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New York Post
4 days ago
- Politics
- New York Post
How the Hunter Biden cover-up continues to this day
In the same week that Hunter Biden burst back onto the public stage to play the victim and lash out at Democrats, we also heard from his one time protector turned reluctant nemesis, Special Counsel David Weiss, with similarly self serving and disingenuous testimony to Congress. Weiss, the former US Attorney in the Bidens' home state of Delaware who presided over the troubled five year investigation into the former First Son, told the House Judiciary Committee that there just wasn't enough evidence to justify charging Hunter under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). His investigators 'couldn't put together a sufficient case,' he said in June testimony released last week. Advertisement That's pretty rich, considering that those very IRS investigators complained bitterly about the obstruction and slow walking they faced on Weiss' watch every time they pursued an investigative trail that led to Joe Biden and the lucrative foreign lobbying Hunter did in his father's name. That's why IRS Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley and Special Agent Joseph Ziegler blew up their successful careers and became whistleblowers. Hunter's business model during his father's vice presidency and beyond revolved around foreign lobbying — including for the corrupt Ukrainian energy company Burisma that was paying him a million dollars a year, Chinese government-linked firms BHR and CEFC, and an oligarch client in Romania. Advertisement In fact, the very first email this newspaper published from Hunter's infamous laptop was from a Burisma executive, thanking him for arranging a meeting with his father the previous night. It wasn't just any old meeting, either. Hunter had invited VP Biden to a private dinner at Georgetown restaurant Cafe Milano in April 2015 to meet his partners from Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan, as his former 'best friend in business' Devon Archer told Congress. In their upcoming tell-all book, 'The Whistleblowers v the Big Guy,' Shapley and Ziegler point out that, along with that Burisma bombshell, emails and communications they recovered from the laptop showed that Hunter's relationship with DC lobbying shop Blue Star Strategies was tied to his position on the Burisma board and that the firm had been hired 'to influence U.S. government officials on Burisma's behalf.' Advertisement 'These connections raised red flags about potential violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act FARA and any comprehensive warrant would naturally include references to individuals who may have been involved, even tangentially.' And so, when their team drafted a search warrant related to potential FARA violation, Weiss' top U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf ordered them to remove all references to 'Political Figure 1,' the DOJ pseudonym for Joe Biden. 'Please focus on FARA evidence only. There should be nothing about Political Figure 1 in here,' Wolf wrote in an August 2020 email, according to their whistleblower testimony to Congress. Advertisement Every morning, the NY POSTcast offers a deep dive into the headlines with the Post's signature mix of politics, business, pop culture, true crime and everything in between. Subscribe here! Whenever their investigations might lead to Joe Biden they found subpoenas were denied, interviews were canceled or not allowed, and Hunter's lawyers were tipped off before search warrants could be executed. Prosecutors cited bad 'optics' or questioned whether the 'juice was worth the squeeze' For instance, Shapley testified that Wolf refused to approve a search warrant for a guest house Hunter had been staying in on Joe's palatial Delaware estate as part of FARA-related evidence collection. When they discovered incriminating WhatsApp messages Hunter wrote to a business partner at Chinese energy company CEFC on July 30, 2017, citing his father, the investigators were blocked from using phone location data to confirm that Joe really was in the room. 'I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled,' Hunter wrote, demanding $10 million. 'I am very concerned that the Chairman has either changed his mind and broken our deal without telling me or that he is unaware of the promises and assurances that have been made have not been kept.' Advertisement Hunter also threatened that his father would retaliate if the Chinese did not do as he commanded: 'I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction.' Here was Hunter explicitly claiming his father was involved in his business negotiations. Apart from the fact that Joe claimed that he knew nothing about his son's overseas business dealings, Shapley and Ziegler decided there were serious tax implications to the conversation, but they were blocked from pursuing them. They weren't even allowed to find out if Hunter had sent the message from Joe's house. 'The message was clear,' Shapley and Ziegler write in 'The Whistleblowers v. the Big Guy.' 