Breitbart News senior contributor and Secret Empires author Peter Schweizer joined Life, Liberty & Levin Sunday on Fox News Channel to explain Joe and Hunter Biden’s Ukraine connections.
Schweizer told host Mark Levin that the former vice president’s son was being paid by Ukraine despite not having expertise in the energy sector while Joe Biden was the “point-person” on former President Barack Obama’s administration in dealing with Ukraine.
“The key question here that nobody seems to want to ask in the media is: What was he being paid for? He wasn’t being paid for his expertise. What was he being paid for? And what were the Ukrainians expecting to get in return?” Schweizer stated. “I think when you overlay the financial payments with the fact that Joe Biden as point person on Obama administration policy to Ukraine was steering billions of dollars of Western money to Ukraine it becomes crystal clear exactly why they were paying him money. They wanted access and they wanted to influence Joe Biden. And Joe Biden has been around a long time here, and he had to know exactly why his son was being paid.”
Treasury Department accused of obstructing Biden probe
So Hunter Biden's need to take baksheesh undercut U.S. security interests, left Ukraine a corruption-soaked mess unfit for NATO membership, and opened the gates wide for Russia to move in on Ukraine. Ukraine was too corrupt to be a member of NATO, yet Western interests were knee-deep in perpetrating that corruption and reaping big dollars for themselves.
Way to go, Joe. Biden family corruption was one of many reasons why Ukraine couldn't get into NATO and secure the Article 5 protections it needed to deter Russia. Now it's fighting alone and hoping it can defeat the Russian juggernaut, which is only just beginning. Whether Putin intends to stop just there is anyone's guess. He's not in a friendly mood right now and has the wherewithal to use his oil earnings to wreak untold havoc on the West. Is Hunter enjoying his money now? We know that no prosecutor seems to be able to stop him.
U.S. Approves Fresh Ukraine Military Aid Boost: Total Now at $32 Billion (and Rising)
A fresh package of direct U.S. military aid for Ukraine worth $400 million is expected to be approved Friday. The boost takes the total in taxpayer dollars the Pentagon has released to $32 billion with no end in sight as it continues to draw down existing weapons stocks.
U.S. officials told AP news service eight M60A1 vehicles that can launch bridges and allow troops to cross rivers or other gaps will form the bulk of the latest delivery. Large amounts of ammunition, such as rockets for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, will also be sent on their way.
Officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the aid package has not yet been publicly announced, AP set out.
The M60A1 Vehicle Launched Bridge (AVLB) is a portable, 60-foot folding metal bridge carried atop a tank body.
A M60A1 Armored Vehicle Launched Bridge (AVLB) of the U.S. Army is pictured after arrival via a vehicles carrier at the port of Aarhus, Denmark on January 16, 2023. (SERGEI GAPON/AFP via Getty Images)
Airmen with the 436th Aerial Port Squadron use a forklift to move 155 mm shells ultimately bound for Ukraine, April 29, 2022, at Dover Air Force Base, Del. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Providing that system now could help Ukrainian troops as they launch an expected offensive and make it easier for troops to cross rivers to attack Russian forces.
The vehicle bridges and ammunition will be taken from Pentagon stocks through the presidential drawdown authority, so they will be able to be delivered quickly to the warfront.
The aid will also include an undisclosed amount of rounds for howitzers, other ammunition, demolition munitions and other equipment to clear obstacles, spare parts and equipment for vehicle maintenance and repair.
The total amount in U.S. aid to Ukraine has long eclipsed the annual military budget of every country in the world except the United States and China.
The passage of the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill last December grants Ukraine $45 billion in military and economic aid, making the total to date $113 billion, as Breitbart News reported.
The latest release of U.S. military hardware comes against a backdrop of continued allegations of corruption to the very highest levels of the Ukraine government.
Earlier this year a string of senior Kiev officials were sacked or resigned amidst a flurry of corruption claims.
Those shown the door were accused of taking illicit payments as the Ministry of Defence allegedly signed overinflated military contracts.
The move followed a different corruption scandal which saw Infrastructure deputy Vasyl Lozinskyi sacked and detained for an alleged theft of $400,000 from the winter aid budget.
A recent report from Transparency International found Ukraine ranked as the second most corrupt country in Europe, losing only to Russia, which ranked first. Ukraine also ranked as the 116th most corrupt country in the world, although it rose one rank since 2021.
