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GOP releases whistleblower testimonies from ex-IRS agents in Hunter Biden case
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Farnoush Amiri
Published Jun 22, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 3 minute read
WASHINGTON — House Republicans released testimony Thursday from two IRS whistleblowers who allege that the Justice Department interfered with their yearslong investigation into President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter — a charge the department swiftly denied.
The House Ways and Means Committee, led by Republican Rep. Jason Smith, voted to publicly disclose congressional testimony from two former IRS agents who worked on the federal investigation into the younger Biden’s taxes and foreign business dealings.
“Whistleblowers describe how the Biden Justice Department intervened and overstepped in a campaign to protect the son of Joe Biden by delaying, divulging and denying an ongoing investigation into Hunter Biden’s alleged tax crimes,” Smith, R-Mo., told reporters.
The testimony from the two individuals — Greg Shapley and an unidentified IRS agent — detailed what they called a pattern of “slow-walking investigative steps” and delaying enforcement actions months before elections. But it’s unclear whether the conflict they describe amounts to internal disagreement about how to pursue the wide-ranging probe or a pattern of interference and preferential treatment. Department policy has long warned prosecutors to take care in charging cases with potential political overtones around the time of an election, to avoid any possible influence on the outcome.
The Justice Department denied the whistleblower claims, saying the U.S. attorney in charge of the Hunter Biden probe, David Weiss — who was appointed by former President Donald Trump — had full authority over the case.
The release of the testimony comes just two days after Hunter Biden, 53, announced he will plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses as part of an agreement with the Justice Department. The agreement made public Tuesday will also avert prosecution on a felony charge of illegally possessing a firearm as a drug user, as long as he adheres to conditions agreed to in court.
Congressional Republicans called the plea deal a “sweetheart deal” for the president’s son and another example of a “two-tiered justice system” that goes easy on Democrats. They also pledged to continue their own investigations into the Biden family and what they call their efforts to trade off the presidency.
The first IRS whistleblower, Shapley, came forward in April when his attorney reached out to GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa to say that his client had information about a “failure to mitigate clear conflicts of interest in the ultimate disposition” of what was then an ongoing criminal investigation related to Hunter Biden. In hourslong testimony, Shapley described several roadblocks that he and the several other IRS agents on the case faced when trying to interview individuals relevant to the case or issue search warrants.
Perhaps Shapley’s most striking claim was that Weiss asked the Justice Department in March 2020 to be provided special counsel status in order to bring the tax cases in jurisdictions outside Delaware, including Washington, D.C., and California, but was denied.
In response to that claim, the Justice Department reiterated that Weiss has “full authority over this matter, including responsibility for deciding where, when, and whether to file charges as he deems appropriate. He needs no further approval to do so.”
The second IRS whistleblower, who asked the committee to keep his identity secret, described his persistent frustrations with the way the Hunter Biden case was handled, dating back to the Trump administration under Attorney General William Barr. He said he started the investigation into Hunter Biden in 2015 and delved deeply into his life and finances.
The individual said he was taken off the investigation in October 2022 and informed of the decision by officials at the IRS, but believes his removal was actually ordered by officials in the Justice Department. He provided no evidence that was the case, instead citing what he had witnessed internally as he pushed for various investigative steps. His supervisor, Shapley, was removed at the same time.
Democrats objected to the committee’s handling of the testimony, noting that the two individuals are just a fraction of the many investigators and officials who were involved in the Hunter Biden case. They suggested more testimony is needed.
“We do not object to the documents being reviewed publicly,” said Rep. Richard Neal, the top Democrat on the committee. “We object to the process. Clearly, the case is not ready. So many witnesses have never even been contacted.”
All the Democrats on the panel objected to the disclosure, calling the GOP efforts payback for their release in December of Trump’s tax records.
— Associated Press writer Lindsay Whitehurst contributed to this report.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Farnoush Amiri
Published Jun 22, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 3 minute read
WASHINGTON — House Republicans released testimony Thursday from two IRS whistleblowers who allege that the Justice Department interfered with their yearslong investigation into President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter — a charge the department swiftly denied.
The House Ways and Means Committee, led by Republican Rep. Jason Smith, voted to publicly disclose congressional testimony from two former IRS agents who worked on the federal investigation into the younger Biden’s taxes and foreign business dealings.
“Whistleblowers describe how the Biden Justice Department intervened and overstepped in a campaign to protect the son of Joe Biden by delaying, divulging and denying an ongoing investigation into Hunter Biden’s alleged tax crimes,” Smith, R-Mo., told reporters.
The testimony from the two individuals — Greg Shapley and an unidentified IRS agent — detailed what they called a pattern of “slow-walking investigative steps” and delaying enforcement actions months before elections. But it’s unclear whether the conflict they describe amounts to internal disagreement about how to pursue the wide-ranging probe or a pattern of interference and preferential treatment. Department policy has long warned prosecutors to take care in charging cases with potential political overtones around the time of an election, to avoid any possible influence on the outcome.
The Justice Department denied the whistleblower claims, saying the U.S. attorney in charge of the Hunter Biden probe, David Weiss — who was appointed by former President Donald Trump — had full authority over the case.
The release of the testimony comes just two days after Hunter Biden, 53, announced he will plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses as part of an agreement with the Justice Department. The agreement made public Tuesday will also avert prosecution on a felony charge of illegally possessing a firearm as a drug user, as long as he adheres to conditions agreed to in court.
Congressional Republicans called the plea deal a “sweetheart deal” for the president’s son and another example of a “two-tiered justice system” that goes easy on Democrats. They also pledged to continue their own investigations into the Biden family and what they call their efforts to trade off the presidency.
The first IRS whistleblower, Shapley, came forward in April when his attorney reached out to GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa to say that his client had information about a “failure to mitigate clear conflicts of interest in the ultimate disposition” of what was then an ongoing criminal investigation related to Hunter Biden. In hourslong testimony, Shapley described several roadblocks that he and the several other IRS agents on the case faced when trying to interview individuals relevant to the case or issue search warrants.
Perhaps Shapley’s most striking claim was that Weiss asked the Justice Department in March 2020 to be provided special counsel status in order to bring the tax cases in jurisdictions outside Delaware, including Washington, D.C., and California, but was denied.
In response to that claim, the Justice Department reiterated that Weiss has “full authority over this matter, including responsibility for deciding where, when, and whether to file charges as he deems appropriate. He needs no further approval to do so.”
The second IRS whistleblower, who asked the committee to keep his identity secret, described his persistent frustrations with the way the Hunter Biden case was handled, dating back to the Trump administration under Attorney General William Barr. He said he started the investigation into Hunter Biden in 2015 and delved deeply into his life and finances.
The individual said he was taken off the investigation in October 2022 and informed of the decision by officials at the IRS, but believes his removal was actually ordered by officials in the Justice Department. He provided no evidence that was the case, instead citing what he had witnessed internally as he pushed for various investigative steps. His supervisor, Shapley, was removed at the same time.
Democrats objected to the committee’s handling of the testimony, noting that the two individuals are just a fraction of the many investigators and officials who were involved in the Hunter Biden case. They suggested more testimony is needed.
“We do not object to the documents being reviewed publicly,” said Rep. Richard Neal, the top Democrat on the committee. “We object to the process. Clearly, the case is not ready. So many witnesses have never even been contacted.”
All the Democrats on the panel objected to the disclosure, calling the GOP efforts payback for their release in December of Trump’s tax records.
— Associated Press writer Lindsay Whitehurst contributed to this report.
GOP releases whistleblower testimonies from ex-IRS agents in Hunter Biden case
House Republicans released testimony from two IRS whistleblowers who allege that the Justice Department interfered with their investigation into Hunter Biden.
The embarrassing escapades of Biden's son
Author of the article:Brad Hunter
Published Jun 25, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 3 minute read
Every presidential family seems to have that one black sheep.
