitute it. The Putin/Biden plot had established a Globalist World Order against free market capitalism. This is the beginning of WWIII, deliberately choreographed by the Dems to save their traitorous existence. Read my column: The Putin Biden KGB Border Plot, October 17, 2022.

We are very vulnerable today: thousands of terrorists and other criminals are crossing our Southern border and nobody is vetting them. Crime is rising nationwide. Our Universities and Colleges are the center of the” Fifth Column ” supporting Hamas-terrorists and our Commander-in-Chief is lacking mental capacity…  “There is an anti-Semitism afoot in this country, which we haven’t had in a very long time,” Maher is right, “That is coming down from elite colleges who see everything only through a racial lens. They are stupid. They don’t know history. They think everything is about colonizers and racists, and how awful America is,” Maher added. Bill Maher just blew up this terrible lie Hollywood talks about Donald Trump, Deplorable Daily, 6,2, 2024.

Don’t be surprised by the arrogance of the Liberal activist who secretly recorded Justices Alito and Roberts at Gala. We are in a dramatic chaos in America due to the Dems’ treason! Vote them out!

To be continued www.simonapipko.com and at Simona Pipko

©2024. Simona Pipko. All rights reserved.

RELATED VIDEO: FROZEN JOE: POTUS Motionless for Nearly a Minute, ‘Lights on But No One’s Home’

Delaware Jury Convicts Hunter Biden On Felony Gun Charges

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A Delaware jury convicted Hunter Biden on three felony gun charges Tuesday.

Special counsel David Weiss charged Hunter Biden in September on three counts relating to his purchase of a Colt Cobra revolver in October 2018, alleging he knowingly possessed the gun while addicted to drugs and made false statements on the purchase form. The jury found him guilty on all counts.

Hunter Biden was indicted on separate tax charges in December.

Last July, a deal that would have had Hunter Biden plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and enter a diversion agreement for a felony gun charge fell apart under questioning by District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika, who voiced concerns about an immunity provision included in the diversion agreement. The diversion agreement stated Hunter Biden would not be criminally prosecuted for any crimes encompassed by the statement of facts in his plea deal, which listed the millions of dollars he received through foreign business dealings in China, Ukraine and Romania.

The payments, along with President Joe Biden’s involvement in his son’s business dealings, have been the subject of investigations by the House Oversight Committee.

Prosecutor Leo Wise admitted to Noreika at the time that he was not aware of precedent for an agreement not to prosecute crimes “that have nothing to do with the case or the charges being diverted.”

During the trial, prosecutors called a total of 10 witnesses and rested their case on Friday. Witnesses included multiple women who were romantically involved with Hunter Biden, such as his ex-wife Kathleen Buhle, his ex-girlfriend Zoe Kestan and Hallie Biden, the widow of his late brother Beau Biden.

To show Hunter Biden was addicted to drugs at the time of his gun purchase, prosecutors cited portions of his memoir, Beautiful Things, where he elaborates on his drug use in 2018, as well as text messages he sent relating to his drug use.

“I was sleeping on a car smoking crack on 4th street and Rodney,” Hunter Biden wrote in a text from October 14, 2018.

Some evidence was obtained from the laptop he abandoned at a Delaware repair shop in April 2019. Special Counsel David Weiss shot down the defense’s challenge to the laptop’s authenticity, calling their argument in court filings “a conspiracy theory with no supporting evidence.”

FBI agent Erika Jensen, a witness for prosecutors, confirmed on the stand that she had not seen any evidence of tampering with the data.

“The evidence was personal, it was ugly, it was overwhelming,” Wise said during closing arguments, according to NBC News. “It was also absolutely necessary.”

The defense argued that Hunter Biden did not believe he was an addict at the time of the purchase. Naomi Biden, Hunter’s daughter, testified in his defense, speaking about two meetings with her father during 2018, one at a Los Angeles rehab facility during the summer and another in New York City during the fall.

Naomi Biden recalled that her father seemed during that summer “the clearest” she had seen him in the three years since her uncle’s death, The New York Times reported. On cross-examination, prosecutors presented text messages from Hunter Biden’s visit to New York City in October 2018, where she was living at the time.

“I just want to hang out with you,” she wrote in one message, according to Politico. He apologized for being so “unreachable.”

Defense attorneys opted not to call President Joe Biden’s brother, James Biden, as a witness. Hunter Biden also did not testify in his own defense.

Many Biden family members attended the trial, including First Lady Jill Biden.

Hunter Biden’s California trail on federal tax charges is scheduled to take place in September.

AUTHOR

KATELYNN RICHARDSON

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Hunter Biden Possessed Crack Rock The Size Of A Ping Pong Ball, Hallie Biden Testifies In Trial

FBI Witness Goes Against Hunter Biden Legal Team’s Laptop Narrative

RELATED VIDEO: The evidence against Hunter Biden is ‘overwhelming’: Gregg Jarrett

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Christian Court Victory, Biden Abandons Americans, and More: 5 Stories You Missed

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The news this week focused on a glut of truly momentous stories: President Donald Trump’s norms-breaking conviction, Joe Biden’s loophole-ridden executive actions at the border, and Biden’s attempt to draft D-Day veterans into his war to maintain the White House. But a week of consequential news often drowns out genuinely significant developments, as well.

