THE BIDEN KLEPTOCRACY - ARE YOU DOIN' GOOD? - Pelosi’s Husband Bought Amazon Call Options Weeks Before Pentagon Announced Contract Likely Benefitting Company

 TRY TO SEPARATE JOE BIDEN FROM HIS 

MODERN SLAVER JEFF 'BEZOSHEAD' BEZOS!

REMINDS ME OF ALL THE 'DEALS' THE OLD WHORE FEINSTIEN HAS MADE AND VOTED FOR IN THE SENATE BUT HAS 'NO KNOWLEDGE OF' .

Pelosi’s spokesperson told Fox Business, “The speaker has no involvement or prior knowledge of these transactions,” adding, “The speaker does not own any stock.”

Report: Pelosi’s Husband Secured $5.3 Million from Alphabet Options

Jemal Countess/Getty Images for TIME

JACOB BLISS

8 Jul 202128

2:36

Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), reportedly made massive bets on stocks in the weeks prior to the antitrust legislation vote in committee, securing large sums of money.

In the weeks before the House Judiciary Committee voted on the antitrust legislation — aimed at Apple, Amazon, and Alphabet’s Google — that was meant to limit the way companies organize and offer their products, Paul exercised call options, according to Nancy’s financial disclosure forms.

The financial disclosure showed that Paul was “exercising call options to acquire 4,000 shares of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, at a strike price of $1,200. The trade netted him a $4.8 million gain, and it’s risen to $5.3 million since then as the shares have jumped,” according to Bloomberg.

Nancy filed the disclosure form July 2. The transaction was ultimately completed a week prior to the Judiciary Committee vote. The votes were supposed to advance six bipartisan antitrust bills, four of which targeted Google, Amazon, Apple, and Facebook.

Bloomberg noted that the market was quiet, implying that investors did not see the bills are a real threat to those companies. Doing so, the share price from Alphabet had increased 3.2% since the Judiciary Committee voted the legislation out of committee.

The report added that Paul bought 20 call options for Amazon on May 21 with a strike price of $3,000, and 50 call options for Apple with a strike price of $100. Both options expire in June 2022, suggesting that he expects the price to continue to rise over the next year.

Drew Hammill, a spokesman for Nancy, said in a statement that “The speaker has no involvement or prior knowledge of these transactions,” and in fact does not own any stocks herself.

Nancy said in June that she supports anti-trust bills to hold the companies accountable. She said, “Congress is not going to ignore the consolidation that has happened and the concern that exists on both sides of the aisle.” She added that the job Congress has is to “the consumer and competition.”

Paul’s stock transactions are not suspected of violating or breaking any laws, though the financial disclosure forms must be filed within 30 days and no more than 45 days after the transaction takes place.

Pelosi’s Husband Bought Amazon Call Options Weeks Before Pentagon Announced Contract Likely Benefitting Company

Zach Gibson/Getty Images

KRISTINA WONG

8 Jul 202110

6:34

Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), bought Amazon call options just six weeks before the Pentagon announced it was canceling a multi-billion dollar contract with Microsoft and starting a new one that opened a door for Amazon’s participation.

The Biden Pentagon on Tuesday abruptly announced it was canceling its multi-billion JEDI cloud services contract with Microsoft and starting a new one that Amazon could compete for.

Amazon had been favored to win the JEDI contract after the idea for a single cloud infrastructure was first conceived in 2017, but it was ultimately awarded to Microsoft in 2019. Amazon sued, arguing they lost due to then-President Donald Trump’s personal dislike of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. A Pentagon inspector general report found that Trump did not interfere in the contract.

The Pentagon said the new contract, “Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability” or JWCC, would be “multi-vendor” and “multi-cloud” and explicitly named Microsoft and Amazon as the two top contenders:

The Department intends to seek proposals from a limited number of sources, namely the Microsoft Corporation (Microsoft) and Amazon Web Services (AWS), as available market research indicates that these two vendors are the only Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) capable of meeting the Department’s requirements. However, as noted in its Pre-Solicitation Notice, the Department will immediately engage with industry and continue its market research to determine whether any other U.S.-based hyperscale CSPs can also meet the DoD’s requirements. If so, those Department will also negotiate with those companies.

During a conference call with reporters following the decision, the Pentagon’s Acting Chief Information Officer John Sherman said although it is not guaranteed, both Amazon and Microsoft will “likely” be awarded parts of the new contract.

After the announcement — which coincided with the first day of Amazon’s new CEO Andy Jassy — Amazon stock prices closed on a record high of $3,675.74, topping its previous closing record of $3,531.45 on September 2, 2020, according to MarketWatch. It was the company’s best single-day percentage gain since November 4, 2020, the day after President Joe Biden’s election, according to the report.

An Amazon spokesperson welcomed the decision in a statement: “We understand and agree with the DoD’s decision. Unfortunately, the contract award was not based on the merits of the proposals and instead was the result of outside influence that has no place in government procurement.”

