The Worst President in the Last 100 Years" - Victor Davis Hanson
Victor Davis Hanson Questions Obama's Political Past
Victor Davis Hanson- Resetting the Obama Reset
In Defense of Hunter Biden
Notwithstanding Hunter Biden's moral deficiencies in other matters, based on what has been publicized so far, legally, he may have done nothing wrong being part of his father's Ukrainian enterprise. Joe Biden’s shenanigans and his son’s role in it need to be understood in the context of Ukraine's corrupt political culture.
Corruption is deeply embedded into the Ukrainian DNA. It is the blood of the Ukrainian economy - the stimulus for government officials and employees to perform their duties. Corruption is a fundamental necessity, a precondition for functioning governance.
Never-ending redistribution and re-division of assets is a defining characteristic of the Ukrainian business environment. People in business are constantly threatened by corporate raiders that attack businesses with guns, forged ownership documents, or new laws and regulations. To protect themselves from these realities, businesses hire “roof.” In criminal jargon, it means protection. Various entities offer protection: organized crime, police, high-ranking government officials, etc. The necessity for a “roof” is built into the cost of doing business.
In 2002, during President Viktor Yanukovych's tenure, his ecology minister Mykola Zlochevsky registered Burisma Holding Limited in Cypress. Burisma secured lucrative government licenses for gas field exploration and production to become Ukraine's second-largest private gas company. And not by accident. De jure, the licenses for the exploration of natural resources are drafted as bilateral agreements between the government entities and private enterprises, but de facto, they are unilateral and revocable grants of privileges by a president and high-ranking government officials to their cronies and supporters. As long as President Yanukovych was in power, Mr. Zlochevsky’s assets were secured from a hostile takeover. President Yanukovych was his “roof” and benefactor.
But nothing is permanent in the wicked Ukrainian world.
In February 2014, Yanukovych was overthrown in an America-sponsored coup and fled the country. Zlochevsky followed him shortly after. In a dramatic reversal of fortunes, Burisma overnight changed from one of the strongest to one of the weakest. The recourse of the weakest was to find a new “roof” before the newly-elected Petro Poroshenko’s government was sworn in during June 2014.
It is unknown when and who approached Joe Biden or John Kerry, Secretary of State at the time, and what was offered in exchange for lobbying and political support. But on April 22, 2014, Devon Archer, a managing partner of Rosemont Seneca Partners, a $2.4 billion private equity firm co-owned by the stepson of John Kerry, Christopher Heinz, was put on Burisma’s board.
On May 13, 2014, Hunter Biden himself joined the board.
On the same day, Christopher Heinz rushed to distance himself and the firm from what looked like an unscrupulous endeavor. He sent emails to Matt Summers and David Wade, two of his stepfather’s top aides at the State Department, “I can’t speak why they decided to, but there was no investment by our firm in their company,” wrote Heinz. Whether Christopher Heinz intended to dissociate his firm from the activity or to create plausible deniability, the passage revealed that the State Department was aware of the arrangement and exposed Christopher Heinz’s concern regarding, if not the legality, the ethics of the undertaking.
For Burisma, the impact of having Hunter Biden and Devon Archer on its board could not be overstated. It had acquired an ultimate “roof” — the Vice President of the United States of America. We must not be naïve; Burisma did not hire good-for-nothing drug addict Hunter Biden for his expertizes or business acumen. It did not hire obscure Devon Archer for his administrative genius either — they were simply messengers. There was no other way to interpret the assignments of Hunter Biden and Devon Archer to the board of Burisma.
By their presence on the board the “roof” sent a subliminal message to Poroshenko, who made no secret of his desire to add Burisma to his basket of assets, that the United States government protects. Although Poroshenko got the message, he could not resist the temptation. As soon as he was sworn in, he directed his prosecutor-general, Vitally Yarema, to open a corruption investigation into Burisma.
Corruption investigations have been an effective instrument of force reallocating assets in Ukraine. It is important to point out that Yarema did not investigate Hunter Biden. There was simply nothing to investigate, Burisma was a private company and could appoint to its board anybody. Yarema was tasked to uncover or manufacture some dirt on Burisma and its owner Mykola Zlochevsky.
In January 2015, Yarema was replaced with Poroshenko’s close associate Viktor Shokin, who continued the investigation. Just like his predecessor, Viktor Shokin did not investigate Hunter Biden. Prosecutor Shokin was directed by President Poroshenko to build a corruption case to forfeit the profitable gas licenses awarded to Burisma.