This week, that included a transgender theorist’s admission that her work does target children, the unreported facts behind this week’s “strong” jobs report, the U.S. government’s war against a Christian business, a touching act of charity as a wounded politician publicly forgives his would-be assassin, and Joe Biden’s abandonment of Americans in yet another theater of combat.

1. A Christian business wins a small tag-of-war with the Biden administration.

As President Joe Biden used the venerable surviving veterans of D-Day as a backdrop for a domestic-themed speech, Christian businesses fought his administration’s attempts to deny the unalienable constitutional rights those veterans fought to preserve.

Shields of Strength began producing replicas of Army, Air Force, and Marines dog tags, inscribed with a Bible verse, in 2012. Their work brought comfort and solace to those killed in America’s decades-long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as Family Research Council President Tony Perkins described in 2020:

“Her son, Sgt. Cole Wixom, was killed on duty — almost one year ago today. His body was flown home to Michigan a week later, but along the way, his mom says, someone gave the soldier accompanying his remains a dog tag with a Bible verse on it. In a letter, [Wixom’s mother, Robyn] tells Kenny Vaughan, the founder of Shields of Strength, that she’s ‘worn it ever since, along with the dog tag that was attached to his coffin. I can barely see the writing anymore. It’s tarnished, but I know what it says. It says, “I will be strong and courageous. I will not be afraid. I will not be discouraged.” You have no idea,’ the grieving mom said, ‘what this little piece of metal has meant to me…’”

Comforting the grieving proved too great an offense for the atheist activists at the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which claimed the dog tags “poison[ed] the constitutionally mandated separation of Church and State.” In 2019, the Army withdrew its permission for the Christian company to recreate the faith-themed dog tags. They were followed by the Marines. Soon, the Department of Defense accused the company of trademark infringement.

This week, the Christian business cut a small hole through the enemy’s lines. With the help of First Liberty Institute, the business argued the Pentagon’s actions violated the freedom of speech rights recognized by the First Amendment. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division, allowed the company’s First Amendment case to proceed.

It’s a small victory, but true warriors know: Small victories lead to great triumphs. Yet the company should not have to prevail in court: The federal government can reverse its fear-filled attempt to placate secular maximalists and rescind its objections. The Biden administration should end its war against Christian retailers as precipitously as it did its war against Afghan terrorists.

2. Transgender theorist: Actually, we do groom children.

This Tuesday, during a little-viewed presentation, two largely obscure academics blurted out one of the most noteworthy if inadvertent confessions in the history of the transgender movement.

The moment came during an exchange between queer theorists Judith Butler of Berkeley and Judith “Jack” Halberstam of Columbia. Halberstam opened their conversation, hosted by Pioneer Works and Dia Art Foundation, by condemning a “strange set of accusations that people who believe in [extreme] gender [ideology] are trying to destroy the family [or] they are pedophiles themselves.”

Halberstam and Butler then proceeded to admit, in essence, many of their foes’ accusations are true.

“I was identified as representing gender ideology and a threat to children. My work would indoctrinate them. Or my work would license pedophilia. Or my work and the work of gender more broadly would teach them how to become homosexual or teach them they must become homosexual,” groused Butler.

“Which is kinda true,” replied Halberstam, who giggled as Butler cracked a smile. “Kinda worked, yeah!”

Butler confessed, “Of course, we know Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick said, ‘Yes, we do teach that!’ And that is one answer. If that is your desire, and you’re looking for ways to live according to that desire, come along, and we’ll make that easier for you.”

She proceeded to deny that, “as a group, people who advocate policy or teaching Gender Studies are in favor of indoctrination or unwanted seduction. In fact, we spend most of our time criticizing both.”

Charges that LGBTQ theory will erode basic societal guards against pedophilia are “a projection of ‘the Church’” trying to find evidence of its own crimes in those they [sic] wish to persecute.”

“This is how priests confess,” Butler averred.

In reality, Butler has personally written that it may “be necessary to rethink the prohibition on incest,” since “incest [is] necessarily traumatic.” Moreover, laws banning incest make it more difficult to realize “lesbian and gay forms of parenting.” As such, laws against incest may become the “instrument of a violation.” In her 2004 book “Undoing Gender,” Butler wrote:

“I do think that there are probably forms of incest that are not necessarily traumatic or which gain their traumatic character by virtue of the consciousness of social shame that they produce. … One of the symbolic consequences of the law [against incest] so formulated is precisely the derealization of lesbian and gay forms of parenting, single-mother households, blended family arrangements in which there may be more than one mother or father … It is important to note that not all forms of incest are necessarily traumatic … It might, then, be necessary to rethink the prohibition on incest as that which sometimes protects against a violation, and sometimes becomes the very instrument of a violation” (pp. 157-160).

Examples of LGBTQ literature glorifying adult-child sexual relations became so numerous that scholar Mary Eberstadt categorized them in a 1996 article titled “Pedophilia Chic.” Among them is Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues,” possibly the play that has enjoyed the single greatest amount of adulation from Gender Studies departments. In its original form, Ensler’s play featured a positive portrayal of a 24-year-old woman raping a 13-year-old girl. (The child’s age was subsequently raised to the still-illegal age of 16.) Similarly positive portrayals of pedophilia occur in Jonathan Evison’s “Lawn Boy,” a book in many school libraries, which contains a boy fondly reminiscing about performing fellatio on a grown man.