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They will simply annex America and Taiwan as allied territories, and drop Hunter another check.
WE CAN'T SAVE OUR COUNTRY UNTIL WE RID OURSELVES OF THESE PIG PARASITE LAWYERS!
We hope Joe and Hunter are proud of themselves. This is a war they made possible as they helped themselves to the goodies.
“Protect and enrich.” This is a perfect encapsulation of the Clinton Foundation (TWO GAMER LAWYERS) (WHAT ABOUT THE BIDEN PENN CENTER?) and the Obama (TWO GAMER LAWYERS) book and television deals. Then there is the Biden family (THREE GAMER LAWYERS) corruption, followed closely behind by similar abuses of power and office by the Warren (GAMER LAWYER) and Sanders families, as Peter Schweizer described in his recent book “Profiles in Corruption.” These names just scratch the surface of government corruption (ADD GAMER LAWYER KAMALA HARRIS AND HER LAWYER HUSBAND AND THE BANKSTERS’ RENT BOY, LAWYER CHUCK SCHUMER). BRIAN C JOONDEPH
Bombs rain down on Kiev, America gets ready for Putin's wrath, and Hunter Biden enjoys his money
It finally happened, and everyone should have seen it coming: Russian bombs are now raining down on Kiev — and Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Odessa, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Mariupol — making Ukraine a full-blown war zone with reports of civilian and military casualties piling up.
Long lines of cars are streaming out of the country. Russian troops are pouring in from multiple directions. Ukrainians with kids are hiding in basements. Missiles are raining down. Back in Moscow, long lines are streaming at banks as desperate locals seek to get their money out before it's devalued to nothing, frozen in sanctions, or otherwise expropriated. Cyber-attacks are taking down Ukrainian government websites. Attacks on the electrical grid are expected. It's all-out warfare as Russia's Vladimir Putin seeks to conquer and annex the country, which he sees as entirely Russian, the righting of a wrong, as well as the command of geography. It's a partial truth that has no consent from the westward-leaning Ukrainians.
The Ukrainian president's sad realization of what was happening after upbraiding the West for its panicked warnings is pathetic. He's now begging for arms. He's begging for help from the United Nations. He's calling the reserves (he needs to be calling the regulars at this point). He ought to have been prepared to play dirty with Russia — counter-cyber-attacks, terror attacks inside Russia, illegal alien warfare, and other poor man's war tactics — because he's fighting an invading nuclear Russia that is playing for keeps. And what's really bad — as the West hand-wrings and upbraids Russia — is that Ukraine is fighting this alone.
This tweet by Katya Yushchenko, the wife of a former Ukraine president who had been poisoned earlier, likely by Russia-linked interests, tells us the root of the tragedy:
They begged and couldn't get in.
Why the heck wasn't Ukraine made a member of NATO if protecting Ukraine was as important to the West as it now claims? Without that membership, Ukraine was a sitting duck. Surely, some ace strategist at the NSC should have noticed this. With enfeebled Joe Biden in power and his wokester military leadership demonstrating their chops for war in the disastrous Afghanistan pullout (which made the USSR's 1989 Afghanistan pullout look good in comparison), Putin knew that the window of opportunity was right now.
The U.S. claimed that it supported the membership, dating from 2008, but Germany, a country that doesn't live up to its promised military spending on NATO, reportedly was the power that vetoed it. U.S. support was lip service, though, since the U.S. didn't do anything other than talk about it. Deadbeat Germany ought to have been easy to muscle into changing its stance, given that it wasn't pulling its NATO weight, but Democrats like Joe Biden and Barack Obama were too busy gushing their admiration for socialistic German chancellor Angela Merkel and waving through the NordStream 2 pipeline from Russia so that Germany could scrap its nuclear plants; put in inefficient, unsustainable green energy; and still get real energy from Russia on the side.
Worse still, this unresolved conflict on NATO membership left Ukraine hanging. Vladimir Putin's original demand was for the West and Ukraine to guarantee no NATO membership. That would have made Ukraine neutral, like Austria or Finland, which is a compromise, an imperfect solution, but a workable arrangement if history is any indicator. Austria and Finland have been pretty well placed for the region in keeping the peace with paranoid Russia, and there have been no problems. If NATO couldn't agree to make Ukraine a member, it ought to have gone the neutrality route to keep Putin from the door.
