Email/Dossier/Govt Corruption Investigations

July 2, 2023 – Hunter Biden laptop photos show him committing two crimes on camera

Hunter Biden documented his conduct behind the wheel in images found on his laptop computer.

The U.K. Daily Mail released pictures Hunter Biden took while he was en route to a session with some Las Vegas prostitutes on Aug. 1, 2018.

At the time the picture was taken, Hunter Biden was driving 172 mph.

(Credit: Biden Laptop)

Another photo dated June 12, 2018, which was also found on the laptop, showed the driver holding a charred crack pipe while driving 35 mph in Arlington, Virginia.

(Credit: Biden Laptop)

(Read more: The Western Journal, 7/02/2023)  (Archive) 

July 3, 2023 – Taibbi, Brand, & Shellenberger expose the censors as malign disinformation superspreaders

“How long can we allow convenience, safety, and security to enable centralized authoritarian systems to shut down communication and free speech?

“What is the nature of this new centralizing authoritarian system?”

“What is the misanthropy that lies at the heart of a discourse that believes our speech needs to be controlled?”

“Where is the moral authority that is entitled to make those decisions on our behalf?”

That is what Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger have been brave enough to dare to ask and even braver, to answer, in the following videos of the pair joining Russell Brand in London for a live discussion of The Censorship-Industrial-Complex (joined by Tim Robbins and Stella Assange).

Shellenberger began by laying out the many governments enacting previously unthinkable laws encroaching on your free speech rights (and more) driven by ‘The Elites’ desire “to censor the authentic voice of the people.”

As he ended his initial thoughts, emotions began to well up as Shellenberger explained:

“The most painful thing – and there’s a lot of painful things that one goes through – is losing almost all of your friends as a consequence of using your speech.”

Something many on the right can empathize with.

But there is hope, as he noted: “The only positive thing to come out of this is to make new friends. It is not the most obvious thing you expect to lose all of your friends in your late 40s, but the ones you keep are so dear.”

Shellenberger turned to his ‘new’ friend Matt Taibbi, they embraced, and the legendary investigative reporter began… by noting that he had written 1000s of words for his opening statement but would instead cherry pick the most notable (since his friend Michael had done such a good job) – you can read Taibbii’s full note here.

Several points stood out from Taibbi’s summary including the day – during their Twitter Files discovery – that:

it became “clear that the idea behind the sweeping system of digital surveillance combined with thousands or even millions of subtle rewards and punishments built into the online experience, is to condition people to censor themselves…

…What Michael and I were looking at was something new, an Internet-age approach to political control that uses brute digital force to alter reality itself.”

In fact, he went on to warn ominously:

“…after enough time online, users will lose both the knowledge and the vocabulary they would need to even have politically dangerous thoughts.

What Michael calls the Censorship-Industrial Complex is really just the institutionalization of orthodoxy, a vast, organized effort to narrow our intellectual horizons.”

Citing a company called Graphika, Taibbi explains the causation:

“This continual process of seeding doubt and uncertainty in authoritative voices leads to a society that finds it too challenging to identify what’s true or false.”

The point he makes is if there is no ‘middle’ – you are either defined as ‘approved’ or ‘unapproved, or as Orwell put it ‘good’ or ‘ungood’ – individuals will naturally self-sort and self-homogenize, “and this is happening all across society.”

What happens to a society that doesn’t square its mental books when it comes to facts, truth, errors, propaganda and so on?

There are only a few options.

Some people will do what some of us in this room have done: grow frustrated and angry, mostly in private.

Others have tried to protest by frantically cataloging the past.

Most however do what’s easiest for mental survival. They learn to forget.

This means living in the present only. Whatever we’re freaking out about today, let’s all do it together. Then when things change tomorrow, let’s not pause to think about the change, let’s just freak out about that new thing. The facts are dead! Long live the new facts!

We’re building a global mass culture that sees everything in black and white, fears difference, and abhors memory.

Sadly, Brand notes that the framing of ‘free speech’ as only being an enabler of hate speech continues to dominate the narratives, and both Shellenberger and Taibbi reflected on the disappointing realization that despite all the ‘truths’ exposed by The Twitter Files, it has done little to shift the mainstream (in fact, it has done the opposite with the MSM directly targeting the reporters, and downplaying/normalizing the censorship (self-defined or imposed) we all live with every day. (Read more: Zero Hedge, 7/07/2023)  (Archive)

 

July 4, 2023 – Federal Judge rules Biden can’t coordinate with social media to suppress free speech

Judge Terry Doughty (Credit: public domain)

A federal judge issued an injunction Tuesday ruling that the Biden administration likely violated the First Amendment when it worked with social media companies to censor opposing views.

Calling the censorship “Orwellian,” Judge Terry A. Doughty of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, stated that Republican attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri “have produced evidence of a massive effort by Defendants, from the White House to federal agencies, to suppress speech based on its content,” the Washington Post reported.

Doughty barred members of the Biden administration — including officials with the Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Bureau of Investigation — from communicating with social media companies for “the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech,” The New York Times reported.

While this preliminary injunction does not allow officials to communicate with social media agencies for the purpose of censoring opposing viewpoints, government agencies are still allowed to notify platforms regarding crime, foreign propaganda or threats to national security, the outlet noted. (Read more: The Daily Caller, 7/04/2023)  (Archive) (Louisiana Ruling, 7/04/2023)

Update:

Judge’s Injunction On Biden Censorship Operation Is More Far-Reaching Than Initially Reported

Conservatives celebrated Tuesday after a federal judge issued an injunction against government agencies collaborating with tech companies to censor online speech, but the order is even more far-reaching than first reported.

Western District of Louisiana Judge Terry A. Doughty granted the broad injunction barring President Joe Biden’s administration from collusion with pro-censorship nonprofit organizations, in addition to social media companies, in the free speech lawsuit Missouri v. Biden. The injunction found that government officials likely violated the First Amendment by suppressing protected speech and the order states that government actors are barred from “collaborating, coordinating, partnering, switchboarding, and/or jointly working with” research groups and projects that advocate for censorship.

Specifically, the order calls out the Election Integrity Partnership, the Virality Project and the Stanford Internet Observatory and it prevents the government from engaging with them and other groups and projects “for the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content posted with social-media companies containing protected free speech.” (Read more: The Daily Caller, 7/06/2023)  (Archive)

Updated update:

July 10, 2023 – Judge Doughty Denies Biden Administration’s Attempt to Halt Preliminary Injunction in Historic First Amendment Case

Judge Terry Doughty denied the Biden Administration’s attempt to halt preliminary injunction pending the outcome of appeal in the historic First Amendment case that was reported on Independence Day.