Butler’s hero, Gayle Rubin, defended child pornography and “boylovers” in her 1984 essay, “Thinking Sex,” in which Rubin wrote, “The laws produced by the child porn panic are ill-conceived and misdirected.” For example, “some child pornography laws prohibit even the private possession of any sexual material involving minors.”

Rubin’s inverted moral compass depicted police as viciously devouring adult men who happen to have sex with underage boys:

“Like communists and homosexuals in the 1950s, boylovers are so stigmatized that it is difficult to find defenders for their civil liberties, let alone for their erotic orientation. Consequently, the police have feasted on them.”

Critiquing laws that prevent adults from sexually exploiting minors’ vulnerable mental state, Rubin believed children could be sexualized “in a caring and responsible manner”:

“The law is especially ferocious in maintaining the boundary between childhood ‘innocence’ and ‘adult’ sexuality. Rather than recognizing the sexuality of the young, and attempting to provide for it in a caring and responsible manner, our culture denies and punishes erotic interest and activity by anyone under the local age of consent. The amount of law devoted to protecting young people from premature exposure to sexuality is breath-taking.”

Rubin’s ideology would infect queer theory root-and-branch. Ten years after these words were written, Judith Butler interviewed Gayle Rubin, telling Rubin, “[Y]ou set the methodology for feminist theory, then the methodology for lesbian and gay studies.”

3. About that ‘strong’ jobs report ….

President Joe Biden continues to build a strong economy for illegal aliens and their employers.

The legacy media described the May 2024 jobs report as “strong,” a “blowout,” and “much-better-than-expected.” And Biden dubbed it evidence of “the great American comeback.” Those evaluations seem difficult to sustain, since the report actually shows:

  • 299,000 fewer native-born Americans held a job this year compared to last May.
  • 637,000 more foreign-born immigrants (legal or illegal) held a job during the same time period.
  • Bidenomics destroyed 625,000 full-time jobs since April — or 1.16 million year-over-year.
  • The Biden economy produced 286,000 more part-time jobs in one month — or 1.51 million since last May.
  • Consequently, 16,000 more people worked two or more jobs in May than in April — 629,000 more than last May.

Particularly, the benefits reaped by non-citizens does not represent a new trend: U.S. citizens hold fewer jobs today than before the pandemic, while foreign-born workers hold significantly more. “[A]ll post-pandemic job growth, coinciding with the millions of illegal aliens allowed into the country by the Biden administration, has gone to foreign-born workers,” notes the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).

A “great American comeback” is precisely what unemployed and under-employed Americans need most.

4. A president forgives his would-be assassin.

One of the unreported stories this week involves a world leader who exercised the Christian virtue of forgiveness on an incalculable scale. On May 15, a gunman shot Robert Fico, president of Slovakia, four times in a failed assassination attempt. On Wednesday, Fico responded.

“It’s time for me to make the first move. And that is forgiveness,” said the wounded president during a 14-minute-long video posted on Facebook. “I feel no hatred towards the stranger who shot me. I will not take any legal action against him, nor will I seek damages compensation.”

“I forgive him,” said Fico. “Let him sort out what he did and why he did it in his own head.”

Such effusive displays of forgiveness have become exceedingly rare in our secularizing world. Fico joins a distinguished list of public officials who let their love of neighbor overcome an attempt on their lives, including:

  • Pope John Paul II, who met his would-be assassin, Mehmet Ali Agca, in prison, holding his hand.
  • President Ronald Reagan, whom son Michael revealed wanted to meet John Hinckley Jr. in prison in 1981. The former president would publicly express his forgiveness in 1990, saying, “I added him to my prayers that, well, if I wanted healing for myself and maybe he should have some healing for himself.”
  • Former Alabama Governor George Wallace, who wrote a touching letter to Arthur Bremer 23 years after Bremer’s attack left the 1972 presidential hopeful paralyzed. Wallace wrote, “I am a born-again Christian. I love you. I have asked our Heavenly Father to touch your heart, and I hope that you will ask Him for forgiveness of your sin so you can go to heaven like I am going to heaven.”

Fico said the man was “only a messenger of evil and political hatred,” which he accused his political opponents of stoking “to unmanageable proportions.” An official pre-trial detention order records that his attacker, 71-year-old Juraj Cintula, “decided to act,” because he views the Euroskeptic Fico “as a Judas toward the European Union” wants Fico to approve “military assistance to be given to Ukraine.”

Speaking of Ukraine ….

5. Biden abandons U.S. citizens in Ukraine, too.

Although Congress has approved $174.8 billion in aid to Ukraine in two years, the Biden administration is standing idly by while the President Volodymyr Zelensky attempts to draft U.S. citizens into his army.

As the Russian military takes its toll and Ukrainian opposition to prolonging the conflict grows, Zelensky has widened the population he’s drafted into the war effort. Zelensky signed legislation making every man between the ages of 18 and 60 eligible for military conscription. He’s also required every Ukrainian male between the ages of 18 and 60 to register with the government and carry registration documents with them at all times.