Patty Reagan posed for Playboy, there was party boy Roger Clinton and the template, the beer-swilling Billy Carter (remember Billy Beer?)
Now, Joe Biden is in the White House and his troubled 52-year-old son, Hunter, is in the media’s crosshairs. While the handsome lawyer was always a handful, things went downhill after the 2015 death of his brother Beau Biden.
“He and Beau were one,” his daughter, Naomi, once wrote on Twitter. “One heart, one soul, one mind.”
THE LATEST
With revelations around the clock, it’s been hard to keep up. On Friday, the New York Post reported that Hunter Biden had been booted out of a posh and private Los Angeles sex club. SNCTM owner Damon Lawner told the tabloid Biden was exiled for “grabbing women’s asses” and acting “like a spoiled child.”
PARTY BOY
Joe Biden is famously known as a teetotaller. No so Hunter Biden, who began boozing hard in his teens and kept it up at Georgetown and Yale with a cocaine chaser. When Hunter signed up for the U.S. Navy Reserves in 2013, he tested positive for cocaine, later admitting he was “embarrassed.”
But it was the death of his brother that sent Hunter spiralling into the bottle.
The New Yorker said that following Beau’s death, he would sometimes only leave his house to buy vodka. He has been a frequent flier in rehab.
SLIPPERY SLOPE
Hunter began working for the MNBA Bank — one of the largest employers in the Biden’s home state of Delaware — and that’s where some of his ethics troubles began. He became executive vice-president while his dad pushed laws beneficial to the bank.
WHIFFY
He became a lobbyist in the early 2000s while still cashing in as a “consultant” to MNBA. Politico said Hunter’s clients had “interests that overlapped with [his father’s] committee assignments and legislative priorities.”
Controversial involvement with Ukrainian and Chinese energy interests ($50,000 per month, thanks!) has not helped out Hunter.
MARRIAGE MELTDOWN
Hunter met his first wife Kathleen Buhle — also a lawyer — in university and the pair wed in 1993, followed by three children.
They called it quits in 2017. During their bitter divorce, Buhle accused Hunter of “spending extravagantly on his own interests [including drugs, alcohol, prostitutes, strip clubs, and gifts for women with whom he has sexual relations] while leaving the family with no funds to pay legitimate bills.”
“He was struggling under a massive drug addiction, and that’s heart-breaking and painful, and that wasn’t who I was married to,” she said last year.
WOW
Before his divorce was finalized, Hunter began a relationship with his brother’s widow, Hallie Biden, for two years, bonding over their shared grief. Weeks later, Hunter wed South African filmmaker Melissa Cohen following a six-day romance. They have one son.
BABY DADDY
A 2019 DNA test revealed he was “the biological and legal father” of a child born to stripper Lunden Alexis Roberts. Hunter said he had “no recollection” of their sexual encounter. He settled a paternity suit with Roberts and now pays child support.
THAT LAPTOP
During the 2020 presidential election campaign, it emerged that a laptop Hunter abandoned at a repair shop contained a 2015 email in which a Ukrainian business associate thanked him for the invitation to meet his father, then the U.S. vice president. Joe Biden denied the meeting ever took place.
BOFFO BUCKS
NBC News reported that Hunter’s firm racked up $11 million for its Ukraine and China work from 2013 to 2018. The firm blew through $200,000 a month on sports cars, luxe hotel suites and lots and lots of cash withdrawals.
NOW
According to court filings released this week, Hunter agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanour tax crimes and will admit to illegally possessing a gun while a drug user. The plea deal has not, however, quieted the Republicans. Former president Donald Trump called the charges “a mere traffic ticket” before ironically declaring: “Our system is BROKEN!” It is unlikely he will go to jail.
‘PROUD’ DAD
At one testy 2020 presidential debate, GOP incumbent Donald Trump said to Joe Biden: “Hunter got thrown out of the military, dishonourably discharged for cocaine use, and he didn’t have a job until you became vice-president.”
Biden responded: “That is simply not true. My son — like a lot of people — had a drug problem. He’s fixed it and worked on it, and I’m proud of my son.”
nypost.com
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Brad Hunter
Published Jun 25, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 3 minute read
Every presidential family seems to have that one black sheep.
Patty Reagan posed for Playboy, there was party boy Roger Clinton and the template, the beer-swilling Billy Carter (remember Billy Beer?)
Now, Joe Biden is in the White House and his troubled 52-year-old son, Hunter, is in the media’s crosshairs. While the handsome lawyer was always a handful, things went downhill after the 2015 death of his brother Beau Biden.
“He and Beau were one,” his daughter, Naomi, once wrote on Twitter. “One heart, one soul, one mind.”
THE LATEST
With revelations around the clock, it’s been hard to keep up. On Friday, the New York Post reported that Hunter Biden had been booted out of a posh and private Los Angeles sex club. SNCTM owner Damon Lawner told the tabloid Biden was exiled for “grabbing women’s asses” and acting “like a spoiled child.”
PARTY BOY
Joe Biden is famously known as a teetotaller. No so Hunter Biden, who began boozing hard in his teens and kept it up at Georgetown and Yale with a cocaine chaser. When Hunter signed up for the U.S. Navy Reserves in 2013, he tested positive for cocaine, later admitting he was “embarrassed.”
But it was the death of his brother that sent Hunter spiralling into the bottle.
The New Yorker said that following Beau’s death, he would sometimes only leave his house to buy vodka. He has been a frequent flier in rehab.
SLIPPERY SLOPE
Hunter began working for the MNBA Bank — one of the largest employers in the Biden’s home state of Delaware — and that’s where some of his ethics troubles began. He became executive vice-president while his dad pushed laws beneficial to the bank.
WHIFFY
He became a lobbyist in the early 2000s while still cashing in as a “consultant” to MNBA. Politico said Hunter’s clients had “interests that overlapped with [his father’s] committee assignments and legislative priorities.”
Controversial involvement with Ukrainian and Chinese energy interests ($50,000 per month, thanks!) has not helped out Hunter.
MARRIAGE MELTDOWN
Hunter met his first wife Kathleen Buhle — also a lawyer — in university and the pair wed in 1993, followed by three children.
They called it quits in 2017. During their bitter divorce, Buhle accused Hunter of “spending extravagantly on his own interests [including drugs, alcohol, prostitutes, strip clubs, and gifts for women with whom he has sexual relations] while leaving the family with no funds to pay legitimate bills.”
“He was struggling under a massive drug addiction, and that’s heart-breaking and painful, and that wasn’t who I was married to,” she said last year.
WOW
Before his divorce was finalized, Hunter began a relationship with his brother’s widow, Hallie Biden, for two years, bonding over their shared grief. Weeks later, Hunter wed South African filmmaker Melissa Cohen following a six-day romance. They have one son.
BABY DADDY
A 2019 DNA test revealed he was “the biological and legal father” of a child born to stripper Lunden Alexis Roberts. Hunter said he had “no recollection” of their sexual encounter. He settled a paternity suit with Roberts and now pays child support.
THAT LAPTOP
During the 2020 presidential election campaign, it emerged that a laptop Hunter abandoned at a repair shop contained a 2015 email in which a Ukrainian business associate thanked him for the invitation to meet his father, then the U.S. vice president. Joe Biden denied the meeting ever took place.
BOFFO BUCKS
NBC News reported that Hunter’s firm racked up $11 million for its Ukraine and China work from 2013 to 2018. The firm blew through $200,000 a month on sports cars, luxe hotel suites and lots and lots of cash withdrawals.
NOW
According to court filings released this week, Hunter agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanour tax crimes and will admit to illegally possessing a gun while a drug user. The plea deal has not, however, quieted the Republicans. Former president Donald Trump called the charges “a mere traffic ticket” before ironically declaring: “Our system is BROKEN!” It is unlikely he will go to jail.