The plaintiffs in the case consist of the State of Missouri, the State of Louisiana, Dr. Aaron Kheriaty (“Kheriaty”), Dr. Martin Kulldorff (“Kulldorff”), Jim Hoft (“Hoft”), Dr. Jayanta Bhattacharya (“Bhattacharya”), and Jill Hines (“Hines”).  (Read more: The Gateway Pundit, 7/10/2023)  (Archive)

July 5, 2023 – ‘Missing’ Biden corruption case witness Dr. Gal Luft details allegations against the Biden family (video)

The “missing witness” from the Biden corruption investigation, Israeli professor Dr. Gal Luft, has laid out his bribery allegations against the president’s family in an extraordinary video filmed in an undisclosed location while he’s on the run.

In the 14-minute recording, obtained exclusively by The Post, the fugitive former Israeli army officer claims he was arrested in Cyprus to stop him from testifying to the House Oversight Committee that the Biden family received payments from individuals with alleged ties to Chinese military intelligence and that they had an FBI mole who shared classified information with their benefactors from the China-controlled energy company CEFC.

The self-proclaimed fall guy says he provided the incriminating evidence to six officials from the FBI and the Department of Justice in a secret meeting in Brussels in March 2019 — but alleges that it was covered up.

“I, who volunteered to inform the US government about a potential security breach and about compromising information about a man vying to be the next president, am now being hunted by the very same people who I informed — and may have to live on the run for the rest of my life on the run …”

“I’m not a Republican. I’m not a Democrat. I have no political motive or agenda … I did it out of deep concern that if the Bidens were to come to power, the country would be facing the same traumatic Russia collusion scandal — only this time with China. Sadly, because of the DOJ’s cover-up, this is exactly what happened …” (Read more: The New York Post, 7/05/2023)  (Archive)

July 5, 2023 – Biden admin appeals injunction preventing it from coordinating with social media to suppress speech

Joe Biden (Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The Biden administration appealed a preliminary injunction Wednesday issued to prevent federal officials from communicating with social media platforms to censor content containing protected speech.

Western District of Louisiana Judge Terry A. Doughty issued the injunction Tuesday after finding plaintiffs in the free speech lawsuit Missouri v. Biden, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, had produced “evidence of a massive effort by Defendants, from the White House to federal agencies, to suppress speech based on its content.” The Biden administration appealed the injunction to the Fifth Circuit on Wednesday.

The injunction prevented federal officials, including those in the Department of Health and Human Services and the FBI, from communicating with social media platforms for “the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech.” (Read more: The Daily Caller, 7/05/2023)  (Archive)

July 7, 2023 – GOP Sen. Schmitt: Our lawsuit shows Biden used legal threats to get censorship and judge agrees

On Thursday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Kudlow,” Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) discussed the lawsuit against social media censorship efforts by the Biden administration that he filed as Missouri’s Attorney General at the time and noted that the ruling in the case agreed with Missouri’s assertion that the Biden administration used the threat of regulation to coerce censorship from tech platforms.

Schmitt said,

“In that lawsuit, when we filed against the Biden administration, we were alleging and now have shown that they engaged in a vast censorship enterprise, and much broader than anybody ever had any idea [of]. And if it wasn’t for our lawsuit, it wasn’t for Elon Musk buying Twitter and the Twitter Files, all of this stuff would still be hidden, Larry, people would be dubbed conspiracy theorists for questioning, but what they did was and what’s been shown and what the judge agreed is this is perhaps the most chilling example of censorship in our country’s history…the government coerced these social media giants to take posts down, to de-platform people, they threatened regulatory action, they threatened investigations, they threatened legal action to get them to do their bidding.”

Schmitt added,

“Jen Psaki was standing at the podium saying that they were demanding accountability and were flagging posts for our partners, very kind of Orwellian stuff. … They were very out in the open about this, Larry.”

In the opinion, Judge Terry Doughty noted that in May of 2021, then-White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki stated, “[M]ajor platforms have a responsibility related to the health and safety of all Americans to stop amplifying untrustworthy content, disinformation, and misinformation, especially related to COVID-19, vaccinations, and elections.” And Biden “also supports better privacy protections and a robust anti-trust program. So his view is that there’s more that needs to be done to ensure that this type of misinformation; disinformation; damaging, sometimes life-threatening information is not going out to the American public.” The opinion also notes that, two months later, Psaki said that “We’re flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation.” And that shortly after Psaki’s July comments, accounts that the administration had sought to suppress were taken down. (Read more: Breitbart, 7/07/2023)  (Archive)

July 8, 2023 – DOJ prosecutor/DNC donor blacked out all references to Trump cooperating with DOJ re Mar-a-Lago documents

July 10, 2023 – House Judiciary Report: FBI colluded with Ukrainian intelligence to censor Americans on social media

“Such an array of crimes against the foundations of the state’s national security,
and the links recorded between Ukrainian security forces and Russian special services
raise very serious questions about their respective leaders.”
– Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, July 17, 2022.

     The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is the bedrock of our
political system and guarantees every American the right to speak his or her mind freely and
without interference from the government. It is predicated on the understanding that no
government official has a monopoly on the truth and that every American is capable of
evaluating competing claims and deciding what to believe.

     On February 15, 2023, as part of its investigation into the federal government’s role in
censoring lawful speech on social media platforms, the Committee on the Judiciary issued a
subpoena to Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, and Alphabet, the parent
company of Google and YouTube. Documents obtained in response to those subpoenas revealed
that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), on behalf of a compromised Ukrainian
intelligence entity, requested—and, in some cases, directed—the world’s largest social media
platforms to censor Americans engaging in constitutionally protected speech online.

The Committee’s investigation has revealed that the FBI, the federal law enforcement
agency responsible for disrupting foreign malign influence, facilitated censorship requests to
American social media companies on behalf of a Ukrainian intelligence agency infiltrated by
Russian-aligned actors. In so doing, the FBI violated the First Amendment rights of Americans
and potentially undermined our national security. In light of well-documented instances of the FBI’s civil liberties abuses, this new information raises grave concerns about the FBI’scredibility as the nation’s premier law enforcement organization.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) sought to identify and impair suspected Russian influence operations on social media. The SBU enlisted the FBI in support of this effort, transmitting to the FBI lists of social media accounts that allegedly “spread Russian disinformation.”

The FBI, in turn, routinely relayed these lists to the relevant social media platforms, which distributed the information internally to their employees in charge of content moderation and enforcement. The graphic above illustrates the FBI’s intermediary role in the SBU’s censorship operation; the graphic below illustrates the remarkable frequency with which requests were sent by the FBI and SBU to American social media platforms.

