Breitbart News editor-in-chief Alex Marlow recently revealed his new book, Breaking the News: Exposing the Establishment Media’s Hidden Deals and Secret Corruption, that Hunter Biden took nearly two dozen flights through Andrews Air Force base, the home of Air Force One and Air Force Two, while his father was in office.
Hunter Biden is suspected of having used trips with his father on Air Force Two to arrange business deals and impress potential partners.
Report: Joe Biden Promises Wall Street Donors the Status Quo in Private Calls
OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images
8 Sep 2020343
3:50
Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden is promising Wall Street donors the economic status quo that they became used to before President Donald Trump’s administration, according to a report.
An investment banker on Wall Street told the Washington Post that in private calls with financial executives two months ago, Biden’s campaign assured them that talk of populist reforms on the campaign trail was nothing more than talking points.
The Post reports:
When Joe Biden released economic recommendations two months ago, they included a few ideas that worried some powerful bankers: allowing banking at the post office, for example, and having the Federal Reserve guarantee all Americans a bank account. [Emphasis added]
But in private calls with Wall Street leaders, the Biden campaign made it clear those proposals would not be central to Biden’s agenda. [Emphasis added]
“They basically said, ‘Listen, this is just an exercise to keep the Warren people happy, and don’t read too much into it,’” said one investment banker, referring to liberal supporters of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). The banker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private talks, said that message was conveyed on multiple calls. [Emphasis added]
In a statement to the Post, Biden’s campaign downplayed the influence of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) — left populists on trade and economic policy — on the former vice president’s agenda.
“The Biden-Sanders task forces made recommendations to Vice President Biden and to the [Democrat National Committee] platform drafting committee,” Biden spokesperson TJ Ducklo said. “This anonymous source appears to be confused and uninformed about this very basic distinction.”
The report comes as Biden told AFL-CIO members on Labor Day that he will be the “strongest labor president” union workers “have ever had.”
“You can be sure you’ll be hearing that word, ‘union,’ plenty of times when I’m in the White House,” Biden pitched. “The words of a president matter. Union. We’re going to empower workers and empower unions.”
In the Democrat presidential primary, Biden told a group of rich Manhattan donors at a private fundraiser that “nothing would change” for them or their wealthy lifestyles if elected.
“I mean, we may not want to demonize anybody who has made money,” Biden said at the June 2019 fundraiser.
“The truth of the matter is, you all, you all know, you all know in your gut what has to be done. We can disagree in the margins but the truth of the matter is it’s all within our wheelhouse and nobody has to be punished,” Biden said. “No one’s standard of living will change, nothing would fundamentally change.”
Like failed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Biden has enjoyed a cozy relationship with Wall Street executives, along with his running mate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA).
Most recently, Biden touted Wall Street’s support for his plan to abolish America’s suburbs by seizing control of local zoning laws to construct housing developments and multi-family buildings in neighborhoods. Likewise, Wall Street is fully behind Biden’s plan to hugely expand legal immigration levels, beyond already historical highs at 1.2 million green cards and 1.4 million visa workers a year.
The Biden-Harris ticket has elated Wall Street so much that for the first time in a decade, more financial executives are donating to the Democrat candidates than Republicans, the latest Center for Responsive Politics analysis reveals.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
Joe Biden Endorses Drug Sentencing Reform That Would Benefit Hunter
Bill would eliminate disparity between powder cocaine and crack offenses
President Joe Biden's administration on Tuesday announced its support for bipartisan legislation that would end the sentencing disparity among drug offenses involving crack and powder cocaine.
The administration's endorsement is likely to draw scrutiny from ethics experts, given how the proposed sentencing reform could benefit Hunter Biden, the president's crackhead son. Hunter detailed his "next-level" addiction to crack cocaine in his recently published memoir, Beautiful Things. The late Jim Morrison "was a fucking piker compared to my shenanigans," he boasted.