‘PROUD’ DAD
At one testy 2020 presidential debate, GOP incumbent Donald Trump said to Joe Biden: “Hunter got thrown out of the military, dishonourably discharged for cocaine use, and he didn’t have a job until you became vice-president.”
Biden responded: “That is simply not true. My son — like a lot of people — had a drug problem. He’s fixed it and worked on it, and I’m proud of my son.”
Exclusive | Hunter Biden kicked out of $10K sex club for ‘grabbing women’s asses,’ acting like a ‘spoiled child’
Hunter Biden was kicked out of the SNCTM sex club for acting “like a spoiled child,” founder Damon Lawner exclusively told The Post. Lawner said the IRS investigated Biden’s $10,0…
nypost.com
HORRORS OF HUNTER: The embarrassing escapades of Biden's son
Now, Joe Biden is in the White House and his troubled 52-year-old son Hunter is in the media's crosshairs.
Yes the poor misunderstood boy should just be left alone . Bloody republicans can’t leave well enough alone .
Suspicious powder found at the White House when Biden was gone was cocaine: Report
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Colleen Long And Michael Balsamo
Published Jul 04, 2023 • Last updated 2 days ago • 1 minute read
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House was briefly evacuated Sunday evening while President Joe Biden was at Camp David after the Secret Service discovered suspicious powder in a common area of the West Wing, and a preliminary test showed the substance was cocaine, two law enforcement officials said Tuesday.
Secret Service agents were doing routine rounds on Sunday when they found the white powder in an area accessible to tour groups, not in any particular West Wing office, the officials said. The officials were not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The complex was evacuated at about 8:45 p.m. Sunday as fire and emergency crews were brought in to do a rapid test, which preliminarily identified cocaine. The White House was soon reopened and the powder was sent for further testing.
Biden and his family left for Camp David on Friday and returned to the White House on Tuesday.
The Secret Service said in a statement the White House was closed as a precaution as emergency crews investigated, and that the District of Columbia fire department was called in to evaluate and determine that the substance was not hazardous.
“The item was sent for further evaluation and an investigation into the cause and manner of how it entered the White House is pending,” the Secret Service said.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Colleen Long And Michael Balsamo
Published Jul 04, 2023 • Last updated 2 days ago • 1 minute read
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House was briefly evacuated Sunday evening while President Joe Biden was at Camp David after the Secret Service discovered suspicious powder in a common area of the West Wing, and a preliminary test showed the substance was cocaine, two law enforcement officials said Tuesday.
Secret Service agents were doing routine rounds on Sunday when they found the white powder in an area accessible to tour groups, not in any particular West Wing office, the officials said. The officials were not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The complex was evacuated at about 8:45 p.m. Sunday as fire and emergency crews were brought in to do a rapid test, which preliminarily identified cocaine. The White House was soon reopened and the powder was sent for further testing.
Biden and his family left for Camp David on Friday and returned to the White House on Tuesday.
The Secret Service said in a statement the White House was closed as a precaution as emergency crews investigated, and that the District of Columbia fire department was called in to evaluate and determine that the substance was not hazardous.
“The item was sent for further evaluation and an investigation into the cause and manner of how it entered the White House is pending,” the Secret Service said.
Suspicious powder found at the White House when Biden was gone was cocaine: Report
Secret Service agents were doing routine rounds on Sunday when they found the white powder in an area accessible to tour groups.
Powder found in White House’s West Wing lobby tests positive for cocaine
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Colleen Long, Zeke Miller and Michael Balsamo
Published Jul 05, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 2 minute read
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden has been briefed on the investigation into the discovery of cocaine on the lobby floor of the White House West Wing, and thinks it is “incredibly important” for the Secret Service to determine how it got there, officials said Wednesday.
U.S. Secret Service agents found the powder during a routine White House sweep on Sunday, in a small, clear plastic bag on the ground in a heavily trafficked area, according to three people, who were not authorized to speak about an ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
On Wednesday, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the White House had confidence in the Secret Service. “The president think it’s incredibly important to get to the bottom of this,” she said.
Biden was at Camp David with members of his family for the holiday weekend when the powder was discovered and the complex was briefly evacuated as a precaution. The fire department was called in to test the substance to determine it was not hazardous, and the initial test came back positive for cocaine. A secondary, more sensitive lab analysis confirmed the results.
Investigators have not yet identified who brought the drugs into the White House. The Secret Service, which is responsible for securing the White House, was combing through visitor logs and security footage.
The lobby where the drugs were found is where many official visitors and staffers enter. It is also open to staff-led tours of the West Wing, which are scheduled for nonworking hours on the weekends and evenings. Those tours are invitation-only and led by White House staff for friends, family and other guests. Most staffers who work on the complex can request an evening or weekend tour slot, but there is often a long wait list.
If a White House employee brought in the drugs, it would be easier to determine, because staff are fingerprinted and subjected to drug tests. A visitor would be harder to pin down; there were tours on Friday, Saturday and Sunday last week.
The District of Columbia fire department was called in Sunday to test the substance to determine whether it was hazardous, though officials immediately suspected illicit drugs because of how it was packaged, two of the people said. It’s routine to follow up with a more sensitive lab tests later. That test was returned Wednesday.
The Secret Service said in a statement Tuesday that the White House was closed as a precaution as emergency crews investigated.
“The item was sent for further evaluation and an investigation into the cause and manner of how it entered the White House is pending,” the Secret Service said.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Colleen Long, Zeke Miller and Michael Balsamo
Published Jul 05, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 2 minute read
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden has been briefed on the investigation into the discovery of cocaine on the lobby floor of the White House West Wing, and thinks it is “incredibly important” for the Secret Service to determine how it got there, officials said Wednesday.
U.S. Secret Service agents found the powder during a routine White House sweep on Sunday, in a small, clear plastic bag on the ground in a heavily trafficked area, according to three people, who were not authorized to speak about an ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
On Wednesday, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the White House had confidence in the Secret Service. “The president think it’s incredibly important to get to the bottom of this,” she said.
Biden was at Camp David with members of his family for the holiday weekend when the powder was discovered and the complex was briefly evacuated as a precaution. The fire department was called in to test the substance to determine it was not hazardous, and the initial test came back positive for cocaine. A secondary, more sensitive lab analysis confirmed the results.
Investigators have not yet identified who brought the drugs into the White House. The Secret Service, which is responsible for securing the White House, was combing through visitor logs and security footage.
The lobby where the drugs were found is where many official visitors and staffers enter. It is also open to staff-led tours of the West Wing, which are scheduled for nonworking hours on the weekends and evenings. Those tours are invitation-only and led by White House staff for friends, family and other guests. Most staffers who work on the complex can request an evening or weekend tour slot, but there is often a long wait list.
If a White House employee brought in the drugs, it would be easier to determine, because staff are fingerprinted and subjected to drug tests. A visitor would be harder to pin down; there were tours on Friday, Saturday and Sunday last week.
The District of Columbia fire department was called in Sunday to test the substance to determine whether it was hazardous, though officials immediately suspected illicit drugs because of how it was packaged, two of the people said. It’s routine to follow up with a more sensitive lab tests later. That test was returned Wednesday.
The Secret Service said in a statement Tuesday that the White House was closed as a precaution as emergency crews investigated.
“The item was sent for further evaluation and an investigation into the cause and manner of how it entered the White House is pending,” the Secret Service said.
Powder found in White House’s West Wing lobby tests positive for cocaine
The U.S. Secret Service was taking the lead on the investigation, consulting visitor logs and security footage.
White House shuts down question about Biden's seventh grandchild
Author of the article
enette Wilford
Published Jul 06, 2023 • 2 minute read
That sound you hear is White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre sweeping a Hunter Biden tidbit under the rug.
