LAWYERS, AND NOT JUST THE DEMOCRAT RULING PARTY'S BIGGEST PARASISTES, ARE TYPICALLY TAX EVADERS. LAWYERS ARE AS CONTEMPTUOUS OF LAWS AS ANY OTHER CRIMINAL CLASS. THEY KNOW HOW TO GAME THE LAW. THE BIDEN MAFIA, HILLARY AND BILLARY AND THE OBOMBS, ALL LAWYERS, KNOW HOW IT IS DONE. THEY'VE BEEN DOING IT FOR YEARS.
Peter Schweizer: 7 Questions for Hunter Biden’s House Testimony (Plus 2 Big Lies at the Heart of His Defense)
As Israel exchanges Palestinian criminals and terrorists for innocent Israelis taken captive by Hamas during the 10/7 massacres, we learned that at least one American was among the freed hostages – a four-year-old little girl named Abigail Edan. Abigail’s parents were murdered by Hamas during the attack.
This is welcome news, of course, and President Joe Biden took some personal credit for her release, but there’s an interesting coincidence that The Drill Down’s hosts Peter Schweizer and Eric Eggers can’t ignore: Abigail’s great aunt is Elizabeth (Liz) Naftali, a wealthy real estate investor in Los Angeles’s fashion district and a large contributor to the Democratic Party and to the Biden family. How?
Naftali was among those patrons of the arts who bought the artwork of America’s first son, Hunter Biden, for a reported total of about $1.3 million, according to internal gallery documents reported by Business Insider this summer. President Biden appointed her to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad in July 2022.
So, say what you will about Hunter Biden’s artistic merits, but his customer service is first-rate.
And there is more news on the Hunter Biden front. Hunter Biden has offered to testify to Congress on Dec. 13. His “offer” is his way of answering a subpoena from the House Oversight Committee, which requires him to appear, but his lawyer insists upon an open congressional hearing, where committee Democrats could be counted on to join the defense team.
That offer was rejected late Tuesday by the committee’s chairman, Rep. James Comer (R-KY), who said: “Hunter Biden is trying to play by his own rules instead of following the rules required of everyone else. That won’t stand with House Republicans. Our lawfully issued subpoena to Hunter Biden requires him to appear for a deposition on December 13.”
Comer did allow that Biden would be allowed to appear at a public hearing somewhere down the road.
As Schweizer explains on the show, this is a matter of legal tactics and picking the best “stage” for Hunter Biden’s appearance. Republicans want him to be deposed in a closed-door session, while Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell wants a public, televised setting.
Schweizer says there are two big lies in the Biden defense. The first is the argument that Joe Biden didn’t get paid. Committee Republicans insist they have the details of exactly the opposite, in the form of money transfers through shell companies and family members that wound up in his bank account.
The second big lie is that American bribery laws only matter when a direct “I give you a million dollars and you do this specific thing” is proven. Schweizer cites a 2016 email recovered from Hunter’s laptop in which he berates a Mexican businessman named Aleman Magnani as follows:
We have been talking about business deals for 7 years. And I really appreciate you letting me stay at your resort villa . . . but I have brought every single person you have ever asked me to bring to the F’ing White House and the Vice President’s house and the inauguration and then you go completely silent . . . You make me feel like I’ve done something to offend you.
As fans of The Drill Down know, Schweizer broke the story of Hunter Biden’s business dealings back in the 2018 book Secret Empires, and the Government Accountability Institute he runs has continued to report on the details of this saga since then. With that in mind, the hosts suggest seven questions the committee should ask in order to get to the real truth about Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings in Ukraine, China, Mexico, and elsewhere that traded on his father’s name and influence while Joe Biden served as Vice President in the Obama administration.
They are:
#1: “Did you use your father’s office to gain commercial opportunities overseas?”
#2: “Did you ever discuss foreign policy matters with your father involving people who were paying you money?”
#3: “Why did your company, Rosemont Seneca, pay for a private phone line for your father while he was Vice President?”
#4: “The Chinese government-connected entities paid you $31 million while your father was Vice President. What did they get in return?”
#5: “Who is Henry Zhao? Who is Chairman Ye? Who is Che Feng?”
#6: “You characterized money sent by Mr. Ye as ‘good faith seed money’ for your business. If so, why were those funds transferred to family members, including Biden children?”
#7: “Did you ever talk to your father or any other officials about the CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States) review of Bohai Harvest Rosemont?”
For more from Peter Schweizer, subscribe to The DrillDown podcast.
We have lost faith in the American notion of justice, which is now malignantly skewed to favor Democrats. Even when a Democrat is convicted, they don’t get punished.