'Although we were investigating Joe Biden's son — who, it seemed, had often involved his father in his shady overseas business dealings — none of our materials were supposed to mention Joe Biden. Advertisement 'Even when we needed material that might be in one of Joe Biden's homes or storage units, we couldn't mention him. The document might leak to the press, and that would make the Biden campaign look bad. 'And in the summer of 2020, there was nothing that the leadership of the FBI wanted less than to make Joe Biden look bad. Doing so might help elect Donald Trump for a second time.' How different was the way the FBI handled Donald Trump compared to Joe Biden. Whether it was the fake Steele Dossier the FBI treated as if it were legitimate evidence, or the raid on Mar a Lago, there was no concern about the 'optics' of investigating a sitting president or presidential candidate when it was Trump. Advertisement As for FARA, the once little-used law against lobbying the US on behalf of foreign interests has been selectively used to target Trump allies and Democrat enemies. For example, Paul Manafort, former chairman of Trump's 2016 campaign, was charged with FARA. So, too, was Gal Luft, the original Hunter Biden whistleblower, who told FBI and DOJ officials in a March 2019 secret meeting in Brussels that Hunter and his uncle Jim Biden were on the payroll of the Chinese. His accurate information was buried and then, one week before Republicans took back the House in 2022, Luft was charged with FARA and other violations. He is currently languishing in jail in Cyprus while Hunter escaped scot free. Advertisement In the last days of his presidency, Joe issued a uniquely tailored pardon for his son, stretching back 11 years and covering Hunter's conviction on gun charges and guilty plea on felony tax evasion charges that Weiss was forced to press after the sweetheart plea deal he'd stitched together with Hunter's lawyers fell apart in the wake of Shapley and Ziegler's revelations. In the end, Weiss forced the IRS to remove Shapley and Ziegler from the investigation as soon as he suspected Shapley had blown the whistle. The Office of Special Counsel last year determined that the IRS had illegally retaliated against the pair by removing them from the investigation after they made protected disclosures to Congress about DOJ interference in the probe. All the obstruction and interference and slow walking past statutes of limitation happened under the benign leadership of David Weiss. So spare us his mealy mouthed justifications for squibbing what should have been the most consequential political corruption investigation in history.
Daily Mail
27-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE DOJ forced top lawyer to register as foreign agent for Burisma...but not Hunter Biden, bombshell files reveal
Newly released government documents reveal the prominent lawyer who lobbied for allegedly corrupt Ukrainian energy firm Burisma was investigated by the Justice Department and forced to register as a foreign agent. And the conservative think tank that obtained the records is convinced Hunter Biden, who sat on Burisma's board from 2014 to 2019, was let off the hook in the probe because of his last name. The files were released this week under the Freedom of Information Act to conservative nonprofit The Oversight Project. In an exclusive interview with the think tank's president Mike Howell accused the DOJ of 'refusing to look at the obvious, that Hunter was a foreign agent' 'This document return shows this lawyer, John Buretta, was doing the same activity the [Hunter]was doing, and he had to register,' Howell said. He added that he believes the only reason Hunter wasn't forced to register as a foreign agent too is 'because he was the President's son, and it would be a massive embarrassment if the First Family had to register as foreign agents.' The newly released documents show the DOJ determined as far back as 2022 that Burisma's former US lawyer, John Buretta of Cravath, Swaine & Moore, should have registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), because he was having meetings with top US government officials in 2016 trying to sway them in Burisma's favor. FARA is designed to keep tabs on anyone attempting to influence US government officials or the American public on behalf of foreign governments or organizations. Howell claims that the DOJ knew Hunter had been doing the same thing as Buretta – but failed to pursue him due to his last name. 'Special Counsel David Weiss tried to basically pardon Hunter by a plea deal, refusing to look at the obvious, that Hunter was a foreign agent,' Howell said. 