Biden Backs Discriminatory Death Tax on Homeowners
"Biden's new death tax hits the middle class while excluding certain wealthy investors," notes Reason magazine. The proposed death tax, contained in Biden's "American Families Plan," is discriminatory, treating "individuals with identical net worths very differently."
Biden's plan would impose the capital gains tax on people's estates (when they die), while almost doubling the current capital gains tax rate.
"With a major exception for large investors, it would make these changes without grandfathering existing unrealized capital gains," Reason says. For example, a "single person with a reasonable mortgage" could "have her residence's value eaten away by the new tax" upon her death.
Reason gives the example of a widow who has owned a New York City apartment, her only major asset, for 40 years. Her estate would end up paying a tax of $220,000 on that apartment upon her death, even though she has never made anything close to $400,000 a year, and Biden promised in 2020 not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000 per year.
Like virtually all homes in New York City, the widow's apartment has increased in value, especially since her husband's death in 1981. And like many widows, she refinanced her apartment to pay for her children's college educations and weddings. Today, the apartment she and her husband purchased for $200,000 has a market value of $2,000,000. She also has a mortgage of $1,500,000. That leaves an estate worth $500,000.
But Biden's proposed 40 percent capital gains tax at death would result in a tax of $220,000 on the increased value of the apartment, after taking into account certain exclusions contained in the "American Families Plan." Her children's inheritance would be reduced as a result from $500,000 under current law to $280,000 under Biden's plan.
Under Biden's plan, the maximum federal rate on capital gains would go up from 23.8 to 40.8 percent. Taxpayers would exclude $250,000 ($500,000 for couples filing jointly) on gains from a home sale. At death, there would be an added exclusion of $1 million of capital gains ($2 million for married couples).
Reason says "Current law bars anyone with less than $11.7 million in net worth from paying any death taxes. Today, this means that $11.7 million can be passed along to family members without any reduction. But Biden's plan would subject taxpayers with a net worth far lower than $11.7 to a death tax. This levy would allow no deduction for any debt," such as a mortgage. By contrast, Biden's plan would exempt from capital gains tax sales of qualified small business stock in C corporations, which is almost always held by wealthy people.
This new death tax would cover only part of the massive $1.8 trillion cost of Biden's American Families Plan. An analysis from the University of Pennsylvania says Biden's plan would increase the national debt by $1 trillion, since its true cost is $2.3 trillion, not $1.8 trillion, while Biden’s tax increases to pay for it would only raise $1.3 trillion. That’s because some of Biden’s tax hikes would reduce, rather than increase, federal tax revenue, by discouraging economic activity that yields tax revenue. For example, Forbes notes that Biden’s proposed increase in capital gains tax rates could actually increase the budget deficit, shrink tax collections, and harm medical innovation:
One analysis out of the Wharton Business School at UPenn found that raising the capital gains rate could actually lower federal tax revenue by $33 billion between 2022 and 2031. That analysis dovetails with findings from the Tax Foundation, which said the policy would cost the Treasury $124 billion over 10 years…..higher taxes could imperil the creation of new business, which is especially troubling since there are fewer startups than in the past. “The doubling of taxes would hurt the returns on private investment into venture capital and private equity funds,” said Mace McCain, chief investment officer at Frost Investment Advisors. “These funding sources have been a primary source of funding for new drug discoveries and technology innovation.”
Other Biden proposals, such as his $2.3 trillion infrastructure package, would also increase the deficit. Biden is proposing large tax increases to fund his infrastructure package, such as raising the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%. But raising the corporate tax rate could backfire, by driving companies overseas to the many countries with lower tax rates. That would result in them paying corporate income tax to foreign countries, not America. So the tax increases contained in Biden's infrastructure package would not cover its projected cost.
President Biden has proposed a record $6 trillion budget that “would push federal spending to its highest sustained levels since World War II” as a share of our economy, according to the New York Times. The Biden Administration “forecasts deficits at more than $1 trillion for at least the next decade” if his budget plan is adopted, notes CNN. Biden wants to increase the federal budget by more than 20% in a single year, which is the fastest peacetime increase in spending ever, at a time of record budget deficits.