A mediocre author at best, Hunter is at his most eloquent when describing his love of smoking crack. "The sensation is one of utter, almost otherworldly well-being," he writes. "You are at once energetic, focused, and calm. Blood rushes to every extremity; your skin ripples with what feels like bumblebees." That first hit of the pipe is like "being transported—at something like warp speed, as if riding bareback on a rocket ship—to some far-off, beautiful place."
Hunter is also a fan of powder cocaine. In Beautiful Things, he recounts using it in Monte Carlo during a Burisma board retreat. The controversial Ukrainian energy firm paid him up to $50,000 a month for the privilege of putting his name on corporate documents, enabling his addiction to crack, which will always be his drug of choice.
Given his family name and political affiliation, the First Son is unlikely to face any legal consequences for his "nonstop depravity." But the new legislation would ensure, at least in theory, that Hunter would be treated more leniently if charged with a future crack cocaine-related offense.
President Biden's support for the legislation, called the "Eliminating a Quantifiably Unjust Application of the Law Act," is consistent with his campaign pledge to eliminate the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine. Yet it is Biden, as a U.S. senator in 1986, who authored the legislation that created the disparity by imposing a minimum five-year sentence for trafficking in 500 grams of powder cocaine or just 5 grams of crack cocaine.
Hunter Biden, who is allegedly in recovery, is pursuing a career as an artist in California, where he rents a $5.4 million mansion. He is planning an art exhibition this fall in New York, where "confidential" buyers will be able to buy his paintings for as much as $500,000 each. Meanwhile, the First Son is still "working to unwind" his 10 percent stake in a shadowy Chinese investment firm.
Hunter Biden Consulted for Oil Man Connected to Notorious Congolese Warlord, Emails Show
David Axelrod's son helped connect mogul with multiple ambassadors
Hunter Biden consulted for a Nigerian-American businessman who tried to buy gold from a wanted Congolese warlord known as "The Terminator," according to emails from Biden’s abandoned laptop.
Biden arranged introductory meetings in 2011 and 2012 for Kase Lawal, the president of CAMAC International, a Houston-based oil company, and the ambassadors of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, the emails show. Biden partnered with Mike Axelrod, the son of Obama adviser David Axelrod, on the consulting agreement. Lawal was appointed to serve on President Obama’s international trade advisory board in September 2010. Months later, Lawal paid $10 million to purchase gold from Bosco Ntaganda, a Congolese rebel warlord accused by the International Criminal Court of leading an ethnic cleansing campaign.
The consulting deal is another example of Biden securing international business contracts while his father served as vice president. It also highlights Biden’s penchant for working for scandal-plagued clients. In April 2014, Biden joined the board of Burisma Holdings, whose owner was the subject of an international bribery investigation. Biden also struck a $6 million consulting deal with CEFC China Energy, a conglomerate suspected of having ties to Chinese military intelligence. Biden received $1 million to represent a CEFC official who was indicted on charges of trying to bribe two African officials to secure oil drilling rights in 2012.
Biden, who is currently the target of a federal tax investigation, helped arrange the meetings for Lawal even after news reports surfaced that the United Nations accused the billionaire oilman of trying to purchase gold from Ntaganda. The first reports about the gold deal surfaced in early 2011. Lawal never received the gold after paying Ntaganda, but the United Nations issued a report about his efforts in December 2011. The Guardian published a story about the United Nation findings on Feb. 5, 2012.
The negative publicity for Lawal did not deter Biden from helping the oil mogul arrange meetings with Yousef Al Otaiba, the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates. Emails indicate that Biden met with Al Otaiba and Lawal on Jan. 5, 2012. Biden later wrote to Al Otaiba asking him to arrange a meeting with then-Saudi ambassador Adel al-Jubeir. An email from Feb. 22, 2012, shows that Biden’s business partner, Eric Schwerin, informed Biden that a planned meeting with Lawal and the Saudi diplomat had to be delayed.
According to the laptop emails, CAMAC hired Biden’s private equity firm, Rosemont Seneca, in September 2011 to help carry out an unspecified business transaction. The emails indicate that Axelrod had a prior relationship with CAMAC and Lawal. Mark Doyle, a longtime Biden family associate, helped introduce CAMAC and Lawal to the Biden group. Doyle cofounded the pro-Biden Unite the Country PAC during the 2020 presidential campaign.
