Email/Dossier/Govt Corruption Investigations

April 3, 2023 – Pelosi and Clinton discuss Putin’s interference in the 2016 election – A lie launched by Hillary’s campaign

Hillary Clinton is still whining about Vladimir Putin and her 2016 election loss.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and twice-failed presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton spoke at an event backed by Columbia University.

Pelosi said Vladimir Putin interfered in the 2016 election to derail Hillary Clinton because she was more feared than Donald Trump.

No serious person believes this. (Gateway Pundit, 4/03/2023)

April 3, 2023 – Matt Colangelo: The link between the Biden DoJ and DA Bragg driving President Trump’s “hush money” indictment

Alvin Bragg (l) and Matt Colangelo (r) (Credit: public domain)

(…) The real culprit behind the “get Trump” radicals in New York is the corrupt, newly hired, former Obama-Biden DOJ attorney named Matt Colangelo.

Attorney Mike Davis unloaded Colangelo’s name along with Steve Bannon on the War Room today.

In their interview, Davis noted that Matt Colangelo is the link between the Biden DOJ and DA Bragg in their corrupt acts in targeting and putting together a BS indictment against President Trump. This guy was in the Obama White House and the Biden DOJ and appears to have been brought in to indict President Trump on whatever he could come up with.

Donald J. Trump Indictment by Jim Hoft

(…) Davis and Bannon dissected the corrupt actor pushing anti-American full woke actions in the corrupt DOJ now working with Bragg, Colangelo. (Read more: Gateway Pundit, 4/03/2023)  (Archive)

Presiding over the historic case is Judge Juan Merchan, a Colombian-born 60-year-old judge who has spent more than 15 years on the bench and has experience in numerous high-profile prosecutions—including those against associates of Trump.

(…) In 2022 Merchan oversaw a criminal trial of two of Trump’s companies—the Trump Corporation and the Trump Payroll Corp.— that ended with the real estate company convicted by a jury of tax fraud and fined $1.61 million.

While Trump himself wasn’t charged in the case, one of the Trump organization’s longtime executives, Allen Weisselberg, pleaded guilty, taking full responsibility for the crimes, and telling jurors from the witness stand at the time that, “It was my own personal greed that led to this.”

Weisselberg was sentenced to five months in jail in exchange for agreeing to testify against the company. Trump has said the case was politically motivated.

Nicholas Gravante, who represented Weisselberg in the plea negotiations, said Merchan was “a real listener, well-prepared, always accessible, and a man who kept his word.”

“He was mindful of the role my colleagues and I played as advocates, treating us with the utmost respect both in open court and behind closed doors,” Gravante added.

Other Cases Related to Trump

Merchan is also presiding over a criminal case involving former Trump administration strategist and White House adviser Steve Bannon. In September, Bannon pleaded not guilty to New York state charges of money laundering, conspiracy, and fraud related to a nonprofit that raised funds for the “We Build the Wall” effort, which would create a privately owned section of the U.S.–Mexico border wall.

Prosecutors have accused Bannon of defrauding donors who contributed more than $15 million to the effort. Bannon, who faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted, has dismissed the case as “nonsense.” (Read more:  Zero Hedge, 4/04/2023)  (Archive)

April 3, 2023 – Rep. James Comer expresses concern about classified doc Hunter Biden shared with Burisma

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) said Monday he is “concerned” about a government document Hunter Biden sent Burisma officials that could have originated from the troves of classified information that President Joe Biden mishandled.

Speaking with Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo, Comer raised concerns that the family’s “influence peddling” could be connected to Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified information.

“We don’t the know the true extent of what he [Joe Biden] has done,” Comer said. “All we know is he had classified documents scattered all over the place dating back to the time as U.S. senator.”
“There is one document in particular that I can tell you from my investigation of Biden family influence peddling that we are very concerned about with respect to the document that Hunter Biden sent to officials at Burisma in Ukraine,” Comer said.

“It was a government document. We are concerned that it may have been one of the classified documents,” he added.

President Biden is under investigation by Special Counsel Robert Hur in connection with classified documents found at his Wilmington home and in his office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, DC. According to a CNN source, the classified documents found at Biden’s “private office” pertain to Iran, the U.K., and Ukraine, where the Biden family conducted business deals. (Read more: Breitbart, 4/03/2023)  (Archive)

April 3, 2023 – Leonardo DiCaprio testifies a CCP-linked Malaysian financier sent $30 million to Obama during 2012 campaign

Leonardo DiCaprio took the stand Monday in the federal trial of a prominent ’90s rap artist accused of funneling money from a Malaysian financier who reportedly sought to donate tens of millions of dollars to President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign.

The Hollywood star, who has partied with the fugitive money man, Jho Low, said the financier once casually dropped in a conversation that he hoped to make a huge contribution to Obama’s campaign.

Leonardo DiCaprio with Jho Low in 2013. (Credit:
Getty Images)

“It was a significant sum — something to the tune of $20-30 million,” DiCaprio testified. “I said, ‘Wow that’s a lot of money!’”

Prakazrel “Pras” Michel is accused of profiting from an embezzling scheme by Malaysian financier Jho Low who allegedly recruited Michel into funneling the money to Obama’s reelection bid .(Credit: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

Low allegedly recruited Prakazrel “Pras” Michel – the founding member of the iconic 1990s hip-hop group The Fugees – to funnel the money to Obama’s reelection bid as foreigners cannot donate to US campaigns under federal election law.

Michel took tens of millions of dollars to lobby the government on behalf of Low and the Chinese government as a whole, prosecutors alleged.

Much of the money was reportedly stolen. Low is accused of embezzling a whopping $4.5 billion from Malaysia’s state investment fund known as 1MDB.

DiCaprio, 48, was called as a witness due to his years-long relationship with Low, who he believed to be “a huge businessman” with connections in Abu Dhabi and Malaysia, he said. Low helped fund his 2013 movie “The Wolf of Wall Street” for which the star won a Golden Globe for best actor.

Low, who also donated to the “Titanic” star’s charity, was known among Hollywood A-listers for throwing lavish parties and inviting people on expensive vacations via his private jet. (Read more: New York Post, 4/03/2023)  (Archive)

April 4, 2023 – Analysis of the Trump Indictment for “hush money” to Stormy Daniels

Trump and his legal team during his arraignment on April 4, 2023. (Credit: public domain)

After nearly 8 years of investigations by federal and state authorities – spanning from Russian collusion to obstruction of justice to campaign finance violations to tax fraud – former president Donald Trump was indicted last week by the Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg.

And today we saw the next step in the unprecedented prosecution of a former president and current GOP presidential candidate: Trump turned himself in at the Manhattan DA’s office.

Trump arrived at approximately 1:30 p.m. for arraignment with thousands of supporters and demonstrators watching from the streets and millions watching from home or from work. It was the most important courthouse appearance in recent memory to answer for one of the weakest indictments in New York history.

As has been reported, Trump was formally charged with 34 felonies – more on those below – and pleaded not guilty.

Here is the indictment that was just released this afternoon.

And here is the statement of facts.

Trump faces 34 counts relating to “Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree, in violation of Penal Law § 175.10.” These charges relate to bookkeeping records concerning a hush money payment of $130,000 to Stormy Daniels soon before the 2016 election; a $30,000 payment to a former Trump Tower doorman by AMI (National Enquirer); and an AMI/National Enquirer payment of $150,000 to a woman who said she had a sexual relationship with Trump when he was married.

The indictment specifies that Trump “made and caused false” entries in the business records of enterprises “kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.” Trump is said to have done this with the “intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission” of that crime. (Intent to defraud is construed broadly in New York, and can include acts that seek to avoid responsibility for a violation of law or to conceal offenses; there need not be financial harm.

(…) Look past the vague descriptions of influencing the 2016 election and you find that the indictment and statement of facts have one curious omission: the federal laws or state laws that Trump supposedly violated.

While this may not be technically necessary in New York, DA Braggs owes the public a duty to be forthright and transparent and honest about Trump’s alleged criminal conduct, as the prosecution carries national consequences.

Yet Bragg chose to deny the public that information.