As Daniel Davis wrote two days ago in 1945:
Ignore these realities by stubbornly clinging to the fiction NATO’s door remains open to Kyiv, and the U.S. will likely reap rotten fruit: potentially tens of thousands of Ukrainian people dying in an avoidable war, NATO security damaged — and regardless of which choice NATO makes, Ukraine will remain outside of NATO.
The West at large is trying every diplomatic way imaginable to avoid compromising on any of its baseline positions and refusing to grant Putin any of his key demands (which are no NATO membership for Ukraine, a return to 1997 security lines, and no intermediate- or short-range missiles near Russian borders). NATO prefers to resolve the crisis in a way that results in Putin standing down his military buildup, preserves the territorial integrity of Ukraine, and keeps the door open to future NATO aspirants.
Now the results speak for themselves.
The West is talking about the whole thing as if it's an attack on NATO, but acting like this is only Ukraine's problem, not their own. Putin has made threatening noises to Poland and the Baltics. Finland has signaled that it now wants to apply for NATO membership. It doesn't seem as though it's all going to end with Kiev. And Putin was very, very specific about what would happen to the West if it tried to stop Russia from taking Ukraine: "Whoever tries to interfere with us, and even more so, to create threats for our country, for our people, should know that Russia's response will be immediate and will lead you to such consequences that you have never experienced in your history." There may be more to this than just Ukraine. High oil prices for America and electrical power grid attacks may be in the works for us. And it may well be that Putin is talking nukes.
What was at the root of Germany's opposition to NATO membership for Ukraine?
That Ukraine was just too corrupt to be allowed into the alliance.
Yes, the place was corrupt. In 2021, it ranked a lowly 122 out of 180 countries evaluated by Transparency International in its annual Corruption Perceptions Index.
Transparency International added this for perspective:
The African state of Eswatini (Swaziland) is next to Ukraine, also having scored 32 points [out of 100]. Zambia, Nepal, Egypt, the Philippines, and Algeria are one point ahead — all with 33 points each.
Germany said Ukraine was too corrupt to be in NATO.
But it takes two to tango on corruption. Did it help that Germany's opposition was accompanied by the odd fact that former chancellor Gerhardt Schroeder was the power behind the NordStream 2 pipeline? The guy was a leftist, not an oilman, yet somehow he got that well-paid job from the Russians.
It wasn't just Schroeder who was on the other side of the Ukraine corruption equation. There also was Joe Biden — and, more specifically, Hunter Biden.
Via Instapundit, Austin Bay of StrategyPage has some cogent observations about what Hunter Biden's seat on the Burisma board meant for Ukraine, which desperately needed that seat at NATO:
The Ukrainian government contends the Russian-backed war in its Donbas region prevents it from effectively pursuing economic and political reform. The war slows reform, but since 2015 many Western creditors disagree argue Ukraine hasn't treated corruption as the grave security vulnerability it is.
Why? Fair question. U.S. government and media preach reform — but there is increasing evidence that U.S. leaders and institutions don't practice what they preach.
Earlier this month John Solomon, reporting in "Just The News," analyzed State Department emails obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request.
One email, written on Nov. 22, 2016, by former U.S. embassy official George Kent, was particularly chilling. It directly contradicted mainstream media reports in 2020 and public testimony by U.S. officials that "insisted Hunter Biden's lucrative job with the allegedly corrupt Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings ... had no impact on U.S. efforts to fight corruption in that country."
Solomon reported that in 2016 State Department officials in Ukraine told Washington "that Hunter Biden's business dealings in Ukraine 'undercut' U.S. efforts to fight corruption in the former Soviet republic."
Kent included this guidance: "The real issue to my mind was that someone in Washington needed to engage VP Biden quietly and say that his son Hunter's presence on the Burisma board undercut the anti-corruption message the VP and we were advancing in Ukraine."
Kent added: "Ukrainians heard one message from us and then saw another set of behavior, with the (Biden) family association with a known corrupt figure whose company was known for not playing by the rules in the oil/gas sector."
Hunter Biden's blatant corruption and hypocrisy had and still have real world strategic and national security costs. If defending Ukraine is a U.S. security interest, American participation in corruption undermines our security efforts. Hunter Biden was hindering Ukraine's warfighting and corruption-fighting effort.