Axelrod, Biden, and their partners negotiated with CAMAC representatives about the terms of the consulting deal, emails show. On top of a $30,000 per month fee, they stood to earn five percent of the net profits from the transaction CAMAC was seeking. The deal would seemingly have been helped along by Lawal meeting with diplomats from the United Arab Emirates and oil-rich Saudi Arabia.
A lawyer for Biden did not respond to a request for comment. Axelrod, Doyle, and CAMAC also did not respond to requests for comment.
Lawal invoked his Fifth Amendment rights during a deposition for a civil lawsuit filed against him by the owner of the private airplane Lawal used to fly to Congo. A Texas jury ordered Lawal to pay $32.4 million in October 2012 to the owner of the jet, which was seized by Congolese authorities, the Washington Free Beacon reported at the time. The jury also found that CAMAC and two of its employees violated the U.S. Trading with the Enemy Act.
The International Criminal Court indicted Ntaganda in 2008 on a slew of war crime charges. He was convicted in 2019 and sentenced to 30 years in prison, the longest sentence ever handed down by the court.
Published under: Crime, David Axelrod, Hunter Biden
Hunter Biden-Linked Law Firm Dodged Lobbying Disclosures for Burisma Work
Emails from Biden's laptop reveal relationship with Boies Schiller Flexner
The prominent law firm for which Hunter Biden served as counsel took steps to avoid disclosing to Congress its work with Ukrainian energy giant Burisma Holdings, emails from Biden's laptop show.
Heather King, a partner at Boies Schiller Flexner, detailed the lobbying strategy in emails to Biden, his business partners, and an executive for Burisma Holdings in 2014. King wrote that she planned to provide legal and political services for Burisma "right up to the line" at which the law firm would have to disclose the work under federal lobbying laws. King also wrote of plans to meet with State Department officials in order to advocate for Burisma, which was seeking to expand its operations in the West as its owner was the subject of an international bribery investigation.
The emails highlight the gray area of federal lobbying laws, which provide some exemptions for lawyers. King's strategy to avoid registering under the Lobbying Disclosure Act or the more stringent Foreign Agents Registration Act was for Burisma to hire the firm ML Strategies as its lobbyist of record.
Boies Schiller Flexner has not been accused of any wrongdoing, but another Hunter Biden-linked firm, Blue Star Strategies, is under federal investigation for its undisclosed lobbying for Burisma. Biden also helped facilitate Blue Star's consulting deal with Burisma, emails show. Rudy Giuliani, a personal lawyer for former president Donald Trump, is also under federal investigation for his foreign lobbying activities.
Boies Schiller Flexner's arrangement with Burisma appeared to be an example of a firm trying to avoid having to publicly disclose its lobbying activities, one government ethics watchdog told the Washington Free Beacon.
"There is a lot of lobbying that takes place that's never reported," said Scott Amey, general counsel for the Project on Government Oversight. He said that lawyers and consultants often "play fast and loose" with lobbying laws by characterizing their lobbying as educational activity or by operating just under the threshold where lobbying is legally required to be disclosed.
A lawyer for Boies Schiller Flexner, who declined to speak on the record, insisted that the firm complied with lobbying laws.
Biden connected Burisma Holdings and Boies Schiller Flexner in April 2014, shortly after he joined the energy company's board of directors. Burisma paid Biden and a business partner, Devon Archer, more than $80,000 a month to help the company burnish its reputation in the West and scout out energy deals. Biden's board position has come under scrutiny because of his father's role at the time leading the Obama administration's diplomatic talks with Ukraine.
King took the lead in developing Boies Schiller Flexner's strategy for Burisma, according to emails from Biden's laptop obtained by the Free Beacon. King was a member of the firm's Crisis Management and Government Response Team. Biden referred Burisma to the team. Other emails show that a recent Justice Department nominee, Hampton Dellinger, worked on the crisis management team at Boies Schiller Flexner.