Jean-Pierre refused to answer questions about President Joe Biden’s estranged four-year-old granddaughter, Navy Joan, whose parents are their son Hunter and a former stripper.
During Wednesday’s White House press briefing, Jean-Pierre was asked specifically about a recent story about Navy Joan Roberts and whether the president recognized her as a relation.
“There was a story in the New York Times over the weekend about Hunter Biden’s daughter in Arkansas,” the reporter asked, according to Fox News.
“Does the president acknowledge this little girl as his granddaughter?”
Jean-Pierre responded swiftly and simply: “I don’t have anything to share from here,” which is nothing new when it comes to questions about Roberts.
Biden aides have been told to publicly declare that the president only has six grandchildren, leaving Navy Joan out, according to The Times report – which was all but confirmed by Jean-Pierre.
When Biden has previously spoken about his grandchildren, he maintains he only has six.
“I have six grandchildren, and I’m crazy about them,” Biden said at a White House “take your child to work day” event in April, Fox News reported.
“And I speak to them every single day. Not a joke.”
Hunter recently settled his Arkansas child support case with Navy’s mother, Lunden Alexis Roberts, after a years-long paternity dispute.
He initially denied meeting Roberts but texts from his laptop revealed she was on the payroll of his consulting firm while pregnant with their daughter.
A paternity test performed in 2019 confirmed Roberts’ claims that Hunter was indeed the father.
Hunter was seeking to reduce the monthly $20,000 payments, though that information was redacted.
Roberts, meanwhile, dropped her bid to change the girl’s last name to “Biden,” according to the court filing.
Hunter “has never seen or contacted” Navy, while the president and First Lady Jill Biden “remain estranged” from her, Roberts claimed in court documents in April, according to CNN.
Biden’s other grandchildren are Naomi, 29, Finnegan, 22, and Maisy, 21, Hunter’s daughters with ex-wife Kathleen Buhle; Natalie, 18, and Robert, 16, the children of his late son, Beau Biden and wife Hallie; and three-year-old Beau, Hunter’s son with current wife Melissa Cohen.
instagram.com
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foxnews.com
nytimes.com
torontosun.com
Author of the article
enette WilfordPublished Jul 06, 2023 • 2 minute read
That sound you hear is White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre sweeping a Hunter Biden tidbit under the rug.
Jean-Pierre refused to answer questions about President Joe Biden’s estranged four-year-old granddaughter, Navy Joan, whose parents are their son Hunter and a former stripper.
During Wednesday’s White House press briefing, Jean-Pierre was asked specifically about a recent story about Navy Joan Roberts and whether the president recognized her as a relation.
“There was a story in the New York Times over the weekend about Hunter Biden’s daughter in Arkansas,” the reporter asked, according to Fox News.
“Does the president acknowledge this little girl as his granddaughter?”
Jean-Pierre responded swiftly and simply: “I don’t have anything to share from here,” which is nothing new when it comes to questions about Roberts.
Biden aides have been told to publicly declare that the president only has six grandchildren, leaving Navy Joan out, according to The Times report – which was all but confirmed by Jean-Pierre.
When Biden has previously spoken about his grandchildren, he maintains he only has six.
“I have six grandchildren, and I’m crazy about them,” Biden said at a White House “take your child to work day” event in April, Fox News reported.
“And I speak to them every single day. Not a joke.”
Hunter recently settled his Arkansas child support case with Navy’s mother, Lunden Alexis Roberts, after a years-long paternity dispute.
He initially denied meeting Roberts but texts from his laptop revealed she was on the payroll of his consulting firm while pregnant with their daughter.
A paternity test performed in 2019 confirmed Roberts’ claims that Hunter was indeed the father.
Hunter was seeking to reduce the monthly $20,000 payments, though that information was redacted.
Roberts, meanwhile, dropped her bid to change the girl’s last name to “Biden,” according to the court filing.
Hunter “has never seen or contacted” Navy, while the president and First Lady Jill Biden “remain estranged” from her, Roberts claimed in court documents in April, according to CNN.
Biden’s other grandchildren are Naomi, 29, Finnegan, 22, and Maisy, 21, Hunter’s daughters with ex-wife Kathleen Buhle; Natalie, 18, and Robert, 16, the children of his late son, Beau Biden and wife Hallie; and three-year-old Beau, Hunter’s son with current wife Melissa Cohen.
Lunden Roberts on Instagram: "•her mother told her she could grow up to be anything she wanted to be so she grew up to become the strongest of the strong the strangest of the strange the wildest of the wild the wolf leading the wolves.•
555 likes, 53 comments - lundentownn_ on April 16, 2023: "•her mother told her she could grow up to be anything she wanted to be so she grew up to become the strongest of the strong the strangest of the strange the wildest of the wild the wolf leading the wolves.• -NG💗".
instagram.com
Lunden Roberts on Instagram: "•rebel soul• stay wild, my wild, wild child. ♥️"
528 likes, 36 comments - lundentownn_ on October 1, 2021: "•rebel soul• stay wild, my wild, wild child. ♥️".
instagram.com
WATCH: White House shuts down question about unacknowledged Biden granddaughter
The White House shut down a press question pertaining to the estranged daughter of Hunter Biden, who the Biden family has repeatedly refused to acknowledge.
Hunter Biden’s Daughter and a Tale of Two Families (Published 2023)
The story surrounding the president’s grandchild in Arkansas, who has not yet met her father or her grandfather, is about money, corrosive politics and what it means to have the Biden birthright.
White House shuts down question about Biden's seventh grandchild
Karine Jean-Pierre refused to answer questions about President Joe Biden’s estranged four-year-old granddaughter, Navy Joan Roberts.
He has 7 grandchildren. He may not be proud of all 7 or their parents but he has 7. To say he has 6 is a bit classless in my opinion. Every president has relatives they wish weren't there. Billy Carter comes to mind.
No fingerprints, DNA sample or leads from cocaine found at the White House, the Secret Service says
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Colleen Long and Michael Balsamo
Published Jul 13, 2023 • 3 minute read
WASHINGTON — No fingerprints or DNA turned up on the baggie of cocaine found in a lobby at the White House last week despite a sophisticated FBI crime lab analysis, and surveillance footage of the area didn’t identify a suspect, according to a summary of the Secret Service investigation obtained by The Associated Press. There are no leads on who brought the drugs into the building.
U.S. Secret Service agents found the white powder during a routine White House sweep on July 2, in a heavily trafficked West Wing lobby where staff go in and out, and tour groups gather to drop their phones and other belongings.
“Without physical evidence, the investigation will not be able to single out a person of interest from the hundreds of individuals who passed through the vestibule where the cocaine was discovered,” Secret Service officials said in the summary.
It’s most likely the bag was left behind by one of the hundreds of visitors who traveled in and out of the building over the weekend, according to a person familiar with the investigation who was not authorized to talk about an ongoing probe and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The presence of cocaine at the White House prompted a flurry of criticism and questions from Republicans, who requested a briefing Thursday on the probe. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Joe Biden believed it was “incredibly important” for the Secret Service to get to the bottom of how the drugs ended up in the White House. The Secret Service is responsible for securing the White House and led the investigation.
Biden wasn’t there at the time of the discovery. He was at Camp David with members of his family for the holiday weekend.
The complex was briefly evacuated as a precaution when the white powder was found. The fire department was called in to test the substance on the spot to determine whether it was hazardous, and the initial test came back negative for a biohazard but positive for cocaine.
The bag was sent for a secondary, more sensitive lab analysis. Homeland Security’s National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center analyzed the item for any biothreats. Tests conducted at the facility came back negative.
The cocaine and packaging underwent further forensics testing, including advanced fingerprint and DNA work at the FBI’s crime laboratory, according to the summary. The FBI also did chemical testing.
Meanwhile, Secret Service investigators put together a list of several hundred individuals who may have accessed the area where the drugs were found. Anyone who comes through the White House must give identifying information and pass through security before entering.
