So what else is new. From Just the News:
"Joe Biden lied to the American people when he said he knew nothing about his son’s business dealings," said Comer, a Kentucky Republican. "Evidence continues to be revealed that Joe Biden was very much involved in his family’s corrupt influence peddling schemes and he likely benefited financially."
First son Hunter Biden brought his father into his deals with foreign nationals from Ukraine and China, according to the committee, which has been probing the first family since Republicans took over the House majority earlier this year.
"It certainly appears that Joe Biden and his family put themselves first and Americans last, but corporate media and the Justice Department continue to cover up for the Bidens," Comer also said.
He added that he looks forward to speaking with Hunter Biden's former business partner Devon Archer about then-Vice President Biden's role in the deals. Archer is expected to testify to Congress this week on the matter. (Read more.)
From The Federalist:
President Joe Biden vehemently denied ever talking business with his son, “or with anyone else” in the run-up to the 2020 election. In fact, Biden even fat-shamed an Iowa voter who approached the subject during the Democratic primaries. On the debate stage with Donald Trump, the former vice president peddled conspiracies of Russian interference when emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop revealed otherwise.
On Sunday night, the New York Post reported on anticipated testimony from Hunter Biden’s former business partner, Devon Archer. The 48-year-old who went golfing with the Bidens in 2014 is expected to tell the House Oversight Committee how Hunter Biden put his father in contact with foreign businessmen and potential investors at least 24 times. According to the Post, such meetings were either in person or by speakerphone, with Hunter Biden often dialing in Joe. (Read more.)
From The Spectator:
Shapley and Ziegler’s account of evidence has received an unconvincing rebuttal from Weiss and Attorney General Merrick Garland — who has serious questions to answer. Meanwhile, this already unflattering picture painted of the president and his son is not going to look any better after Archer’s testimony this week.
The White House can still count on a fairly pliant press; the whistleblowers’ testimony got nowhere near as much attention as it deserved last week. But that may not matter. House investigators certainly won’t be fazed, and the steady stream of evidence is starting to speak for itself. (Read more.)
From Dr. Zmirak at The Stream:
Nobody could accuse me of undue optimism, but there is something uplifting about the collapse of Hunter Biden’s sweetheart deal with the Department of Justice. It was meant to sweep a wide array of crimes under the White House carpet, even granting Hunter immunity from future charges uncovered by prosecutors (perhaps of a Republican-led DoJ someday).
But an honest judge decided that the Biden bargain didn’t pass the smell test. As Townhall reports:
Tammy Bruce of Fox News commented on reports that Biden’s defense attorney was recently seen on a public balcony smoking … a bong. (Read more.)What was presumed to be a routine appearance before a judge by Hunter Biden on Wednesday — one set to finalize a plea deal reached between President Joe Biden’s son and the president’s Justice Department — turned into courtroom chaos when the proposed plea deal fell apart under scrutiny from U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika.
Due to issues with the way the sweetheart slap-on-the-wrist was “structured,” the judge refused to “accept or reject the plea agreement” on Wednesday, instead requesting briefs from the parties in order to gather more information about the terms of the deal and whether they’re even constitutional.
As a result of losing his plea deal — for now at least — Hunter Biden entered a “not guilty” plea on the tax and firearm charges he still faces.
From Sara Carter:
For perhaps the first time in his life, Hunter Biden’s last name didn’t land him an easy day in court. The New York Post summed it up perfectly: “Hunter Biden’s sweetheart plea deal on gun, tax charges torpedoed by judge in sensational court room dust up.” Hunter’s “probation-only plea deal fell apart” with US District Judge Maryellen Noreika accusing both sides of wanted her to “rubber-stamp” an improperly broad agreement. The Post reports:
The stunning turn of events came more than 90 minutes into the hearing at the federal courthouse in Wilmington, Del., where Hunter was expected to plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of willful failure to pay taxes and enter a diversion program on a felony federal weapons charge.
But US District Judge Maryellen Noreika ran the rule over both prosecutors and the lawyers for President Biden’s 53-year-old son — asking assistant US attorney Leo Wise if Hunter was still under scrutiny for potential offenses including failing to register as a foreign agent for lucrative dealings in countries such as China and Ukraine that allegedly involved his father.
“Yes,” admitted Wise, echoing repeated statements by his boss, Delaware US Attorney David Weiss, whose office confirmed the ongoing nature of the probe to The Post Wednesday. Hunter’s main attorney, Chris Clark, has insisted that he believed the first son’s criminal liability is resolved by the plea deal, and responded to Wise by dramatically announcing: “As far as I’m concerned, the plea agreement is null and void.”
After a 20-minute recess “that doubled as a bargaining period, both sides tried to move forward with a revised plea deal that specified Hunter would face no additional charges.” Judge Noreika was still not convinced. Finally, after three hours of high drama, Noreika told Wise and Clark that the revised agreement was still “not straightforward” and included “atypical provisions.”
“I think having you guys talk more makes sense,” the judge said, before asking Hunter: “Without me saying I’ll agree to the plea agreement, how do you plead?”
“Not guilty, your honor,” the president’s son answered, a pro forma statement ahead of his next hearing, set for Aug. 25.
Among accusations Hunter could still answer to is that he violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
The Post explains:
FARA can carry stiff penalties, and a five-year statute of limitations means that charges likely would have to come soon for Hunter — who left the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma in 2019 and whose most lucrative Chinese government-linked partnership spanned 2017 and 2018.
iolations of the law can send perpetrators to prison. Former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman Paul Manafort was sentenced in 2018 to 60 months behind bars specifically for FARA violations related to his work in Ukraine, plus another 30 months for tax and bank fraud and witness tampering.
The first son thus far has avoided charges for allegedly working as an unregistered foreign agent, and congressional Republicans are demanding to know what if anything Weiss’ team did to investigate an FBI informant’s June 2020 tip that a Ukrainian oligarch said he paid $10 million in bribes to Hunter and then-Vice President Joe Biden to influence US government policy.
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