(Read more: House Judiciary Committee Report, 7/10/2023)  (Archive)

July 12, 2023 – An assortment of Republican questions for FBI director about rampant misconduct while indignant Democrats defend the Bureau

Rep. Troy Nehls catches Wray in lies on child pornography cases and asks about Ray Epps

Rep. Tiffany asks Chris Wray about Joe Biden’s criminal bribery schemes and foreign bribes

Rep. Johnson asks Wray about the FBI colluding with big tech to censor Americans

 

Rep Harriett Hageman also questions Wray about the FBI colluding with big tech:

Matt Gaetz reads Hunter Biden shakedown WhatsApp message, then asks Wray if he’s ‘protecting the Bidens’ – Also addresses warrantless spying on Americans

 

Rep. Jordan asks Wray about FBI targeting Catholics

Rep. Massie questions Wray about Jan. 6 pipe bombs and missing phone data

Rep Biggs asks Wray if there were any undercover FBI agents in or around the U.S. Capitol on January 6

Rep Kiley asks Wray about FBI targeting parents protesting school boards

Rep Kiley asks Wray if he will apologize for targeting parents

Former Obama CIA Director John Brennan, says GOP misrepresented ‘truth’ in Wray hearing

Entire hearing via YouTube::

‘What About Hillary Clinton… And Joe Biden… And Hunter Biden?’: Wesley Hunt Grills FBI’s Wray

July 13, 2023 – Former Kiev diplomat, Andrii Telizhenko: Biden’s corruption led to Ukraine’s destruction

Former Ukrainian government official and diplomat Andrii Telizhenko joins Aaron Maté to discuss how, in his view, powerful US figures including Joe Biden have used Ukraine for personal corruption and the geopolitical aim of bleeding Russia — all to the detriment of Ukrainians.

Telizhenko worked for the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office in Kyiv before moving to Ukraine’s US Embassy in 2015. He went on to work for Blue Star Strategies, a Democrat-run lobbying firm that represented Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company that appointed Biden’s son Hunter to a lucrative board seat.

Telizhenko, who cooperated with Rudy Giuliani’s effort to dig up information about the Bidens’ alleged corruption in Ukraine, has been sanctioned by the US Treasury Department for “having directly or indirectly engaged in, sponsored, concealed, or otherwise been complicit in foreign influence in a United States election.”

Guest: Andrii Telizhenko. A political consultant who was previously a Ukrainian government official and diplomat. (The Grayzone, 7/16/2023)  (Archive)

July 13, 2023 – Jordan letter to Wray demands documents related to FBI spying on two Nunes staffers in 2017 who were investigating the FBI’s Russia collusion hoax

 

July 14, 2023 – Fixing FISA: House Judiciary holds hearing on the expansion of warrantless surveillance of Americans

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance will hold a hearing on Friday, July 14, 2023, at 9:15 a.m. ET. The hearing, “Fixing FISA, Part II,”  examines the concerning expansion of warrantless surveillance of Americans, the FBI’s continued abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and its failure to implement meaningful reforms.

WITNESSES:
Jonathan Turley, J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law, George Washington University Law School – testimony
Phil Kiko, Principal, Williams & Jensen; former Chief of Staff and General Counsel, House Judiciary Committee; former Chief Administrative Officer, House of Representatives – testimony
Gene Schaerr, General Counsel, Project for Privacy and Surveillance Accountability – testimony
Elizabeth Goitein, Senior Director, Liberty and National Security Program, Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law – testimony

 

July 13, 2023 – Hunter Biden worked to secure US visa for Ukrainian oligarch involved in suspected bribery scheme

Mykola Zlochevsky (Credit: Energy Security For the Future)

Hunter Biden and his business associates attempted to get Burisma founder Mykola Zlochevsky a U.S. visa shortly after the president’s son became a board member of the Ukrainian energy firm, according to emails reviewed by the Daily Caller.

The emails in Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop archive show a coordinated attempt to obtain a visa for Zlochevsky while he was being investigated by Ukrainian authorities for corruption.

Biden and some of his associates were potentially “engaging in registrable lobbying activity,” and one email indicates that Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) violations could have been occurring outside of the exchanges, a FARA expert who reviewed the emails told the Caller.

From 2014-16, Hunter Biden worked with former Burisma board member Devon Archer, Rosemont Seneca adviser Eric Schwerin, former Boies Schiller & Flexner LLP Partner Heather King and other business associates to assist Mykola Zlochevsky with his visa reapplication process after the State Department revoked his visa in 2014.

Zlochevsky is the “foreign national” involved in an alleged bribery scheme with President Joe Biden and Hunter Biden, Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene confirmed to the Daily Caller.

Greene, alongside other House Oversight Committee members, viewed a redacted version of an FBI FD-1023 form, where an informant allegedly detailed how Zlochevsky spoke to him about making a $10 million bribe to the Bidens, Greene said. FBI Director Christopher Wray redacted the foreign national’s name, according to Greene, but “within the same sentence, it says ‘him/ Burisma.’”

“If you’re anyone who is familiar with the whole Burisma story and the information on the laptop, it’s easy to make the connection of who it is. It’s like a no-brainer … No one has refuted that it’s not him,” she added. (Read more: The Daily Caller, 7/13/2023)  (Archive)

July 19, 2023 – Joe Rogan discusses the intent behind Epstein’s painting of Bill Clinton in blue dress: “I got you bitch” (video)

A photo captured from the hallway outside of the room Clinton’s blue dress photo was hanging in Epstein’s home. (Credit: public domain)

Joe Rogan shared his wild theory on late child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and former President Bill Clinton’s relationship during an episode of his podcast shared Tuesday.

Rogan was deep in conversation with comedian Duncan Trussel when he asked, “why do you think Epstein had that giant painting of Bill Clinton in a dress in his foyer?” The painting in question apparently featured the former President posing in a blue dress and red heels while pointing toward the viewer quite provocatively.

“Epstein’s taste in art was not great,” Trussel responded, making a joke but missing the point Rogan was trying to make. “That painting is like, ‘I got you b*tch,” Rogan explained. “That’s what that is. You got a president who was on [Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet] flight logs 26 times with Epstein, and you got that guy in a f*cking dress in your house.”
(Read more: The Daily Caller, 7/20/2023) (Archive)

This photo was also found in Epstein’s NY home after his death:

July 19, 2023 – IRS whistleblower, Joseph Ziegler, gives opening statement to House Oversight Committee re Hunter Biden investigation

Special Agent & whistleblower Joseph Ziegler delivers his opening statement regarding the Hunter Biden Investigation before the House Oversight Committee. Watch the full hearing HERE.