Hans Bader practices law in Washington, D.C. After studying economics and history at the University of Virginia and law at Harvard, he practiced civil-rights, international-trade, and constitutional law. He also once worked in the Education Department.
Peter Schweizer: Hunter Biden Selling Art to Anonymous Buyers Is Genius-Level Corruption
Peter Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute (GAI), said on this week’s broadcast of “Sunday Morning Futures” that President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden’s sale of his art to anonymous buyers is “genius” in a very corrupt way.
Partial transcript as follows:
BARTIROMO: So, Peter, right now, Hunter is getting ready to sell art. He has told us that this is his new job. He is a first-time artist, no training, of course. The pieces are being priced between $75,000 and a half-a-million dollars apiece. You call this scheme genius. Why?
SCHWEIZER: It is genius because — in a very corrupt way, because what was the criticism of Hunter’s previous moneymaking schemes? When he worked went to work for Burisma, the energy company, the criticism was he was getting a million dollars a year. He had no background in Ukrainian energy regulation, no background in energy. Well, art is different than the business world. It’s entirely subjective.
So, if somebody is prepared to send half-a-million dollars to an artist for a piece of art, who can question it? So, in that sense, it’s very genius. But this opens the gateway to massive corruption, Maria, because the art owner, the art partner that he has that’s going to be marketing his art has been very clear that he’s going to market these things overseas. He’s been wanting to break into the Chinese art market for years. And the Senate, actually, in 2019 issued a report talking about how the art world is rife with money laundering and corruption involving foreign oligarchs, because it’s so hard to trace. So it’s a massively troublesome problem. And their explanations simply don’t carry any weight.
BARTIROMO: Well, the White House is saying that, in an effort to be — quote, unquote — “transparent,” they are not going to tell anybody who’s ponying up half-a-million dollars to buy Hunter Biden’s art. What’s to stop a Chinese company, or an Iranian company, a Chinese company tied to the Chinese military and the Communist Party to pay half-a-million dollars for art, and then say, wink, wink, take this company off the blacklist, further my efforts here, further my efforts there, I just bought your art for half-a-million bucks?
SCHWEIZER: Maria, let me underline and underscore what you just said. That’s absolutely correct. There’s nothing stopping them from doing it. And, in fact, the White House’s proposed ethics solution —I will put that in quotation marks — is the exact opposite of what’s called for here. Their solution of transparency is to actually hide who is engaged in the transaction. It’s ludicrous.
Look, I have been critical of Bill and Hillary Clinton and their foreign deals over the years. You have to give them credit. When Hillary Clinton was in the Senate and later as secretary of state, Bill Clinton was collecting a lot of speaking fees from foreign entities. They disclosed those. And to their credit, they disclosed those. In this case, I don’t think Hunter Biden should be doing this to begin with. But if he’s going to do it, they need to disclose and have an independent party verify who is actually paying him for this artwork.
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
The Strange New Career of Hunter Biden - Artiste
Something seems amiss.
Hunter Biden appears to have everything a materialistic narcissist would want. Wealth. Power. Fame (Infamy, actually, but why quibble?). Sex. Drugs. Connections to more of the same. A battalion of enablers ranging from his family to a dominant political party to a nation's corporate news industry.
Yet something appears to be missing. Apparently, the son of the virtual President has been choking his inner muse. Why else would this most fortunate son take up art at the ripe old age of 51?
Well, making a little extra money never hurts. Biden's paintings, drawings and collages will sell for between $75,000 and $500,000, said his art dealer, Georges Berges.
That can buy a lot of crack and hookers.
Yet something seems amiss. Only anonymous and confidential buyers will be eligible to purchase pieces from Biden's oeuvre.
What? You mean no respectable art connoisseur or benefactor wants to be associated with an up-and-coming Picasso, Rembrandt or even Warhol? Or does the precocious artiste refuse to have the work of his innermost soul exposed to some of art's more influential patrons?