'The government, to include the intelligence community, federal law enforcement, prosecutors and the White House, twisted itself into pretzels over a long period of time to avoid the obvious with the Biden family.' The documents newly released by the DOJ include a June 1 2023 letter from the department's FARA Unit chief Jennifer Gellie to Buretta's attorneys, laying out why he was meant to register as a foreign agent. Gellie's letter detailed how Buretta and his law firm Cravath were hired by Burisma in January 2016 'in connection with a possible investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and/or other United States governmental authorities'. The letter said Buretta had 'three meetings with U.S. government officials in March 2016': Catherine Novelli, the Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment; Bruce Swartz, a Justice Department's Deputy Assistant Attorney General; and Amos Hochstein, the State Department's Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs. According to Gellie, at each of the meetings Buretta encouraged the officials to take a more positive view of Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky, who had been the subject of a US and UK corruption investigation. Emails turned over to the Oversight Project along with the bombshell letter show that the Justice Department was investigating Buretta's failure to file under FARA from at least December 2022. Buretta and Cravath were eventually forced to file, more than eight years after their meetings, in January 2024. In their filing they disclosed that Burisma paid them nearly $350,000 between March 2016 and August 2017. Oversight Project president Howell told that Hunter had done the same thing for Burisma as Buretta – that he was hired by the company and then met with US government officials, including his father, who was Vice President at the time, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken. But despite what Howell described as the 'apples to apples' comparison, the DOJ did not ask Hunter to file as they did Buretta. Emails from Hunter's abandoned laptop obtained by the FBI in 2019 show he orchestrated a meeting between Burisma executive Vadym Pozharskyi and Joe Biden at a 2015 dinner at Cafe Milano in Washington DC. Other emails show Hunter arranged a meeting with Secretary Blinken in May 2015, while Hunter served on the board of Burisma. Blinken denied emailing Hunter in a 2020 interview with Senate investigators. But messages from Blinken's personal email account show him telling Hunter on July 22 2015 it was 'Great to see you and catch up'. Hunter also emailed Blinken's wife Evan Ryan in July 2016 in an attempt to connect Blinken with Burisma-hired lobbyist Blue Star Strategies. Blue Star, a Democrat lobby shop hired by Burisma at Hunter's behest, was run by Karen Tramontano and Sally Painter, who joined Buretta in two of his meetings with US officials in 2016. Tramontano and Painter were also forced by the DOJ in 2022 to belatedly file under FARA over their work for Burisma after a law enforcement probe. Burisma executive Vadym Pozharskyi detailed in a November 2015 email on Hunter's laptop, how he wanted 'a list of deliverables' from Blue Star, including 'high-ranking US officials in Ukraine (US Ambassador) and in US publicly or in private communication/comment expressing their 'positive opinion' and support of [company owner] Nikolay/Burisma'. In sworn testimony to Congress, Blue Star CEO Karen Tramontano said Hunter did not direct any of her firm's work for Burisma and played down her relationship with him. But emails from Hunter's laptop previously uncovered by show he was the point man for Blue Star's hiring by Burisma in 2015, and he had been close with Tramontano for years. She even discussed registering her investment banking license with Hunter's firm in 2014. A lawyer for fellow Burisma board member Devon Archer told that his client has testified to a grand jury about Burisma, confirming Delaware prosecutors did obtain evidence about Hunter's dealings with the Ukrainian firm from first-hand witnesses. Archer also had a meeting with Joe Biden at the White House in April 2014, days before he joined Burisma's board. The DOJ were forced to admit in a dramatic Delaware court hearing in July 2023 that Hunter could be liable for FARA charges. Federal judge Maryellen Noreika questioned prosecutors on what Republican lawmakers called a 'sweetheart' deal cut with the then-President's son over gun crime and tax charges. The deal fell apart when prosecutors said they could later charge Hunter for FARA violations. The former First Son was ultimately convicted of both the gun and tax crimes and faced up to 17 years in prison, but was given a 'full and unconditional' pardon before Joe Biden left office in December, preventing prosecution for any crimes dating back to 2014. Two IRS whistleblowers who ran the five-year criminal tax probe into Hunter testified to Congress that there were potential FARA violations arising from Hunter's work with Burisma in 2014 and 2015. But IRS Criminal Investigation Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley and his subordinate Joseph Ziegler claimed investigators were blocked from pursuing those leads by DOJ officials. 'It's critically important that we, this country, come to terms with the fact that we had a very corrupt period in American history, and the result of that corruption was a lot of terrible things happened,' Howell told 'If you don't solve these things, things will get worse. That's why we've done more than anybody else on this. We know there's so much more out there that needs to be put out. 'The American people deserve the truth.'