So Hunter Biden's need to take baksheesh undercut U.S. security interests, left Ukraine a corruption-soaked mess unfit for NATO membership, and opened the gates wide for Russia to move in on Ukraine. Ukraine was too corrupt to be a member of NATO, yet Western interests were knee-deep in perpetrating that corruption and reaping big dollars for themselves.
Way to go, Joe. Biden family corruption was one of many reasons why Ukraine couldn't get into NATO and secure the Article 5 protections it needed to deter Russia. Now it's fighting alone and hoping it can defeat the Russian juggernaut, which is only just beginning. Whether Putin intends to stop just there is anyone's guess. He's not in a friendly mood right now and has the wherewithal to use his oil earnings to wreak untold havoc on the West. Is Hunter enjoying his money now? We know that no prosecutor seems to be able to stop him.
We hope Joe and Hunter are proud of themselves. This is a war they made possible as they helped themselves to the goodies.
Image: Alerta News24 Twitter screen shot.
Exclusive – ‘F*ck Eric:’ Hunter Plotted to Betray Key Family Business Partner Expected to Cooperate in GOP House Probe
Hunter Biden plotted in 2019 to betray the family’s top financial lieutenant Eric Schwerin amid their crumbling relationship, built upon an off-the-books business arrangement, text messages obtained by Breitbart News from Hunter’s laptop reveal.
Hunter’s damaged relationship with Schwerin is notable because Schwerin is expected to “soon” provide revealing documents about the Biden family business to Republican House investigators, according to the House Oversight Committee. It is unknown what information he may provide in the wake of his deteriorated relationship with Hunter.
Schwerin is a powerful figure in the Biden family business. He shared bank accounts with Hunter and President Joe Biden and was president of Rosemont Seneca Partners, a fund created by Hunter and several associates that created business deals in Russia, Ukraine, China, and Romania. Schwerin also maintained guest lists for White House functions and negotiated the divorce settlement with Hunter’s first wife, Kathleen.
Despite Schwerin’s close relationship with the family, Hunter’s text messages in 2018 begin to show a deep distrust of Schwerin and his involvement in the family’s affairs, in which Hunter apparently owed Schwerin money. Their relationship seemingly became so poor that Hunter announced Schwerin was his “worst enemy…And everyone knows it.” By 2019, their relationship had deteriorated to the point that Hunter hatched a plot to cut Schwerin out of an ongoing off-the-books business arrangement.
On February 3, 2019, Hunter conspired with fellow Biden family business partners Jeff Cooper and Devon Archer to cut Schwerin out of a then-current Biden family business arrangement and to replace him with Cooper and Archer. It is unknown if the plot was ever carried out.
Cooper, an old friend and partner of the Biden family who flew on Air Force Two to meet Mexican business associates, had a prior interest with Hunter in Eudora Global, which yielded the president’s son a 2015 gain of $300,000. Archer, a second longtime business partner of the family, was also an instrumental family business associate until he was sentenced to prison in 2020 for a defrauding scheme.
Hunter, texting Cooper and Archer in a group chat, proposed dividing his current business arrangement with Schwerin into thirds and giving Cooper and Archer each one part, keeping one third for himself. Hunter also noted he could cut Schwerin out of the deal because the current agreement had “no contract or any documentation to the affect [sic].” In the text message, Hunter used the infamous acronym “BD” to name the “Biden family” business:
I won [own] 100% of BD ill sell you and D 33% apiece and we run these deals through the BD. Whomever the broker is now can easily switch his license to our BD. I get someone to replace Eric who isnclaiming 33% with no contract or any documentation to the affect and holding my money from Eudora and other shit as leverage to get me to give allmyequity to him in return for the 33
Months before seeking to cut Schwerin out of the business arrangement, Hunter had made it clear to close confidants that he did not trust Schwerin or his business acumen.
On December 20, 2018, Hunter told his assistant Katie Dodge that Schwerin was his “worst enemy” and whined he owed him “30% of my income” for apparently ten years. The text relates to Hunter’s apparent frustration about Schwerin’s continued involvement in the family business.