By doing so, Bragg has protected himself and his office from oversight and scrutiny from Trump’s team, from the media, outside lawyers and experts, and from the general public. Instead, we’re given vague allegations of the violation of “election laws” and the mischaracterization of payments “for tax purposes.” That’s not good enough for there to be a complete and thorough analysis of the charges. And Bragg knows it. (Read more: Techno Fog, 4/8/2023)  (Archive)

April 4, 2023 – Kathy Chung testifies Joe Biden stored classified documents in D.C. Chinatown

From the House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, 4/04/2023:

“Today we learned that when Joe Biden left the vice presidency, boxes containing classified documents, vice presidential records, and other items were stored in three different locations around the Washington D.C. area, including an office near the White House, an office in Chinatown, and eventually the Penn Biden Center. At some point, the boxes containing classified materials were transported by personal vehicle to an office location. The boxes were not in a ‘locked closet’ at the Penn Biden Center and remained accessible to Penn Biden employees as well as potentially others with access to the office space. We need to find out who had access to these documents.”

Kathy Chung (Credit: Marco Polo)

April 5, 2023 – Kim Dotcom: Obama pulls the strings

February 23, 2018 – Rice attorney admits in letter to Grassley and Graham, Obama officials knew the substance of Trump team communications, before and after the election

Obama tag

April 5, 2023 – Judicial Watch sues Homeland Security for records on censorship meetings with Big Tech

Judicial Watch announced today it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department Homeland Security (DHS) for records showing cooperation between the Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency (CISA) and social media platforms to censor and suppress free speech (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (No. 1:23-cv-00552)).

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency (a component of DHS) failed to respond to a December 2022 request for:

Records and communications of Jen Easterly, Director, CISA; Christopher Krebs, Former Director, CISA; Matt Masterson, Former CISA Senior Cybersecurity Advisor; and Brian Scully, CISA Senior Cybersecurity Advisor, regarding:

  1. CISA facilitated or hosted USG-industry meetings with Meta (@meta.com); Facebook (@facebook.com); Twitter (@twitter.com); Wikimedia Foundation (@wikimedia.org); Pinterest (@pinterest.com); LinkedIn (@linkedin.com); concerning election security;
  2. Election Infrastructure Subsector Government Coordinating Council Meetings;
  3. Election Infrastructure Subsector Government Coordinating Council Joint MDM Working Group Meetings; and
  4. Preparatory meetings with any employees of the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis; Federal Bureau of Investigation; Office of the Director of National Intelligence; National Security Agency; U.S. Secret Service; concerning any of the aforementioned USG-industry meetings and/or Coordinating Council Meetings.

On December 2, 2022, journalist Matt Taibbi used the social media platform Twitter to expose the “Twitter Files,” which include multiple mentions of the Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency’s censorship activities.

A December 16 tweet thread includes:

37.Reports also came from different agencies. Here, an employee recommends “bouncing” content based on evidence from “DHS etc”

A supplemental tweet thread on December 18 reports:

2. In July of 2020, San Francisco FBI agent Elvis Chan tells Twitter executive Yoel Roth to expect written questions from the Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), the inter-agency group that deals with cyber threats.

3. The questionnaire authors seem displeased with Twitter for implying, in a July 20th “DHS/ODNI/FBI/Industry briefing,” that “you indicated you had not observed much recent activity from official propaganda actors on your platform.”

9. He then sent another note internally, saying the premise of the questions was “flawed,” because “we’ve been clear that official state propaganda is definitely a thing on Twitter.” Note the italics for emphasis.

A March 9 tweet thread includes:

3. But Twitter was more like a partner to government. With other tech firms it held a regular “industry meeting” with FBI and DHS, and developed a formal system for receiving thousands of content reports from every corner of government: HHS, Treasury, NSA, even local police

4. Emails from the FBI, DHS and other agencies often came with spreadsheets of hundreds or thousands of account names for review. Often, these would be deleted soon after.

19. The same agencies (FBI, DHS/CISA, GEC) invite the same “experts” (Thomas Rid, Alex Stamos), funded by the same foundations (Newmark, Omidyar, Knight) trailed by the same reporters (Margaret Sullivan, Molly McKew, Brandy Zadrozny) seemingly to every conference, every panel.

Other “Twitter files” released by Elon Musk show that FBI pressure on “Russian disinformation” led to censorship:

San Francisco FBI agent Elvis Chan “[sent] 10 documents to Twitter’s then-Head of Site Integrity, Yoel Roth, through Teleporter, a one-way communications channel from the FBI to Twitter,” the evening before the release of the Post story.

The “Twitter files” show the FBI pushed Twitter to also censor countless Twitter users who tweeted concerns (and jokes) about election integrity just before the 2020 election.

In testimony before the “House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government” Taibbi reported extensive collusion between Big Tech and government, at all levels – including the Biden White House, the Democratic National Committee, and federal, state and local law enforcement – all meant to stifle free speech and withhold information from the American people.

In May 2022, the States of Missouri and Louisiana sued President Biden and several federal employees in their official capacities for violation of the First Amendment.

In one of the depositions in the case, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Cyber Branch for San Francisco Division of the FBI, Elvis Chan, testified he and fellow officials had weekly meetings with major social media companies to warn against Russian disinformation attempts ahead of the 2020 election. The lawsuit also produced Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency meeting minutes that discuss its attempts to manage information being posted by social media contributors.

The Twitter Files also mention a report titled The Long Fuse: Misinformation and the 2020 Election, which was prepared by the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP), a left-leaning collective of organizations that worked with the Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency on its censorship of online information during the 2020 election.

“There is an unholy conspiracy in the Biden administration to censor Americans in collusion with Big Tech,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “This new Judicial Watch lawsuit shows the censorship abuse is furthered by unlawful secrecy and cover-ups.

Judicial Watch is heavily involved in countering government and Big Tech censorship. Buried within the Twitter Files are references and descriptions of meetings and communications Judicial Watch has been investigating through FOIA requests and lawsuits. (Read more: Judicial Watch, 4/05/2023)  (Archive)

April 6. 2023 – Judge Juan Merchan is overseeing Trump’s trial and violating New York’s Code of Judicial Conduct

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, left, and former President Donald Trump. (Marc A. Hermann for NYDN; AP)

Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing former President Donald Trump’s case in Manhattan, violated New York’s Code of Judicial Conduct by making three donations to Democrats in 2020, which could be grounds for an ethics investigation, according to several legal experts and former prosecutors.

Under Section 100.5 of the New York Code of Judicial Conduct, sitting judges cannot “directly or indirectly engage in any political activity.” Prohibited political activity includes “(h) soliciting funds for, paying an assessment to, or making a contribution to a political organization or candidate.”

The New York State Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics’s yearly-updated handbook makes this clear, stating:

A sitting judge may not make political contributions at any time, even to a U.S. presidential candidate or to a federal congressional candidate outside of New York State (Opinion 11-146; 22 NYCRR 100.5[A][1][h]).

Furthermore, the American Bar Association’s Model Code of Judicial Conduct states that unless permitted by law, a judge shall not “solicit funds for, pay an assessment to, or make a contribution to a political organization or a candidate for public office.”

However, Merchan — a New York state judge — made three political donations in 2020, according to public Federal Election Commission records.

According to the FEC records, Merchan donated $15.00 to Biden for President — the campaign of Trump’s opponent, on July 26, 2020, via ActBlue.

On July 27, 2020, he donated $10.00 to Progressive Turnout Project, an organization dedicated to turning out Democrat voters, and $10.00 to Stop Republicans, a part of Progressive Turnout Project “dedicated to resisting the Republican Party and Donald Trump’s radical right-wing legacy,” also via ActBlue.

According to Stephen Gillers, a legal ethics expert and law professor at New York University, such donations are forbidden.

“The contribution to Biden and possibly the one to ‘Stop Republicans’ would be forbidden unless there is some other explanation that would allow them,” Gillers told CNN on Thursday.