But the lab results didn’t turn up latent fingerprints or DNA, so agents can’t compare anything to the possible suspect pool. White House staff are fingerprinted; participants in tour groups are not.
Video of the West Executive street lobby entrance did not identify the person or provide any solid investigative leads, the Secret Service said.
The lobby is open to staff-led tours of the West Wing, which are scheduled for nonworking hours on the weekends and evenings. Those tours are invitation-only and led by White House staff for friends, family and other guests. Most staffers who work in the complex can request an evening or weekend tour slot, but there is often a long wait list. There were tours on the day, a Sunday, the drugs were found, as well as on the two preceding days.
The Situation Room, where staffers would drop their phones before entering, has been undergoing construction work and was not in use at the time the baggie was found, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said last week.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Colleen Long and Michael Balsamo
Published Jul 13, 2023 • 3 minute read
WASHINGTON — No fingerprints or DNA turned up on the baggie of cocaine found in a lobby at the White House last week despite a sophisticated FBI crime lab analysis, and surveillance footage of the area didn’t identify a suspect, according to a summary of the Secret Service investigation obtained by The Associated Press. There are no leads on who brought the drugs into the building.
U.S. Secret Service agents found the white powder during a routine White House sweep on July 2, in a heavily trafficked West Wing lobby where staff go in and out, and tour groups gather to drop their phones and other belongings.
“Without physical evidence, the investigation will not be able to single out a person of interest from the hundreds of individuals who passed through the vestibule where the cocaine was discovered,” Secret Service officials said in the summary.
It’s most likely the bag was left behind by one of the hundreds of visitors who traveled in and out of the building over the weekend, according to a person familiar with the investigation who was not authorized to talk about an ongoing probe and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The presence of cocaine at the White House prompted a flurry of criticism and questions from Republicans, who requested a briefing Thursday on the probe. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Joe Biden believed it was “incredibly important” for the Secret Service to get to the bottom of how the drugs ended up in the White House. The Secret Service is responsible for securing the White House and led the investigation.
Biden wasn’t there at the time of the discovery. He was at Camp David with members of his family for the holiday weekend.
The complex was briefly evacuated as a precaution when the white powder was found. The fire department was called in to test the substance on the spot to determine whether it was hazardous, and the initial test came back negative for a biohazard but positive for cocaine.
The bag was sent for a secondary, more sensitive lab analysis. Homeland Security’s National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center analyzed the item for any biothreats. Tests conducted at the facility came back negative.
The cocaine and packaging underwent further forensics testing, including advanced fingerprint and DNA work at the FBI’s crime laboratory, according to the summary. The FBI also did chemical testing.
Meanwhile, Secret Service investigators put together a list of several hundred individuals who may have accessed the area where the drugs were found. Anyone who comes through the White House must give identifying information and pass through security before entering.
But the lab results didn’t turn up latent fingerprints or DNA, so agents can’t compare anything to the possible suspect pool. White House staff are fingerprinted; participants in tour groups are not.
Video of the West Executive street lobby entrance did not identify the person or provide any solid investigative leads, the Secret Service said.
The lobby is open to staff-led tours of the West Wing, which are scheduled for nonworking hours on the weekends and evenings. Those tours are invitation-only and led by White House staff for friends, family and other guests. Most staffers who work in the complex can request an evening or weekend tour slot, but there is often a long wait list. There were tours on the day, a Sunday, the drugs were found, as well as on the two preceding days.
The Situation Room, where staffers would drop their phones before entering, has been undergoing construction work and was not in use at the time the baggie was found, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said last week.
No fingerprints, DNA sample or leads from cocaine found at the White House, the Secret Service says
No fingerprints or DNA turned up on the baggie of cocaine found in a lobby at the White House last week.
Put it in the lost & found. Maybe somebody will claim it.
Uh-huh!
youtube.com
My first Democratic Socialists of America conference!
I don’t see this group being able to “seize the means of production” anytime soon.
youtube.com
IRS whistleblowers airing claims to Congress about 'slow-walking' of Hunter Biden case
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Farnoush Amiri and Lisa Mascaro
Published Jul 19, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 6 minute read
WASHINGTON — House Republicans raised unsubstantiated allegations Wednesday against President Joe Biden over his family’s finances as they summoned IRS whistleblowers to testify publicly for the first time about claims the Justice Department improperly interfered with a tax investigation into Biden’s son Hunter.
Lawmakers heard from the two IRS agents assigned to the Hunter Biden case, which looked into his failure to pay taxes, for six hours of what was often grueling back-and-forth testimony. The hearing came after the president’s son pleaded guilty last month to misdemeanor tax charges in what Republicans have derided as a “sweetheart” deal.
Still, House Republicans are deepening their own investigation, making broad claims of corruption and wrongdoing by the Bidens, which they acknowledge have not been proven to be true.
“We will continue to follow the money trail,” said Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, as he opened the session. The Justice Department has denied the whistleblowers’ allegations. And the White House, in a statement, called the investigation and subsequent hearing part of “politically-motivated attacks on a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney, the rule of law, and the independence of our justice system.”
The top Democrat on the committee, Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, said the hearing was “a theater of the absurd.”
IRS supervisory special agent Greg Shapley, and a second agent, Joe Ziegler, claimed there was what Shapley called in testimony a pattern of “slow-walking investigative steps” into Hunter Biden, including during the Trump administration in the months before the 2020 election that Joe Biden won.
One of Shapley’s most detailed claims was that U.S. Attorney David Weiss in Delaware, the federal prosecutor who led the investigation, asked for special counsel status in order to bring the tax cases against Hunter Biden in jurisdictions outside Delaware, including the District of Columbia and California, but was denied.
Weiss and the Justice Department have denied that, saying he had “full authority” and never sought to bring charges in other states.
Shapley testified during an exchange with Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, that he wrote an email later that day to memorialize the October 2022 meeting with Weiss and five others. Shapley insisted Wednesday on his own recollection of what was said.
The second IRS whistleblower, Ziegler, described his frustrations with the way the case was handled, dating to the Trump administration under Attorney General William Barr. The tax agency employee said he started the investigation into Hunter Biden in 2015 and began to delve deeply into the now 53-year-old’s life and finances.
Ziegler, whose name was withheld in closed-door interview transcripts released last month by Republicans, said Wednesday that he decided to come forward publicly “not as a hero or a victim,” but as a married, gay Democrat “compelled to disclose the truth.”
Democrats on the committee pushed back on the whistleblower claims that Hunter Biden received special treatment because his father was the nominee for president in the upcoming 2020 election. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., made the point that it was Donald Trump who was president during the 2020 time frame when the whistleblowers allege there was interference.
Trump’s Justice Department, he noted, issued a memorandum in February 2020 telling prosecutors to “exercise particular care regarding sensitive investigations and prosecutions that relate to political candidates, campaigns and other politically sensitive individuals and organizations,” his voice rising. “Especially in an election year!”
Democrats also pointed out that Weiss was appointed by Trump and the federal investigation into Hunter Biden was initiated under Trump. Biden kept Weiss on the case after he won the election. But the hearing took several twists and turns as dozens of members from both sides of the dais sought to maximize their time with the two witnesses.
In one startling moment, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., displayed graphic sexual images of Hunter Biden with women, suggesting he had paid for them to travel to Washington, D.C., presumably for sex, in a potential violation of the law. Democrats led by Raskin objected to the graphic content being shown at a public hearing by Greene, saying it was inappropriate.
Rep. Shontel Brown, D-Ohio, questioned whether this was an investigation into the president or “of his son, who does not and has never worked at the White House.”
As Republicans decry what they say is a justice system favouring the politically connected, Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., pointed to the killing of Emmett Till and the treatment of other Black Americans across U.S. history and said, “This is the two-tiered justice system.”