“He is literally my worst enemy and I have no enemies. And everyone knows it,” Hunter said, upset about unpaid bills:
And by the way Devon has never not got his piece or Burisma, Eric has never been removed from any accounts and has 30% of my income through the debts he says are 30% his responsibility but I pay %100. Send every bill in any way connected to the business for past 10 years and ask Eric for 33% of the total. For real — final job please. That includes salaries ADP all credit cards -the whole thing. That way I can transfer him ownership of the BD of which he owns 0%
Hunter’s frustration with Schwerin was again evident on December 20, 2018, when he blamed him for an inaccurate tax bill. Hunter told Kathleen, his first wife, that his tax bill was not accurate because the “Bill is going off information from Eric that is not accurate at all.”
“My tax returns aren’t completed,” Hunter claimed.
A few days prior, Hunter accused Schwerin of leaving him with a tax bill “hanging over my business.” Texting Hallie Biden, his brother’s widow turned his own lover, Hunter noted on December 14, 2018, that his financial position was poor amid “a tax bill that Eric left hanging over my business,” even as Joe Biden was “running for president”:
You’re right Hallie and I find myself (because I’ve chosen to alienate all my friends and family and employees and you and the kids and my kids etc..) very alone in dealing with rebuilding an income that can support an enormous alimony and my kids costs and myself, dealing with the aftermath of the abduction and likely assassination (that’s what NYT’s suspects) of my business partner the richest man in the world, the arrest and conviction of my client the chief of intelligence of the people’s republic of China by the US government, the retaliation of the Chinese in the ouster and arrest of US suspected CIA operatives inside China, my suspected involvement in brokering a deal with Vladimir Putin directly for the largest sale of oil gas assets inside Russia to China, a tax bill that Eric left hanging over my business and … And Dads running for president
Hunter’s outbursts of frustration with Eric were not confined to his inner circle. Hunter even cursed Schwerin in a private text to Andrew Schwartz, the chief communications officer at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
“Had lunch with Eric yesterday and told him that your dad can count on me. Eric said he would put me in touch with your dad’s comms people,” Schwartz told Hunter on November 30, 2018.
Hunter replied, “Fuck Eric … seriously … but yes, do anything you want to do if…”
Hunter’s broken relationship with Eric comes as the House Oversight Committee in February requested documents and communications from Hunter, James Biden, and Schwerin. While Hunter has refused to comply, Schwerin’s attorney has told the committee Schwerin will cooperate with Comer’s request.
“We have received correspondence from the attorneys representing Hunter Biden and James Biden. Oversight Committee staff will be in communication with them about Chairman Comer’s request,” a House Oversight committee spokesperson told Breitbart News on Wednesday. “We are also in contact with Eric Schwerin’s attorney and expect him to start producing documents to the Oversight Committee soon.”
Wednesday was the deadline set by the committee for Schwerin and James and Hunter Biden to comply with demands to disclose a host of both classified and unclassified documents, records, and communications between business associates and family members, including Joe Biden. The records request included the following people and entities:
- Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.;
- Robert Hunter Biden or any known company or entity associated with Robert Hunter Biden, including Rosemont Seneca, Owasco, Hudson West, Bohai Harvest, Skaneateles, Burisma, Eudora, and any CEFC company or entity, including the CEFC China Energy Company;
- James Biden or the Lion Hall Group LLC;
- Sara Biden;
- Catherine Dodge;
- Joan Mayer or Joan Peugh;
- Devon Archer;
- Robert Walker;
- Vuk Jeremic; and
- Payments to Lunden Roberts from any Rosemont Seneca bank account.
It is unclear what information Schwerin will convey to the committee as it investigates the Biden family for nine potential violations, including money laundering and wire fraud.
As of Wednesday, Republican probes have been stonewalled by Hunter, the Treasury Department, and former FBI “point man” Timothy Thibault, who allegedly “improperly” “shut down” a probe into Hunter’s laptop that is likely unrelated to the ongoing criminal probe concerning possible tax fraud by the president’s son. In addition, the Treasury Department denied the Committee’s request in January to disclose 150 suspicious reports flagged by U.S. banks concerning Biden family business transactions, causing Comer to threaten a subpoena.
In 2018 and 2020, Breitbart Senior Contributor and Government Accountability Institute President Peter Schweizer published Secret Empires and Profiles in Corruption. Each book hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and exposed how Hunter Biden and Joe Biden flew aboard Air Force Two in 2013 to China before Hunter’s firm inked a $1.5 billion deal with a subsidiary of the Chinese government’s Bank of China less than two weeks after the trip. Schweizer’s work also uncovered the Biden family’s other vast and lucrative foreign deals and cronyism.