By 2016, the investigation was at its pinnacle, and Burisma’s management panicked. They had been contacting the State Department requesting it to help end the investigation. In the spring of 2016, Joe Biden was forced to act. He stepped in to protect his son’s employer, Burisma Holdings, and demanded Poroshenko dismiss Shokin.
Poroshenko tried to stall it, but Biden issued an ultimatum, “You have six hours to solve the problem, or Ukraine would lose a billion dollars in US aid.” Poroshenko capitulated — Shokin was fired.
Biden bragged about his accomplishment: ‘You have no authority. You’re not the President —Poroshenko said’ … I said, 'Call him.' “I looked at them and said, ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money.’ Well, son of a b----. He got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time."
In the process, Biden inadvertently admitted that President Obama, if not involved, at least was aware of the shady business of his Vice President.
At this juncture, Poroshenko realized the futility of his efforts and decided that having a percentage of something is better than a hundred percent of nothing. He made a deal with Zlochevsky. Poroshenko’s trusted man Igor Kononenko joined Burisma’s board. The vanquished enemies became allies. Miraculously, there was no longer a need for investigation, and a new prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko, “who was solid at the time,” closed the probe. There was no longer a need for Joe Biden’s services either. Hunter Biden and Devon Archer eventually resigned from Burisma's board. Zlochevsky returned to the country. The “roof” had earned its pay.
The payment must be worth millions of dollars. The sixty thousand dollars a month paid to Hunter Biden and Devon Archer was a drop in the bucket. The big money has gone to someone else. Lacking an understanding of the Ukrainian business environment, the Republicans have been targeting Hunter Biden, a tiny fish in multimillion dollar international protection rocket who may not even be fit for prosecution. Thus far, he has served as a distraction from investigating the senior-level perpetrator(s).
Alexander G. Markovsky is a senior fellow at the London Center for Policy Research, a conservative think hosted at King’s College, New York City, which examines national security, energy, risk-analysis, and other public policy issues. He is the author of Anatomy of a Bolshevik and Liberal Bolshevism: America Did Not Defeat Communism, She Adopted It. Mr. Markovsky is the owner and CEO of Litwin Management Services, LLC. He can be reached at info@litwinms.com
Photo credit: Rumble video screengrab
CAN WE SAVE AMERICA FROM JOE BIDEN???
IT'S LOOKING DIM
Christopher Wray Asked Why FBI Would Pay $1M to Verify Trump-Russia Claim and $3M to Squash Hunter Biden Laptop Story
Pre-Emptive Presidential Pardons for Joe and Hunter Biden
As the revelations of potential bribery, bank fraud and tax evasion swirl around Joe Biden and Hunter Biden, both men, who are increasingly appearing together, seem extraordinary calm and unconcerned in public as Joe flashes his signature supercilious and mocking smirk whenever he is asked about the various investigation into his and his son’s activities over the past 12 years. Thanks to pre-emptive presidential pardons, Joe knows that he, Hunter, and the family will never have to answer for any of their alleged egregious criminality.
The Supreme Court has ruled that a president can issue a pardon before charges have been filed. That pardon power:
...extends to every offense known before the law, and may be exercised at any time after its commission, either before legal proceedings are taken or during their pendency, or after conviction and judgement.
Apparently the strategy over the past two and a half years has been for Joe Biden to rely on his sycophants in the Justice Department to stonewall the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate him and to negotiate an absurdly lenient jail-free plea deal with Hunter while the legacy media continued to deliberately ignore or conceal any alleged criminality.
With a court-approved plea deal on the books, the Justice Department could then continue to obfuscate by blithely claiming that they criminally charged Hunter Biden. Thereafter, they could ignore the calls for a full-scale investigation of bribery and bank fraud allegations until after the 2024 election, when Joe would be safely ensconced once again in the Oval Office and pre-emptive pardons could then be issued with no political fallout for Joe or the Democrat party.
However, on July 26th a federal judge in Delaware has to approve of Hunter’s recently announced absurdly lenient plea deal on criminal gun and tax evasion charges, unless the Justice Department requests a delay for fear of an adverse ruling. After the ongoing revelations by the whistleblowers from the IRS, there is certainly ample reason for the judge to reject the plea deal.
If the deal is rejected, the well laid plans of Joe Biden and the Justice Department will require a major revision, as the federal prosecutors and Hunter Biden would have to discuss a possible jail sentence as part of a new plea deal knowing that Hunter would never opt for an open trial.
Even if the judge does accept the plea deal as filed, the Republican House of Representatives is continuing its investigations. Thanks to a phalanx of patriotic whistleblowers and dogged determination, it appears the House will be able to publicly reveal potentially irrefutable evidence of Joe and Hunter’s criminal activity. Thus, the Justice Department is finding it difficult to continue burying their heads in the sand and refusing to pursue a criminal investigation of Hunter and possibly other Biden family members without implicating Joe.