Republicans for their part have sought testimony from other agents involved in the case and held a transcribed interview this week with an FBI agent, now retired, who they said was involved. But other witnesses have declined to appear before the panel.
Before the hearing, Comer, R-Ky., acknowledged it has been difficult for Republicans to succinctly outline Hunter Biden’s tangled financial affairs or to provide convincing evidence of any specific wrongdoing by the president or his family.
“It’s so hard to explain,” Comer told reporters. “Hopefully these IRS agents can do a better job explaining than I can.”
In the previous closed-door interviews, Shapley had described IRS agents’ efforts to execute a search warrant of a Virginia storage facility where the younger Biden’s documents were being stored. He said the assistant U.S. attorney involved in the case reached out to Hunter Biden’s lawyers, in a move that is seen as customary in cases involving high-profile individuals, but it ruined “our chance to get to evidence before being destroyed, manipulated, or concealed.”
A similar occurrence happened when the FBI officials notified Hunter Biden’s Secret Service detail ahead of an effort to interview him and several of his business associates in order to avoid a potential shoot-off between two law enforcement bodies.
Justice Department officials have countered these claims by pointing to the extraordinary set of circumstances surrounding a criminal case into a subject who at the time was the son of a leading presidential candidate. Department policy has long warned prosecutors to take care in charging cases with potential political overtones around the time of an election, to avoid any possible influence on the outcome.
During the hourslong testimony, Democrats sought to chalk up the entirety of the whistleblowers’ claims as a disagreement between prosecutors and investigators on how to move forward with charges against Hunter Biden.
“My view here is that we’re spending hours on a disagreement on whether to charge someone and we have a whole democratic process that decides that,” said Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif. “You don’t get to decide that.”
Republicans pushed back, saying that beyond charging decisions, it was clear that the prosecutors didn’t want to touch anything that would include Hunter Biden’s father. In one instance, Shapley testified that in a meeting with Weiss and Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf after the 2020 election, he and other agents wanted to discuss an email between Hunter Biden associates where one person made reference to the “big guy.” Shapley said Wolf refused to do so, saying she did not want to ask questions about “dad.”
Republicans have moved ahead, issuing a series of requests for voluntary testimony from senior Justice officials, including Weiss.
Weiss said in a letter to Jordan earlier this month that he would be happy to testify before the committee when he is legally able to share information with Congress without violating the longstanding department policy of discussing an ongoing investigation.
Testimony from Justice Department officials could come after Hunter Biden appears for his plea hearing next week.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Farnoush Amiri and Lisa Mascaro
Published Jul 19, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 6 minute read
WASHINGTON — House Republicans raised unsubstantiated allegations Wednesday against President Joe Biden over his family’s finances as they summoned IRS whistleblowers to testify publicly for the first time about claims the Justice Department improperly interfered with a tax investigation into Biden’s son Hunter.
Lawmakers heard from the two IRS agents assigned to the Hunter Biden case, which looked into his failure to pay taxes, for six hours of what was often grueling back-and-forth testimony. The hearing came after the president’s son pleaded guilty last month to misdemeanor tax charges in what Republicans have derided as a “sweetheart” deal.
Still, House Republicans are deepening their own investigation, making broad claims of corruption and wrongdoing by the Bidens, which they acknowledge have not been proven to be true.
“We will continue to follow the money trail,” said Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, as he opened the session. The Justice Department has denied the whistleblowers’ allegations. And the White House, in a statement, called the investigation and subsequent hearing part of “politically-motivated attacks on a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney, the rule of law, and the independence of our justice system.”
The top Democrat on the committee, Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, said the hearing was “a theater of the absurd.”
IRS supervisory special agent Greg Shapley, and a second agent, Joe Ziegler, claimed there was what Shapley called in testimony a pattern of “slow-walking investigative steps” into Hunter Biden, including during the Trump administration in the months before the 2020 election that Joe Biden won.
One of Shapley’s most detailed claims was that U.S. Attorney David Weiss in Delaware, the federal prosecutor who led the investigation, asked for special counsel status in order to bring the tax cases against Hunter Biden in jurisdictions outside Delaware, including the District of Columbia and California, but was denied.
Weiss and the Justice Department have denied that, saying he had “full authority” and never sought to bring charges in other states.
Shapley testified during an exchange with Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, that he wrote an email later that day to memorialize the October 2022 meeting with Weiss and five others. Shapley insisted Wednesday on his own recollection of what was said.
The second IRS whistleblower, Ziegler, described his frustrations with the way the case was handled, dating to the Trump administration under Attorney General William Barr. The tax agency employee said he started the investigation into Hunter Biden in 2015 and began to delve deeply into the now 53-year-old’s life and finances.
Ziegler, whose name was withheld in closed-door interview transcripts released last month by Republicans, said Wednesday that he decided to come forward publicly “not as a hero or a victim,” but as a married, gay Democrat “compelled to disclose the truth.”
Democrats on the committee pushed back on the whistleblower claims that Hunter Biden received special treatment because his father was the nominee for president in the upcoming 2020 election. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., made the point that it was Donald Trump who was president during the 2020 time frame when the whistleblowers allege there was interference.
Trump’s Justice Department, he noted, issued a memorandum in February 2020 telling prosecutors to “exercise particular care regarding sensitive investigations and prosecutions that relate to political candidates, campaigns and other politically sensitive individuals and organizations,” his voice rising. “Especially in an election year!”
Democrats also pointed out that Weiss was appointed by Trump and the federal investigation into Hunter Biden was initiated under Trump. Biden kept Weiss on the case after he won the election. But the hearing took several twists and turns as dozens of members from both sides of the dais sought to maximize their time with the two witnesses.
In one startling moment, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., displayed graphic sexual images of Hunter Biden with women, suggesting he had paid for them to travel to Washington, D.C., presumably for sex, in a potential violation of the law. Democrats led by Raskin objected to the graphic content being shown at a public hearing by Greene, saying it was inappropriate.
Rep. Shontel Brown, D-Ohio, questioned whether this was an investigation into the president or “of his son, who does not and has never worked at the White House.”
As Republicans decry what they say is a justice system favouring the politically connected, Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., pointed to the killing of Emmett Till and the treatment of other Black Americans across U.S. history and said, “This is the two-tiered justice system.”
Republicans for their part have sought testimony from other agents involved in the case and held a transcribed interview this week with an FBI agent, now retired, who they said was involved. But other witnesses have declined to appear before the panel.
Before the hearing, Comer, R-Ky., acknowledged it has been difficult for Republicans to succinctly outline Hunter Biden’s tangled financial affairs or to provide convincing evidence of any specific wrongdoing by the president or his family.
“It’s so hard to explain,” Comer told reporters. “Hopefully these IRS agents can do a better job explaining than I can.”
In the previous closed-door interviews, Shapley had described IRS agents’ efforts to execute a search warrant of a Virginia storage facility where the younger Biden’s documents were being stored. He said the assistant U.S. attorney involved in the case reached out to Hunter Biden’s lawyers, in a move that is seen as customary in cases involving high-profile individuals, but it ruined “our chance to get to evidence before being destroyed, manipulated, or concealed.”
A similar occurrence happened when the FBI officials notified Hunter Biden’s Secret Service detail ahead of an effort to interview him and several of his business associates in order to avoid a potential shoot-off between two law enforcement bodies.
Justice Department officials have countered these claims by pointing to the extraordinary set of circumstances surrounding a criminal case into a subject who at the time was the son of a leading presidential candidate. Department policy has long warned prosecutors to take care in charging cases with potential political overtones around the time of an election, to avoid any possible influence on the outcome.
During the hourslong testimony, Democrats sought to chalk up the entirety of the whistleblowers’ claims as a disagreement between prosecutors and investigators on how to move forward with charges against Hunter Biden.
“My view here is that we’re spending hours on a disagreement on whether to charge someone and we have a whole democratic process that decides that,” said Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif. “You don’t get to decide that.”