Breitbart Political Editor Emma-Jo Morris’s investigative work at the New York Post on the Hunter Biden “laptop from Hell” also captured international headlines when she, along with Miranda Devine, revealed that Joe Biden was intimately involved in Hunter’s businesses, appearing even to have a 10 percent stake in a company the scion formed with officials at the highest levels of the Chinese Communist Party.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave
Elon Musk Gets Up and Ends Kamala Harris, Joe Biden and Obama’s Career to Jail 2023
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaLHhRU1WUA
THE BIDEN CRIME FAMILY
Jesse Watters Primetime
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8XJzeGnU2Q
Since Biden’s inauguration, the University of Pennsylvania has disclosed at least $14 million in donations from China or Hong Kong, the Free Beacon reported last week. The names of these donors have yet to be disclosed by the Department of Education, breaking the precedent of prior administrations which published foreign donor names in a public database.
JUST IN: Grassley Confronts Garland About Hunter Biden's Potential Criminal Activity
THE BIDEN CRIME FAMILY ALWAYS HAS SEC OF TREASURY YELLEN TO PROTECT THEIR 150 SHADY BANK WIRE TRANSFERS.
Treasury Department accused of obstructing Biden probe
So Hunter Biden's need to take baksheesh undercut U.S. security interests, left Ukraine a corruption-soaked mess unfit for NATO membership, and opened the gates wide for Russia to move in on Ukraine. Ukraine was too corrupt to be a member of NATO, yet Western interests were knee-deep in perpetrating that corruption and reaping big dollars for themselves.
Way to go, Joe. Biden family corruption was one of many reasons why Ukraine couldn't get into NATO and secure the Article 5 protections it needed to deter Russia. Now it's fighting alone and hoping it can defeat the Russian juggernaut, which is only just beginning. Whether Putin intends to stop just there is anyone's guess. He's not in a friendly mood right now and has the wherewithal to use his oil earnings to wreak untold havoc on the West. Is Hunter enjoying his money now? We know that no prosecutor seems to be able to stop him.
We hope Joe and Hunter are proud of themselves. This is a war they made possible as they helped themselves to the goodies.
Hunter’s Criminal Defense Lawyer Exits After ‘Unease and Dissent’ Plague Defense Team
Hunter Biden’s high-powered criminal defense lawyer Joshua Levy is reportedly no longer working for the president’s son after “unease and dissent” plagued the legal defense team, which consisted of at least four lawyers.
Levy, who was hired to work on opposing congressional investigations that seek to reveal the complexities of the family’s business schemes, is no longer representing the infamous Biden family business member, the New York Times reported Wednesday.
Levy has removed himself from the case, reportedly due to infighting within Hunter’s legal team and specifically with Abbe Lowell, who was hired in December to defend Hunter and the Biden family from nine congressional probes, including money laundering and wire fraud. In the past, Lowell has represented high-profile individuals engulfed in political scandals, such as Bill Clinton and Jared Kushner.
Levy was reportedly discontented with Lowell’s legal strategies and feared that his tactics could flop. In February, Lowell was a part of the effort to send Rudy Giuliani, Tony Bobulinski, and 12 others “litigation hold” letters to preserve “Laptop from Hell” records, a move seen by some critics as a public relations tactic to change the troubling narrative for the Biden family.
Mike Davis, founder and president of the pro-Trump Article III Project, told Breitbart News those letters were a “desperate, frivolous, and laughable” effort that would hurt the family’s legal position because the lawsuit will lead to discovery, a legal process by which Hunter would be deposed on camera.
The Times reported on why Hunter initially hired Levy:
President Biden’s personal lawyer, Bob Bauer, had recommended Mr. Levy for the job. But Mr. Levy had clashed with Kevin Morris, a lawyer and close adviser to Hunter Biden who has lent him money to pay his back taxes and some other bills, according to a person familiar with the strategy. Mr. Morris and Hunter Biden brought on Mr. Lowell late last year, prompting Mr. Levy’s departure.