Gillers told Breitbart News in an email on Wednesday that violations of the N.Y. Code of Judicial Conduct would be investigated by the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct and could potentially result in removal. (Read more: Breitbart, 4/06/2023)  (Archive)

April 7, 2023 – More on Kathy Chung appearances in the Biden laptop report

The surname of a petite woman of Korean extraction is found 31 times in our dossier: Chung. She was Ted Kaufman’s aide in the U.S. Senate (Kaufman, by the way, was practically hand-picked by Joey when Joey left the “upper chamber” for the vice presidency). Chung was then installed by Joey’s son, Hunter, to be Joey’s personal aide at the White House. After Joey’s stint as the V.P., she followed the crew to Joey’s “transition” office & then to his smattering of “centers,” “foundations,” & other slush funds. All of these movements by Chung & Joey’s broader entourage—including the two federal crimes that Chung participated in—are explained in our nonprofit’s Report on the Biden Laptop.

Earlier this week, Chung—who you, as a federal taxpayer, still subsidize as Chung is currently the deputy Director of Protocol at the Department of Defense—appeared before the U.S. House Oversight Committee & (to her credit) answered some of their questions about Joey’s document fiasco & (hopefully) other matters. Accordingly, we felt it our duty to provide the public with more granularity on this figure who had/has such close access to the man with the nuke codes. We’ll copy directly from the Report:

—

Page 106 in the dossier: Organized a Biden family luncheon for ChiComs

Page 488: Hand-picked for a White House gig by the “smartest man” Joe knows

Pages 188-190: Facilitated FARA violations with Mexican foreign principals & shared non-public information with Hunter

Page 53: The federal statutes & the federal regulation violated:

Lastly, we felt the need to include some photos of the woman. After all, many outlets (Fox News, the Daily Mail, CNN, the New York Post, Axios, & many others) released stories about Chung, but did not include photos. Here are a few:

Rep. Jamie Comer, chairman of the U.S. House Oversight Committee, was smart to bring her in. What our tour through the Biden Laptop has shown us is that rank is oftentimes untethered to value creation and proximity. In other words, the younger or lower-ranking people (e.g. executive assistants) typically know much more about the operations of an enterprise (in this case, a political mafia) than many people might suspect. Marco Polo recognizes this fact and does not get distracted by mere titles—and we take pride in turning over every rock, no matter how small.

–Garrett Ziegler, Founder

If you want to support Marco Polo (EIN: 61-199994), you can do so here.

(More pics: Garrett Ziegler/Substack, 4/07/2023)  (Archive)

April 9, 2023 – Peter Schweizer: “Does This Compromise President Biden?”

The Chinese government has spoken openly about its desire to upturn and change the global order for its benefit. What we have in the Biden family is a family that has become wealthy by enabling, helping, aiding, and abetting the Chinese in doing exactly that. Pictured: US President Joe Biden and Hunter Biden at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base in Syracuse, NY on February 4, 2023. (Credit: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

The notion that a declining power like Russia, which has domestic problems, a shrinking economy, a shrinking demographic base, is somehow a bigger threat than China is laughable. It is indicative of a larger issue, which is that Biden essentially has a soft spot for Beijing. The question, of course, is why?

This is a commercial relationship that not only has made the Bidens money. It has advanced the strategic and military interests of the Chinese government itself.

The first one is a private equity arrangement or deal that Hunter Biden has with the Chinese government itself. This is a deal that began and was finalized in December of 2013. It led to the creation of something called Bohai Harvest RST or BHR Partners…. the Chinese government poured in a billion dollars. They later expanded that to a-billion-and-a-half dollars…. One of the partnering firms that created BHR was Hunter Biden’s firm, Rosemont Seneca Partners.

Hunter Biden was put on the board of directors of BHR Partners…. What is astonishing about this is, first of all, that the Chinese government funded this venture. Again, these are not individual Chinese companies. This is Chinese government money.

In 2017, his lawyers admitted that he [Hunter Biden] also took a personal stake. In addition to the firm that he owned part of, he took a personal stake in these deals. That is deal number one. Then there is deal number two with the Chinese government. This involves a real estate firm called Rosemont Real Estate, of which Hunter Biden was a co‑founder.

Rosemont then becomes Gemini Rosemont Realty. The Chinese government is later to put in more than $100 million in cash. They publicly say that they are going to put billions of dollars of equity into this entity to make it even more successful. Here you have two large deals.

When you look at what that private equity firm does, the first thing they do is they become an anchor investor in a Chinese firm called China General Nuclear (CGN). Why is this interesting? This is a nuclear energy firm that about eight months after Hunter Biden’s BHR becomes an anchor investor, they are charged by the FBI in the United States. That firm was stealing nuclear secrets in the United States.

In particular, CGN is trying to gain technologies related to the small nuclear reactors that are put on submarines, which provide a huge military advantage to the United States.

Another acquisition they make is that Hunter Biden’s BHR firm buys half of a company called Henniges in Michigan — and another Chinese entity buys the other half. That other half is bought by AVIC, which is the Chinese state‑owned aviation military contractor. AVIC builds all the military aircraft for the Chinese military.

What I think is important about the Biden story is not simply the fact that the Biden family made money because of the Chinese military and that Joe Biden speaks very kindly about the Chinese since those deals have gone down, but also that the Biden family involving the son of the vice president directly benefit the Chinese military.

China is a power that has demonstrated over the last decade that they want, by 2025, to supplant the United States as the major economic power in the world. Then by 2030, they want to match the United States militarily.

The Chinese government has also spoken openly about their desire to upturn and change the global order for their benefit. What we have in the Biden family is a family that has become wealthy by enabling, helping, aiding and abetting the Chinese in doing exactly that.

In terms of Hunter Biden doing nothing wrong, it does not seem that there has been anything illegal. I have always contended that the problem in Washington DC is that some of the worst crimes or worst acts of corruption are done by people who engage in legal behavior. In Washington DC, the political class gets to make their own rules. They get to rig the game, as it were, to ensure that the real lucrative stuff that is corrupt — and should be illegal — is the very stuff that they engage in.

Hunter Biden has stepped off the board of directors of BHR. Here is the problem: he still retains his equity stake with this Chinese firm. He still has other deals that he conducted with the Chinese from which he benefited.

The Biden team has lied repeatedly. I can go into greater detail… It has been subterfuge from the beginning. They need to be called out on it….. The American people understand if somebody’s giving you a sweetheart deal, particularly an actor like China… without getting something in return. They are not that stupid.

The problem is the way that rules are written in Washington DC, they are written by the political class themselves. They carve out certain things…. If [Biden] gets a $250 campaign contribution from a GE executive, it is disclosed by the FEC…. If his adult son flying on Air Force Two, clearly close with the vice president, strikes a series of deals with a foreign government that are lucrative and beneficial to him, there is no requirement for disclosure — which, to me, is shocking. One of the things that has to change is that we need greater transparency.

The great gold mine that they have discovered are these foreign entities. With Hunter Biden, you have these deals in China. You also have the deal in Ukraine that everybody’s familiar with…. [Hunter Biden] is given a million dollars a year by a company even though he has no background in Ukraine and no background in energy. Everybody knows what is going on. Unfortunately, it is legal.

There ought to at minimum be a requirement that you disclose any foreign dealings involving the family members of politicians, Republican, Democrat, executive branch, legislative branch. That would be very, very helpful. The way you discuss this and you explain this to people is: It is not a question about what is legal. There are lots of things that are legal in Washington that are highly corrupt. The key thing is, does this compromise Joe Biden?… Has he done favors for that foreign power?

One of the things that the great Roger Robinson has been working on…. He is looking into the fact that in 2013, the Obama administration signed a letter which said that the Chinese companies listed in the New York Stock Exchange did not have to conform to Sarbanes‑Oxley auditing and some of the other requirements that US and other foreign firms do. It is quite a cutout for the Chinese.

The question about blackmail, to be blunt about it, is, are they going to need to blackmail Joe Biden? Joe Biden’s posture towards China is incredibly soft.

[T]here has been a complete lack of curiosity by the media, and even, as we have seen, suppression.