Sarcasm aside, Biden's foray into art is anything but humorous. Not only does it reflect the Biden penchant for selling influence; it could enable some of the family's more noxious associates to avoid sanctions or launder money.
The Daily Mail's Geoff Earle discussed those dangers while writing about the impending auction of young Biden's work.
"Experts are already warning of the risks of influence peddling or at least the appearance of ethical conflict," Earle wrote, "when people buy paintings by the president's son in a market where sales are already murky and prices extremely difficult to evaluate in an industry that can be used for money laundering."
One of those experts is Richard Painter, the chief ethics counsel for President George W. Bush from 2005 to 2007. Painter told the Washington Post that two groups of buyers could provide a lucrative market for Biden's art: lobbyists who want to earn favor with the virtual president, and surreptitious representatives of foreign governments that want to evade economic sanctions.
The Treasury Department specifically addressed those dangers. In October, it warned that individuals, groups or governments could use "high-value art transactions" to avoid sanctions and gain access to American markets and financial institutions. Bad actors could exploit inherent weaknesses in the art market, such as "a lack of transparency and a high degree of anonymity and confidentiality, especially with respect to the sale and purchase of high-value artworks," the department's release warned.
"Shell companies and intermediaries are also frequently used to purchase, hold, or sell such artworks, as well as to remit and receive payments," it continued. "These avenues for maintaining anonymity allow blocked persons and other illicit actors to obscure their true identities from other market participants, and help to hide prohibited conduct from law enforcement and regulators. The mobility, concealability, and subjective value of artwork further exacerbate its vulnerability to sanctions evasion."
The expensive price range for work from a middle-aged artist with no previous track record also raises questions.
"There has to be a résumé that reasonably supports when you get that high," said Marc Straus, who owns a gallery in Manhattan. "To me, it’s pure ‘How good is it and what’s this artist’s potential? What’s the résumé?' On that basis, it would be an entirely different price. But you give it a name like Hunter Biden, maybe they’ll get the price."
Scott Indrisek, Modern Painters magazine's former editor-in-chief and Artsy's former deputy editor, believes that mere name recognition is the point.
"If he wanted to be judged on his work alone," Indrisek said, "he’d show them under the name Hunter Wilson or something."
By contrast, Andy Warhol's "Endangered Species," a series of 10 screenprints he produced in 1983, sold for $725,000 in 2015. That figure constituted a record for a numbered series.
Two other facts increase suspicion. First, the Justice Department has been investigating the younger Biden since 2019 for money laundering. Second, Peter Schweizer, who runs the Government Accountability Institute and has written extensively about government corruption, said on Sean Hannity’s syndicated radio show July 12 that Joe Biden "was a direct beneficiary" of his son's business arrangements.
Nevertheless, the White House contacted young Biden's lawyers to devise an arrangement that allows any buyers to remain anonymous. Ostensibly, such a plan would satisfy any ethical concerns by preventing Biden from knowing the identities of anyone buying or even expressing interest in his work. The plan also would allow Berges to reject suspicious offers.
But Berges, like his famous client, has ties to China. He has traveled to Beijing and Shanghai to purchase work from Chinese artists, regularly exhibits modern Chinese art, and even considered opening galleries in both cities. "The question that I always had was, 'How’s China changing the world in terms of art and culture?' " Berges said in 2014 to China Daily, which the Chinese Communist Party publishes.
Walter Shaub, former director of the United States Office of Government Ethics, expressed his disgust on Twitter.
"So instead of disclosing who is paying outrageous sums for Hunter Biden’s artwork so that we could monitor whether the purchasers are gaining access to government, the WH tried to make sure we will never know who they are," Shaub tweeted. "That’s very disappointing.
"The idea’s that even Hunter won’t know, but the WH has outsourced government ethics to a private art dealer. We’re supposed to trust a merchant in an industry that’s fertile ground for money laundering, as well as unknown buyers who could tell Hunter or WH officials? No thanks."