Hunter Biden’s scalp will not spend one day in jail
Because Trump may again be POTUS, Hunter Biden gets to skate the nine tax charges, some felonies. He will see no punishment because the indictment against him is only meant to distract from the accusations that we have a two-tier justice system—one for Republicans and one for Democrats. Hunter will skate because he is the son of the man in the Oval Office, and because he is a Democrat… and for the most part Democrats don’t serve time. Joe will pardon him, but before that happens, stalling tactics will keep him out of prison for any significant length of time. He may serve a token few days or weeks but nothing like what they want to do to Trump, who will get life in prison or execution for “incitement” and “insurrection” if Democrats get their way, even though he is manifestly innocent. Trump cannot be allowed to get back into the White House, so Hunter must divert attention away from Justice; “See? Hunter got indicted. The Justice system worked.” Well, no. People are not stupid; they see what is being done.
If judged by the success of Trump’s policies, the best president Americans have ever had will suffer because of the worst one we have ever had.
Joe Biden has consistently prevaricated about his and Hunter’s foreign business dealings with China and other non-friendlies, and neither has paid a price. Joe is likely lying in public about never speaking to Hunter about his business endeavors. Just yesterday in a press conference Joe called the charges against him “all lies.” And in their ludicrous naivete the media believe him.
The Biden family are as corrupt as the Clinton family and both have left paper trails and live witnesses to prove it, but the corrupt FBI and DOJ have a vested interest in keeping these Democrats out of jail to be voted into office or appointed to the (In)Justice Department in order to effect Marxist policies. Comey famously said, “No serious prosecutor” would bring charges against Hillary Clinton. Of course not. She’s a Democrat, among other things, and Comey is a Democrat shill, among other things.
Hunter won’t serve a day in jail because the justice system is rigged for silent running against Republicans, much like the election system. The proof is there for clear eyes to see—Hunter and Joe and Hillary are corrupt—despite the attempts to cloud our vision, imposed upon us in the smoke being blown from our alleged Justice apparatus. Justice gets acute blindness when a Democrat commits crimes, but is crystal clear when a Republican gets even false charges against him.
We will not fix this because Republicans will not cohere in their efforts to rehabilitate the confidence Americans had in our system of justice. The only reason Hunter got indicted was to sacrifice his scalp in order to allay the myriad cries of DOJ corruption emanating from the populace, whose eyes are not clouded.
We see what is going on and our outrage is matched only by our cynicism. We have lost faith in the American notion of justice, which is now malignantly skewed to favor Democrats. Even when a Democrat is convicted, they don’t get punished. But let one lone Republican step amiss and the walls come tumbling down. Trump committed no crimes, there are no proven victims; yet he is being persecuted as though he were a Jewish student or a Jewish restaurant owner.
We were warned too many times that our Republic would crumble like Ozymandius’ visage if we forgot the eternal verities enshrined in our Constitution. We did and it will, unless this tide of justice-less favoritism is not reversed. No entity can survive internal rot before the outer structure crumbles to dust.
Hunter Biden Indicted on Nine Tax-Related Charges, Three Felonies
President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, has been indicted on nine charges, including three felonies, for allegedly failing to file taxes, evading an assessment, and filing a fraudulent form.
The 56-page indictment filed in a federal court in Los Angeles on Thursday alleged that the president’s son “spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle” rather than pay his taxes, per NBC News. The indictment also alleges that Hunter Biden “willfully failed to pay his 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 taxes on time, despite having access to funds to pay some or all of these taxes.”
Special counsel David Weiss brought the charges, and the case was assigned to Donald Trump-appointee Judge Mark Scarsi.
Neither the White House nor Hunter Biden’s attorneys have responded to the indictment.
David Weiss, who started serving as U.S. attorney in Delaware following Trump’s appointment in 2017, said in a statement that Hunter Biden “engaged in a four-year scheme in which he chose not to pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019 and to evade the assessment of taxes for tax year 2018 when he filed false returns.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Weiss as special counsel in August to oversee the investigation into Hunter Biden.
“As special counsel, he will continue to have the authority and responsibility that he has previously exercised to oversee the investigation and decide where, when and whether to file charges,” Garland said in August. “The special counsel will not be subject to the day-to-day supervision of any official of the Department, but he must comply with the regulations, procedures, and policies of the Department.”
Special Counsel David Weiss leaves a closed-door meeting with lawmakers surrounding the investigation into Hunter Biden on November 7, 2023, in Washington, DC. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty)
CNN noted that “though Hunter Biden did eventually pay his taxes from 2018, prosecutors allege that he included “false business deductions in order to evade assessment of taxes to reduce the substantial tax liabilities he faced.'”