“We believe this is a clear positive for Amazon and potentially negative for the third-party data centers,” Raymond James analysts wrote in a note about the Pentagon’s decision, according to MarketWatch. “We believe the shift to Amazon further cements its position as a leading cloud provider, particularly to government agencies.”

Just over a month ago, on May 21, Paul Pelosi bought call options worth between $500,001 and $1 million. On that day, he also bought Apple call options worth between $100,001 and $250,000. The transactions were disclosed in the House speaker’s latest financial disclosure report filed on July 2.

Breitbart News reviewed Pelosi’s financial disclosure reports dating back to 2009 and found that the speaker’s husband has a history of purchasing Amazon call options around JEDI program-related milestones in the past.

The Pentagon under then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan first embarked in mid-2017 to look for a cloud solution that would enable the Defense Department to access and share data faster.

The Pentagon released its final request for proposal (RFP) for the JEDI program on July 26, 2018. Pelosi’s first purchase of Amazon call options came a day after, on July 27, 2018. He would purchase more call options again on October 12, 2018, worth as much as $6,000,000.

Then, on July 12, 2019, a federal judge cleared the way for the Pentagon’s awarding of the contract to either Microsoft or Amazon the next month. Oracle America had sued the Pentagon after it had been excluded from bidding on the contract, but the judge rejected its claims and gave the greenlight for the contract to be awarded in late August. Amazon’s attorneys had defended the contract in the case.

Pelosi’s next purchase of call options worth as much as $1,000,000 came just 10 days later.

Four days later, Trump intervened and said he would look into whether the JEDI contract was biased toward Amazon. The Pentagon awarded the contract to Microsoft several months later in October 2019. Amazon filed a lawsuit, arguing that the Trump administration had interfered in the process and won a restraining order to block Microsoft from beginning work on the project.

Pelosi’s next purchase came weeks after a flurry of positive developments for Amazon. On April 28, 2021, Amazon beat out a motion to dismiss its case. A few days later, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said on April 30, 2021, that the Pentagon was reviewing the JEDI contract. On May 21, 2021, Pelosi purchased more Amazon call options worth as much as $1,000,000.

The Pentagon’s decision — which was sudden, yet not unexpected — put an end to the legal wrangling between the Pentagon and Amazon.

Breitbart News reached out to the speaker’s spokesperson but did not receive a response by publication.

Separately, Fox Business reported the purchase of Amazon call options, as well as a purchase of Apple call options and the exercising of Alphabet call options, came just a week before the House Judiciary Committee passed antitrust legislation that would target Google, Amazon, Apple, and Facebook.

Pelosi’s spokesperson told Fox Business, “The speaker has no involvement or prior knowledge of these transactions,” adding, “The speaker does not own any stock.”

Follow Breitbart News’s Kristina Wong on Twitter or on Facebook. 

REMEMBER THAT THESE TWO LAWYERS HAVE SPENT THEIR LIVES GAMING THE LAWS AND ANY NOTION OF ETHICS. THIS IS JUST BIDEN BULLSHIT

The Biden White House is attempting to address the ethical questions swirling around Hunter Biden’s newfound art venture, as officials reportedly craft an agreement ensuring that the buyers of the scandal-plagued son’s art, which is expected to sell for up to half a million dollars, will remain anonymous, even to Hunter himself.

White House Struggles With Hunter Biden Art Sales Ethics, Proposes Anonymous Buyers

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images

HANNAH BLEAU

8 Jul 2021156

7:27

The Biden White House is attempting to address the ethical questions swirling around Hunter Biden’s newfound art venture, as officials reportedly craft an agreement ensuring that the buyers of the scandal-plagued son’s art, which is expected to sell for up to half a million dollars, will remain anonymous, even to Hunter himself.

Hunter Biden is working with Soho art dealer Georges Bergès, who is expected to hold an exhibition in New York this fall and sell Hunter’s paintings anywhere from $75,000 to $500,000. The general lack of transparency, which is already a well-known reality in the art world, has triggered concerns, particularly for the Biden family, which has been accused of using the family name as leverage and engaging in pay-for-play schemes over the years.

In order to avoid these mounting ethical questions, the Biden White House is comprising an arrangement that would leave all buyers of Hunter’s art anonymous — even to the artist himself. According to the Washington Post, the plan will see Bergès determining the price points for the artwork and withholding “all records, including potential bidders and final buyers.”

“The owner, Georges Bergès, has also agreed to reject any offer that he deems suspicious or that comes in over the asking price, according to people familiar with the agreement,” the Post reported.

“This is an absurd solution,” Breitbart News senior contributor and Profiles in Corruption author Peter Schweizer told Breitbart News.

“The only way to address these issues is with greater transparency–not less,” he continued. “Their proposed solution is greater secrecy,  not transparency. And they are essentially saying ‘Trust Us.’ Joe and Hunter Biden’s track record on such matters gives us no reason to trust them.”