Republicans pushed back, saying that beyond charging decisions, it was clear that the prosecutors didn’t want to touch anything that would include Hunter Biden’s father. In one instance, Shapley testified that in a meeting with Weiss and Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf after the 2020 election, he and other agents wanted to discuss an email between Hunter Biden associates where one person made reference to the “big guy.” Shapley said Wolf refused to do so, saying she did not want to ask questions about “dad.”
Republicans have moved ahead, issuing a series of requests for voluntary testimony from senior Justice officials, including Weiss.
Weiss said in a letter to Jordan earlier this month that he would be happy to testify before the committee when he is legally able to share information with Congress without violating the longstanding department policy of discussing an ongoing investigation.
Testimony from Justice Department officials could come after Hunter Biden appears for his plea hearing next week.
IRS whistleblowers airing claims to Congress about 'slow-walking' of Hunter Biden case
Republicans raised unsubstantiated allegations against Joe Biden over his family's finances as they summoned IRS whistleblowers to testify.
We seem to have had a plethora of those lately….Jewish Space Lasers I mean, ‘cuz Global Warming, etc….
Good way to get yourself Arkansuided pursuing that line.IRS whistleblowers airing claims to Congress about 'slow-walking' of Hunter Biden case
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Farnoush Amiri and Lisa Mascaro
Published Jul 19, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 6 minute read
WASHINGTON — House Republicans raised unsubstantiated allegations Wednesday against President Joe Biden over his family’s finances as they summoned IRS whistleblowers to testify publicly for the first time about claims the Justice Department improperly interfered with a tax investigation into Biden’s son Hunter.
Lawmakers heard from the two IRS agents assigned to the Hunter Biden case, which looked into his failure to pay taxes, for six hours of what was often grueling back-and-forth testimony. The hearing came after the president’s son pleaded guilty last month to misdemeanor tax charges in what Republicans have derided as a “sweetheart” deal.
Still, House Republicans are deepening their own investigation, making broad claims of corruption and wrongdoing by the Bidens, which they acknowledge have not been proven to be true.
“We will continue to follow the money trail,” said Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, as he opened the session. The Justice Department has denied the whistleblowers’ allegations. And the White House, in a statement, called the investigation and subsequent hearing part of “politically-motivated attacks on a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney, the rule of law, and the independence of our justice system.”
The top Democrat on the committee, Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, said the hearing was “a theater of the absurd.”
IRS supervisory special agent Greg Shapley, and a second agent, Joe Ziegler, claimed there was what Shapley called in testimony a pattern of “slow-walking investigative steps” into Hunter Biden, including during the Trump administration in the months before the 2020 election that Joe Biden won.
One of Shapley’s most detailed claims was that U.S. Attorney David Weiss in Delaware, the federal prosecutor who led the investigation, asked for special counsel status in order to bring the tax cases against Hunter Biden in jurisdictions outside Delaware, including the District of Columbia and California, but was denied.
Weiss and the Justice Department have denied that, saying he had “full authority” and never sought to bring charges in other states.
Shapley testified during an exchange with Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, that he wrote an email later that day to memorialize the October 2022 meeting with Weiss and five others. Shapley insisted Wednesday on his own recollection of what was said.
The second IRS whistleblower, Ziegler, described his frustrations with the way the case was handled, dating to the Trump administration under Attorney General William Barr. The tax agency employee said he started the investigation into Hunter Biden in 2015 and began to delve deeply into the now 53-year-old’s life and finances.
Ziegler, whose name was withheld in closed-door interview transcripts released last month by Republicans, said Wednesday that he decided to come forward publicly “not as a hero or a victim,” but as a married, gay Democrat “compelled to disclose the truth.”
Democrats on the committee pushed back on the whistleblower claims that Hunter Biden received special treatment because his father was the nominee for president in the upcoming 2020 election. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., made the point that it was Donald Trump who was president during the 2020 time frame when the whistleblowers allege there was interference.
Trump’s Justice Department, he noted, issued a memorandum in February 2020 telling prosecutors to “exercise particular care regarding sensitive investigations and prosecutions that relate to political candidates, campaigns and other politically sensitive individuals and organizations,” his voice rising. “Especially in an election year!”
Democrats also pointed out that Weiss was appointed by Trump and the federal investigation into Hunter Biden was initiated under Trump. Biden kept Weiss on the case after he won the election. But the hearing took several twists and turns as dozens of members from both sides of the dais sought to maximize their time with the two witnesses.
In one startling moment, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., displayed graphic sexual images of Hunter Biden with women, suggesting he had paid for them to travel to Washington, D.C., presumably for sex, in a potential violation of the law. Democrats led by Raskin objected to the graphic content being shown at a public hearing by Greene, saying it was inappropriate.
Rep. Shontel Brown, D-Ohio, questioned whether this was an investigation into the president or “of his son, who does not and has never worked at the White House.”
As Republicans decry what they say is a justice system favouring the politically connected, Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., pointed to the killing of Emmett Till and the treatment of other Black Americans across U.S. history and said, “This is the two-tiered justice system.”
Republicans for their part have sought testimony from other agents involved in the case and held a transcribed interview this week with an FBI agent, now retired, who they said was involved. But other witnesses have declined to appear before the panel.
Before the hearing, Comer, R-Ky., acknowledged it has been difficult for Republicans to succinctly outline Hunter Biden’s tangled financial affairs or to provide convincing evidence of any specific wrongdoing by the president or his family.
“It’s so hard to explain,” Comer told reporters. “Hopefully these IRS agents can do a better job explaining than I can.”
In the previous closed-door interviews, Shapley had described IRS agents’ efforts to execute a search warrant of a Virginia storage facility where the younger Biden’s documents were being stored. He said the assistant U.S. attorney involved in the case reached out to Hunter Biden’s lawyers, in a move that is seen as customary in cases involving high-profile individuals, but it ruined “our chance to get to evidence before being destroyed, manipulated, or concealed.”
A similar occurrence happened when the FBI officials notified Hunter Biden’s Secret Service detail ahead of an effort to interview him and several of his business associates in order to avoid a potential shoot-off between two law enforcement bodies.
Justice Department officials have countered these claims by pointing to the extraordinary set of circumstances surrounding a criminal case into a subject who at the time was the son of a leading presidential candidate. Department policy has long warned prosecutors to take care in charging cases with potential political overtones around the time of an election, to avoid any possible influence on the outcome.
During the hourslong testimony, Democrats sought to chalk up the entirety of the whistleblowers’ claims as a disagreement between prosecutors and investigators on how to move forward with charges against Hunter Biden.
“My view here is that we’re spending hours on a disagreement on whether to charge someone and we have a whole democratic process that decides that,” said Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif. “You don’t get to decide that.”
Republicans pushed back, saying that beyond charging decisions, it was clear that the prosecutors didn’t want to touch anything that would include Hunter Biden’s father. In one instance, Shapley testified that in a meeting with Weiss and Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf after the 2020 election, he and other agents wanted to discuss an email between Hunter Biden associates where one person made reference to the “big guy.” Shapley said Wolf refused to do so, saying she did not want to ask questions about “dad.”
Republicans have moved ahead, issuing a series of requests for voluntary testimony from senior Justice officials, including Weiss.
Weiss said in a letter to Jordan earlier this month that he would be happy to testify before the committee when he is legally able to share information with Congress without violating the longstanding department policy of discussing an ongoing investigation.
Testimony from Justice Department officials could come after Hunter Biden appears for his plea hearing next week.
IRS whistleblowers airing claims to Congress about 'slow-walking' of Hunter Biden case
Republicans raised unsubstantiated allegations against Joe Biden over his family's finances as they summoned IRS whistleblowers to testify.