This scenario is further complicated by 2024 political considerations as Joe Biden is ostensibly seeking re-election. The endless disclosures coming out the House are undermining Joe’s standing with the American citizenry and the Democrat party’s ability to retain the presidency. So, what to do and when with Joe, Hunter, and the family, particularly if Hunter’s plea deal is rejected?
Hunter Biden, as the bag man for his father, has the goods on Joe and he, Hunter, likely is not going to spend years in jail for bribery and fraud without threatening to take Joe down with him. As their respective careers have underlined, both men are devoid of decency or scruples. Hunter also knows, thanks to Joe being President, that pre-emptive pardons would be uniquely available for him and the other members of the Biden Crime Family.
At some point soon, Joe will be faced with having to issue pardons for Hunter, James Biden and others. Does he do it now or wait, as planned, until after November 5, 2024 during the interregnum period between the election and inauguration to grant the pardons?
If Joe issues the pardons anytime soon, or if the Republicans and conservative media can transform the issue of pre-emptive pardons into a major political controversy, his campaign for re-election will be over. The Democrat party will have to move on to another presidential candidate waiting in the wings. Thus, exacerbating the timing of when the pardons will be issued.
After pardoning Hunter et al, the overarching dilemma for Joe Biden will then be how to pre-emptively pardon himself.
Much has been discussed and written about a president’s power to pardon himself. Some constitutional scholars claim a president can issue a self-pardon, as the matter wasn’t directly addressed by the Constitutional Convention and as “there are no constraints defined in the Constitution itself that says he can’t do it,” he therefore could self-pardon.
However, a sizable majority of Constitutional scholars claim a president does not have the power of self-pardon and that the Supreme Court would very likely rule against it if the matter ever came before them. Per prominent Constitutional law professor, Brian C. Kalt:
The Framers either assumed that self-pardons were invalid or at most failed to consider the issue. The text they wrote does not say anything specific about self-pardons, but their failure to explicitly ban self-pardons cannot be read as a decision to allow them.
Looking at the structure of the Constitution and the government it creates, we find a general distaste for self-dealing and a specific notion of a presidency that is limited in ways that are inconsistent with allowing self-pardons. Finally, general principles about the rule of law and against self-judging militate strongly in favor of the notion that self-pardons are invalid.
Therefore, it would be risky for Joe Biden to go down the road of a self-pardon, particularly if the Democrats lose the White House in 2024. However, at his age as well as his mental and physical health, he may consider it worth the risk.
There is, on the other hand, another option that avoids the high probability of a self-pardon being declared invalid. Mary Lawton, an Assistant Attorney General, wrote the following in 1974 when Nixon was considering a self-pardon:
A different approach to the pardoning problem could be taken under Section 3 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment. If the President declared that he was temporarily unable to perform the duties of his office, the Vice-President would become acting President and as such he could pardon the President. Thereafter the President could either resign or resume the duties of his office.
As Biden currently already cannot perform the duties of his office, the above scenario is highly plausible, presuming that the Vice President, Kamala Harris or any possible successor, would be willing to make such a commitment.
In what will be one of the most egregious travesties of justice in American history, these pre-emptive pardons will inevitably be issued during the Biden presidency.
The Democrats and their allies, the legacy media, will dutifully avoid any discussion of pre-emptive pardons. Therefore, for the next 16 months, the Republican candidates for the presidency, Republican members of Congress, and conservative media must begin to openly, unabashedly, and consistently emphasize this issue of self-pardons and corrupt deals with a vice president. The vast majority of the American public must be made aware that Joe Biden and his family want to not only escape accountability but that a duplicitous Democrat party will be abetting this travesty.
A generation later, Joe Biden's view of the
favors entitled to his own family members
appears unchanged. Another poor student,
Biden's granddaughter Maisy, was admitted to
the University of Pennsylvania after her
grandfather made a phone call to then-
university president Amy Gutmann. Gutmann
now serves as President Biden's ambassador
to Germany.
Today, Joe Biden Rails Against Legacy Admissions. His Past Casts An Awkward Shadow.
With lackluster grades, Beau Biden landed a competitive job at DOJ while his father was high-ranking member of Judiciary Committee
President Joe Biden's late son Beau was once seen as the scion of a political dynasty. A former Department of Justice prosecutor, state attorney general, Bronze Star recipient, and presumptive future governor, Beau Biden's résumé offers a glaring contrast to his brother Hunter's rap sheet.