Something may emerge but I am not sure there is something that they want that he is not already prepared to give them. (Read more: Gatestone Institute, 4/09/2023)  (Archive)

April 11, 2023 – Whistleblower: Joe Biden boosted Ukraine gas industry as Hunter took Burisma role

 

(…) Then-Vice President Joe Biden visited Ukraine on a mission to bolster the country’s energy industry days after his son Hunter joined the board of natural gas company Burisma in 2014 — which a former White House stenographer claims implicates the now-80-year-old in a foreign influence-peddling “kickback scheme.”

Mike McCormick (Credit: Fox News)

Mike McCormick says he was with current national security adviser Jake Sullivan — then a Biden aide — in the press cabin of Air Force Two en route to Kyiv on April 21, 2014, as he outlined how the world’s wealthiest country would help the deeply corrupt post-Soviet state build its gas industry.

Giving a rundown of priorities for the trip, Sullivan — described in a transcript as an anonymous “senior administration official” — said Biden would “discuss with [Ukrainian officials] medium- and long-term strategies to boost conventional gas production, and also to begin to take advantage of the unconventional gas reserves that are in Ukraine.”

Asked for details, the Biden aide said the US was interested in providing “technical assistance to help [Ukraine] be able to boost production in their conventional gas fields, where presently they aren’t getting the maximum of what they could be” while offering “technical assistance relating to a regulatory framework, and also the technology that would be required to extract unconventional gas resources; and Ukraine has meaningful reserves of unconventional gas according to the latest estimates.”

Jake Sullivan (Credit: public domain)

In December of that year, amid broader Obama administration support for Ukraine, Congress approved $50 million to support the country’s energy sector, including the natural gas industry.

McCormick, who worked more than a decade at the White House, told The Post this week he believes the timeline of events, featuring the unmasked longtime Joe Biden aide, demonstrates that the president used his prior position to help his son’s foreign business interests.

“Joe Biden was over there telling them, ‘You can’t be corrupt! You can’t be corrupt!’ while he was corrupt,” McCormick says. “Look, this is Air Force Two. This is Joe Biden’s plane. He’s in control of it. Jake Sullivan was in the front of the plane with Joe Biden in a meeting and then he walks back in the plane to talk to the press.”

Now, McCormick tells The Post that he wants to testify before the federal grand jury in Delaware considering charges against Hunter — saying he has relevant information that the FBI ignored.

“They’ve been looking at Hunter Biden, but this ties Joe Biden and [Sullivan] into promoting a kickback scheme with Ukraine,” he said. “It’s the timeline that does it.” (Read more: New York Post, 4/11/2023)  (Archive)

April 11, 2023 – DCCC, Marc Elias firm accused of ‘apparent civil violations’ of federal election law

Attorney Marc Elias preps on Aug. 3, 2016, before the hearing for his lawsuit against Arizona over voting rights. (Credit: David Jolkovski/Getty Images)

An anti-Biden political action committee (PAC) filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) alleging “apparent civil violations” of election law between the House Democrats’ campaign arm and top liberal lawyer and former Hillary Clinton attorney Marc Elias’ law firm.

Dan Backer (Credit: LinkedIn)

Counsel for the Committee to Defeat the President Dan Backer, who sent the letter to the DOJ, told Fox News Digital for “years, the infamous Marc Elias and the corrupt Democrats in his orbit have violated federal campaign finance laws, and it’s high time to hold them accountable.”

(…) “Americans deserve to know the truth about the Democratic Party’s shady money laundering schemes, especially when campaign funds are supposed to be spent in one way and they get spent in another,” Backer said.

“Based on the Committee’s robust research, and Elias’ own shady past, it seems pretty clear that Elias and other Democrats have engaged in false reporting, and that cannot go unchecked,” he continued.

A letter from the FEC obtained by Fox News Digital acknowledged the receipt of the complaint.

In the letter, Backer wrote to Heberle about “possible criminal violations of both the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) and the federal Criminal Code” allegedly committed by the DCCC and Elias Law Group.

“I hope that you will not allow the Biden Administration’s political appointees within the Department of Justice to allow President Biden’s close political allies to gain an unfair advantage in the electoral process by violating federal criminal law with impunity,” Backer wrote.

Backer pointed out the “FECA requires each political committee to report to the FEC the purpose of each of its operating expenditures over $200” and that in “a series of FEC filings over the course of 2021 and 2022, the DCCC reported making a total of $5,177,460.62 in payments between October 19, 2021, and July 15, 2022, to Elias Law Group for ‘RECOUNT LEGAL [SERVICES].’

(…) ”Backer also alleged that Elias, “the name partner of Elias Law Group, has a history of allowing Democratic political committees to misrepresent the nature of his firm’s legal services to shield their activities from public scrutiny,” pointing to his former firm, Perkins Coie’s work on the debunked Steele dossier.

“Elias has also been sanctioned by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit for lack of candor,” Backer wrote. “Another federal court accused him of attempting to ‘impinge[]’ upon ‘free, open, rational elections.’”

“It is reasonably possible Elias Law Group facilitated the DCCC’s false reporting by providing fraudulent billing statements misrepresenting the purpose of the firm’s charges, to assist in shielding the true nature of their activities from public scrutiny,” Backer alleged.

Backer alleged Elias Law Group and the DCCC “may have violated four federal statutes:” “FECA criminal provisions,” the “Sarbanes-Oxley Act,” statutes regarding “false statements,” and “conspiracy” statutes. (Read more: Fox News, 4/17/2023)  (Archive)

April 12, 2023 – DNC parts ways with Marc Elias, the Clinton lawyer behind the Clinton/DNC/Steele dossier

“The Democratic National Committee is cutting ties with lawyer Marc Elias, who heavily pushed the discredited Steele dossier that sought to link the former president to Russia falsely.

Elias, who has represented the DNC since 2009, has had several disagreements with the committee, according to sources who spoke with PunchBowl News. Elias Law Group, his firm founded in 2021, works on behalf of many Democratic lawmakers and entities, such as the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, records show.

Elias was general counsel for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and commissioned the Trump-Russia dossier. The lawyer hired the opposition research firm Fusion GPS, which, in turn, brought on British ex-spy Christopher Steele in 2016. Steele was offered “up to $1 million” in the run-up to the 2016 election by the FBI to prove the dossier’s allegations against Trump but did not get the money due to lack of evidence, FBI supervisory analyst Brian Auten testified in October 2022.

The following month, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) sent several written questions to the FBI in the wake of “bogus information” being received from informants, including Steele, the Washington Examiner first reported. Then-prosecutor Andrew DeFilippis for John Durham, who was appointed as special counsel to investigate the FBI’s 2016 Russia election interference inquiry, grilled Elias in May 2022 over his role in pushing the collusion narrative. (Read more: Washington Examiner, 4/12/2023)  (Archive)

April 12, 2023 – Chinese-American bank records show millions in transactions between Hunter Biden, China firms: Sen. Johnson

Cathay General Bancorp is the holding company for Cathay Bank. Cathay Bank has branch locations in nine U.S. states as well as Hong Kong, and overseas representative offices in Beijing, Shanghai, and Taipei. (Credit: public domain)

“Wisconsin GOP Sen. Ron Johnson says the financial institution Cathay Bank has given Senate Republicans records showing millions of dollars going from Chinese companies to President Biden’s son Hunter Biden.

Republicans and others started raising concerns during President Biden’s successful 2020 White House campaign, if not earlier, that Hunter Biden used the family name and influence while his father was vice president to make millions in overseas business deals, which also could have compromised U.S. national security.

Johnson told The Washington Times the records show the Biden family involved with the now-defunct CEFC China Energy, which had connections to the Chinese Communist Party.

The firm reportedly gave $1 million to Hudson West III, which was a joint venture owned by Hunter Biden and Gongwen Dong, a business associate of CEFC’s founder and chairman, Ye Jianming, according to the bank records.