Time of India
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Ex-FBI informant who made up bribery story about the Bidens will stay in prison, judge rules
LAS VEGAS - A federal judge has denied the U.S. government's request to release from prison a former FBI informant who made up a story about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter accepting bribes that later became central to Republicans' impeachment effort. The decision, issued Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Otis Wright in Los Angeles, comes weeks after a new prosecutor reassigned to Alexander Smirnov 's case jointly filed a motion with his attorneys asking for his release while he appeals his conviction. In the motion, the U.S. government had said it would review its "theory of the case." Wright said in his written order that Smirnov is still flight risk, even if prosecutors say they will review his case. "The fact remains that Smirnov has been convicted and sentenced to seventy-two months in prison, providing ample incentive to flee," he said. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Google Brain Co-Founder Andrew Ng, Recommends: Read These 5 Books And Turn Your Life Around Blinkist: Andrew Ng's Reading List Undo Smirnov, 44, was sentenced in January after pleading guilty to tax evasion and lying to the FBI about the phony bribery scheme, which was described by the previous prosecutors assigned to the case as an effort to influence the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. His attorneys, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld, told The Associated Press in a text that they will appeal the judge's decision and "continue to advocate for Mr. Smirnov's release." The U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles declined to comment. Smirnov had been originally prosecuted by former Justice Department special counsel David Weiss, who resigned in January days before President Donald Trump returned to the White House for his second term. Smirnov has been in custody since February 2024. He was arrested at the Las Vegas airport after returning to the U.S. from overseas. Smirnov, a dual U.S. and Israeli citizen, falsely claimed to his FBI handler that around 2015, executives from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma had paid then-Vice President Biden and his son $5 million each. The explosive claim in 2020 came after Smirnov expressed "bias" about Biden as a presidential candidate, according to prosecutors at the time. In reality, investigators found Smirnov had only routine business dealings with Burisma starting in 2017 - after Biden's term as vice president. Authorities said Smirnov's false claim "set off a firestorm in Congress" when it resurfaced years later as part of the House impeachment inquiry into Biden, who won the presidency over Trump in 2020. The Biden administration dismissed the impeachment effort as a "stunt." Weiss also brought gun and tax charges against Hunter Biden , who was supposed to be sentenced in December after being convicted at a trial in the gun case and pleading guilty to tax charges. But he was pardoned by his father, who said he believed "raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice." ___ Follow the AP's coverage of Hunter Biden at
Powys County Times
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Powys County Times
Judge rules against release of ex-FBI informant who made up Biden bribery story
A federal judge has denied the US government's request to release a jailed former FBI informant who made up a story about president Joe Biden and his son Hunter accepting bribes, which became central to Republicans' impeachment effort. The decision, issued on Wednesday by US District Judge Otis Wright in Los Angeles, comes weeks after a new prosecutor reassigned to Alexander Smirnov's case jointly filed a motion with his lawyers asking for his release while he appeals his conviction. In the motion, the US government had said it would review its 'theory of the case'. In his written order, the judge said Smirnov is still a flight risk, even if prosecutors say they will review his case. 