How does this affect U.S. citizens? Some Americans hold both U.S. and Ukrainian citizenship. Unfortunately for them, Ukraine does not recognize dual citizenship. Zelensky treats them as potential conscripts.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Embassy essentially told U.S. citizens entangled in Zelensky’s laws that they’re on their own:

“U.S.-Ukrainian dual citizens are therefore treated solely as Ukrainian citizens while in Ukraine and are subject to the rights and obligations of Ukrainian citizens. Under Ukraine’s martial law, men between the ages of 18 and 60 are not permitted to leave the country. Previously, dual U.S.-Ukrainian citizens in this group could enter and then depart Ukraine if they had deregistered their Ukrainian residency and registered their U.S. residency. According to our information, this exception was revoked as of June 1.”

As a result, “There is an extremely high risk you will not be allowed to depart, even with a U.S. passport.”

“The U.S. Embassy is limited in our ability to influence Ukrainian law,” said the memo.

A casual observer might believe the United States has $175 billion worth of influence over Ukrainian law, which it might exert on behalf of its own people. Instead, Biden personally apologized to Zelensky that the U.S. democratic process helped up aid delivery to his country. The apology came as his government announced it would send $225 million more U.S. taxpayer dollars to the Zelensky government. Zelensky, in turn, criticized the U.S. and other nations for not training Ukrainian pilots to fly the U.S.-provided F-16s faster.

Biden’s ill-executed withdrawal from Afghanistan left thousands of Americans trapped by the Taliban. As of this writing, Hamas still holds eight U.S. citizens hostage in Gaza. The first American hostage freed from Gaza, four-year-old Abigail Mor Edan, is the niece of a Biden donor who purchased one of Hunter Biden’s “artwork.”

This week’s underreported stories show, in war as in the economy, the Biden administration always abandons America first.

Bonus stories:

  • Psst, on Wednesday House Republicans issued criminal referrals for Hunter Biden and the president’s brother, James Biden, for allegedly lying to Congress. Curiously few legacy media outlets chose to juxtapose President Trump’s conviction with the legal troubles of his opponent’s family.
  • After years of denialism, The New York Times ran an op-ed on Monday titled, “Why the Pandemic Probably Started in a Lab, in 5 Key Points.”
  • On Tuesday, 500 non-U.S. citizens voted in the District of Columbia’s elections.
  • Democratic Rep. Gabe Vasquez (N.M.) used an anti-black slur in a phone call to his former employer in 2004.
  • New Jersey Democrats voted for a dead man in Tuesday’s primary. Although former Rep. Ronald Payne Jr. died of a heart attack in April, he won his party’s nomination this week.
  • Joe Biden has threatened to veto funding for America’s veterans, because House Republicans stripped out funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs to carry out abortions, promote transgender procedures, and promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

FBI rigs 2020 election by denying Hunter’s laptop was real, but somehow it gets admitted to court as evidence

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For once I would like to be Hunter Biden’s lawyer.

I would show the 20 minute video of enemy propaganda video pushing the FBI narrative that the Laptop was Russian disinformation.

I would then say that to admit the Laptop was in fact saying that the FBI and the executive branch of the U.S. government are lying.

And either the court itself was therefore accusing the FBI and President Biden of perjury, and either way none of this is credible.

It probably should be thrown out of court. And then Hunter and Joe should be arrested for treason and the FBI defunded for rigging the 2020 election by hiding the laptop which they know they had, and they know was real.

The court is in a pickle. To allow the evidence from the laptop means ignoring something about a billion times bigger than a tweaker with a revolver.

Here is what a Maoist mass-line narrative attack looks and sounds like, and above, is how it was used to disenfranchise every single American. To negate elections.

RELATED ARTICLE: FBI Witness Completely Blows Up Hunter Biden Legal Team’s Laptop Narrative

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EDITORS NOTE: This Vlad Tepes Blog column with video posted by Eeyore is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Big Abortion Defeated, Border Patrol Atrophying, and Hunter Biden’s ‘Perjury’: 5 Stories You Missed

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With patriotic Americans preparing to commemorate the brave soldiers who sacrificed themselves in our nation’s battles — and the rest of America preparing to take a day off work — it became easier to miss news stories. But even if you gleaned the headlines like prospectors panning for gold, some stories went underreported in the last full week of May: Big Abortion suffered a setback at the ballot box; Border Patrol suffered (yet another) setback under Joe Biden; Hunter Biden suffered a setback from (allegedly) perjuring himself before Congress; the legacy media suffered a setback with viewers; and all Americans suffered rampant setbacks from inflation.

  1. Big Abortion’s Big Defeat

Nonpartisan state elections that take place in the middle of the year receive little media coverage — but the media made an exception this month, when a Georgia Supreme Court race briefly became a national bellwether for abortion. Then, as soon as the results came in, the media shrouded the results in studied silence.

Democrat and former five-term U.S. Congressman John Barrow decided he could win a seat on the Georgia Supreme Court by launching into an extended abortion monologue against Justice Andrew Pinson, who was appointed by Governor Brian Kemp (R) in 2022. Although three other high court justices ran unopposed, Barrow explained he specifically targeted Pinson because, as state solicitor general, Pinson defended Georgia’s heartbeat law — a pro-life protection shielding unborn babies from abortion once doctors can detect a fetal heartbeat, usually around six weeks.

During an interview with The Hill, Barrow summarized his candidacy with a triple-redundant mission statement: “I’m running for the Supreme Court of Georgia because I believe that women today have the same rights under the state constitution that they used to have under Roe vs. Wade, before it was overturned with the help of my opponent, and that’s why I’m running[,] and that’s why I’m running against him.”