Former ethics officials for both former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama also appear to be cautioning the arrangement as a bad idea.

“The whole thing is a really bad idea,” Richard Painter, chief ethics lawyer to Bush, said. “The initial reaction a lot of people are going to have is that he’s capitalizing on being the son of a president and wants people to give him a lot of money. I mean, those are awfully high prices.”

 As the Post noted, “some experts argued that the best protection against influence-seeking would be transparency, not secrecy.”

Walter Shaub, who served as the Office of Government Ethics director under former President Obama, previously said the art venture has a “shameful and grifty feeling to it” and hinted the White House’s plan is not sufficient.

“Because we don’t know who is paying for this art and we don’t know for sure that [Hunter Biden] knows, we have no way of monitoring whether people are buying access to the White House,” Shaub, according to the Post. “What these people are paying for is Hunter Biden’s last name.”

New York gallery owner Marc Straus appeared to balk at the price points set for Hunter’s work, concluding that “nobody would ever start at these prices” for a novice, such as Hunter.

“There has to be a résumé that reasonably supports when you get that high,” Straus said. “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.”

“My take was [the paintings] weren’t bad at all,” he added, according to the Post. “But there’s a yawning gap between not bad and something fabulous.”

However, the White House has exuded nothing but confidence in this suspected arrangement.

“The president has established the highest ethical standards of any administration in American history, and his family’s commitment to rigorous processes like this is a prime example,” deputy White House press secretary Anthony Bates said.

Bergès, who has some ties to China, did not directly comment on the arrangement, but a woman speaking to the Post on his behalf dismissed it as “nothing unusual.”

Notably, the art dealer’s website does not mention Hunter’s connection to the president, describing him as a “lawyer by trade who now devotes his life to the creative arts.”

But pay-for-play concerns still linger.

“Anybody who buys it would be guaranteed instant profit,” Alex Acevedo, owner of the Alexander Gallery in Midtown Manhattan, told the New York Post. “He’s the president’s son. Everybody would want a piece of that. The provenance is impeccable.”

If not for the Biden family name, Acevedo estimated Hunter’s art would range lower, from $25,000 to $100,000.

Shaub told Fox News last month that Bergès “should disclose the identity of the purchasers” to alleviate concerns of buyers attempting to “gain access to [the] government.” This is not a foreign concern for the Biden family, as Hunter engaged in several controversial international business dealings as his father served as vice president, triggering myriad ethics concerns. Hunter’s work on the Ukrainian oligarch-owned energy company Burisma, where he made tens-of-thousands of dollars per month despite a stunning lack of experience in the energy sector, stands as one of the primary examples of alleged “Biden Five” family corruption, as Breitbart News reported:

One of the most well-known examples of this centers around Hunter’s involvement on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian oligarch-owned oil and gas company, which paid him tens of thousands of dollars per month despite his lack of experience in the energy sector or Ukraine in general. At the time, Hunter’s then-vice president father was the point-person negotiating U.S. policy with Ukraine. After leaving office, Joe Biden later bragged about how he threatened to withhold U.S. assistance to Ukraine unless Ukrainian officials fired a prosecutor who had launched a corruption investigation into the company that had hired Hunter.

Hunter also came under criticism for his lucrative business dealings with state-owned entities in China, as Breitbart News senior contributor and Secret Empires author Peter Schweizer has reported in detail.

“In China, [Hunter] travels with his father in December [2013] aboard Air Force Two. While his father is meeting with Chinese officials, Hunter Biden is doing we don’t know what. But the evidence becomes clear because ten days after they return to Washington, his small boutique investment firm, Rosemont Seneca, gets a $1 billion deal,” the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) president explained during a 2019 appearance with Sean Hannity.

That aside, money laundering has already been identified as an issue in the art world, as detailed by the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations report last year.

“Secrecy, anonymity, and a lack of regulation create an environment ripe for laundering money and evading sanctions,” the committee determined.

“Given the intrinsic secrecy of the art industry, it is clear that change is needed in this multi-billion dollar industry,” it added.

Speaking to Artnet in June, Hunter explained that painting is “much more about kind of trying to bring forth what is, I think, the universal truth.”

When asked what his father, President Biden, thought of his art, Hunter told the outlet, “My dad loves everything that I do, and so I’ll leave it at that.”

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

JOHN BINDER

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

Andrew Stiles • June 22, 2021 4:30 pm

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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

Chuck Ross • July 6, 2021 4:58 am

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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

Hunter Biden / Getty Images

Chuck Ross • June 29, 2021 12:50 pm

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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

Hunter Biden / Getty Images

Alana Goodman • June 21, 2021 9:52 am

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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

Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images for Berggruen Institute

CHARLIE SPIERING

3 Jul 2021139

3:43

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

Andy Wong/AP Photo

JOEL B. POLLAK

1 Jul 2021110

2:50

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.