King wrote in the May 2014 emails that she wanted to contact State Department officials to "‘update' them on Burisma's current situation." She also told Burisma executive Vadym Pozharskyi that she planned to attend meetings with government officials alongside David Leiter, the owner of ML Strategies.
"We at [Boies Schiller Flexner] will lead all this work and can execute the political and legal work right up to the line where we would need to register as lobbyists, but I don't want to register under the lobbying disclosure act or the foreign agents registration act," King wrote in a May 12, 2014, email to Biden and Archer.
In an email to Pozharskyi, King said she planned to accompany Leiter in his meetings with government officials. She said that she would be at the meeting "strictly as" a lawyer for Burisma because she was not registered to lobby.
Burisma wired $250,000 to Boies Schiller Flexner on May 7, 2014, according to documents on Biden's laptop. ML Strategies disclosed receiving $90,000 in 2014 to lobby for Burisma. The Boies Schiller Flexner connection is not disclosed in those filings.
Other emails show that Boies Schiller Flexner paid $13,000 a month for consulting work.
Boies Schiller Flexner has come under scrutiny in recent years for its behind-the-scenes influence activities. The company hired Black Cube, an Israeli private intelligence firm, to spy on victims of Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. David Boies, the founder of the law firm, represented Theranos, a blood test maker whose owner was indicted for defrauding the government. A Wall Street Journal reporter who published a series of exposés on Theranos has said that Boies and King tried to pressure the paper to kill negative stories about Theranos.
King temporarily left Boies Schiller Flexner in 2015 to serve as general counsel for Theranos.
Hunter Biden Art Sales Raise Alarm With Ethics Watchdogs
Sales could leave Biden admin vulnerable to foreign influence
Foreign nationals could be allowed to bid on Hunter Biden’s artwork, which is poised to hit the market in the fall for up to $500,000, raising alarms with ethics watchdogs who say the art sales could leave the Biden administration vulnerable to foreign influence operations.
The art dealer representing Hunter Biden said the names of the buyers will be kept confidential, a common practice, according to Fox News. The White House press office did not respond to multiple requests for comment on whether foreign nationals will be permitted to buy the pieces, or whether the buyers will be vetted by White House ethics lawyers and disclosed to the public.
"This is clearly a way for [Hunter Biden] to earn money, a lot of money, without anybody knowing who’s paying him," said Tom Anderson, director of the Government Integrity Project at the National Legal and Policy Center, an ethics watchdog group.
The sale is reigniting concerns about Hunter Biden’s business interests, which became an election issue for Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, with Republicans accusing the younger Biden of profiting off his father’s name and position in Ukraine and China. The silence from the White House also comes as President Biden has pledged to increase government transparency and enforce rigorous ethical standards.
Anderson said the White House should publicly disclose the names of the buyers—even if the gallery doesn’t—and have the sales reviewed by ethics lawyers.
"Legally, [Biden] doesn’t have to disclose anything. But just for the office of the presidency, it’s just the right thing to do to be transparent and to let everybody know who’s paying for what," said Anderson. "Why would you want to jeopardize everything the administration is trying to do with something like this?"
The paintings will go on sale for between $75,000 and $500,000, although they could fetch higher bids from motivated buyers.
Art is often used to bribe public officials in China, where the practice is referred to as "yahui" or "elegant bribery," according to the New York Times.
"In some cases, an official will receive a work of art with instructions to put it up for auction; a businessman will use it as the currency for a bribe, purchasing the art at an inflated price and giving the official a tidy profit," reported the Times in 2013.
Although Hunter Biden has not exhibited his work before, the paintings are expected to sell for significantly higher than most art in the United States. The median price for a contemporary art piece was $1,300 in 2017, according to ArtPrice.com, which tracks art market information.
Joe Biden Picks University President Who Paid Him $900,000 As Ambassador to Germany
President Joe Biden plans to nominate University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann as the U.S. ambassador to Germany, the White House announced, after the university paid him more than $911,000 after he left the White House as vice president.
Biden’s financial disclosures revealed in 2019 that he was appointed by the university to serve as the Benjamin Franklin Presidential Practice Professor — the first person to hold the position.