No one had any doubt about the thrust of the campaign. Planned Parenthood and abortion lobbying groups endorsed him. “A state Supreme Court race in Georgia puts abortion on the ballot,” proclaimed MSNBC.

Barrow remained so committed to centering his entire campaign on abortion that, when the Georgia Judicial Qualifications Commission told him he was violating judicial ethics by announcing how he would vote on cases that had yet to come before him, Barrow sued to keep talking about abortion. (A judge dismissed the case.)

How did Barrow’s single-issue campaign come out? He lost by a 10-point spread: 55% Pinson vs. 45% Barrow.

The Southeast campaign director of the abortion lobby group Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America), Alicia Stallworth, pronounced the group “deeply disappointed” at the results. Christian conservatives celebrated. “The Democratic strategy of placing abortion at the center of the 2024 campaign utterly failed” last Tuesday in Georgia, said Ralph Reed, Faith & Freedom Coalition chairman and founder. Barrow’s loss “calls into question the entire Democratic strategy of eking out a victory by scaring suburban voters with abortion.”

The word sadly trickled out in local media. “Incumbent Georgia Justice Andrew Pinson defeats challenge from John Barrow focused on abortion rights,” stated Atlanta’s public broadcasting station WABE. “Justice Pinson wins court race that became referendum on abortion rights in Georgia,” reported Georgia Reporter, a publication of States Newsroom (a left-wing organization posing as a news organization, as we described earlier this month).

Curiously, that’s when the previously top-watched race fell off the national radar. The story made the national media thanks to Tim Carney of the Washington Examiner, who called Barrow’s defeat “perhaps the biggest electoral win for the pro-life cause since the fall of Roe v. Wade.”

It bears repeating: The narrative of the undefeatable abortion monologue had failed. Pro-life candidates should campaign accordingly.

  1. U.S. Border Patrol Has Lost One-Quarter of Its Agents during the Biden Administration

It’s no secret that illegal immigration — a simmering, slow-motion crisis that has been percolating for decades — has reached its worst extent thanks to the malign neglect of the Biden administration. Fewer stories have featured the morale-sapping impact his policies have on those who signed up to keep America’s borders secure.

One out of every four Border Patrol agents has left the agency since Joe Biden took office, a new review of the statistics has found. That’s an attrition rate far higher than his predecessors.

The Border Patrol employed 19,357 agents in fiscal year 2022.

During the Trump and Obama administrations, the agency lost an average of 996 agents a year — or 3,486 agents during a comparable 42-month period.

But since October 2020, the Border Patrol has lost a grand total of 4,281 agents: 3,665 in fiscal years 2020-2023, and 616 in the six months after the end of FY 2023 last October. That averages out to 1,222 agents annually in the Biden years.

Much of that atrophying came from experienced agents deciding they have had enough of Biden’s policies. Early retirements more than doubled during this period, from 257 a year (2014-2020) to 529 during this administration.

Biden lied that two Border Patrol agents in Del Rio, Texas, “whipped” illegal immigrants from Haiti who attempted to run past the agents into U.S. territory. “Those people will pay,” Biden vowed, before an investigation had formally taken place. As I explained at the time, “In reality, Border Patrol agents don’t carry whips, none of the photos showed their reins touching anybody, and agents would swing their reins to prevent people from getting hurt by their trampling horses.” The story proved as comprehensively false as any story can. The administration quietly dropped the case — but used the false story to prevent agents from patrolling the border on horseback. Competent agents decided they did not want to become the next one singled out for national humiliation by the president of the United States on the grounds of a baseless allegation.

Clearing out a federal agency of competent, dedicated civil servants accomplishes a dark, double policy goal for Biden: It removes agents who might pose administrative obstacles to his lax border policies and makes room to replace them with “diverse” new hires committed to his open borders agenda.

  1. Hunter Biden Committed Perjury?

It’s hardly news that the legacy media suppresses stories about Hunter Biden. Not only did major news outlets refuse to cover his laptop (after receiving a briefing from the intelligence community that such a story would be leaked by a foreign power), but they publicized a statement organized by Democratic officials from former intelligence agents insisting the whole thing smacked of perfidious Russian disinformation.

Well, they’re at it again.

The House Ways and Means Committee announced last Tuesday the release of more than 100 pages of obtained evidence from IRS whistleblowers that Hunter Biden may have committed perjury before Congress on February 28. Hunter Biden famously flouted his defiance of a congressional subpoena by storming out of a hearing and demanding a public interrogation, before retreating to the safety of a closed-door deposition.

The evidence shows that he lied under oath three times, House Republicans say. They say Hunter lied about a text he sent telling a Chinese official he and his father would use all their power against the company unless they received payment for services rendered. “I sent the text to the wrong Zhao,” said Hunter, claiming he texted a man who had nothing to do with the Chinese energy company and probably had no idea what the texts were about. The committee released WhatsApp records showing Biden contacted only one Zhao, named Raymond Zhao, whom he stayed in touch with for months. Zhao facilitated the release of $5 million from China to the Biden family.

They also say Hunter Biden fibbed when he claimed a shell company he set up with friend Devon Archer, Rosemont Seneca Bohai, was never “under my control nor affiliated with me.” The committee released a document signed by the president’s son stating, “I, Robert Hunter Biden, hereby certify that I am the duly elected, qualified and acting Secretary of Rosemont Seneca Bohai, LLC.”