 

July 20, 2023 – House Democrats attempt to censor Democratic presidential candidate, Robert Kennedy Jr., in committee hearing on government censorship

House Democrats tried and failed to censor Robert Kennedy Jr., a Democratic Party candidate for president, at a hearing on censorship.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) moved to shift the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government hearing on Thursday to executive session “because Mr. Kennedy has repeatedly made despicable anti-Semitic and anti-Asian comments as recently as last week.”

The congresswoman cited a House rule against testimony that may tend to “defame, degrade, or incriminate” any person, which would allow the committee an aside to determine whether to allow the testimony at issue during the open hearing. In making her case, Wasserman Schultz cited, “among many other things,” comments Kennedy recently made about COVID-19, which the candidate says has been misconstrued.

“COVID-19, there is an argument that it is ethnically targeted. COVID-19 attacks certain races disproportionately,” Kennedy claimed, according to The New York Post. “COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”  (Read more: Daily Wire, 7/20/2023)  (Archive)

July 20, 2023 – The Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of Government holds hearing on government censorship

The Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of Government holds a hearing on Thursday, July 20, 2023. The hearing examines the federal government’s role in censoring Americans, the Missouri v. Biden case, and Big Tech’s collusion with out-of-control government agencies to silence speech.

July 20, 2023 – Grassley releases FBI FD-1023 document outlining statement by witness of Biden bribery and corruption

U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley released the FBI witness statement known as the FD-1023 [Document pdf Here] that lies at the heart of the Biden bribery and corruption scandal.

BACKGROUND: Initially, the FBI refused to hand over the unclassified FD-1023 stating there is an ongoing investigation using the confidential human source who made allegations outlined in the document. Remember, the allegations and the statement record were created in July of 2020, over three years ago. The FBI refused to say the 6-page unclassified document existed. After House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer told FBI Director Chris Wray, he had already seen the unclassified document via a whistleblower, then Wray admitted the FBI indeed had it. On June 1st, the FBI refused to release the document, stating it was captive as part of an “ongoing investigation.” Today, Chuck Grassley released it.

Grassley – “For the better part of a year, I’ve been pushing the Justice Department and FBI to provide details on its handling of very significant allegations from a trusted FBI informant implicating then-Vice President Biden in a criminal bribery scheme. While the FBI sought to obfuscate and redact, the American people can now read this document for themselves, without the filter of politicians or bureaucrats, thanks to brave and heroic whistleblowers. What did the Justice Department and FBI do with the detailed information in the document? And why have they tried to conceal it from Congress and the American people for so long? The Justice Department and FBI have failed to come clean, but Chairman Comer and I intend to find out,” Grassley said.

“The FBI’s Biden Bribery Record tracks closely with the evidence uncovered by the Oversight Committee’s Biden family influence-peddling investigation. In the FBI’s record, the Burisma executive claims that he didn’t pay the ‘big guy’ directly but that he used several bank accounts to conceal the money. That sounds an awful lot like how the Bidens conduct business: using multiple bank accounts to hide the source and total amount of the money,” House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer said. 

“At our hearing with IRS whistleblowers, they testified that they had never seen or heard of this record during the Biden criminal investigation, despite having potentially corroborating evidence. Given the misconduct and politicization at the Department of Justice, the American people must be able to read this record for themselves. I thank Senator Grassley for providing much needed transparency to the American people. We must hold the Department of Justice accountable for seeking to bury this record to protect the Bidens.”

Grassley first disclosed the FBI’s possession of significant and voluminous evidence of potential criminality involving the Biden family last year. He has since worked to unearth the FBI record, eventually partnering with Comer on a subpoena to compel its public disclosure. After delays, the FBI provided a highly redacted version of the document to select members of the House of Representatives, but it remained shielded from the public and omitted key details, including references to recordings. Following the FBI’s failure to fully comply with the congressional subpoena, Grassley received the legally protected disclosure with limited redactions to protect a trusted FBI source, handling agents, department whistleblowers and identifiers related to other ongoing investigations. (more)

(Conservative Treehouse, 7/20/2023)  (Archive)

July 21, 2023 – Former ABC News reporter who “debunked” Pizzagate pleads guilty to possessing child porn

James Gordon Meek (Credit: The Associated Press)

Former ABC News reporter, James Gordon Meek, who bragged about ‘debunking’ evidence of an elite pedophile ring dubbed ‘Pizzagate’ was arrested and pled guilty to child pornography charges.

Meek pled guilty to the transportation and possession of child sexual abuse material after the FBI conducted a raid on the journalist’s Arlington home in April 2022, finding a Dropbox account of ‘sickening child rape’ materials of minors stored on Meek’s account.

Court papers indicate the investigation began when Dropbox reached out to the FBI to discuss videos showing the sexual abuse of children. The Department of Justice reported some of the images and videos depicting “prepubescent minors and minors under the age of 12, including an infant being raped.” (Read more: Valuetainment, 7/28/2023)  (Archive)

July 21, 2023 – The ODNI releases FISC report that recommends all FISA search logs be erased after 10 years from query

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence [ODNI] has released a 117-page April 2023 order/opinion by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court [FISC] about the compliance audit conducted by internal review as the U.S. intelligence agencies seek reauthorization.   Everything FISC happens in secret, and the report is heavily redacted; however, some interesting information can be obtained if you read the report carefully.

Here’s an example.  The FISC is now agreeing with the NSA and FBI that all search logs and audit trails should be erased after 10 years from query.  That means every audit trail from the period up to August 2013 is about to be erased.  That means almost all of the Obama era search queries will disappear before the next administration takes office.

They are not erasing our data; they are erasing the logs of their search inquiries into our data.  FU!

Readers here know my position.  I do not believe the FISA court is needed; nor do I believe the NSA, FBI, NCTC or CIA should have any search access to the metadata [full-scope electronic records] of American Citizens without a court order.

The DOJ and FBI should go to the ordinary federal courts for search warrants.  The CIA and National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) both have foreign service missions, so they do not need access to American citizen metadata (702 acquired).  Why would the CIA and NCTC need to snoop into the private data of American citizens when their legislative authority forbids them from conducting domestic surveillance?    Additionally, the NSA should not contain a lifetime repository for all electronic records of American citizens.  That’s my opinion.

(Conservative Treehouse, 7/21/2023)  (Archive)

July 21, 2023 – FISC Report: FBI searched U.S. Senator’s name in foreign-spying database

CIA Director David Petraeus, whose agency reads Americans’ email and listens to their phone calls, loses his career because the FBI read his emails. (Credit: Ted Rall)

The Federal Bureau of Investigation wrongfully searched a foreign-intelligence database for information about a U.S. senator and two state officials last year, a federal surveillance court said, a disclosure that could fuel a bipartisan effort in Congress to overhaul the spying program.