“Prosecutors also allege in the indictment that he ‘subverted the payroll and tax withholding process of his own company’ by withdrawing millions of dollars outside of its payroll and tax withholding process,” noted the outlet.
The Justice Department said that Hunter Biden could face a maximum of 17 years in prison if convicted of the charges.
“The case had been close to being resolved in July when a plea deal fell apart,” noted CNN. “The new tax case stems from Hunter Biden’s lucrative overseas business dealings – including his involvement with Ukrainian energy company Burisma and a Chinese private equity fund.”
Paul Roland Bois directed the award-winning feature film, EXEMPLUM, which can be viewed for FREE on YouTube or Tubi. A high-quality, ad-free stream can also be purchased on Google Play or Vimeo on Demand. Follow him on Twitter @prolandfilms or Instagram @prolandfilms.
Third IRS Agent Says Joe Biden’s DOJ Blocked David Weiss from Charging Hunter
A third IRS agent reportedly told House investigators last week that President Joe Biden’s Justice Department blocked now-special counsel David Weiss from charging Hunter Biden, seemingly contradicting Attorney General Merrick Garland’s assertion that Weiss had complete authority to charge the president’s son.
“He was given complete authority to make all decisions on his own,” Garland said in June of now-special counsel David Weiss.
Weiss investigated Hunter Biden for five years for tax, gun, and Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) violations. The probe came to a head when IRS whistleblowers alleged in April that two Biden administration political appointees within the DOJ worked to block charges against Hunter Biden for tax violations against recommendations.
United States Attorney David C. Weiss. (Screenshot/CBS News)
IRS Director of Field Operations Michael Batdorf told the House Ways and Means Committee on September 12 that the DOJ’s tax division opposed charging Hunter Biden during a June 2022 meeting with IRS officials and Weiss.
“DOJ Tax would have to authorize charges prior to David Weiss recommending an indictment or prosecution,” Batdorf said in a transcribed interview, the Washington Examiner reported.
“So, I mean, my understanding is that, I mean, he can’t make that decision without DOJ Tax authorization,” Batdorf, who was IRS agent whistleblower Gary Shapley’s senior in the IRS chain of command, said.
Notes from Shapley show he quoted Weiss as saying he was “not the deciding person” on charging Hunter Biden with tax, gun, and FARA violations.
IRS Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley, left, and Joseph Ziegler, an IRS Agent with the criminal investigations division (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Shapley’s subordinate, Joseph Ziegler, the second IRS whistleblower, supports Shapley’s allegation. The claim is also backed by Shapley’s boss, Special Agent in Charge Darrell Waldon, who confirmed Weiss did not have the authority to charge Hunter Biden.
Batdorf also told investigators he believed his team was frustrated that Weiss found opposition to prosecuting Hunter Biden. “I was frustrated,” he said. “[Weiss] was probably a little frustrated … because he now had to make some decisions on what he was going to do.”
President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden arrive at Fort McNair, Sunday, June 25, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
“David Weiss made his decision to go forward in May. I’m not sure what drove that decision,” Batdorf added.
In addition, Batdorf confirmed that Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf was taken off the case in May or June, the Examiner reported. According to the New York Times, Hunter Biden’s lawyers worked with Wolf to draft the sweetheart plea deal that collapsed under judicial scrutiny.
Fourth IRS Agent Says D.C. and California Prosecutors Blocked Hunter Biden Charges
IRS agent Darrell Waldon echoed IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley’s testimony that prosecutors in Washington, DC, and California previously blocked now-special counsel David Weiss from charging Hunter Biden in those jurisdictions.
“Mr. Weiss went to the U.S. Attorney’s Office — I can’t recall the dates — and they did not agree to prosecute the case in D.C.,” Waldon told the House Ways and Means Committee during a transcribed interview in September, the Washington Examiner reported.
“I’m aware that it was presented to the District of Columbia and, at some point, the Central District of California, I believe,” he added.
Waldon’s transcribed interview comes after he previously confirmed Shapley’s claims in April of political interference. Waldon later left the Hunter Biden case for another responsibility within the IRS.
As the investigation progressed, Weiss never charged Hunter Biden in the jurisdictions of Washington, DC, or California. Instead, he formed a sweetheart plea agreement with Hunter Biden that collapsed in July under judicial scrutiny. Shapley’s testimony in April reportedly triggered the plea deal, filed in Delaware. Weiss later brought three gun-related charges in Delaware against Hunter Biden.
The recent testimony by Waldon, who was Shapley’s boss, is notable because Attorney General Merrick Garland testified Wednesday that nobody had the authority to block Weiss from charging Hunter Biden, though “they could refuse to partner with him.”