“In my mind,” said Johnson, “it’s the Chinese government telling Joe Biden, ‘We got the goods on you, buddy. And we’re willing to dish it up.'” (Read more: JusttheNews, 4/12/2023)  (Archive)

April 17, 2023 – House Oversight: Six additional Biden family members may have benefited from the family business schemes

Vice President Joe Biden, flanked by his wife Jill Biden and family members, acknowledges the audience at the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina, Sept. 6, 2012, on the final day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC). (Credit: Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images)

House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) issued the following statement after he and several lawmakers went to the U.S. Department of the Treasury to view financial records related to the Biden family and their associates’ business transactions:

“Thousands of pages of financial records related to the Biden family, their companies, and associates’ business schemes were made available to members of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, which confirm the importance of this investigation. The Biden family enterprise is centered on Joe Biden’s political career and connections, and it has generated an exorbitant amount of money for the Biden family. We’ve identified six additional members of Joe Biden’s family who may have benefited from the Biden family’s businesses that we are investigating, bringing the total number of those involved or benefiting to nine.

“The Oversight Committee will continue to pursue additional bank records to follow the Bidens’ tangled web of financial transactions to determine if the Biden family has been targeted by foreign actors and if there is a national security threat. We will soon provide the public with more information about what we’ve uncovered to date. The American people need transparency and accountability, and the Oversight Committee will deliver much needed answers.”  (oversight.house.gov, 4/17/2023)  (Archive)

April 18, 2023 – Hillary’s 2016 campaign CFO and current SEC Chairman, Gary Gensler, claims he wasn’t aware of payment for Steele Dossier

(…) It was also clear at this time that Gensler was running Hillary’s campaign finances.  Gensler also worked with Hillary’s attorney Marc Elias in creating the Hillary Victory Fund, according to Bloomberg in a piece in June 2016:

Gensler’s portfolio stretches into other areas as well. He, along with campaign lawyer Marc Elias and national finance director Dennis Cheng, led the process last year to create the Hillary Victory Fund, which jointly raises money for the campaign, the DNC, and state Democratic parties.

Elias was Hillary’s general counsel at the time Gensler was CFO.

It was during this time when Gensler oversaw the Hillary campaign’s finances that Hillary’s campaign paid millions to law firm Perkins Coie.  This was also the time that the Steele dossier was paid for.

We know that Gensler has hidden meetings he had with  Hillary, Soros, Pelosi and others from his calendar.

Today Gensler was asked whether he facilitated the payment for the Steele dossier for the Hillary campaign.  He claimed after much hesitation that he wasn’t aware of the payment for the Steele campaign.

(Read more: Gateway Pundit, 4/18/2023)  (Archive)

April 18, 2023 – American black leftist groups and activists are being charged with felonies for posting memes and other political content against the war in Ukraine

A federal grand jury in Tampa, Florida, returned a superseding indictment charging four U.S. citizens and three Russian nationals with working on behalf of the Russian government and in conjunction with the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) to conduct a multi-year foreign malign influence campaign in the United States. Among other conduct, the superseding indictment alleges that the Russian defendants recruited, funded and directed U.S. political groups to act as unregistered illegal agents of the Russian government and sow discord and spread pro-Russian propaganda; the indicted intelligence officers, in particular, participated in covertly funding and directing candidates for local office within the United States.

Additionally, in a separate case out of the District of Columbia, a criminal complaint was unsealed charging Russian national Natalia Burlinova with conspiring with an FSB officer to act as an illegal agent of Russia in the United States.

“Russia’s foreign intelligence service allegedly weaponized our First Amendment rights – freedoms Russia denies its own citizens – to divide Americans and interfere in elections in the United States,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “The department will not hesitate to expose and prosecute those who sow discord and corrupt U.S. elections in service of hostile foreign interests, regardless of whether the culprits are U.S. citizens or foreign individuals abroad.”

“Efforts by the Russian government to secretly influence U.S. elections will not be tolerated,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “As today’s announcement demonstrates, the Criminal Division is committed to eradicating foreign malign influence from the U.S. political system and helping ensure the integrity of our elections.”

“Today’s announcement paints a harrowing picture of Russian government actions and the lengths to which the FSB will go to interfere with our elections, sow discord in our nation and ultimately recruit U.S citizens to their efforts,” said Acting Assistant Director Kurt Ronnow of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division. “All Americans should be deeply concerned by the tactics employed by the FSB and remain vigilant to any attempt to undermine our democracy. The FBI remains committed to confronting this egregious behavior and ultimately disrupting our adversaries and those who act on their behalf.”

United States v. Ionov, et al.

According to the superseding indictment returned in the Middle District of Florida, Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov, a resident of Moscow, was the founder and president of the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia (AGMR), an organization headquartered in Moscow, Russia, and funded by the Russian government. Ionov allegedly utilized AGMR to carry out Russia’s malign influence campaign. Ionov’s influence efforts were allegedly directed and supervised by Moscow-based FSB officers, including indicted defendants Aleksey Borisovich Sukhodolov and Yegor Sergeyevich Popov.

“The prosecution of this criminal conduct is essential to protecting the American public when foreign governments seek to inject themselves into the American political process,” said U.S. Attorney Roger B. Handberg for the Middle District of Florida. “We thank our partners at the FBI for their tireless investigation of these events and their commitment to ensure justice is done.”

Among other illegal activities, the superseding indictment alleges that Ionov, Sukhodolov and Popov conspired to directly and substantially influence democratic elections in the United States by clandestinely funding and directing the political campaign of a particular candidate for local office in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 2019. For instance, the superseding indictment alleges that Popov expressly referred to this effort on behalf of the FSB as “our election campaign,” and Ionov referring to the candidate as the “candidate whom we supervise.” Ionov and Popov allegedly intended that this election interference plot would extend beyond the 2019 local election cycle in St. Petersburg, and subsequently discussed that the “USA Presidential election” was the FSB’s “main topic of the year.”

Moreover, from at least November 2014 until July 2022, Ionov allegedly engaged in a years-long foreign malign influence campaign targeting the United States. As a part of the campaign, Ionov allegedly recruited members of political groups within the United States, including the African People’s Socialist Party and the Uhuru Movement (collectively, the APSP) in Florida, Black Hammer in Georgia and a political group in California (referred to in the superseding indictment as U.S. Political Group 3), to participate in the influence campaign and act as agents of Russia in the United States, including the following indicted defendants:

  • Omali Yeshitela, a U.S. citizen residing in St. Petersburg, Florida, and St. Louis, Missouri, who served as the chairman and founder of the APSP;
  • Penny Joanne Hess, a U.S. citizen residing in St. Petersburg, Florida, and St. Louis, Missouri, who served as the leader of a component of the APSP;
  • Jesse Nevel, a U.S. citizen residing in St. Petersburg, Florida, and St. Louis, Missouri, who served as a member of a component of the APSP; and
  • Augustus C. Romain Jr., aka Gazi Kodzo, a U.S. citizen residing in St. Petersburg, Florida, and Atlanta, who served as a leader of the APSP and a founder of Black Hammer in Georgia.

APSP Chairman Omali Yeshitela (Credit: African Peoples Socialist Party)

One focus of Ionov’s alleged influence operation was to create the appearance of American popular support for Russia’s annexation of territories in Ukraine. For example, in May 2020, Ionov allegedly sent a request he stated was from “Russia, the Donetsk People’s Republic” – an apparent reference to a Russian-occupied region in eastern Ukraine – to Yeshitela and members of other U.S. political groups to make statements in support of the independence of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, a Russian-backed breakaway state in eastern Ukraine. Ionov later allegedly touted to the FSB that Yeshitela’s video-recorded statement of support was the first time that “American nonprofit organizations congratulated citizens” of the occupied region.

Ionov’s use of the APSP to promote Russian propaganda relating to Ukraine allegedly continued after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. On the day Russia invaded Ukraine, Feb. 24, 2022, Ionov allegedly emailed Nevel an “URGENT MESSAGE” which contained pro-Russian talking points in support of the invasion. Thereafter, throughout March 2022, the APSP repeatedly hosted Ionov via video conference to discuss the war, during which Ionov falsely stated that anyone who supported Ukraine also supported Naziism and white supremacy, and Yeshitela and another APSP member allegedly made statements of solidarity with the Russian government.

Ionov, Sukhodolov, Popov, Yeshitela, Hess, Nevel and Romain are charged with conspiring to have U.S. citizens act as illegal agents of the Russian government within the United States without providing prior notification to the Attorney General, as required by law. If convicted, they each face a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Yeshitela, Hess and Nevel are also charged with acting as agents of Russia within the United States without such prior notification. If convicted, they each face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. If convicted, a federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Daniel J. Marcet and Risha Asokan for the Middle District of Florida, Trial Attorney Menno Goedman of the Justice Department’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, and Trial Attorney Demetrius Sumner of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section are prosecuting the case.