In June 2022, an FBI analyst conducted four overly broad searches of the U.S. senator’s last name in a database of calls, texts, emails and other electronic information collected by the National Security Agency, the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court said. The analyst also searched the data using the last name of a state senator. The names of the senators haven’t been made public.

The analyst had information that an unnamed foreign intelligence service had been targeting the two legislators, but the analyst failed to meet standards required to conduct the search, the court said.

Additionally, an unidentified state judge’s social security number was wrongfully used in an October 2022 search of the foreign-intelligence trove after the judge complained to the FBI about alleged civil-rights violations perpetrated by a municipal chief of police, the court said.

Also Friday, U.S. intelligence agencies revealed that counterterrorism officials use the database to help them vet immigrants being processed to travel to the U.S.

The court opinion, written in April but partially declassified only Friday, overall applauded the FBI for what it described as dramatic improvements in adhering to rules for conducting searches of Americans’ data.

The National Security Agency collects the data under a law known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, which allows the secretive eavesdropping agency to siphon digital data from U.S. technology providers. The data can then be searched without a warrant by various spy agencies, including the FBI, which has a robust counterintelligence mission. (Read more: The Wall Street Journal, 7/32/2023 – Archive copy)

July 23, 2023 – Breitbart politics editor and recent congressional witness: “…our government institutions had zero credibility after the Hunter Biden laptop story’s social media censorship”

Breitbart politics editor Emma-Jo Morris said on this week’s broadcast of FNC’s “Sunday Morning Futures” that our government institutions had zero credibility after the Hunter Biden laptop story’s social media censorship.

Anchor Maria Bartiromo said, “You testified in front of this committee last week, walking through how the intelligence community censored you. That had to be incredibly tough for you.”

Morris said, “Yeah, it was quite surreal, you know? This has been my life over the last three years, and sometimes I forget about how scandalous it is. It’s just so scandalous. And then you get in front of a crowd that may be new to the story or may be new to you especially after such aspersions have been cast on me and my reporting, and you just tell the story exactly how it is and exactly how you know it to be true, and you do know it to be true. The feedback from it has just been incredible. It’s been incredible. People know what happened. The American people are very wise, and they know what happened. What I’ve been hearing from them has just been gratitude for finally saying what everybody has been thinking, which is we know what happened, and this is what it is.”

She continued, “There was something that was really striking about the reaction to that testimony which was I think the reason why it went so viral and why people had such a strong reaction was this moment when I was reading that Politico headline of the former 51 intelligence officials say this is Russian disinformation, and I kind of burst out laughing because it’s so is ridiculous it’s beyond parody, and we all know it. There’s this thing that we have to, I guess, pretend to take that claim seriously. But I think that the reason why people so resonated with that is because our institutions have zero credibility, like, zero credibility. And yet everybody in Washington and New York and in the establishment walks around pretending that these are serious people, and I just couldn’t do that.” (Breitbart, 6/22/2023) (Archive)

July 25, 2023 – Longtime Biden ally was prosecutor in US Attorney Weiss’ office during Hunter probe, called him ‘a brother’

Chief Deputy Attorney General Alexander Snyder Mackler (Credit: WMDT screenshot)

A longtime friend and ally of Hunter Biden and the Biden family served as a prosecutor in the Delaware U.S. Attorney’s office when that office led the federal investigation into Hunter Biden and has visited the White House at least five times during the Biden administration, a Fox News Digital investigation has found.

Alexander Snyder-Mackler, a former legal counsel to Joe Biden when he was vice president and a press secretary for then-Sen. Biden between 2007 and 2008, served as an assistant United States attorney in the Delaware U.S. Attorney’s office under David Weiss from August 2016 to May 2019. During that time, Weiss was leading the federal investigation into Hunter Biden for tax fraud and illegal foreign business dealings.

According to emails from Hunter’s abandoned laptop, which were reviewed and verified by Fox News Digital, Mackler and Hunter Biden remained in close contact, with Mackler once signing off an email saying, “Love you brother.”

(…) Mackler has been the Deputy Attorney General of Delaware since May 2019, according to his LinkedIn profile.

According to visitor logs reviewed by Fox News Digital, he visited the White House five times last year, including a one-on-one meeting with President Biden.

On March 28, 2022, Mackler met with White House counsel Steve Ricchetti for a one-on-one meeting. On April 11, he met with President Biden in a one-on-one meeting. On Aug. 28, he met with Biden’s 2024 campaign manager, Julie Rodriguez, who was also serving as Biden’s senior adviser, for a one-on-one meeting. And on Sept. 21, he met one on one with Claudia Marconi, senior adviser for congressional engagement. Mackler also attended a White House event in December.

Fox News Digital reviewed emails and text messages that reveal Mackler has maintained relatively frequent contact with the younger Biden for many years.

In a text message dated March 10, 2019, well after the federal investigation was underway, Mackler texted Hunter Biden, saying he was “in the car for a long drive” and “just wanted to say hi.”

Biden responded the next day, calling him “buddy.” (Read more: Fox News, 7/25/2023)  (Archive)

July 25, 2023 – Biden defense lawyers accused of impersonating Congressional staff to remove derogatory evidence against Hunter

U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika (Credit: Wikipedia)

Things are awful sketchy in Delaware, as the Hunter Biden case is about to enter court for Judge Maryellen Noreika to review a sweetheart plea deal between corrupt DOJ officials and Hunter Biden lawyers.

As the situation unfolded, Congress filed an amicus brief opposing the plea deal and outlining new evidence discovered by the House Oversight Committee so the judge would have additional background on the deal.  The amicus filing was done by GOP lawyer Mr. Theodore Kittila, from the committee.

Someone from the defense team, a lawyer later identified as Jessica Bengels from the law firm of Latham and Watkins, then contacted the clerk of the court -falsely claimed to be working with Theodore Kittila- and asked the clerk to remove the amicus filing.  The clerk removed the filing.

GOP lawyer Kittila found out and contacted the clerk to understand what was going on.  Mr. Kittila then confronted the lawyers for Hunter Biden, and Judge Noreika is a little angry about the Biden team manipulation. [COURT ORDER]

Jessica Bengels (Credit: Latham and Watkins, LLC)

(New York Post) – […]  In an evening order, Noreika gave Hunter’s attorneys until 9 p.m. to “show cause as to why sanctions should not be considered for misrepresentations to the Court.” — while noting they had not formally filed any request to seal evidence in the matter.