If nothing else, the arrangement provides a similar kind of protective veneer Tony Bobulinski mentioned to the New York Post in October. Bobulinski, one of the Biden family's former business associates, told the Post about Joe Biden's pivotal role in helping Hunter secure lucrative overseas contracts, despite the elder Biden's denials.
Jim Biden, Joe's brother, described that protective veneer in 2017, when Bobulinski asked whether Joe's involvement could sabotage Presidential ambitions.
"I said, 'Jim, how are you guys doing this? This seems crazy,’ " Bobulinski said. "He looks at me and kind of chuckles and says, 'Plausible deniability.' "
Joseph Hippolito is a free-lance writer and a regular contributor to FrontPage Magazine. His commentaries have appeared in The Federalist, The Stream, Wall Street Journal, Jerusalem Post and National Post.
Peter Schweizer: Our Copy of Hunter Biden’s Laptop Confirms ‘Joe Biden Was a Direct Beneficiary’ of His Son’s Deals
Peter Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute (GAI), said on Monday that his organization had confirmed that President Joe Biden “was a direct beneficiary” of Hunter Biden’s financial deals with foreign interests.
“We do have a copy, by the way, here at GAI of [Hunter Biden’s] laptop and all the files,” Schweizer said on the Sean Hannity Show. “It confirms that Joe Biden was a direct beneficiary.”
LISTEN (interview begins at 1:05:05):
Schweizer explained how GAI cross-referenced Secret Service travel logs during Joe Biden’s tenure as vice president to corroborate the authenticity of Hunter Biden’s emails.
He remarked:
GAI asked, “How can we demonstrate whether the emails are real?” … We already have, for example, Hunter Biden’s Secret Service travel records. They were released by Senator [Ron] Johnson’s committee. These are the official records that say the Secret Service traveled with Hunter to this location, to that location, etcetera.
So we asked, “Do the emails on Hunter Biden’s laptop correspond with the travel records? If our email references that [Hunter] is in Dubai on a certain date, does that line up with the Secret Service travel records? Absolutely, 100 percent.
…
So there is no question. Of course Hunter Biden hasn’t denied it. But there’s no question that the laptop emails that we have possession of are 100 percent accurate and correspond directly with existing material, and the information is devastating.
GAI is in the process of investigating its copy of files found on Hunter Biden’s laptop, Schweizer shared. He said GAI’s forthcoming reports on the laptop’s contents will expose disastrous dimensions of the Biden family.
“We’re in the middle of the investigation now, but by the end of the year it will be completed, and it will take on a far more sinister tone than it has even now in terms of what it says about the Biden family and the vulnerabilities of the Biden family,” Schweizer stated. “It’s that bad.”
Hannity asked, “On a scale of one to ten, how bad are the coming revelations from this laptop?”
He added, “The coming revelations [from our investigation] based on what we are in the middle of right now, on a scale of one to ten — and you know Sean, I’m pretty cautious about this stuff — frankly are an eleven. It’s that bad.”
Hunter Biden claimed to not know whether the laptop in question was his. Asked in April of the laptop’s authenticity, he replied, “For real, I don’t know.”
Carlson: Hunter Biden ‘Can Do Literally Whatever He Wants — As We’ve Seen, He Definitely Has’
On Friday’s broadcast of FNC’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” host Tucker Carlson reminded viewers of now-first son Hunter Biden’s alleged indiscretions that came to light near the end of the 2020 presidential campaign.
According to Carlson, under the Biden Department of Justice, Hunter Biden was able to “do literally whatever he wants.”
Transcript as follows:
CARLSON: So much happens in the final weeks of a presidential campaign that it’s easy to lose track of it. Whatever happened to this or that — development in the news. You can’t remember. A lot falls between the cracks. There’s overload.
Politicians know this, obviously, and they take advantage of it. If they can derail a story until after Election Day, often that story goes away forever. No one really remembers. And that was precisely the thinking behind the Democrats’ response to Hunter Biden’s laptop.
