Media Failed in Coverage of Hunter Biden
Let's look at Hunter Biden, a grifter who has traded on his father's name to make money. That's what he was doing with Burisma and other foreign countries. That's what he's doing by selling his "art" at a New York gallery. At the same time, he's dodging child support payments over a child that Joe Biden refuses to acknowledge is his granddaughter.
Not a good look.
The latest in a long series of allegations about Hunter Biden is actually a years old claim made by a confidential informant/ It's that both Hunter and the President received a $5 million bribe from someone in Ukraine. This allegation was based on a tip provided by Rudy Giuliani. A suspended FBI agent who claims whistleblower status contends that the FBI is sitting on it.
According to the House Oversight Committee, "The confidential human source who provided information about then-Vice President Biden being involved in a criminal bribery scheme is a trusted, highly credible informant who has been used by the FBI for years." Firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene told reporters that Burisma paid the $10 million bribe, but it would take 10 years to track the money because of all the banks involved.
Trump's former AG, Bill Barr, indicated that all allegations related to Biden were being funneled through the US Attorney's office in Pittsburgh and then forwarded to the Delaware US Attorney, David Weiss. He's a Trump appointee who Biden retained to avoid questions of a conflict of interest.
Weiss has made no prosecutorial decisions for over four years concerning several possible criminal infractions committed by Hunter Biden.
I think we'd all agree that's too long. Justice delayed in justice denied.
Right-wing news sources have covered Hunter Biden in detail, but there's relatively little coverage from left-wing or even more centrist news outlets.
It seems to me that this is a story. I refused to write about Hunter Biden in the past because that story broke a little too close to the election. That was probably a mistake and it should receive more coverage by all news outlets.
But so should the $2 billion investment made by the Saudis with Jared Kushner just two months after Trump left office. Kushner had served as a policy advisor on the Middle East. That investment is also being investigated by the House Oversight Committee.
It seems to me that the media has done a fairly lousy job of covering Hunter Biden and the larger question of Presidential family members who enrich themselves from their connections to power. It should make no difference whether the President is a Democrat or Republican.
The "weaponized" DOJ
By definition, any law enforcement organization is weaponized. It exists to hold lawbreakers accountable. Trump is responsible for using this reality as a vilification. He blamed the DOJ and FBI for refusing to arrest Hillary Clinton over her handling of classified documents on a private email server. The "lock her up!" chants still echo in my mind. Never mind that her negligence probably cost her thye 2016 election.
While claiming that he's a victim of the DOJ he forgets that when he was President, he attempted unsuccessfully to use the FBI and IRS to pursue political enemies.
There have been instances in which the FBI itself acknowledges it exceeded its authority with respect to FISA warrants. There will always be rogue agents, just as there always will be rogue cops. It's human nature, unfortunately.
But when I read of selective prosecution or law enforcement out to get someone, the persons making these claims are almost always the criminals in question, whether it is a Mafia don or a wife beater.
In Trump's case, the Attorney General assigned a Special Prosecutor precisely to avoid any appearance of impropriety. The President has insisted he has had no interaction with anyone at DOJ concerning any Trump investigation. Nobody has rebutted this claim.
If the Special Prosecutor were really out to "get Trump", he could have sought an indictment in Washington. He chose to do so in Miami. He did so knowing that a jury would be more favorable to Trump in Miami than in D.C. The case has been assigned to a Trump appointee who has ruled favorably to Trump concerning the search of his residence and who even halted the criminal investigation. The DOJ could have done some judge shopping, but did not.
It strikes me that the DOJ has bent over backwards to be fair to Trump. He faces trial for one and only one reason - nobody is above the law.
Like Trump, both the media and DOJ are on trial. I am certain the DOJ will be vindicated. I'm far less sanguine about the media or Trump.
42 comments:
So is the FBi and the Biden administration.
Hunter has his problems no doubt.
But "on a tip provided by Rudy Giuliani."--yeah do not bet on that.
For starters if there was any meat to the claim Fox would airdrop a regiment of reporters on Ukraine to nail Biden to the wall.
Yet they did not.
The informant also stated (which Fox fails to mention) that he heard the allegation but was unable to verify the truth to the claim--hearsay.
The right wing wants to attack President Biden by attacking his kid.
trump or Barr had the opportunity to go after Hunter but they did not.
trump would restrain himself from attacking Biden?
please.