However, she also ordered the filing sealed until close of business Wednesday.

“We filed what was already public (voted out by Congress) as something for the judge to be aware of,” Ways and Means Committee spokesperson JP Freire told The Post. “They then misrepresented themselves to get it taken down.”

Shortly before 9 p.m., Bengels submitted an affidavit in which she blamed a miscommunication among the clerks for the removal of the Ways and Means filing.

“I am completely confident that I never indicated that I was calling from Mr. Kittila’s firm or that I worked with him in any way,” she said. “The only mention of his name was when [the clerk] had asked me if the filings had been entered by Mr. Kittila’s firm and I answered that I believed that to be the case.” (read more)

(Conservative Treehouse, 7/25/2023)  (Archive)

July 25, 2023 (evening):

(…) In a letter obtained by Fox News, Biden’s legal team told the judge that the lawyer who called the clerk had accurately represented her affiliation with her law firm.

“The matter under consideration appears to stem from an unfortunate and unintentional miscommunication between a staff member at our firm and employees of the Court,” the lawyers’ defense read. “We have no idea how the misunderstanding occurred, but our understanding is there was no misrepresentation.”

“We hope this letter and the attached declaration dispels any suggestion that undersigned counsel or our staff would ever intentionally misrepresent or mislead the Court with respect to any matter,” the letter added. (Read more:  Fox News, 7/26/2023)  (Archive)

July 25, 2023 – Grassley: The Justice Department and FBI must tell the American people what was done with Biden FD-1023

Transcript:

Today, I’d like to address the unclassified FBI-generated 1023 form that I made public last week.

This is the 1023 that Director Wray refused to admit existed until I and Chairman Comer told him that we had read the document.

The FBI provided a highly redacted version to the House Committee on Oversight, and in the process ignored the Senate access to that document.

That version redacted references to the alleged audio recordings between then-Vice President Biden, Hunter Biden and the foreign national. It also redacted references to text messages and financial records that allegedly exist to prove the criminal act was done.

Those redactions are obstructive conduct by the [FBI].

Why? Because this was an unclassified document. It’s not even marked “Law Enforcement Sensitive.” And, by the way, Justice Department and FBI leaks exposed the source well before the 1023 became public.

Now, there’s been allegations in the media that this 1023 consists of unverified information. That didn’t stop the media’s breathless reporting for years about the unverified and very famous Steele Dossier. But, the Justice Department and the FBI haven’t told us what they did to investigate the 1023 document. So since the FBI hasn’t told us anything about their investigation of the 1023, how does the media know it’s unverified?

From what I’ve seen, much of the media reporting has missed the essential question: did the Justice Department and the FBI follow normal investigative process and procedure to run the information down or did they sweep this information under the rug?

Several media outlets have interviewed law enforcement sources with knowledge of the 1023 who start to answer that question.

One law enforcement source reportedly said, “This was a confidential human source that had a long relationship with the FBI, had given information that was used in multiple other investigations unrelated to Burisma or the Bidens.”

That law enforcement source said there was a “fight for a month” to get the FBI handler to re-interview the FBI source.

That re-interview was necessary because a separate 1023 mentioned Hunter Biden. And that re-interview ultimately produced the 1023 that I made public last week. When seeing that, my first question was – why the fight to re-interview the FBI source?

Then, the law enforcement source said, “we got that report back and we’re like, holy smokes, this is something.”

News reports also show that Justice Department and FBI personnel were able to validate some claims in the 1023 report without compulsory process.

For example, a news report quotes a law enforcement source, “There were multiple meetings alleged overseas. Some of the confidential human source’s claims were corroborated against the confidential human source travel records, and contemporary knowledge from the handler about him attending meetings with Zlochevsky and other people present.” The news report also notes that public records also validate some of the 1023 claims, including Zlochevsky’s efforts to buy into the American energy market.

A separate news report based on a law enforcement source with knowledge says that Weiss’s team was briefed on the validations. This begs the question, what did the investigators do to investigate?

Well, it’s been reported that a law enforcement source believed U.S. Attorney Weiss was reluctant to pursue leads because of political sensitivities. More precisely, the Weiss team was concerned about investigating because it would involve then-presidential candidate Biden. Well, that didn’t stop the Justice Department when Trump was a candidate the first or second time.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention a July 25, 2022, letter I wrote to the Justice Department and FBI. That letter talked about the FBI shutting down verified and verifiable investigative avenues into Hunter Biden separate from the ongoing U.S. Attorney Weiss investigation and the 1023. It’s clear that even if information is verified, the FBI has shut it down in the past if it relates to the Biden family.

Now, former Attorney General Bill Barr has said that the 1023 was credible enough to be passed on to Delaware for “further investigation.” He’s also said that a review was done to ensure the 1023 wasn’t disinformation before passing it on.

Director Wray likewise informed me and Chairman Comer of its credibility, noting that it’s relevant to an ongoing investigative matter. This all took place in the phone call that Comer and I had with Wray. He also didn’t say that it’s part of Giuliani’s information and he didn’t tell me and Comer that it’s the product of any disinformation.

Accordingly, I want to make clear what my oversight focus is and will be: holding the Biden Justice Department and FBI accountable to explain to the American people what they did to investigate and what they found. To do that, congressional oversight must focus on the Justice Department and FBI investigative process and whether U.S. Attorney Weiss’s scope includes bribery.

Congress and the public must get answers to these questions: What did the Justice Department and FBI do to investigate the information contained in the 1023? Did the Justice Department and FBI follow normal investigative process and procedure or try to sweep it all under the rug because of political bias? More precisely, did the FBI and DOJ seek to obtain the evidence referenced in the document? Did DOJ and FBI seek to interview individuals relating to the 1023? If not, why not? If so, one way or the other, what did they find?

We’re in July 2023 and we’re talking about a June 2020 document. The FBI can easily answer those questions. The fact that they haven’t indicates to me that the Justice Department and FBI haven’t followed normal investigative protocol.

Congress must also find out the true extent to which the August 2020 assessment created by Brian Auten was used to shut down Biden family investigative leads. For example, we know that the FBI had at one time over a dozen sources who provided potentially criminal information relating to Hunter Biden. Did the August 2020 assessment shut any of them down?

In conclusion, as we prepare to celebrate National Whistleblower Day, let’s not forget the only reason why Congress has been able to make this information public is because of brave and very patriotic whistleblowers who’ve approached my office.

Remember this: to-date, the Justice Department and FBI have not disputed any of their allegations. Further, remember this: that includes information relating to this 1023 that I’ve made public, and some of this information goes back to October of last year. And in that period of time, the Department of Justice and the FBI haven’t disputed any of that information. And a perfect chance for Christopher Wray, Director of the FBI, to do that would have been with that telephone conversation that he had with Chairman Comer and me.