Biden received $371,159 from the university in 2017 as well as $540,484 in 2018 and early 2019. He stepped down from the position in 2019 ahead of his announcement to run for president.
Biden appeared for university events and public appearances but did not host regular classes for the university, according to the student newspaper. He also appeared with Gutmann for several question-and-answer events.
Biden told world leaders in February that his former position at the University of Pennsylvania made him a professor.
“Two years ago, as you pointed out when I last spoke in Munich, I was a private citizen. I was a professor, not an elected official,” he said, referring to his paid position at the university.
The University of Pennsylvania also helped develop “The Biden Center” in Washington, DC, which employed many of Biden’s staff after he left the vice presidency. Biden’s current senior advisor Steve Ricchetti was once the managing director of the Biden Center as well as Biden’s current Secretary of State Tony Blinken.
Under Gutmann, the University of Pennsylvania has enjoyed substantial donations from China.
Since announcing the creation of the Biden Center, the University of Pennsylvania received a substantial increase of donations from China, prompting the House Oversight Committee to investigate.
The January 27 letter to Gutman read:
In the 37 months of available reporting prior to the announcement of the Biden Center, the University received about $21,187,333 from China. In contrast, in the 39 months of available reporting since the announcement of the Biden Center, the University received $72,274,675 from China—an increase of $51,087,342 in a similar time frame.
The National Legal and Policy Center filed a complaint with the Department of Education citing the university’s failure to disclose their donations from China.
The NLPC announcement read:
Since 2017 alone, when the Biden Center opened and after Joe Biden announced he was running for President in April 2018, the university received over $70 million from China, of which $22 million were listed as “Anonymous.” Federal law requires the disclosure of the source of all donations over $250,000.
The NLPC complaint also noted that the Biden Center co-sponsored the 2020 Penn China Research Symposium in New York on January 31, 2020. The event hosted Ambassador Huang Ping, Consul-General of the People’s Republic of China for opening remarks about the relationship between China and the United States.
“I just met President Gutmann and was very impressed by UPenn’s growing relationship with China,” he said.
Report: Joe Biden Met with Hunter Biden’s Mexican Business Associates in VP Office
Joe Biden reportedly met with Hunter Biden’s Mexican business associates at the vice presidential residence in 2015, despite telling Americans repeatedly during the 2020 election that he had never discussed his son’s business dealings.
The New York Post‘s Miranda Devine reported Wednesday that documents — and photographs — on Hunter Biden’s now-infamous laptop documented meetings between then-Vice President Biden and his son’s foreign business partners:
Among more than 100 events scheduled in Hunter’s diary at the VP’s residence at the Naval Observatory in Washington, DC, there are meetings which appear to overlap with Hunter’s business interests.
“Breakfast with Dad — NavObs” is one such meeting recorded for 8:30 a.m. on Nov. 19, 2015. Five photographs date-stamped on that day and taken at 10:03 a.m. and 10:04 a.m. appear on the laptop, showing Joe posing with four of Hunter’s business associates, including Mexican billionaires Carlos Slim and Miguel Alemán Velasco.
One photo also features Velasco’s son Miguel Aleman Magnani, the founder of budget airline Interjet, at whose Acapulco mansion Hunter and wife Kathleen had stayed that March. Jeff Cooper, a longtime Biden family benefactor, who ran one of the largest asbestos litigation firms in the country, Illinois-based SimmonsCooper, also appears along with Hunter.
…
Cooper and Hunter had been working on energy deals in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America. A 2013 email from Cooper demonstrates their high expectations of the association with the Aleman dynasty.
Breitbart News editor-in-chief Alex Marlow recently revealed his new book, Breaking the News: Exposing the Establishment Media’s Hidden Deals and Secret Corruption, that Hunter Biden took nearly two dozen flights through Andrews Air Force base, the home of Air Force One and Air Force Two, while his father was in office.
Hunter Biden is suspected of having used trips with his father on Air Force Two to arrange business deals and impress potential partners.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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