Lowell’s involvement in Hunter’s defense has not only forced the exit of Levy but has also triggered infighting with attorney Chris Clark, another high-profile attorney who leads Hunter’s criminal defense. Clark’s professional history includes working as a partner at the same Washington, DC, law firm where Rep. Liz Cheney’s husband works. The firm’s biography of Clark says he represents Hunter in the “grand jury investigation regarding tax issues.”
“Chris Clark, the lead criminal defense lawyer representing Mr. Biden in the Justice Department investigation, has kept Mr. Lowell at a distance in dealing with that matter,” the Times reported. With Clark keeping “a distance,” and Lowell and Levy’s departure, Hunter’s very expensive legal team has begun to crack just months into the House Oversight Committee’s investigation into the Biden family business.
In 2018 and 2020, Breitbart Senior Contributor and Government Accountability Institute President Peter Schweizer published Secret Empires and Profiles in Corruption. Each book hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and exposed how Hunter Biden and Joe Biden flew aboard Air Force Two in 2013 to China before Hunter’s firm inked a $1.5 billion deal with a subsidiary of the Chinese government’s Bank of China less than two weeks after the trip. Schweizer’s work also uncovered the Biden family’s other vast and lucrative foreign deals and cronyism.
Breitbart Political Editor Emma-Jo Morris’s investigative work at the New York Post on the Hunter Biden “laptop from Hell” also captured international headlines when she, along with Miranda Devine, revealed that Joe Biden was intimately involved in Hunter’s businesses, appearing even to have a 10 percent stake in a company the scion formed with officials at the highest levels of the Chinese Communist Party.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
Schwerin is a powerful figure in the Biden family business. He shared bank accounts with Hunter and President Joe Biden and was president of Rosemont Seneca Partners, a fund created by Hunter and several associates that created business deals in Russia, Ukraine, China, and Romania. Schwerin also maintained guest lists for White House functions and negotiated the divorce settlement with Hunter’s first wife, Kathleen.
Pentagon Investigates, Gives All Clear over Ukraine Fraud Allegations
There is no evidence any of the billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars spent on weapons and aid sent to Ukraine has been lost to corruption or diverted into criminal hands, the Pentagon’s inspector general said Tuesday, before adding investigations are still at an early stage.
The assurance came after members of Congress persistently questioned how closely the U.S. is tracking its aid to ensure it is not subject to fraud.
AP reports Robert P. Storch was pressed by House members several times about any fraud findings. He said a number of tips and allegations have come in to a new hotline, but there have been “limited findings” to date, with many reports pending.
Storch, who was testifying with other Pentagon leaders before the House Armed Services Committee, repeatedly qualified his remarks by saying he did not want to talk about investigations that have not yet been completed.
His comments came on the back of months of claim and counterclaim regarding the potential for corruption to the very highest levels of the Ukraine government, as Breitbart News reported.
In January a string of senior Ukraine government officials were sacked or resigned amidst a flurry of corruption claims, with those shown the door accused of taking illicit payments as the Ministry of Defence allegedly signed overinflated military contracts.
Deputy Defence Minister Vyacheslav Shapovalov, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Kyrylo Tymoshenko and Deputy Prosecutor General Oleksiy Simonenko were among the senior Ukraine government officials who departed.
The AP report said Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama, the Republican committee chairman, observed Congress has appropriated more than $100 billion in military, economic and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and NATO allies.
Of that, the U.S. has doled out more than $75 billion so far including nearly $32 billion in Pentagon weapons and training to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion of its neighbor a year ago.
File/Ground personnel unload weapons, including Javelin anti-tank missiles, and other military hardware delivered on a National Airlines plane by the United States military at Boryspil Airport near Kyiv on January 25, 2022 in Boryspil, Ukraine. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
“These are unprecedented numbers. And it requires an unprecedented level of oversight by Congress,” Rogers said.
The Pentagon has a “robust program” to track the aid as it crosses the border into Ukraine and to keep tabs on it once it is there, depending on the sensitivity of each weapons system, Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said Tuesday at a press briefing.
There’s also a small team of Americans in Ukraine working with Ukrainians to do physical inspections when possible, but also virtual inspections when needed, since those teams are not going to the front lines, Ryder said.
A recent report from Transparency International found Ukraine ranked as the second most corrupt country in Europe, losing only to Russia, which ranked first. Ukraine also ranked as the 116th most corrupt country in the world, although it rose one rank since 2021.
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