They knew from the first day that the contents of that laptop were in fact genuine. Look at what’s on there, it may be theoretically possible that some foreign Intel service would Photoshop a picture of Hunter Biden’s crotch mostly for self-amusement, but a hundred pictures of Hunter Biden’s crotch adorned with M&Ms? No. No Russian did that. Those pictures were real.
And so are the huge numbers of e-mails and texts from Hunter Biden explaining how he was selling access to his father, then the Vice President and how his father was helping him do it.
So, in order to enrich his family, Joe Biden changed this country’s foreign policy. That happened and it was the real crime that Hunter Biden’s laptop revealed. That was the real scandal.
If voters had understood that, if someone had told them, it might have affected the results of the election, so they couldn’t know. The permanent bureaucracy hid that from the country.
In October, a group of corrupt Intelligence officials, 50 of them whose names will live forever in shame, signed a letter blaming Vladimir Putin for the laptop. “Hunter Biden’s story is Russian disinformation, dozens of former Intel official say,” that was the headline in Politico. That was a lie from top to bottom. It was totally unsupported by evidence or Intelligence.
But it came just in time for the presidential debate. That was the point. And Joe Biden picked it up and wielded it like a club from the stage.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), THEN-CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are in a situation where we have foreign company — countries trying to interfere in the outcome of our election. His own national security adviser told him that what is happening with his buddy, well, gosh, I will — his buddy Rudy Giuliani, he is being used as a Russian pawn. He is being fed information that is Russian — that is not true.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: “His own national security adviser.” That’s probably right, but it was a lie. And just two months after that debate, the truth began to leak out. According once again to Politico, the Intel world’s favorite media tool, quote, “A person with firsthand knowledge of the investigation conceded that actually Hunter Biden’s laptop was not a Russian fabrication.” It was real, real enough to be used as evidence in an ongoing investigation into, quote, “potential money laundering and Hunter Biden’s foreign ties.”
Hunter Biden, we learned was facing possible indictment for what was on the laptop. The DOJ was looking into the Ukrainian and Chinese businessmen who had been paying Hunter to get close to his father. And they wanted to know why his father was apparently getting 10 percent of those deals. That’s what we learned.
And that’s all we learned. For six months we heard nothing more.
Meanwhile, Hunter Biden got a lot richer. He sold a book that no one read for millions of dollars. Simon & Schuster paid him off. He sold paintings you would never hang anywhere for possibly even more than that. We don’t know because the identities of the people who bought them are still secret. But what you do know for certain is that Hunter Biden was never charged with anything. Why is that?
It’s kind of weird if you think about it, given that Biden himself — Hunter Biden admitted on television, that the laptop actually didn’t come from the Kremlin. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRACY SMITH, CBS NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Was that your laptop?
HUNTER BIDEN, JOE BIDEN’S SON: For real, I don’t know.
SMITH: I know, but you that’s — this is —
H. BIDEN: I really don’t know.
SMITH: Okay, you don’t know. Yes or no if the laptop was yours?
H. BIDEN: I don’t have any idea. I have no idea.
SMITH: So could have been yours.
H. BIDEN: Of course. Certainly. There could be a laptop out there that was stolen from me. It could be that I was hacked. It could be that it was — that it was Russian Intelligence. It could be that it was stolen from me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Oh, so you’d think a clip like that where he admits it, the 50 Intel officials were all lying. Do you think that clip would be a key piece of evidence in the probe into Hunter Biden’s finances? Where did all this money come from? Why are foreign governments sending him millions of dollars?
E-mails on that laptop directly implicate Hunter Biden in his family’s foreign influence peddling operation. Joe Biden, his brother, son — so, why have we heard anything to this day about any of this from the Department of Justice?
Good question, and today we got our answer, and actually it came from Politico. The magazine reported, meaning it was told likely for complex reasons, we can never really know, that the U.S. Attorney in the State of Delaware, a man called David Weiss had, in fact, buried the Hunter Biden case and done so on purpose because he was asked to do it.