'The fact remains that Smirnov has been convicted and sentenced to seventy-two months in prison, providing ample incentive to flee,' he said. Smirnov, 44, was sentenced in January after pleading guilty to tax evasion and lying to the FBI about the phony bribery scheme, which was described by the previous prosecutors assigned to the case as an effort to influence the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. His lawyers, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld, told The Associated Press in a text they will appeal the judge's decision and 'continue to advocate for Mr Smirnov's release'. The US Attorney's Office in Los Angeles declined to comment. Smirnov had been originally prosecuted by former Justice Department special counsel David Weiss, who resigned in January days before President Donald Trump returned to the White House for his second term. Smirnov has been in custody since February 2024. He was arrested at the Las Vegas airport after returning to the US from overseas. The dual US and Israeli citizen falsely claimed to his FBI handler that around 2015, executives from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma had paid then-vice president Biden and his son five million dollars(£3.75 million) apiece. The explosive claim in 2020 came after Smirnov expressed 'bias' about Mr Biden as a presidential candidate, according to prosecutors at the time. In reality, investigators found Smirnov had only routine business dealings with Burisma starting in 2017 — after Mr Biden's term as vice president. Authorities said Smirnov's false claim 'set off a firestorm in Congress' when it resurfaced years later as part of the House impeachment inquiry into Mr Biden, who won the presidency over Mr Trump in 2020. The Biden administration dismissed the impeachment effort as a 'stunt.' Mr Weiss also brought gun and tax charges against Hunter Biden, who was supposed to be sentenced in December after being convicted at a trial in the gun case and pleading guilty to tax charges. But he was pardoned by his father, who said he believed 'raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice'.
Perth Now
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Perth Now
Man who faked Biden bribery story to stay in prison
A federal judge has denied the US government's request to release a jailed former FBI informant who made up a story about president Joe Biden and his son Hunter accepting bribes, which became central to Republicans' impeachment effort. The decision, issued on Wednesday by US District Judge Otis Wright in Los Angeles, comes weeks after a new prosecutor reassigned to Alexander Smirnov's case jointly filed a motion with his lawyers asking for his release while he appeals his conviction. In the motion, the US government had said it would review its "theory of the case". In his written order, the judge said Smirnov was still a flight risk, even if prosecutors said they would review his case. "The fact remains that Smirnov has been convicted and sentenced to 72 months in prison, providing ample incentive to flee," he said. Smirnov, 44, was sentenced in January after pleading guilty to tax evasion and lying to the FBI about the phoney bribery scheme, which was described by the previous prosecutors assigned to the case as an effort to influence the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. His lawyers, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld, told The Associated Press in a text they would appeal the judge's decision and "continue to advocate for Smirnov's release". Smirnov had been originally prosecuted by former Justice Department special counsel David Weiss, who resigned in January days before President Donald Trump returned to the White House for his second term. Smirnov has been in custody since February 2024. He was arrested at the Las Vegas airport after returning to the US from overseas. The dual US and Israeli citizen falsely claimed to his FBI handler that about 2015, executives from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma had paid then-vice president Biden and his son $US5 million ($A8 million) apiece. The explosive claim in 2020 came after Smirnov expressed "bias" about Biden as a presidential candidate, according to prosecutors at the time. In reality, investigators found Smirnov had only routine business dealings with Burisma starting in 2017 - after Biden's term as vice-president. Authorities said Smirnov's false claim "set off a firestorm in Congress" when it resurfaced years later as part of the House impeachment inquiry into Biden, who won the presidency over Trump in 2020. The Biden administration dismissed the impeachment effort as a "stunt". Weiss also brought gun and tax charges against Hunter Biden, who was supposed to be sentenced in December after being convicted at a trial in the gun case and pleading guilty to tax charges. But he was pardoned by his father, who said he believed "raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice".