“You said [Weiss] had complete authority, but he’d already been turned down. He wanted to bring an action in D.C. and the US Attorney there said, ‘No, you can’t’ — and then you go tell the U.S. Senate, under oath, that he has complete authority?” House Oversight Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) asked.
“No one had the authority to turn him down; they could refuse to partner with him.” Garland replied.
“You can use whatever language — ‘refuse to partner’ is turning down,” Jordan replied.
“It is not the same under a well-known Justice Department practice,” Garland claimed.
In point two of the email to Waldon, Shapley recapped that “Weiss stated he is not the deciding person of whether charges are filed. I believe this is a huge problem — inconsistent with DOJ public position and Merrick Garland testimony.”
Waldon replied to Shapley, “Thanks, Gary. You covered it all”:
Shapley, along with his subordinate, Joseph Ziegler, the second IRS whistleblower, support the allegation. In addition, IRS Director of Field Operations Michael Batdorf told the House Ways and Means Committee on September 12 that the DOJ’s tax division opposed charging Hunter Biden.
IRS Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley, left, and Joseph Ziegler, an IRS Agent with the criminal investigations division, are sworn in at a House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing with IRS whistleblowers, Wednesday, July 19, 2023, in Washington. (Stephanie Scarbrough/AP)
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
Now They’re Just Poking Their Fingers in Our Eyes
Reading this week’s news of the Biden Administration, I kept thinking of the Three Stooges poking fingers in each other’s eyes. As I started to write this, I see that Kurt Schlichter also compares this administration to the same trio, wrapping up their doings as Beetlejuice the Musical.
Here’s what reminded me of that slapstick routine and why I think the administration is just being aggressively stupid. Nothing seems to get through to them; their conduct is clear evidence that they believe they can get away with being completely outrageous because they suffer no consequences. (I know you probably can point to more examples -- apart from the open border through which the number of invaders now is the population equivalent of 17 states. But these are the ones -- in no particular order -- that struck me this week.)
The Suit Against Elon Musk
This litigation strikes me as this week’s most easily understood misuse of the law to pester opponents and make them dig into their pockets to defend.
The Department of Justice is suing Elon Musk for not hiring refugees to build advanced rocket technology. Why didn’t Tesla hire refugees? Tesla has hired non-citizens and non-green card holders for some positions but asserts that it could not for those projects that have national security implications because that is forbidden by law and they could face steep fines for employing foreign workers for those positions.
Not satisfied with one attack, the Biden administration is also investigating Musk for building a glass house near the company’s Texas headquarters. A case as frivolous as the other, for no such house was built or even planned. Private counsel filing such frivolous lawsuits would be subject to sanctions.
Just want to reiterate that there is no glass house (metaphors don’t count lol) built, under construction or planned! I’m not building any house of any kind anywhere. Period.
Suing Musk for following the law and investigating him for a never-built glass house seems stupid unless you, like Congressman Thomas Massie, weren’t born yesterday:
“Elon Musk was a Democrat who admittedly supported Biden but then he became a critic of the administration and exposed the censorship regime. Now per public reports the DOJ has opened not one but two investigations of Elon Musk… These look like mafia tactics.”
The Homeland Intelligence Experts Group
DHS has created a Homeland Intelligence Experts Group to deal with national security issues. Appointed to this group are James Clapper, John Brennan, and Paul Kolbe, former intelligence officers who signed the October 2020 letter deceptively implying the Hunter Biden laptop was “Russian disinformation.” Kanekoa the Great asks the question on every thinking person’s mind: “Why select intelligence officials who intentionally spread misinformation to sway a U.S. election for a role in a DHS Expert Group tasked with national security?? Shouldn’t they be losing their security clearances?” Also selected for this group by DHS head Alejandro Mayorkas is Tashina Guahar who oversaw the fraudulent Carter Page FISA -- the fake claim that set off the illegal surveillance into the Trump campaign.
They’re just trying humiliate us by showing they fear no consequences for what they’ve done. It should come as no surprise, as Rasmussen Reports notes, that “More than two-thirds of U.S. likely voters are worried that their country is turning into a police state and a majority say the FBI is a danger to the freedom and security of law-abiding Americans.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland’s Testimony Reveals Extensive Corruption by the Department of Justice
A number of online commentators have covered his testimony in depth. Julie Kelly and Jonathan Turley are particularly detailed and you can scroll through their posts on X, the site formerly known as Twitter. Of particular interest was Garland’s claim he had no idea how many undercover federal agents participated in the January 6 event at the Capitol. He was evasive and not credible on the number and role of federal agents on that date.