David Weiss decided to do all of this, Politico told us because he wanted, quote, “to avoid taking any actions that could alert the public to the existence of the case in the middle of a presidential election.”
Well, they’re just saying it out loud now. He didn’t want to hurt Joe Biden, in other words, and he did this at the request of the Biden family and their lawyers. We learned that from a Politico piece, too. It includes this quote, “To Weiss’s credit, ‘he listened,’ said a person involved in the discussions.” In other words, he listened to the Biden’s and their lawyers, and because he did that, apparently, David Weiss has kept his job as a Federal prosecutor.
Now, Ben Schreckinger of Politico needless to say strongly approves of this. It’s not a subversion of justice, it is the right thing, quote, “Weiss’s decision to avoid revealing the investigation, a move that might have boosted Donald Trump’s campaign, even at the cost of politicizing the probe was consistent with his sober-minded approach to the job.”
Atta boy. Got that?
When you cover for a Democratic presidential campaign, you are, according to Politico and Ben Schreckinger, a sober-minded prosecutor. You did the right thing. Good job, David Weiss. You used our justice system to get the right team into the White House. I hope you get rewarded.
And in case you have any doubt that that’s exactly what happened and had nothing to do with the timeframe before the election, you should know and you may already know that the FBI had Hunter Biden’s laptop for an entire year before the election. We know they made a forensic copy of the hard drive in 2019. But they did nothing and they still haven’t, now they don’t have time. They’re too busy hunting down senior citizens who talk about election integrity, the fabled insurrectionists.
They can’t do anything about the subversion of American foreign policy by the Bidens, because they are busy with the insurrectionists.
Maybe someday, when it no longer matters, Politico will tell us that story.
In the meantime, we can look forward to more treatment like this for dissidents who oppose the regime in any way. As a reminder, here’s what happens to any American who mocks the people in power.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Exclusive footage that you’re looking at right now from CNN as the FBI arrives at Roger Stone’s residence in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, taking him into custody.
They arrived before dawn there, before 6:00 a.m. or just after 6:00 a.m., a dozen officers we are told.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: FBI, open the door.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: That was Roger Stone, of course. They rousted him and his wife, both of them senior citizens, by the way, because he made the mistake of texting unflattering things about Federal prosecutors and the government read his texts.
But Hunter Biden doesn’t have to worry about any of that, he doesn’t have to worry about the SWAT team showing up at his house at dawn with a CNN camera crew in tow. Hunter Biden can violate all the Federal gun laws he wants — and he has and he knows they’ll never be charged.
Merrick Garland works for his dad, so he’s fine. He can do literally whatever he wants, and as we’ve seen, he definitely has.
Report: Prosecutor Delayed Advancing Hunter Biden Probe Until After Election
The federal prosecutor investigating Hunter Biden’s potential tax law violations and sketchy business dealings overseas last summer decided to keep the public in the dark about the probe until after the 2020 presidential election to avoid impacting the race’s outcome, Politico revealed Friday.
According to the news outlet, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) officials led by David Weiss, the U.S. attorney in the Biden family’s home state of Delaware, delayed the Hunter probe last summer, postponing their pursuit of search warrants and issuing grand jury subpoenas.
Politico explained:
[Weiss] decided to delay taking any actions that were likely to make the existence of the Hunter Biden probe public. Concerns about affecting the presidential election loomed large when Weiss entertained arguments about advancing the probe, according to the person involved in the discussions. No matter what he did, the decision was sure to come under scrutiny for signs of politicization.
Weiss ultimately sided with DOJ colleagues who convinced him it was best to err on the side of caution and wait to advance the probe until after the presidential race.
“They advised [Weiss] to avoid taking any actions that could alert the public to the existence of the case in the middle of a presidential election,” Politico noted.
The U.S. attorney ignored other officials involved in the case who wanted to move forward with the investigation last summer despite the presidential race.