Giving you all this information, that ought to tell you something about what the FBI’s up to [and] what the DOJ’s up to. (Ad lib ending to floor speech): And the information I’ve given you today ought to tell you that there’s plenty out there in the media and the media should not be questioning whether or not this information in the 1023 has any validity. I yield the floor./blockquote>

(Senator Chuck Grassley, 7/25/2023)  (Archive)

July 26, 2023 – Devon Archer loses on all appeals in $60 million securities fraud

Devon Archer is reportedly in talks to speak about Joe and Hunter Biden’s alleged $10 million bribes. (Credit: Alec Tabak/New York Post)

Yesterday, former business partner Devon Archer lost on all issues brought in his appeal to the United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.  Archer had previously been released while awaiting judgment regarding the securities fraud case he was convicted in with co-defendant John Galanis.

Last month, and again earlier this week, it was announced that he would be testifying in front of the House Oversight Committee.  Many have predicted that he would testify about at least 24 instances of Joe Biden’s engagement with Hunter’s foreign business partners over the phone.

Archer’s year-long prison sentence was upheld, but it is not clear when he will turn himself in and whether or not he will still testify. (Read more: The Gateway Pundit, 7/27/2023)  (Archive)

July 26, 2023 – Hunter Biden sweetheart plea deal is shelved; Judge orders new “Conditions of Release” that he must comply with

HUNTER IS REQUIRED TO:

1) NOT possess a firearm
2) NOT use or possess any controlled substances (including marijuana) unless prescribed
3) Submit to full federal supervision
4) NO use of alcohol AT ALL
5) Seek active employment
6) Submit to testing for prohibited substances
7) Participate in substance abuse therapy

PENALTIES FOR VIOLATING COULD INCLUDE:

1) Immediate issuance of an arrest warrant
2) Revocation of release
3) Forfeiture of bond
4) Prosecution for contempt of court

Transcript Link

May 24, 2023 – Devon Archer still travels the world while awaiting a prison sentence that has been pending since SCOTUS refused to hear his case in November 2021

Devon Archer is reportedly in talks to speak about Joe and Hunter Biden’s alleged $10 million bribes.  (Credit: Alec Tabak/New York Post)

U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams has given Hunter Biden’s former partner Devon Archer a judicial ticket to fly around the world for business and pleasure while his criminal sentencing appeal is pending.

Jurors in her court convicted Archer and others of fraud in 2018, yet the others went to prison and Archer hasn’t served a day.

He awaits a decision from appellate judges who heard argument on his sentence on May 9.

He can’t leave the country without the court’s permission; his requests have never been rejected.

Abrams approved 17 foreign trips in two years between the indictment and trial, and 26 foreign trips in five years since the trial. (See travel log below) (Read more: Madison-St. Clair Record, 5/24/2023) (Archive)

July 27, 2023 – Special Counsel Jack Smith indicts Mar-a-Lago employee Carlos De Oliveira

(Credit: Conservative Treehouse)

A third person was charged Thursday in the case related to former President Donald Trump allegedly retaining classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home.

Special Counsel Jack Smith indicted Mar-a-Lago employee Carlos De Oliveira as part of the ongoing investigation into the former president’s handling of the documents, according to the superseding indictment.

The indictment alleges De Olivieria, 56, moved boxes within the Florida residence.

The superseding indictment also includes additional charges against Trump, bringing his total in the case up to 40. The new charges include an additional count of willful retention of documents and two extra counts of obstruction. (Read more: The Daily Caller, 7/27/2023)  (Archive)

July 27, 2023 – The Facebook Files – Part One

July 28, 2023 – Facebook Files – Part Two

July 28, 2023 – Comer: 6 major banks filed 170 Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) on Bidens for money laundering, human trafficking, fraud

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) has dropped a bombshell by revealing that six major American banks have filed over 170 suspicious activity reports (SARs) against Democrat President Joe Biden’s family.

According to Comer, the banks, including JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo, filed the SARs with the Treasury Department regarding alleged serious criminal activity involving the Bidens.

Comer, who served as a bank director for a decade, revealed that the reports were related to activity involving money laundering, human trafficking, and tax fraud.

Speaking during an appearance on Sen Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) podcast show, Comer explained that a SAR is essentially a red flag raised by a bank when it suspects that a client may be involved in illegal activities.

Despite misconceptions to the contrary, Comer clarified that SARs are very rare and not issued lightly by banks.

For a comparison, Comer revealed that the bank he directed only issued two SARs over the ten years he worked there.

For multiple banks to issue over 170 SARs against one family is incredibly unusual, Comer explained.

“In the banking industry, if you had two SARs against you, it would be hard for you to open an account somewhere,” Comer said.

“There wouldn’t be any bank that would want to have you as a customer, because it’s not worth the paperwork.”

The Oversight Committee chair then stated that the Biden family had been subjected to a staggering number of SARs.

These reports raised suspicion of money laundering, human trafficking, and tax fraud, all connected to different members of the Biden crime family.

Comer illustrated the nature of these suspicions by using the example of a $3 million wire transaction from China to an associate of the Biden family.

The payment was subsequently funneled through various shell companies within 24 hours. (Read more: Slay News, 7/28/2023)  (Archive)

July 31, 2023 – Devon Archer provides more details on Joe and Hunter Biden’s dinner in D.C. with wife of Russian oligarch and former Kazakhstan PM

(…) On Monday Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met with Russia’s Yelena Baturina who later invested $40 million into Hunter Biden’s real estate ventures. Baturina also paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in “consulting fees.”

Here is a copy of the Rosemont deal with Yelena Baturina.

Yelena Baturina, the billionaire widow of a corrupt Moscow mayor, was left off of Biden’s Sanctions list.

The Daily Mail reported on the relationship back in October 2022:

Hunter Biden’s real estate company received a $40 million investment from a Russian oligarch, new emails reveal.

The relationship between the president’s son and Yelena Baturina, the billionaire widow of a corrupt Moscow mayor, has already been flagged as alarming by a Senate report after she mysteriously wired $3.5million to a company linked to Hunter.

Baturina’s brother Viktor Baturin told DailyMail.com the money was ‘a payment to enter the American market.’

But DailyMail.com can now reveal that Hunter’s financial relationship with Baturina was far more extensive, with her firm investing $40million in a real estate venture by Hunter’s company Rosemont Realty.

In 2012 Hunter’s firm had a $69.7million plan to invest in 2.15million sq ft of office space in seven US cities.