United States v. Burlinova

According to the affidavit in support of the criminal complaint unsealed in the District of Columbia, Russian national Natalia Burlinova, a resident of Moscow, conspired with an FSB officer to recruit U.S. citizens from academic and research institutions to travel to Russia to participate in a public diplomacy program called Meeting Russia. The program was operated by PICREADI, a Russian organization led by Burlinova, funded by the Russian government and devoted to promoting Russian national interests.

“The defendant is accused of subverting our foreign agent notification laws to promote Russian national interests here in the United States, concealing from the public that her recruitment efforts were funded by a Russian security service,” said U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves for the District of Columbia. “We will continue to expose these serious crimes and hold all who perpetrate them accountable.”

The affidavit alleges that the FSB officer provided funding and other support for Burlinova’s foreign recruitment and her efforts to advance Russian interests in the United States. In return, Burlinova provided the FSB officer with extensive information about U.S. citizens who were recruited to attend her programs, including their résumés, passport information, photographs and analyses of their views toward Russia. Burlinova further identified for the FSB officer particular U.S. citizens who, in Burlinova’s view, had expressed positive attitudes towards Russia and were prepared to continue to collaborate. During a recruitment trip to the United States in fall 2018, Burlinova met with U.S. citizens at various universities and research institutions and provided to photographs of her meetings to the FSB officer. The FSB officer used the information Burlinova provided prepare FSB intelligence reports. Burlinova never notified the Attorney General of these efforts or otherwise disclosed to the public that her recruitment efforts were supported and funded by a Russian security service.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael J. Friedman for the District of Columbia and Trial Attorney Emma D. Ellenrieder of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case. (justice.gov, 4/18/2023)  (Archive)

Glenn Greenwald adds an important perspective to this story in this Twitter thread:

April 20, 2023 – Fake news reckoning…Buzzfeed shuts down their news service

BuzzFeed News Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith talks with colleagues BuzzFeed headquarters, December 11, 2018 in New York City. (Credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti’s memo announcing the mercy killing Thursday morning and the memo was tweeted out by a media reporter* for the far-left New York Times.

In part, the memo read:

Additionally, I made the decision to overinvest[**] in BuzzFeed News[***] because I love their work and mission so much. This made me slow to accept that the big platforms wouldn’t provide the distribution or financial support required to support premium, free journalism[****] for social media.

…

Just as we reduced our footprint in NYC last year, we will be reducing our real estate in Los Angeles from four buildings to one[.]

…

HuffPost and BuzzFeed Dot Com have signaled that they will open a number of select roles for members of BuzzFeed News

…

As part of today’s changes, both our CRO Edgar Hernandez and COO Christian Bressler have made the decision to exit the company.

Overall, BuzzFeed will cut 15 percent of its 1200-person staff.

(…) In its early days, BuzzFeed News made a cottage industry out of attacking Breitbart News with lies and gossip. You see, they were angry about us telling the truth about them. But the whole thing was biased and dull and doomed from the start. Then, eight or nine years ago, BuzzFeed News fell off the radar entirely until Christian Bressler violated every journalistic protocol ever written to publish the Deep State’s phony Russia dossier on Donald Trump.

Then everyone forgot about BuzzFeed News again. Then Ben Smith left to do business with the Nazis in China, and now it’s finally over. (Read more: Breitbart, 4/20/2023)  (Archive)

April 20, 2023 – Federal Court blocks ex-Trump investigator from testifying before House Judiciary Committee

Mark Pomerantz (l) and Alvin Bragg. (Credit Illustration: Intelligencer; Photos: CBS/Shutterstock)

A federal court temporarily stopped former Special Assistant District Attorney Mark Pomerantz from being required to testify over Manhattan District Attorney Bragg’s investigation into former President Donald Trump.

House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan subpoenaed Pomerantz after Bragg indicted Trump for allegedly falsifying business records, with the congressman accusing Pomerantz of politicizing the investigation and encouraging Bragg to press charges. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil turned down Bragg’s request to stop the subpoena’s enforcement in his April 11 lawsuit against Jordan, but the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a temporary administrative stay of the subpoena’s Thursday return date so a three-panel judge could consider Bragg’s subsequent appeal.

(…) Pomerantz said in his book “People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account” that he resigned from Bragg’s office in February 2022 when he came to believe Trump would not be indicted and told Bragg he was responsible for a “grave failure of justice.” (Read more, The Daily Caller, 4/20/2023) (Archive)

April 21, 2023 – Trump tells Gen Flynn, “it’s only a year and a half, just stay healthy”…why Flynn is still dangerous to establishment neocon and neoliberal globalists

April 21, 2023 – The ‘senior’ official accused of political interference in Hunter Biden case is Merrick Garland

Merrick Garland (Credit: Andrew Harnik/Associated Press)

Attorney General Merrick Garland is under fire for allegedly obstructing the criminal investigation into Hunter Biden, the son of current President Joe Biden, after a whistleblower came forward in sworn testimony to name a “senior” official who is supervising the case.

The whistleblower, represented by a lawyer who sent a bombshell letter to Congress, has claimed that a “high-profile, controversial” case managed by the Department of Justice (DOJ), believed to be the investigation into Hunter Biden’s alleged failure to pay taxes, faced “clear conflicts of interest.”

The whistleblower claimed to have information that contradicted the sworn testimony of a “senior” Biden administration official, who has been identified as Merrick Garland. The identification was first made by the New York Post, and later by the Washington Examiner and Daily Mail, all citing anonymous sources.

Thus, the Attorney General would be guilty of committing perjury in statements given to Congress under oath, if the accusations are shown to be accurate.

Garland’s testimony to Republican Senator Bill Hagerty of Tennessee in April 2022, where he assured that there would be no political interference in the investigation into Hunter Biden, has been called into question.

Garland had also stated that U.S. Attorney David Weiss of Delaware, a Trump appointee, was the supervisor of the investigation and had full authority to bring charges. Garland reiterated this promise in March 2023 during testimony to Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa. However, it remains unclear which specific testimony the whistleblower was referring to. (Read more: Becker News, 4/21/2023) (Archive)

April 21, 2023 – Blinken was on Facebook and Google’s payroll three weeks before 2020 election

Source: (Fast Company, 10/29/2017)

April 21, 2023 – Ex-CIA official: Biden campaign behind letter framing Hunter Biden laptop story as Russian disinformation

A former deputy director of the CIA was prompted by the Biden campaign to frame the Hunter Biden laptop story as Russian disinformation in a letter signed by dozens of former senior intelligence officials ahead of the 2020 presidential election, according to testimony revealed by Congressional lawmakers.

Former CIA deputy director Michael Morell was among the 51 signatories of an open letter (pdf) that said the New York Post’s October 2020 report dismissing the explosive contents of a laptop purportedly belonging to Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden.

The letter said that the “arrival on the U.S. political scene of emails purportedly belonging to Vice President Biden’s son Hunter, much of it related to his time serving of the Board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”

Subsequent reporting has confirmed that the laptop wasn’t part of a Russian disinformation campaign but had been abandoned at a computer repair shop. Some of the contents found on the laptop included embarrassing photos of Hunter Biden, including one apparently showing him passed out with a crack pipe.

At the time, Biden’s presidential campaign cited the letter in framing the Hunter Biden laptop story as Russian disinformation. Polling suggests that if voters had been aware of the laptop’s contents, some would have voted differently, with a potentially different outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

Morrell said in Congressional testimony cited by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) that Morrell had organized the letter at the urging of Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who at the time was serving as an adviser to Biden’s presidential campaign.

Jordan, who heads both the House Judiciary Committee and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, has demanded that Blinken answer a series of questions about Morrell’s testimony and provide records of related communication. (Read more: The Epoch Times, 4/21/2023)  (Archive)

UPDATE:

(…) The decision to drop the appeal came on Friday night after Bragg’s office said they had come to an agreement with the committee.