Politico conceded that advancing the Hunter probe amid the presidential election may have benefitted former President Donald Trump’s campaign, noting:
Weiss’s decision to avoid revealing the investigation in a highly charged political atmosphere — a move that might have boosted Donald Trump’s campaign, even at the cost of politicizing the probe — was consistent with his sober-minded approach to his job, said people familiar with Weiss’s career. But so too, they said, is the fact that the probe continues, with most expecting that Weiss will not drop the case until making a full assessment of Hunter Biden’s culpability.
Weiss continues to serve as Delaware’s U.S. attorney under Biden, a sensitive DOJ position that will allow him to decide how to handle the probe into the president’s son.
Former President Donald Trump appointed Weiss to the U.S. attorney position in 2017 at the recommendation of Delaware’s two Democrat senators.
By 2018, the attorney’s office began investigating Hunter in response to various leads, including some linked to his business dealings with business associates from China.
Initially, investigators sought to go after the president’s son over money laundering and violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
However, the criminal investigation evolved into examining possible tax law violations and Hunter’s shady business transactions overseas, Politico learned from an unnamed source.
After Joe secured his election victory, Hunter announced on December 9 that he was under a federal investigation for tax issues, insisting he is innocent.
The existence of the Hunter probe came to light weeks before the election amid the controversy over incriminating files found in a laptop purportedly belonging to Hunter.
In October 2020, the New York Post first reported the contents of the so-called “laptop from hell” that was confiscated by the FBI, which covered Hunter’s business dealings with China and Ukraine.
According to the newspaper, one email suggested Joe lied about not knowing of his son’s shady business dealings abroad. Tony Bobulinski, Hunter’s former business partner, made similar accusations after the Post‘s exposé.
Some Republicans have called for the appointment of a special prosecutor to protect Weiss’s investigation from the Biden administration influence.
Citing an anonymous source last December, when Hunter announced he was the target of a federal investigation, CNN acknowledged the probe had resumed after a hiatus during the elections, adding:
Federal prosecutors in Delaware, working with the IRS Criminal Investigation agency and the FBI, are taking overt steps such as issuing subpoenas and seeking interviews, the person with knowledge said.
Activity in the investigation had gone covert in recent months due to Justice Department guidelines prohibiting overt actions that could affect an election, the person said.
The FBI reportedly expressed counterintelligence concerns with some of the business transactions Hunter made with officials from China, a U.S. strategic rival.
President Joe Biden has vowed not to interfere in the DOJ’s probe into his son.
THE BIDEN KLEPTOCRACY
Bidens of all sorts are under federal investigation for tax evasion, money-laundering, and unregistered agent foreign ties, as this Politico report citing Hunter notes.
Schweizer: ‘It’s Going to Be Business as Usual’
for Hunter’s Dealings
RIDING THE DRAGON: The Bidens' Chinese Secrets (Full Documentary)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRmlcEBAiIs
Rep. James Comer (R-KY), ranking member on the House Oversight and Reform Committee, tweeted, “The Biden family is treating the White House as their own personal cash cow. Who would pay 500K for Hunter’s art if his last name wasn’t Biden?”
Welcome to the Biden-Harris administration: where politics is a family business, and business is booming
The Clinton Project Presents: ‘Nepotism’
Welcome to the Biden-Harris administration: where politics is a family business, and business is booming
Andrew Stiles and Thaleigha Rampersad - FEBRUARY 10, 2021 5:00 PM
The Clinton Project is a coalition of disgruntled Democrats, vulture capitalists, Saudi princes, disgraced journalists, and ex-cons who are dedicated to raising as much money as possible for the nominal purpose of defeating President Joe Biden at the ballot box.
The group's most recent ad takes aim at Biden's family members, as well as the family of Vice President Kamala Harris. Hunter Biden, for example, continues to thrive despite the ongoing federal investigation into his shady business ventures in China and Ukraine. He recently moved into a $5.4 million mansion in Venice, Calif., where he is pursuing a career as an artist while "working to unwind" his 10 percent stake in a Chinese investment firm.