During the hearing, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) confronted Garland for refusing to answer in a hearing two years ago whether there were federal Agents present on January 6, 2021 and whether they agitated to go into the Capitol. Garland back then claimed he could not comment on “pending investigations.” [snip] Massie: That was your answer two years ago when I asked how many agents and assets of the government were present on January 5 and January 6 and agitating in the crowd to go into the Capitol. Can you answer that now?
Garland: I don’t know the answer to that question.
Massie: You don’t know how many there were or there were none?
Garland: I don’t know the answer to either of those questions if there were any or if there are…
Massie: I think you may have just perjured yourself when you just said you don’t know if there were any. You want to say that again?
Garland: I have no personal knowledge of this matter. I think what I just said the last time…
Massie: You’ve had two years to find out! By the way that was in reference to Ray Epps and yesterday you indicted him! Isn’t that a wonderful coincidence? On a misdemeanor!
Former Assistant Director-in-Charge of the Washington Field Office has acknowledged in a letter released by the House Judiciary Committee “there were numerous FBI confidential human sources in the crowd.” In fact, there were so many and from so many different offices that they could not immediately ascertain how many there were.
Garland’s selection of David Weiss as special counsel was a peculiar one. Weiss had previously worked with Hunter’s late brother Beau; he negotiated Hunter's absurd sweetheart plea agreement which the Federal District Court had refused to accept; and had earlier overseen an FBI probe of Biden’s Delaware fundraising operation in which a top bundler pleaded guilty to a straw donor scheme but Biden was never charged. Garland admitted that Weiss was the only person he ever considered for that position, and it would have been “disruptive" had he appointed anyone else. He refused to answer if he had had any conversations with Weiss about the Hunter matter. He couldn’t recollect discussing the matter with the FBI.
He declined to withdraw the incendiary memo that directed the FBI to use counterterrorism tactics on parents who raised objections to school board policies.
Worse, his testimony about why he failed to appoint a special counsel earlier and the claim Weiss had broad authority even before the appointment of him as special counsel is in direct contradiction to the testimony of now three whistleblowers to the contrary and the failure of the DoJ in response to a FOIA request to provide any evidence to support Garland’s claim that Weiss had broad authority. In fact, he accidentally admitted that the department thwarted the Hunter investigation.
U.S. Attorney, now Special Counsel, David Weiss did not have full charging authority during the bulk of his federal investigation into Hunter Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland slyly admitted in his testimony to the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
Garland’s confession contradicts his previous under-oath insistence that Weiss possessed all of the authority he needed to properly charge President Joe Biden’s youngest son with various tax and gun crimes, some of which extended to other jurisdictions.[Ed: it is consistent with Weiss’s most recent June 30 acknowledgement that his authority was “geographically limited to my home district.”]…
Even after acknowledging Weiss’s attempts to charge Hunter were hampered by a U.S. attorney acting on behalf of the DOJ, Garland doubled down on his claims that the attorney “has full authority to conduct his investigation however he wishes.” He repeatedly invoked Weiss’s position as a Donald Trump appointee as proof that he was acting independently of the AG.
Despite the potential penalty of perjury, Garland claimed during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on March 1, 2023, that “the U.S. Attorney in Delaware has been advised that he has full authority… to bring cases in other jurisdictions if he feels it’s necessary.”
In a June 7 letter to Jordan, Weiss appeared to confirm that “I have been granted ultimate authority over this matter, including responsibility for deciding where, when, and whether to file charges.” In a subsequent June 30 letter, however, Weiss reversed his claim and declared that his charging authority “is geographically limited to my home district.”…
Weiss’s lack of jurisdiction was further confirmed in August when Garland named Weiss special counsel, an authority that allows the prosecutor to charge Hunter outside of Delaware. If Weiss truly did possess full autonomy in the Hunter case, as Garland dubiously declared on numerous occasions, he wouldn’t have needed the special counsel appointment to prosecute the president’s son.
Garland still claimed he had made it clear that Weiss could bring a case in any jurisdiction with the attorney general’s blessing via a Section 515 form.
For most of the hearing, Garland tried to appear as a hands-off department head who let Weiss independently conduct his investigation. Republicans quickly saw through that facade when Garland immediately refused to disclose whether he had communications with Weiss about Hunter’s case.
The advantages of the Weiss appointment to the administration is obvious. The President told prosecutors in May that his son should not be indicted because he’d done nothing wrong, Weiss is the cut out to hide the role of the DoJ in covering for Biden family bribery and corruption, and a thoroughly compromised Weiss’s work will only be known when he files his report, that is after the investigation -- something unlikely to be done before the 2024 election.
Nyuk! Nyuk!
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