Biden also denied trying to help any foreign business associates obtain a U.S. visa. “I’d never pick up the phone and call anybody for a visa,” he said under oath. The committee released an email from Devon Archer stating, “Hunter is checking with Miguel Aleman to see if he can provide cover to Kola on the visa.” The individual in question, “Kola,” is Nikolay Zlochevsky, CEO of Burisma.

“Lying during sworn testimony is a felony offense that the Department of Justice has prosecuted numerous individuals for in recent years, and the American people expect the same accountability for the son of the president of the United States,” said Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), chairman of the powerful committee.

Curiously, this blockbuster revelation has made few headlines, as the media instead repeat the most salacious details of Donald Trump’s trials which, arguably, are not criminal. This jaundiced coverage may explain why …

  1. Americans Keep Fleeing the Legacy Media

After years of repeating the “Russia collusion” narrative and covering up “fiery but mostly peaceful” protests, the legacy media continue to lose readers and trust. Two former titans of the legacy media announced last week they have taken on water.

The most influential newspaper in the nation’s capital, The Washington Post, has officially lost half of its subscribers since 2020. The subscriber plunge cost the newspaper $77 million in revenue in just the last year. “To speak candidly: We are in a hole, and we have been for some time,” Post publisher Will Lewis told employees during a meeting last Wednesday.

But the Post has plans to turn around the slide by rolling out tiered membership plans, as well as (in the words of the Post), “launching a product focused on the relationship between the climate and the economy.” It’s not clear how that will help, since voters ranked “dealing with climate change” 18th out of 20 issues presented to them as the most important crises facing America in a Pew Research Center survey earlier this year. (“Strengthening the economy” came in number one.) “I hope in the future you see this day as a significant day in the history of our company,” Lewis told employees.

Good luck with that.

Readers are not just giving up on newspapers: They’re also turning off left-wing news outlets. During the week of May 13-19, CNN averaged the lowest viewership among its most coveted audience in 33 years. CNN averaged only 83,000 members of the “targeted demographic,” which consists of people between the ages of 25 and 54. That’s its lowest share since 1991. CNN won a total viewership of 494,000 — less than half of rival MSNBC and less than one-quarter of Fox News Channel’s two million total viewers. That comes after CNN lost $100 million in revenue in 2022.

The driving force of much legacy media also took a step backwards. The left-wing group Media Matters for America (MMFA) — founded by Hillary Clinton ally David Brock and funded by George Soros — created miniature media feeding frenzies by wrenching soundbites of conservative commentators out of context. The legacy media often did no original research before breathlessly repeating their press releases.

The turning point came last November, when Elon Musk took MMFA to court for defamation after the group claimed major advertisers’ slogans appeared next to Nazi and white supremacist symbols and slogans on the social media platform X. But it appears MMFA “researchers” simply created accounts that followed only the most offensive accounts and major corporations, until its feed artificed results that would never occur organically.

Facing the music, Media Matters announced mass layoffs last Thursday. “We’re confronting a legal assault on multiple fronts and given how rapidly the media landscape is shifting, we need to be extremely intentional about how we allocate resources in order to stay effective,” said MMFA President Angelo Carusone.

Apparently, there is a price to pay for churning out bad journalism.

  1. Inflation Is Canceling Many Summer Vacations

Memorial Day weekend marks the unofficial beginning of summer, but too many Americans cannot afford a family holiday this year thanks to Bidenomics.

A new survey released by Fox News last week found that 55% of Americans will not be taking a summer vacation this year — and 73% of those respondents say high prices and the poor economy make it impossible. A total of 72% of travelers say prices affected their decisions about taking a vacation. One told the Associated Press that the crime-riddled city of Philadelphia “was not our original destination, but we chose here because it was cheaper.”

At the same time, families are having a harder time having a staycation in their own homes, because home ownership has crept increasingly out of reach due to rampant Bidenflation. The figures tell the full story: The average person needs to earn 80% more today than in 2020 to buy a home — $47,000 more than in 2020 — yet average wages increased during that time only 23% in nominal terms. “In 2020, a household earning $59,000 annually could comfortably afford the monthly mortgage on a typical U.S. home,” explained Zillow. “Now, the roughly $106,500 needed to comfortably afford the mortgage payment on a typical home is well above what a typical U.S. household earns each year, estimated at about $81,000.”

Inflation does not just impact vacation plans: 86% of small businesses say “inflation has hurt their businesses in the past year,” according to a survey produced by Alignable. More than three out of four small business owners also cited “tax policies” (79%) and “regulations” (76%) as “major hurdles” to their success. “In particular, many said taxes are just too high,” reported Alignable, “especially since interest rates and inflation have reduced their cash on hand.”

The fact is, you aren’t being told about inflation, but you don’t need to be. You’re living it.

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

CIA Blocked Probe Into Hunter Biden’s ‘Sugar Brother’ Kevin Morris, Docs Show

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The CIA appeared to instruct the Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) for Delaware, Lesley Wolf, to block an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) team’s investigation into Hunter Biden from using his benefactor, Kevin Morris, as a witness, IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley said in an affidavit the House Ways and Means Committee released Wednesday.

Shapley, as a lead investigator for the IRS Criminal Division, was heading a probe into Biden in August 2021 when Wolf informed him that she and DOJ Tax Attorney Jack Morgan had been summoned to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Wolf, Morgan and the CIA discussed Hunter Biden’s associate and benefactor, Kevin Morris, Shapley said in the affidavit.