“Our successful stay of this subpoena blocked the immediate deposition and afforded us the time necessary to coordinate with the House Judiciary Committee on an agreement that protects the District Attorney’s privileges and interests. We are pleased with this resolution, which ensures any questioning of our former employee will take place in the presence of our General Counsel on a reasonable, agreed upon timeframe,” a spokesperson for his office said.

A spokesman for Rep. Jordan’s office also confirmed that the parties had reached an agreement.

“This evening, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office withdrew its appeal in Bragg v. Jordan. Mr. Pomerantz’s deposition will go forward on May 12, and we look forward to his appearance,”  spokesman Russell Dye said.

This week a federal judge rejected Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s request to block a former prosecutor in his office from testifying before the House Judiciary Committee about the criminal case against former President Donald Trump.

“The committee and its chairman, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), had subpoenaed ex-assistant district attorney Mark Pomerantz to give testimony about the DA’s investigation into Trump, 76, that culminated in the former president’s indictment in March. Bragg filed suit against Jordan and the Judiciary Committee, claiming the subpoena was an overreach by the GOP-led House and an attempt to influence a state criminal proceeding,” the New York Post reported. “But Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil found the subpoena was issued with a valid legislative purpose and that it was not the role of the federal judiciary to dictate how Congress operates.”

“Mr. Pomerantz must appear for the congressional deposition. No one is above the law,” Judge Vyskocil wrote in an opinion issued after a Manhattan federal court hearing. (Read more: Conservative Brief, 4/21/2023)  (Archive)

April 25, 2023 – Former DNI Ratcliffe: Media ‘knew’ intel community concluded Hunter laptop wasn’t Russian misinformation

On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Ingraham Angle,” former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe pointed out that the media knew that the intelligence community had already concluded that the Hunter Biden laptop story wasn’t Russian misinformation when they used “Mike Morell and Antony Blinken’s coordinated letter” on the laptop story as a reason to falsely declare the story Russian misinformation.

Ratcliffe said that not only have the media largely ignored the new developments on the letter, “It’s that the media [were] in on it. [14] hours before Mike Morell and Antony Blinken’s coordinated letter was published in POLITICO, I went on national TV and put out a statement refuting what Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) was saying that the Hunter Biden laptop was a Russian disinformation campaign. So, they all knew that the official position of the intelligence community was that this was not Russian disinformation. But they all went with it anyway. Laura, remember, this was just two weeks before the presidential election. They just had to mislead the American people and keep this false narrative alive for two weeks to pull off the election interference that they were clearly engaged in.” (Breitbart, 4/25/2023)  (Archive)

April 26, 2023 – Rapper Pras Michel found guilty of funneling illegal foreign donations to Obama campaign

Pras Michel (Credit: The Globe and Mail)

A Washington, D.C., jury found famous rapper Prakazrel “Pras” Michel guilty on 10 federal charges, including corruption, conspiracy and acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government.

The Grammy award-winning artist from the world-famous 1992 hip-hop group “The Fugees” who was at the center of multimillion-dollar political conspiracies was convicted on Wednesday, according to The Associated Press. The trial included testimony from high-profile political and entertainment figures, including actor Leonardo DiCaprio and former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Michel received more than $100 million from Malaysian billionaire Jho Low, which he used effort to influence American politics, prosecutors charged. He was also convicted of lobbying on behalf of the Chinese government, according to the BBC.

(…) Low allegedly funneled money to Michel, and is accused of stealing about $4bn from Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund during the 1MDB scandal, according to the BBC. He is currently wanted by the U.S. government.

(…) Michel said he met Low in 2006 when he was associated with big Hollywood names and helped finance Hollywood films, including DiCaprio’s “The Wolf of Wall Street.” DiCaprio testified that Low seemed to be a legitimate businessman who was interested in donating to former President Barack Obama’s campaign, according to The Associated Press. (Read more The Daily Caller, 4/27/2023) (Archive)

April 26, 2023 – Trump lawyers provide key insight on background of Mar-a-Lago raid via letter to Gang of Eight

If you are deep in the political research weeds about the weaponization of government, there is a letter from lawyers representing President Trump to the chair of the House Intel Committee that is very interesting [pdf available here].

The letter is written to HPSCI Chair Mike Turner and copied to the other seven members of the gang-of-eight in the Senate and House.  The letter outlines the details of the documents that became the contested issue between the DOJ-National Security Division (‘NSD’, important distinction), specifically a DOJ-NSD official named Jay Bratt, and the attorney for President Trump, Mr. Evan Corcoran.

(Credit: Conservative Treehouse)

The letter is fascinating because it outlines how the process of moving documents from the White House was weaponized by a politically motivated National Archives and Records Administration (“NARA”), and the letter also gives fulsome context to the types of “classified materials” that have been insanely over emphasized by media.

[…] “Tim Parlatore and Jim Trusty, two of the undersigned counsel for President Trump, reviewed all 15 boxes at NARA earlier this year and based on that review, it is clear to us what happened. The boxes contain all manner of documents from the White House, are loosely grouped by date, and include newspapers, magazines, notes, letters, and daily schedules. Following its review of the materials, NARA inserted placeholder pages where it had removed documents with classification markings. That allowed Messrs. Parlatore and Trusty to discern what the documents were, as well as what other materials in the boxes were in the proximity of the marked documents when the White House staff packed them. The vast majority of the placeholder inserts refer to briefings for phone calls with foreign leaders that were located near the schedule for those calls.”  (page 3, pdf link)

Additionally, get this part…  despite the standard process that has been in place for the prior four administrations, the NARA refused to participate in the collection of any documents from the White House during the transition phase following the November 2020 election.

The NARA refused to assist in the collection of the Trump records for national archive holding and review, and then the NARA triggered a sequence of events that led to the DOJ using a reference from the NARA, to weaponize a process they refused to engage in.  The NARA refused to do their specialized bureaucratic job, and then the NARA used what they defined as an incomplete job as a reason to refer the outcome to the DOJ.   The details are quite interesting.

The letter details how the DOJ-NSD then weaponized the process, fought with the FBI investigative and supervisory agents who were saying Trump was doing nothing wrong, and then culminating in a documented lie to the Florida magistrate, in order to get a politically motivated search warrant.

The DOJ will not release the documents they used to convince the judge to obtain the warrant.  Additionally, the DOJ will not release a list of the documents, or even describe the documents, they later claimed are classified.   To this date, the Trump defense team is being told President Trump held classified documents, yet the DOJ will not describe to the lawyers who represent President Trump, what those classified documents are.

I strongly urge anyone interested to read the 10-page letter.  It is a key part of the puzzle being explained and outlined.

(Read more: Conservative Treehouse, 4/27/2023)  (Archive)

April 26, 2023 – HHS whistleblower claims US government Is ‘middleman’ in child trafficking operation

Tara Lee Rodas, the HHS whistleblower, gives her opening statement on the child migrant crisis to the House Judiciary Committee.

April 27, 2023 – House Ways and Means protects IRS whistleblower claiming political interference in Hunter Biden tax probe

House Ways and Means Committee Chair, Jason Smith (Credit: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

The House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-MO) has permitted an IRS agent to inform Congress about alleged political interference by the Justice Department in the Hunter Biden tax probe.

The Ways and Means Committee has authorized two lawyers for the IRS whistleblower to collect information about what their client witnessed at the IRS regarding Hunter’s tax probe.

Specifically, the IRS agent claims two Biden administration political appointees within the DOJ are working to block charges against Hunter for tax violations despite recommendations. In addition, the IRS agent believes Attorney General Merrick Garland refused to name a special counsel in the probe to provide a degree of separation between the probe and President Joe Biden.

“Last week, a whistleblower came forward with troubling claims about abuses of power,” Chairman Smith told IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel during a congressional hearing Thursday. “We are conducting a review of this matter and will go wherever the facts lead us. I expect full cooperation from the IRS, particularly with regard to ensuring this whistleblower is protected from retaliation.” (Read more: Breitbart, 5/1/2023)  (Archive)

April 27, 2023 – DOJ IG Horowitz testifies there were 3.4 million backdoor FISA searches on American citizens in 2021 with a 30% error rate

DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz (Credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Michael Horowitz could not answer how many people in the federal government can use the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) on Americans through backdoor searches when Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz asked him at a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on Thursday.