Hunter was grifting no doubt.
Claiming President Biden took a bribe has no credible basis as of this time.
Clinton committed felonies while POTUS. Yet, he gets to party with minors at Epstein Island and jet around the world grifting for his phony foundation. I hate all POTUSs. They're all insipid egotistical climbers. But there's an imbalance in treatment. Polls indicate most people see this. It's why Trump's poll numbers went up over the weekend, asshole that he is. We're a stupid country that acts stupidly. Meanwhile, there's a world war boiling that both sides with their defense industry donors, support. Can you say distraction? Our kids are heading to another decade of war. And everybody seems cool with it.
6:14, Oh, I agree there's no meat on that bone. I doubt there's any evidence that Joe Biden was bribed, but media outlets should be reporting on it and providing all the details that you just referenced. They are not, nor did they cover Hunter Biden's laptop story adequately. Nor are they covering all his grifting with his "art" or his attempts to avoid support. At the same time, Fox and other media sources who portray Biden as senile are misleading people. He is an old man and certainly is frail and has a speech impediment, but is very alert and his admin should stop shielding him. It appears to me that media outlets on left and right are more interested in pursuing an agenda than they are in the truth.
7:15, Clinton, like Trump, was impeached. He lost his law license. He was never prosecuted over his sexual misbehavior, and I'd say that's because there's scant evidence that he committed any crimes with minors. It is no crime to have sex. Trump should be able to tell you that. And now you're suddenly a peacenik?
Did you see the testimony of the FBI Assistant Director In Charge (ADIC) of the Washington Field Office (WFO) Steven D’Antuono? He testified that he was not comfortable with the raid and listed 4 main abnormalities as to why. He was overruled by Garland. As much as I dislike Trump it does feel like there is political bias at play here. Of course idiot Trump makes it easy.
https://judiciary.house.gov/media/press-releases/testimony-reveals-senior-fbi-official-expressed-concerns-about-trump-raid
And you're suddenly a war hawk. So here we are. I oppose death (e.g. war, death penalty, abortions not to save the life of the mother). You're cool with two out of three. It's who you are.
If I was a person of color and took top secret government documents would republicans come to my aid?
Hunter is/was a complete mess. He is clearly a grifter, a recovered (?) drug addict and can compete with Don Jr. for his complete lack of moral character. That being said, his "laptop controversy" is a nothing burger.
In October 2020, a controversy emerged involving data from a laptop that belonged to Hunter Biden that was abandoned at a Delaware computer shop in 2019. John Paul Mac Isaac, the shop owner, said that the laptop was left by a man who identified himself as Hunter Biden. Mac Isaac is blind and was unsure whether the man was actually Hunter Biden. The New York post published story that presented emails from the laptop, alleging Joe Biden. The story was based on information provided to Rudy Giuliani.
The hard drive data had been shared with the FBI and Republican operatives such as Trump advisor Steve Bannon before it became publicly known.[6] In December 2019, under the authority of a subpoena issued by a Wilmington grand jury, the FBI seized the laptop from Mac Isaac.
The hard drive data had been shared with the FBI and Republican operatives such as Trump advisor Steve Bannon before it became publicly known. In December 2019, under the authority of a subpoena issued by a Wilmington grand jury, the FBI seized the laptop from Mac Isaac.
It was determined that, "over time, there has been less doubt that the laptop did in fact belong to Hunter Biden", the laptop "was real in the sense that it exists, but it didn't prove much", as "nothing from the laptop has revealed illegal or unethical behavior by Joe Biden".
The analysis concluded that the laptop's date, including over 120,000 emails, originated with Hunter Biden had not been altered, contrasting that to fake news circulated by Republican operatives, which "could have been tampered with" the laptop.
The Washington Post reported that experts at their request had authenticated a number of emails, including one that was the subject of the New York Post reporting. The drive analyzed for The Washington Post lacked a clear chain of custody, and was considered "a mess" and "a disaster" from a forensic standpoint by the two analysts. It contains emails marked to and from Hunter Biden and other digital files relating to him.
Finally...Despite persistent allegations that the laptop contents indicated corruption by Joe Biden, a joint investigation by two Republican Senate committees released in September 2020 did not find wrongdoing by him, nor did a Republican House Oversight committee investigation by May 2023.