Documents outlining the plan said the money came from a mix of investors, including $40million from Inteco Management AG, a Swiss company owned by Baturina.

The Inteco group is a plastics and construction behemoth that made Baturina the richest woman in Russia at the time. She has a current net worth of $1.4billion according to Forbes.

Last year Biden would not tell reporters why he left Baturina off the Russian sanction list:

The dinner also included Kazakhstani businessman Kenes Rakishev — who wired $142,300 used on a luxury car business for Hunter Biden — and former Kazakhstani Prime Minister Karim Massimov,

Rakishev provided $142,300 in funding to Hunter Biden to purchase a Fisker Karma automobile in 2014.

(Read more: Gateway Pundit, 8/03/2023)  (Archive)

July 31, 2023 – Devon Archer testimony exposes a few key untruths in Hunter Biden memoir, “Beautiful Things”

(…) The account seems to comport with now-President Biden’s repeated denials that he discussed business with his son or had any substantive involvement with his partners. 

However, Archer told a different story to U.S. lawmakers during a deposition earlier this year. “Jonathan Li and [Vice] President Biden had coffee,” Archer said, according to a recently released transcript of his interview with the House Oversight Committee. “They had coffee in Beijing,” he recalled, suggesting there may have been talk about their business relationship.

Li would later offer Hunter a 10% stake worth potentially millions in a Chinese investment fund controlled by the state Bank of China. The fund, BHR Partners, is based in Beijing. 

Jonathan Li: Archer said Hunter put his Dad on the phone with Li. Hunter’s memoir didn’t mention this. (Credit: BHR Partners)

Archer’s testimony included other details ignored or distorted in the memoir. He said the vice president called Hunter while he was meeting with Li in Paris, and Hunter put his father on speakerphone so he could join their conversation. And in early January 2017, while Biden was still in the White House, Hunter arranged for his father to write letters of recommendation for Li’s son and daughter to Ivy League colleges. 

Before committee lawyers began questioning Archer during the July 31 closed-door hearing, they warned him that providing false testimony could subject him to criminal prosecution for perjury. Hunter, in contrast, was under no such legal peril while writing his manuscript.

The same Oversight panel that quizzed Archer will now lead a formal impeachment inquiry, announced this month by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, to investigate whether Biden used his office to enrich his family. Investigators are weighing subpoenaing Hunter Biden, which makes examining his claims in his memoir highly instructive as to his and his father’s credibility. They’re also tracing millions of dollars wired from China into a maze of accounts that ended up in the hands of Hunter and several other Biden family members, belying claims by the president that Hunter received no money from China. 

Hunter also raked in millions from Ukraine while his father was “point man” for Ukraine policy as vice president. 

Mykola Zlochevsky: Hunter and Archer disagree on important details. (Credit: Svetlana Pashko/Wikimedia)

Hunter addresses the controversy in the sixth chapter of “Beautiful Things,” describing the allegation that he traded on his father’s influence in Ukraine to land an unusually lucrative five-year stint on the board of the corrupt Ukraine energy giant Burisma Holdings as “the decade’s biggest political fable.” 

He insisted neither he nor his father, who as vice president husbanded Ukraine’s new regime, did anything criminal or corrupt. “There is, in short, no there here,” Biden wrote. 

Hunter then explained how he came to serve on the Burisma board, raking in $83,000 a month despite having no experience in the energy sector. Biden claimed that Archer, his international consultancy partner, brought Burisma into their business orbit after first meeting Burisma’s founder in Kyiv. 

“During one such trip to Kyiv, he met Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner and president of Burisma,” Biden said. “After returning from Kyiv, Devon told me about his talk with Zlochevsky.” 

Devon Archer: His disclosure that the relationship with Burisma was hatched in Moscow is at odds with the political narrative President Biden has carefully crafted by demonizing Russia. (Credit: AP)

But Archer, who served on the Burisma board alongside Biden, relayed a different account to Congress, testifying he first met the Russian-tied Ukrainian oligarch in Moscow, not Kyiv. 

In fact, Archer said he sat down with Zlochevsky in the Russian capital on the same day that Russia invaded Crimea in 2014. “It was just me meeting [with him],” Archer added. Within days, Burisma asked him to join the board. And Hunter Biden came aboard shortly thereafter. 

Archer’s disclosure that their relationship with Burisma was hatched in Moscow is at odds with the political narrative President Biden has carefully crafted, demonizing Russia as Enemy No. 1 of America and NATO. Hunter’s telling of the genesis, with the initial meeting with Zlochevsky taking place in Ukraine’s capital, is far more palatable. 

Hunter wrote that he only agreed to accept Zlochevsky’s offer in order to enable Ukraine to strengthen its energy independence from Russia. He said the prospect of helping build a “bulwark” against Russian oil and gas imports assuaged “whatever dissonance I might have felt between idealism and generous compensation.” He said he was more interested in “fighting” for the Ukrainian people against an aggressive neighbor, which aligns his employment with Burisma with his father’s pro-Ukraine, anti-Russia stance. 

“Having a Biden on Burisma’s board was a loud and unmistakable fuck-you to Putin,” Hunter maintained. 

But according to Archer’s testimony, Burisma hired them in part to help expand its energy operations outside of Ukraine – particularly in the U.S., where the energy industry is heavily regulated by the federal government, and having such politically connected Americans on the board was valuable to the oil and gas conglomerate. Plus, he and Hunter were motivated by the windfall Burisma was paying them: “It was a million dollars per year [apiece] on the board contracts,” Archer confirmed. 

Hunter further contends in his memoir that his father didn’t know about his joining the Burisma board until he read about it in the Wall Street Journal on May 13, 2014. But White House emails show the vice president’s staff was coordinating damage control weeks earlier when the news first broke in the foreign press.  

And Archer testified that a month earlier, he had met with Vice President Biden in his White House office with Hunter, who had arranged the meeting. Their high-level pow-wow took place on April 16, the day after records show Archer received his first payment from Burisma. 

It’s not clear what the trio discussed in Biden’s office, but Hunter had emailed Archer a Burisma strategy memo just three days earlier. Also on April 13, Hunter had emailed Joe Biden’s best friend Ted Kaufman and the vice president’s then-deputy counsel Alex Mackler to discuss Ukrainian politics. On April 21, Biden visited Ukraine to offer energy and economic aid. 

But that’s not the biggest whopper Hunter apparently told about Burisma in his book. On page 127, he claimed: “No one at Burisma had even hinted at wanting me to influence the [Obama-Biden] administration.” 

Several Burisma emails to Hunter, along with Archer’s congressional testimony, put the lie to this claim.

(Read more: RealClearInvestigations, 9/19/2023)  (Archive)