FISA Section 702 enables intelligence agencies to carry out targeted surveillance of foreigners outside the U.S., but they have improperly used it on Americans. There were 3.4 million backdoor searches in 2021, according to an Office of the Director of National Intelligence 2022 Transparency report.

There was around a 30% error rate in these queries, Horowitz said in his testimony.

“How many people can perform these backdoor queries?” Gaetz asked.

“I’m gonna defer to board members ’cause you have the review ongoing,” Horowitz responded, referring to Sharon Bradford Franklin, Chair of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. (Read more: The Daily Caller, 4/27/2023)  (Archive)

April 28, 2023 – After Hunter Biden divested from Chinese firm BHR Partners, his top attorney, Kevin Morris, obtains control of a ten percent stake

Author Kevin Morris, who is also Hunter Biden’s attorney, attends his “White Man’s Problem” book release party on June 3, 2014, in Los Angeles, California. (Credit: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)

Kevin Morris, Hunter Biden’s lawyer, controls an entity with a ten percent stake in BHR Partners, a Chinese state-backed investment fund founded just days after Hunter and President Joe Biden visited China in 2013, a source confirmed Friday to Breitbart News.

After pressure increased on Hunter Biden to divest from BHR Partners due to a conflict of interest upon Joe Biden assuming the White House, Hunter Biden’s lawyer told the New York Times in the fall of 2021 that his client “no longer holds any interest, directly or indirectly in either BHR or Skaneateles.”

Skaneateles LLC, the entity which owns ten percent of BHR Partners, according to Chinese public records from Baidu, was controlled by Hunter as the sole governor until its dissolution in September 2021, a Washington, DC, registration indicated. 

But new documents obtained by Breitbart News, first revealed by nonprofit Marco Polo, show the control of Skaneateles LLC is being held by Kevin Morris, Hunter’s top attorney, who also paid Hunter’s IRS debts.

In a document entitled, “AMENDED AND RESTATED JOINT VENTURE CONTRACT of BHR PARTNERS (SHANGHAI) EQUITY INVESTMENT FUND MANAGEMENT CO., LTD. A FOREIGN-FUNDED ENTERPRISE,” Kevin Morris is listed as the Managing Member of Skaneateles LLC.

The document shows Skaneateles LLC holds a ten percent stake in BHR Partners, equivalent to $3 million.

Breitbart News also obtained a copy of an email with the subject line, “Signing Instructions,” sent by a BHR Partners’ company email address from the name Heng-Yin Zhang to Jimmy Bulger, who is a Biden family longtime business partner. Hunter Biden previously was a BHR Partners board member with Bulger.

Bulger’s firm, Thornton Group LLC, is deeply connected with business in China. Thornton Group LLC is also listed in the agreement, the document shows.

“We have mailed you the documents for signing (Fedex tracking no.: 8137 6269 8141 0448). We would like to share with you the signing instructions of the documents in the order of their placements inside the envelope we send to you,” an email reads to Bulger from Heng-Yin Zhang, an individual with a BHR Partners’ email address. 

Breitbart News confirmed and authenticated the venture contract and the “Signing Instructions” email with a source with knowledge of the transaction. In addition, the source confirmed “Kevin Morris is the ‘managing partner’ of Skaneateles, LLC’ and that ‘Skaneateles has a 10 percent stake in the [BHR] venture.’” (Read more: Breitbart, 4/28/2023)  (Archive)

April 30, 2023 – On Sunday Morning Futures, Sen. Ron Johnson accuses Antony Blinken of lying under oath about contacting Hunter Biden

Blinken told Johnson’s committee he did not email Hunter Biden. Now Johnson has those emails.

Senator Ron Johnson: What is interesting, Marie, and here’s a little news for you. Anthony Blinken finally did come in and sit down for a voluntary transcribed interview in December of 2020 because he wanted to be secretary of state. And now, because of more information that’s come out, we know that he lied bold face to Congress about never emailing Hunter Biden. My guess is he told a bunch of other lies that hopefully we’ll be able to bring him and his wife back in, tell them to preserve their records. You cannot trust Joe Biden. You cannot trust Hunter Biden. You can’t trust the Biden family. You can’t trust so many of the people that they have surrounded themselves with these made men. I basically agree with that statement…

…What do you do when you have, in effect, co conspirators of the Biden family inside the agencies, inside our intelligence agencies, the Department of Justice, the FBI. And you have the political party, the Democrats, who couldn’t care less, have no interest whatsoever in the corruption that is being uncovered bit by bit as we pull back the layers of the onion here… He must preserve his emails. We must get to the bottom of this. We need to show how corrupt these individuals are.

Sunday Morning Futures, 4/30/2023

April 30, 2023 – Epstein’s private calendar emerges: Among prominent names listed are Biden’s CIA chief and Obama’s WH attorney

In 2014, current CIA director William Burns had three meetings with Jeffrey Epstein when Burns was Obama’s deputy secretary of state, and after Epstein had been convicted of child sex exploitation, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Burns and Epstein first met in Washington prior to Burns visiting Epstein and his Manhattan townhouse, according to a trove of leaked documents that include Epstein’s schedules which were not contained in Epstein’s “black book” of contacts or flight logs.

Burns, who became CIA Director under Biden in 2021, met with Epstein while he was preparing to leave his position in the government, according to agency spokeswoman Tammy Kupperman Thorp.

“The director did not know anything about him, other than that he was introduced as an expert in the financial services sector and offered general advice on transition to the private sector,” she said, adding “They had no relationship.”

Mr. Burns, 67 years old, a career diplomat and former ambassador to Russia, had meetings with Epstein in 2014 when Mr. Burns was deputy secretary of state. 

A lunch was planned that August at the office of law firm Steptoe & Johnson in Washington. Epstein scheduled two evening appointments that September with Mr. Burns at his townhouse, the documents show. After one of the scheduled meetings, Epstein planned for his driver to take Mr. Burns to the airport.

Mr. Burns recalls being introduced in Washington by a mutual friend, and meeting Epstein once briefly in New York, said Ms. Thorp. “The director does not recall any further contact, including receiving a ride to the airport,” she said. -WSJ

One month after meeting with Epstein, in October 2014, Burns stepped down from this role at the State Department to serve as president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think tank. He ran it until he was nominated by Biden to serve as CIA director in early 2021.

Epstein also had dozens of meetings with then-Obama White House attorney Kathryn Ruemmler, who went on to become Goldman Sachs’ top lawyer in 2020. Epstein also planned for her to join him in 2015 on a trip to Paris, and in 2017 to visit his private island in the Caribbean.

Obama White House attorney Kathryn Ruemmler appears on Meet the Press, June 2014. (Ccredit: Meet the Press)

According to a spokesman for Goldman, Ruemmler had a ‘professional relationship’ with Epstein tied to her role at law firm Latham & Watkins LLP, and did not travel with him.

“I regret ever knowing Jeffrey Epstein,” she said.

According to the documents, however, they knew each other well enough… following Epstein’s 2006 conviction for sexually abusing girls in Florida as young as 14-years-old.

He asked for avocado sushi rolls to be on hand when meeting with Ms. Ruemmler, according to the documents. He visited apartments she was considering buying. In October 2014, Epstein knew her travel plans and told an assistant to look into her flight. “See if there is a first class seat,” he wrote, “if so upgrade her.”

(…) Other notables in the new report include;

  • Leon Botstein, president of Bard College
  • Noam Chomsky, who was scheduled to fly with Epstein to have dinner at the pedophile’s Manhattan townhouse in 2015
  • Anthropologist Helen Fisher, who says she ‘didn’t have anything to do with Jeffrey Epstein, “But I remembered it because of his spectacular house and because of the six young women.”
  • Joshua Cooper Ramo, then co-chief executive of Henry Kissinger’s corporate consulting firm.
  • Harvard professor Martin Nowak
  • Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak

(Read more: Zero Hedge, 4/30/2023)  (Archive)