But Beau Biden's life of public service probably wouldn't have been possible without his father's helping hand, which was so evident in the early years of Beau Biden's professional life that it generated scrutiny from a local Delaware newspaper in 1996. Both Beau Biden and his father were forced to answer questions about how the young lawyer earned a spot in a hyper-competitive Justice Department program that would serve as the springboard for his political career.
Today, the story of how Beau Biden got that job provides an awkward backdrop to his father's rage in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision outlawing affirmative action in higher education: The president has responded not just by attacking the decision and the Court, but also by taking aim at so-called legacy admissions and directing his Department of Education to look at how such practices "hold back" diversity and inclusion on college campuses.
"When a poor kid—maybe the first in their family to go to college—gets the same grades and test scores as a wealthy kid whose whole family has gone to the most elite colleges in the country and whose path has been a lot easier, well, the kid who faced tougher challenges has demonstrated more grit, more determination," President Biden said.
In 1996, Beau Biden was far from the ideal applicant for a prestigious Justice Department job that saw 4,000 applicants for only 163 spots. He graduated with a 2.69 GPA from a third-rate law school, Syracuse University, and his only prior job experience was clerking for a New Hampshire judge—who, coincidentally, served as a New Hampshire co-chairman of Joe Biden's failed 1988 presidential campaign.
Still, the Wilmington, Del., News Journal reported in 1996 that Beau Biden snagged a spot in "an entry-level program for lawyers at the Justice Department." The article does not name the program, but it seems to be the Attorney General's Honors Program, described by the Justice Department as "the nation's premier entry-level federal attorney recruitment program" for "high-caliber attorneys." Beau Biden's father at the time was the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees the Justice Department.
The arrangement raised eyebrows at the News Journal, whose reporters reached out to both Bidens to ask if favoritism played a role in Beau's new job. But the Bidens brushed them off. "I don't see any conflict," Joe Biden responded.
"Why would there be? The Justice Department is a gigantic department and he's qualified. At least they assumed he was," Joe Biden added.
Beau Biden struck a similar note. "Are you trying to say we should have been doctors?" he snapped at a News Journal reporter who pressed him about the fact that his brother, Hunter, was also pursuing a career in law.
After Hunter Biden passed the Connecticut bar exam, he took a job at MBNA, a Delaware-based bank. Months before Hunter Biden started working at MBNA, Joe Biden sold his home to the bank's chief marketing officer for $1.2 million—more than six times what Biden paid 20 years earlier. In 1996, Joe Biden's Republican opponent ran ads slamming the senator for his seemingly cozy relationship with the bank. The press had questions, too.
"Unfortunately, no matter where I went to work, some people would make an issue of it," Hunter Biden told the News Journal, when asked if his father helped him get the job.
With a degree from Yale Law—where he served as editor of the law review—Hunter Biden seemed qualified for the lucrative banking job. But how Hunter Biden ended up at Yale was a different story.
When Hunter Biden first applied to Yale Law School, he did so with the help of a powerful alumnus. In 1993, then-president Bill Clinton called then-Yale Law dean Guido Calabresi and urged him to admit Hunter Biden.
Hunter Biden was not initially admitted to Yale. But Calabresi, one of Clinton's earliest supporters, agreed to meet with the younger Biden, as the Chronicle of Higher Education reported in 2019. Calabresi suggested that Hunter Biden enroll in a different law school and apply for a transfer after one year.
Hunter Biden took Calabresi's advice and was accepted to Georgetown University, where Clinton had earned his undergraduate degree. After a year he applied for a transfer and was admitted to Yale Law. Shortly thereafter, Calabresi resigned his deanship to serve on the federal judiciary. The man who presided over his confirmation: then-senator Joe Biden. (Calabresi has since denied playing a role in Hunter Biden's admission to Yale Law.)
Both Hunter Biden's and Beau Biden's careers took off in the following years. The latter eventually parlayed his entry-level Justice Department position into a job as a federal prosecutor, followed by a stint as Delaware's attorney general. Beau Biden was widely held to be a shoe-in for the Delaware governor's mansion when he died from cancer in 2015.
As for Hunter, his extravagant lifestyle has been well documented for years. Before his descent into drug addiction, Hunter worked as a lobbyist and an investor, where he regularly took home seven-figure paychecks. His last-known residence was a $5.4 million home in Los Angeles.
A generation later, Joe Biden's view of the
favors entitled to his own family members
appears unchanged. Another poor student,
Biden's granddaughter Maisy, was admitted to
the University of Pennsylvania after her
grandfather made a phone call to then-
university president Amy Gutmann. Gutmann
now serves as President Biden's ambassador
to Germany.