The president's younger brother, Frank Biden, has been touting his White House connections in his (presumably well-compensated) role as a "non-attorney senior adviser" to a Florida law firm. The president's son-in-law, Howard Krein, has ties to a software firm seeking government contracts to assist in the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Kamala, who got her start in politics by dating Willie Brown, the former speaker of the California state assembly, must be proud of the success her relatives have enjoyed since Biden chose her as his running mate in 2020.
Her niece, Meena Harris, wrote two bestselling children's books inspired by her famous aunty and launched a #Resistance-themed clothing line that sells Ruth Bader Ginsburg bathing suits for $55. Biden's lawyers reportedly warned Meena, who recently partnered with Beats by Dre on a special collection of headphones, about continuing to profit from Kamala's image. LOL!
Kamala's 21-year-old stepdaughter, Ella Emhoff, scored a modeling contract with IMG Models after she wore a weird coat to the inauguration ceremony. Though many cheered Emhoff as an "unconventional" model, others argued that there wasn't anything particularly revolutionary about being a rich, white, tall, thin, female Brooklyn "artist" with tattoos and armpit hair.
Nevertheless, when your daddy is president or your "Momala" is the vice president, things just seem to work out in your favor. Just ask Hunter, who'd probably tell you that politics is a family business.
Welcome to the Biden-Harris administration, where business is booming.
GOP Launches Investigation of Biden Family’s Political Profiteering
Hunter Biden’s sales of artwork may be an avenue for procuring political influence from President Joe Biden, some House Republicans warned while launching a probe on Wednesday into what they described as “Biden family’s efforts to profit from proximity to the White House.”
In a statement titled “Oversight Republicans Raise Concerns About Biden Family Profiting Off White House,” 12 Republicans on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform requested information from the president’s counsel and the chief administrator of the federal government’s chief archivist.
The Republican lawmakers wrote:
Reports regarding President Biden’s family members attempting to profit from their proximity to the White House have been disturbing and recurring. Unfortunately, these reports of President Biden using his former official positions of public trust to swell the coffers of his family members are widespread, and any hope the pattern of family self-dealing would finally stop when he assumed the presidency has been dashed,” wrote Ranking Member Comer and the Republican lawmakers.
Rep. James Comer (R-KY), ranking member on the House Oversight and Reform Committee, tweeted, “The Biden family is treating the White House as their own personal cash cow. Who would pay 500K for Hunter’s art if his last name wasn’t Biden?”:
The Republicans’ statement included a request for the following communications and documents:
- Communications and documents surrounding two international trips from the Obama-Biden Administration in which Biden family members and associates seemingly took advantage of a connection to the Oval Office;
- A list of all past and ongoing foreign business interests and relations for Biden family members;
- All documents and communications regarding Hunter Biden’s artwork;
- All Biden family members’ appearance in advertisements, public speaking, or in any nature to solicit business/investments/awareness; and
- All policies and procedures the White House has to prevent the Biden family from profiting off the presidency.
“Prices [for Hunter Biden’s artwork] range from $75,000 for works on paper to $500,000 for large-scale paintings,” according to the Georges Bergès Gallery, which represents the president’s second son, revealed.
Buyers of Hunter Biden’s art will remain anonymous.
Among other sources, the Republicans cited a 2018 report from Peter Schweizer’s examination of a private equity firm run by Hunter Biden and John Kerry’s stepson, Christopher Heinz.
In a letter to Dana Remus, counsel to the president, Republicans wrote:
Reports regarding President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.’s family members attempting to profit from their proximity to the White House have been disturbing and recurring. Unfortunately, these reports of President Biden using his former official positions of public trust to swell the coffers of his family members are widespread, and any hope the pattern of family self-dealing would finally stop when he assumed the presidency has been dashed.
Republicans considered if the anonymity of buyers of Hunter Biden’s paintings allows for “money laundering, “fraud,” “other illicit activities,” or other forms of monetizing Joe Biden’s political influence.
In January, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, “It’s the White House’s policy that the president’s name should not be used in connection with any commercial activities to suggest or in any way, in any way they could reasonably be understood to imply his endorsement or support.”
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