Shapley and his team were considering using Morris as a witness for their case against Biden, but Wolf apparently shut the possibility down.

“AUSA Wolf stated that they were provided a classified briefing in relation to Mr. Morris and as a result we could no longer pursue him as a witness,” Shapley stated.

Morris has been a generous donor to Biden, buying 11 of his paintings and loaning him at least $5 million for tax debts and to cover personal expenses, Republican Kentucky Rep. James Comer revealed in a January press release.

Shapley asked Wolf to give him a classified briefing on the information she learned that prompted her to eliminate Morris as a viable witness, but she failed to share any information with him, Shapley said.

“Although AUSA Wolf initially appeared to be receptive to facilitating a briefing for me on the information, she ignored multiple attempts by me to arrange the briefing,” Shapley claimed in the affidavit.

Wolf, upon her return from the meeting in Langley, appeared to flaunt agency-branded merchandise she acquired at their headquarters, according to Shapley.

“AUSA Wolf proudly referenced a CIA mug and stated that she purchased some CIA ‘swag’ at the gift shop while she was there,” Shapley shared.

Shapley had been investigating Hunter Biden for potential criminal tax code violations until the DOJ removed him from the investigation in May 2023 after Shapley disclosed concerns to Congress about alleged prosecutorial mishandling of the investigation.

AUTHOR

ROBERT MCGREEVY

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Tony Bobulinski Sues Rep. Dan Goldman For Defamation

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Tony Bobulinksi will sue New York Democratic Rep. Daniel Goldman on Friday morning for defamation, the Daily Caller has first learned.

Bobulinski, a former business associate of Hunter Biden who has accused President Joe Biden of wrongdoing, previously threatened legal action against Goldman after Bobulinski appeared for a public hearing before Congress last month. After the hearing, Goldman sent a tweet accusing Bobulinski of making “false allegations” with the help of a Trump-affiliated lawyer.

READ THE LAWSUIT HERE: 

(DAILY CALLER OBTAINED) — … by Henry Rodgers

Bobulinski sent a letter to Goldman demanding that he remove the post and issue a retraction within five days or be hit with a lawsuit. Weeks later, the post is still up.

“Your statement, as though it were a matter of fact, that Mr. Bobulinski has lied to federal investigators and Congress, is defamatory per se and will not be tolerated,” Bobulinksi’s legal representation wrote in the earlier letter.

During that Congressional hearing, Democrats threatened to subpoena Bobulinski for the Blackberry he communicated with Hunter Biden on, suggesting that perhaps texts he provided to the committee did not tell the full story of their partnership.

Bobulinski fired back at both Goldman and Democratic Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin during the hearing, calling them liars.

“Rep. Dan Goldman and Jamie Raskin, both lawyers, and Mr. Goldman, a former prosecutor with the SDNY from New York, will continue to lie today in this hearing and then go straight to the media to tell more lies,” Bobulinski said.”

The Daily Caller reached out to Goldman’s office for a response to the lawsuit but has yet to receive a response.

AUTHOR

HENRY RODGERS

Chief national correspondent. Follow Henry Rodgers On Twitter.

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Hunter Biden Ex-Business Partners To Go Scorched Earth On Bidens, House Democrats In Testimony

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Several of Hunter Biden’s ex-business partners are planning to go scorched earth on the first son and his father, President Joe Biden and House Democrats during a congressional hearing on Wednesday, according to opening statements obtained by the Daily Caller.

As a part of the the House Oversight and Accountability committee’s investigation into President Biden’s potential involvement into Hunter’s foreign business, Tony Bobulinski and Jason Galanis will appear for a testimony on Tuesday. Bobulinski blasted those who have criticized his character through his testimonials and Galanis detailed the value the Biden name brought to business deals, according to opening statements obtained by the Daily Caller.

“The Biden defenders’ outrageous dishonesty and vile attempts at assassinating my character are as predictable as they are disgusting,” Bobulinski wrote. “As a former Naval officer, I do not understand this world of partisan outrage and insanity; I struggle to process it, and I despise it.”

Bobulinski went on to detail his previous business career and military experience while stressing the importance of the hearing for the American people, the opening statement says. Hunter Biden’s former business partner claimed President Biden was the “brand” being sold, the testimony says.

“I want to be crystal clear: from my direct personal experience and what I have subsequently come to learn, it is clear to me that Joe Biden was ‘the Brand’ being sold by the Biden family,” Bobulinski added. “His family’s foreign influence peddling operation — from China to Ukraine and elsewhere — sold out to foreign actors who were seeking to gain influence and access to Joe Biden and the United States government.”

Galanis, who is currently in federal prison on unrelated fraud charges, echoed Bobulinski’s remarks, detailing the value he thought then Vice-President Joe Biden brought to the business world, the opening statement says.

“The entire value-add of Hunter Biden to our business was his family name and his access to his father, Vice President Joe Biden. Because of this access, I agreed to contribute equity ownership to them — Hunter and Devon — for no out-of-pocket cost from them in exchange for their ‘relationship capital,’” Galanis said in an opening statement.

Hunter Biden was also invited to the Wednesday hearing, though he turned down the opportunity despite previously asking for a public testimony. The first son originally testified in front of Congress in a closed-door deposition.