8:39, I was uncomfortable with the raid at first as well. I was under the misimpression that Trump was cooperating, was unaware that he had nuclear secrets and was shocked to learn that his country club was being visited by people like a Chinese national carrying numerous laptops and passports. It needed to happen.
"And you're suddenly a war hawk. "
I've always been hawkish, although I opposed our original invasion of Iraq bc I subscribe to Colon Powell's pottery barn rule./ Assholes like you were saluting each other and waving flags, and then you want to leave after you broke everything. Typical false patriot.
Trump’s Former AG Bill Barr Lowers the Boom in Stunning Analysis: ‘If Even Half of it is True, He is Toast’
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-s-former-ag-bill-barr-lowers-the-boom-in-stunning-analysis-on-fox-news-sunday-if-even-half-of-it-is-true-he-is-toast/ar-AA1cpbOo?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=f7a380ed35ee47eeb95d349e33c0570e&ei=25
I am so tired of all of this drama. When will the adults return to take charge of the government? Trump is scum. Biden is scum. The next presidential election looks as pitiful as the last two and Soros has handed reigns to sonny boy, so I guess Alex and Ray Lahoud will decide who wins what. This country is spiraling fast because of the self-interest of a few.
Joe is a fraud -50 years as a politician is way to much=he as crooked as come.
There is a false equivalency in so much of this discussion--Mr. Trump was president of the United States of America and Hunter Biden has never been elected to anything. If Joe Biden accepted bribes or quid pro quo arrangements, then that is news, but two R-led senate committees with subpoena power investigated, and one House committee did the same thing, and came up with bupkis. Hunter is a messed-up loser, just like Eric.
To all my republican friends out there who cheered loudly to "lock her up", how's it feel at the other end of the stick?
Joe Biden has more integrity and competence in his left elbow than what your boy, tRump, has in his entire body. It figures that you MAGAts continue to promote your hate and try to cover your embarrassment for supporting tRump and what he did to this country. Our economy is rebounding thanks to Joe B. and his competent administration. Laws promoting womens' welfare and getting healthcare for families are in his resumé during those 50 years. Maybe you should hope that you are still as productive at age 80 as what President Biden is now.
After 40+ years, I am changing registration from Republican to Independent. Anyone who continues to support Mr. Trump leaves me troubled. He is a con man, liar, and charlatan who will ruin the Republican party. Frightened Republicans, wary of losing votes to this Emperor with No Clothes, are terrified to speak against him. Have they listened to him? Have they heard the epithets he hurls at those who dare defy or question him? They are the ramblings of an egomaniac.He continues to claim victory in a race he lost because he cannot tolerate the thought of losing. He reveled in the Presidency. He can wear an expensive blue suit, white shirt and red tie - but underneath it all, he is nothing more than a cheap, crude old man who cannot accept defeat.
I am/was a registered Republican who votes by mail. I will continue to vote, but change to Democrat to vote in primaries - difficult though it will be.
I have never commented on any platform, but the defense of this man by those in office or seeking office and the many misguided is deeply upsetting.
Republicans seems happy to defame Biden without offering proof. Trump's sins already have been laid out in detail, and much proof already has been offered. More will follow.
This isn't rocket science.
Anyone who doubts Trump's guilt can watch him scurry to avoid trial in the coming months.
Trump's a crook. So sad!
Joe Biden has done a lot for this country --if you believe this you are mentally deranged--he ia a fraud and corrupt as they come, he gave us inflation, high oil prices,no border at all, he has helped kill many Americans in Afghanistan, at the border and in his democratic cities. He is also a fake catholic who believes in killing unborn babies. He is one of most despicable person ever to be born.
Today's Republican voters are simply programmed at this point to hate Democrats of any stripe and not believe anything outside of approved Right Wing talking points. Asking them to read the indictment or even consider that one of their own has betrayed their country and their trust is just simply too much for their brains to process. Its just automatic whataboutism and crying about how unfair life is.
Let the trial play out! From reading some of this, seems clear that Former President Trump knew he should have had some of these classified material! He was all about protecting these documents while he was running for the presidency in 2016!
All he had to do, was return the files, like Pence and Biden did! Something wrong that this is happening! But having your staff move it around so his attorneys didn’t see the material after he was supeoned for it!
So sad that the Country has to endure this! We have so many important issues to focus on, especially inflation, the border, our spending habits!
!
Bernie this time they have Biden he is on film with Ukraine business executives--the fake media will not cover it. How corrupt ios our government and the media which you are part of.
You provide no link to establish the veracity of your claim, which I was unable to confirm. Moreover, if there is some picture of Biden with Ukraine business execs, so what? That proves nothing. I'm sure I can find pics of Trump with numerous arms dealers and both Ukrainian and Russian oligarchs. So what?
I wish everyone would remember that like any law suit the facts written may not be accurate and in this country we are innocent until proven guilty. Seems like everyone in both parties have already decided just based on the accusations. Luckily we have the legal process which hopefully will have people deciding the outcome based on facts and not anything else!
The fbi has held documents for years now know berismo exc had tape of both slow Joe and his pedo crack head son. They have done nothing with now senator Grassley has made them avalible and the media worms are stopping the public from reading the transcripts?
Bernie stick that in a orfice and smoke it butt than again it would get lost as gaping is one of your many untold professions.
What a sad, deranged individual you are to make such pathetic and B.S. accusations.
"Bernie this time they have Biden he is on film with Ukraine business executives--the fake media will not cover it. How corrupt ios our government and the media which you are part of."
I now know what this is about, no thanks to you and your garbled summary. Today, Senator Chuck Grassley spoke from the Senate floor about the 1023 document that the FBI allowed Congress to examine behind closed doors. The confidential informant was told by a foreign national that he had 15 recordings of phone calls with Hunter Biden and two recordings of phone calls with Joe Biden while Biden was VP. He also claims that the foreign national said that Joe Biden may have gotten Hunter the job with Burisma.
So what we have is double hearsay, an unknown informant who may or may not be reliable speaking to a foreign national who may or may not be reliable. A conversation that is apparently three or four years old.
Ans this was received by the Trump administration, and is in the hands of a Trump-appointed US Attorney investigating the Bidens.
So am I to understand that the DOJ attorneys appointed by Trump are also out to protect Biden and get Trump?
It frankly strikes me as much ado about nothing, and I am disappointed that Senator Grassley would give this matter any credence. It makes no sense that a Trump-appoiunted prosecutor would just dismiss this out of hand. What is far more likely is that it was investigated thoroughly and found to have no merit.
https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/remarks/grassley-fbi-redacted-references-to-recordings-in-biden-allegation-shared-with-congress
Bullshit !
Bernie, you familiar w/the Clinton sock drawer case? I suggest you check it out if not familiar. Judge Amy Berman Jackson (Obama appointee) already ruled on Presidential records and it has never been appealed. She ruled Clinton can decide what is his why can't Trump?
https://casetext.com/case/judicial-watch-inc-v-natl-archives-records-admin
8:22, This is aa really bad analogy. This is not a case brought under the Presidential Records Act. It is brought under the Espionage Act. Big difference. It's certainly true that the President can designate material he created, like audio tapes for a book or his own diary, as personal. But he cannot declare personal material others created for him, like the daily briefing, attack plans, nuclear secrets, etc.
8:22- This is another right wing big lie, spewed incessantly, ad nauseam, by the Murdoch empire. Bill Clinton received permission under the Archives Management, Supervision and Security to take those documents and store them appropriately while his Presidential Library was being created. It's exhausting trying to get facts permeated into conspiracy theorist MAGATs
Trump took documents that he had no right to have. He did so without permission and jerked around the DOJ who tried for well over a year to get them back. And, he had one of his attorneys sign a false statement to DOJ that Trump complied with the subpoena and had returned all documents, which he didn't and then he tried hiding said documents.
OK. I will buy into your theory. If espionage which organization or state was mentioned in the indictment that Trump was working with? Definition below
What is the crime of espionage?
Espionage is the crime of spying or secretly watching a person, company, government, etc. for the purpose of gathering secret information or detecting wrongdoing, and to transfer such information to another organization or state.
Trump has not been accused of spying or engaging in espionage. He has been accused of violating the Espionage Act, which criminalizes a wide array of misconduct with regard sensitive defense information. He has been charged under 793e: "Whoever having unauthorized possession of, access to, or control over any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note relating to the national defense, or information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation, willfully communicates, delivers, transmits or causes to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted, or attempts to communicate, deliver, transmit or cause to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted the same to any person not entitled to receive it, or willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it;"
The elements of the offense are as follows: (1) unauthorized possession of (2) information relating to national defense; (3) that could be used to damage us or help a foreign nation; and (4) dissemination OR willful retention.