The first son was originally subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee in November in an effort to get Hunter Biden to appear at a closed-door deposition so he could be interrogated on his foreign business dealings. Rather than attending the briefing, Hunter Biden marched to the Capitol and held a press conference outside of the building on Dec. 13, the day of the scheduled closed-door deposition. 

During his press conference, the first son noted that he would testify publicly, an offer his lawyer previously made the committee. Hunter Biden went on to blast Republicans for bringing an impeachment inquiry against his father while denying that President Biden was ever involved in his business dealings. 

When turning down the committee’s invitation for a public hearing, David Lowell, Hunter Biden’s lawyer, called it a “blatant planned-for-media event.”

“Your blatant planned-for-media event is not a proper proceeding but an obvious attempt to throw a Hail Mary pass after the game has ended. Let me remind you of a statement you made about how witnesses—and specifically Mr. Biden—could satisfy your prior requests,” Lowell wrote in the letter obtained by the Daily Caller.

“At your press conference after the January 10, 2024, Committee hearing to hold Mr. Biden in contempt, you stated: ‘All we need are people to come in for the depositions and then we’ll be finished. We just need people to show up to the depositions and we’ll wrap this up. Nobody wants to wrap this up more than I do.’ Mr. Biden did just as you asked and, as you did when you announced that witnesses could choose depositions, you want to ignore what you said,” Lowell continued.

During his closed-door deposition, Hunter Biden frequently stated, at least 29 times, that he “did not recall” certain details about his foreign business dealings. What the the first son could recall was one key detail: that his father was not involved.

“I am here today to provide the committees with the one uncontestable fact that should end the false premise of this inquiry: I did not involve my father in my business, not while I was a practicing lawyer, not in my investments or transactions, domestic or international, not as a board member, and not as an artist, never,” Hunter Biden said in his opening remarks during his testimony.

AUTHORS

REAGAN REESE AND HENRY RODGERS

Contributors.

RELATED ARTICLE: House Oversight Republicans Subpoena AT&T For Hunter Biden’s Phone Records

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Hunter And His Uncle Can’t Get Their Story Straight About Key Meeting With Joe Biden

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James Biden’s Feb. 21 closed-door congressional testimony conflicted with testimonies given by both Hunter Biden and Tony Bobulinski, a former business associate of Hunter’s.

James Biden says a meeting between him, Hunter, Bobulinski and Joe Biden at a California hotel during the 2017 Milken Institute conference never occurred, according to a transcript of his February testimony to the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. Hunter Biden, however, attested that he, James, Bobulinski and his father did in fact meet at a hotel bar during his Wednesday testimony before the House Judiciary and Oversight committees.

Hunter Biden testified that he, Bobulinski and his uncle were drinking coffee in a hotel bar at 11 p.m. while waiting to meet with Joe Biden. Once Joe Biden arrived, he shook hands with Bobulinski, and the two spoke, according to Hunter’s testimony.

Hunter was unable to recall any details of the conversation between Bobulinski and his father beyond them talking about Bobulinski’s family member who was suffering from cancer.

Bobulinski claims to remember more details about the conversation.

Joe Biden met with the trio to discuss a business deal related to CEFC China Energy, a Chinese Communist Party-linked corporation, according to Bobulinski’s Feb. 13 testimony before the House Oversight Committee. Bobulinski said “the only reason I was there” was to talk business with the Bidens.

Joe Biden claimed in August 2023 he never “talked business” with Hunter’s associates.

James Biden, when asked about the alleged conversation with Joe Biden, said, “that I know did not happen.”

James Biden claimed that he “could have been there just with Tony Bobulinski” and that he “could have been there with Hunter as well” but that Joe Biden “was never there.”

James Biden previously denied having anything to do with Hunter’s CEFC China Energy dealings but changed his story when investigators presented him with a copy of an agreement featuring his signature alongside Hunter Biden and his business associates.

James Biden brushed off the possible reputational damage to his family over their Chinese business dealings, citing “plausible deniability,” according to Bobulinski’s testimony.

AUTHOR

ROBERT SCHMAD

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Newly Surfaced E-mail Helps Prove Bidens in Business with Beijing Chinese State-Linked Company

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What’s it going to take to oust this criminal family from the White House?

Newly surfaced e-mail allegedly helps prove Bidens in biz with Beijing-linked firm while Joe was still VP

By: Steven Nelson, NY Post, Feb. 13, 2024:

A newly surfaced document allegedly helps prove Hunter Biden was working with Chinese state-linked CEFC China Energy while his dad was still vice president — as suspected by Republicans leading the impeachment inquiry into reputed corruption by the president.

President Biden has repeatedly claimed his family never got money from China​ — despite his own alleged direct involvement in relations with two different Chinese government-backed ventures.​

“We anticipate working together on a number of opportunities in the US and abroad,” says the potentially damning March 22, 2016, letter that surfaced Tuesday and was addressed to CEFC Executive Director Jianjun Zang on Hunter’s letterhead about 10 months before his dad Joe left office as vice president.

“I believe we have presented a collection of projects that parallel the interests of you and your team and we look forward to discussing them in detail,” says the draft letter to Zang, which was distributed among Hunter and his partners Rob Walker and James Gilliar as an e-mail attachment.

“As we await your next visit to the United States, please continue to coordinate all matters with my confidant and trusted advisor, James Gilliar,” the letter says.

Read more.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. All rights reserved.