The government must prove these elements beyond a reasonable doubt. It appears to me that the evidence of all four elements is overwhelming if prosecutors produce evidence to support what the indictment alleges.
These are our national secrets. They included top secret information as well as nuclear secrets. Letting this information fall into the wrong hands could get people killed while weakening our own national security. These records were stored in a bathroom and in the ball room of a club that had thousands of visitors, including foreign nationals. Trump not only refused to return this information, but actually hid it from the government.
Interestingly, some of the most sensitive secrets have not been charged, and I believe the reason for that is because the agencies involved do not want it disclosed in any way. The indictment could have included over 100 counts.
What's really sad is that some of the information was never retrieved, including a map that Trump allegedly showed to people. This leads me to believe Trump either still has it or destroyed it.
This is a serious case and one that had to be brought. It is not a matter of misusing the DOJ for political purposes. It is a question of our own national security.
OK. Made your case. Lets do Biden. He had materials that were so classified in his possesion in which they had to only be read in a SCIF which is a secure information facility. Not a regular room a SCIF. And at the time he had no declassification authority. He deserve 100 years in prison? How he get them out of the SCIF, down his pants? BTW Trump had the sole authority to declassify so if something is labeled classified doesn't mean it is. Might have been at one time but if declassified it no longer is. CNN link below. Again, a SCIF
The classified materials included some top-secret files with the “sensitive compartmented information” designation, also known as SCI, which is used for highly sensitive information obtained from intelligence sources.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/09/politics/joe-biden-classified-documents-upenn/index.html
The same law applies to the 15 documents found at Biden's residence and library. There was (1) unauthorized possession of (2) information relating to national defense; (3) that could be used to damage us or help a foreign nation; but was there (4) dissemination OR willful retention? That's the difference. In Biden's case, his own attorneys made the existence of these records known. It appears that he cooperated fully. There is no evidence that he disseminated. There is evidence that his conduct was negligent but unintentional. That matter is still under investigation. If there is evidence that his retention is willful, I'd expect to see him prosecuted. In Pence's case, the retention was not willful and that matter is concluded.
Mere retention, by itself, is not criminal. It's when you deny records exist and hide them and jerk the DOJ around for a year, while storing records at locations that are easily accessible by people who intend us harm, that you act criminally.
That's the difference.
How did he get a SCIF document out of the room? His lawyers let them know because a whistleblower came forward and said he had documents at UPENN. He had documents for 40 years. Another question nobody will ask him is why did his granddaughter take money from Romania.
https://www.npr.org/2023/05/10/1175205980/james-comer-republican-oversight-biden
"It is not uncommon for there to be situations where, inadvertently, people will mix them together and walk out of a SCIF or secured facility with a document they shouldn't have. And when that happens, there is a very well-established process known as a security investigation."
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/former-homeland-security-official-weighs-biden-classified-document/story?id=9646130
There's little beyond innuendo with respect to any payments that may have been made to Biden family members. I know that Hunter Biden did legal work for a Romanian business exec convicted of fraud.
Trump literally stole OUR nuclear secrets and sold them to the enemy. He shared top-secret classified info with journalists and other randos for clout, and was caught on tape doing so at least twice. Wake up. At this point, if you don't recognize Trump as Enemy #1 you're either complicit and just as evil as he is or you're really f***ing stupid.
Dave C, you ought to go into standup comedy. 🤣
Any member of the military, from the lowliest Private to a 5 Star General caught with classified material outside of designated secured areas is going to prison. Any private individual or contractor with the same information would also go to prison.
I simply can't understand why ANYONE is defending or making excuses for Trump on this. He took classified documents and was given the opportunity to return them. For whatever reason, he didn't. The case will be tried in court and the facts will be laid out for judgment. The indictment looks damning but maybe there is some novel reasoning coming from the defense, but its pretty bleak.
Even if you hate Biden and think all Democrats are sending this country into a communist dystopia where newborn infants are sacrificed to the Gods of Illegal Mexican Socialist Pedophiles, it doesnt change the facts that what Trump is accused of is against the laws of this country. You can't pretend to love this country while allowing one of your own to shit on its rules of law.
Opinion on fox News today by Greg Jarrett. On trump issue. I'd love to hear your comments related to that opinion. Unless you can't get yourself to read a fox news article.
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