Marjorie Taylor Greene's Hunter Biden sex snapshot reveal her latest stunt
Author of the article:Brad Hunter
Published Jul 20, 2023 • Last updated 2 days ago • 3 minute read
People watch as U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) holds up a graphic photo of Hunter Biden during the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability hearing regarding the criminal investigation into the Bidens, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on July 19, 2023.
People watch as U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) holds up a graphic photo of Hunter Biden during the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability hearing regarding the criminal investigation into the Bidens, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on July 19, 2023. PHOTO BY BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI
GOP gadfly Marjorie Taylor Greene is pulling out all the sexxx-rated stops to torpedo Hunter Biden.
And on Wednesday, the Georgia Republican topped herself at the House Oversight Committee hearing.
Greene — no stranger to controversy — pulled out a slew of NSFW full-frontal photos of the first son romping with a bevy of beauties.
She warned viewers watching at home that “parental discretion is advised” and called the images “disturbing.”
The blond bad girl asked IRS whistleblower Joseph Ziegler whether Hunter Biden had violated the Mann Act, a law that bans the transportation of women across state lines “for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose.”
Greene flashed an image of a woman caressing the political scion’s penis.
Ziegler offered one morsel: “I can tell you that there were deductions for what we believe to be escorts and then that $10,000 golf club membership, yes. That was not a golf club membership. That was for a sex club payment.”
For the rabid Donald Trump devotee, this is all par for the course. From sexual affairs with her personal trainers to a bitter feud with fellow guns and gams purveyor Lauren Boebert, Greene has made her mark.
WHO
MTG, as she is known, was born in Georgia and is 49. Before entering politics, she was a businesswoman with a penchant for conspiracy theories. She is divorced with three children and was first elected to Congress in 2020.
OUT THERE
MTG looooves conspiracy theories. Even before she was elected, her CC (curriculum conspiracy) included: The white genocide theory, QAnon, and Pizzagate. She also believes the U.S. government has a hand in the slew of mass shootings plaguing the country, the 9/11 terrorist attacks and has called for the execution of former U.S. President Barack Obama.
TANTRIC SEX
Family values proponent MTG was hit with divorce papers last year. Reason? Cheating with a tantric sex guru during her 27-year marriage to Perry Greene. There had also been whispers of carnal capers with personal trainers but for Perry, the sexcapades with the polyamorous tantric sex guru were the last straw. MTG called it “ridiculous tabloid garbage” started by a “communist.”
One co-worker told the Daily Mail: “It wasn’t a secret. Everyone who moved in her circles knew about both the affairs.”
DIVORCE
The MAGA queen bee officially was on the dating market last December when her divorce was finalized in a secret out-of-court settlement. The couple spent three months divvying up their multimillion-dollar marital assets, which included stocks, mansions and a construction company. Perry Greene described the marriage in court papers as “irretrievably broken.”
NEW MAN
That didn’t take long! MTG’s new main squeeze is right-wing radio host Brian Glenn. Fittingly, they reportedly became enraptured with each other at a high-octane Trump event. Oddly, his marriage imploded around the same time. He says they’re just “friends.”
MTG and pistol-packing Colorado Republican Lauren Boebert should be besties but they’re not. Boebert was against House Speaker Kevin McCarthy while MTG ticked his box. Things hit the boiling point in the ladies’ room. Greene allegedly stormed out of a stall castigating her former friend and was told “don’t be ugly.” A witness said Boebert “ran out like a little schoolgirl.”
“WHORE”
Not everyone loves MTG, including some of her GOP soulmates. Her support of McCarthy, who wouldn’t impeach President Joe Biden, feuding with GOP golden girl Boebert and her alleged sexual antics are cited as the reasons. Right-wing players have called her a “trailer park hood rat,” and Boebert mocked the controversial Georgian for her belief in “Jewish space lasers.”
Right-wing radio host Stew Peters hit below the belt: He called her a “two-bit whore.”
bhunter@postmedia.com
@HunterTOSun
![1542727758-scaled-e1689868481183[1].jpg](https://forums.canadiancontent.net/data/attachments/17/17049-ce008b207fed86cd6372f8c9d3cf8cd3.jpg "1542727758-scaled-e1689868481183[1].jpg")
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Brad Hunter
Published Jul 20, 2023 • Last updated 2 days ago • 3 minute read
People watch as U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) holds up a graphic photo of Hunter Biden during the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability hearing regarding the criminal investigation into the Bidens, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on July 19, 2023.
People watch as U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) holds up a graphic photo of Hunter Biden during the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability hearing regarding the criminal investigation into the Bidens, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on July 19, 2023. PHOTO BY BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI
GOP gadfly Marjorie Taylor Greene is pulling out all the sexxx-rated stops to torpedo Hunter Biden.
And on Wednesday, the Georgia Republican topped herself at the House Oversight Committee hearing.
Greene — no stranger to controversy — pulled out a slew of NSFW full-frontal photos of the first son romping with a bevy of beauties.
She warned viewers watching at home that “parental discretion is advised” and called the images “disturbing.”
The blond bad girl asked IRS whistleblower Joseph Ziegler whether Hunter Biden had violated the Mann Act, a law that bans the transportation of women across state lines “for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose.”
Greene flashed an image of a woman caressing the political scion’s penis.
Ziegler offered one morsel: “I can tell you that there were deductions for what we believe to be escorts and then that $10,000 golf club membership, yes. That was not a golf club membership. That was for a sex club payment.”
For the rabid Donald Trump devotee, this is all par for the course. From sexual affairs with her personal trainers to a bitter feud with fellow guns and gams purveyor Lauren Boebert, Greene has made her mark.
WHO
MTG, as she is known, was born in Georgia and is 49. Before entering politics, she was a businesswoman with a penchant for conspiracy theories. She is divorced with three children and was first elected to Congress in 2020.
OUT THERE
MTG looooves conspiracy theories. Even before she was elected, her CC (curriculum conspiracy) included: The white genocide theory, QAnon, and Pizzagate. She also believes the U.S. government has a hand in the slew of mass shootings plaguing the country, the 9/11 terrorist attacks and has called for the execution of former U.S. President Barack Obama.
TANTRIC SEX
Family values proponent MTG was hit with divorce papers last year. Reason? Cheating with a tantric sex guru during her 27-year marriage to Perry Greene. There had also been whispers of carnal capers with personal trainers but for Perry, the sexcapades with the polyamorous tantric sex guru were the last straw. MTG called it “ridiculous tabloid garbage” started by a “communist.”
One co-worker told the Daily Mail: “It wasn’t a secret. Everyone who moved in her circles knew about both the affairs.”
DIVORCE
The MAGA queen bee officially was on the dating market last December when her divorce was finalized in a secret out-of-court settlement. The couple spent three months divvying up their multimillion-dollar marital assets, which included stocks, mansions and a construction company. Perry Greene described the marriage in court papers as “irretrievably broken.”
NEW MAN
That didn’t take long! MTG’s new main squeeze is right-wing radio host Brian Glenn. Fittingly, they reportedly became enraptured with each other at a high-octane Trump event. Oddly, his marriage imploded around the same time. He says they’re just “friends.”
MTG and pistol-packing Colorado Republican Lauren Boebert should be besties but they’re not. Boebert was against House Speaker Kevin McCarthy while MTG ticked his box. Things hit the boiling point in the ladies’ room. Greene allegedly stormed out of a stall castigating her former friend and was told “don’t be ugly.” A witness said Boebert “ran out like a little schoolgirl.”
“WHORE”
Not everyone loves MTG, including some of her GOP soulmates. Her support of McCarthy, who wouldn’t impeach President Joe Biden, feuding with GOP golden girl Boebert and her alleged sexual antics are cited as the reasons. Right-wing players have called her a “trailer park hood rat,” and Boebert mocked the controversial Georgian for her belief in “Jewish space lasers.”
Right-wing radio host Stew Peters hit below the belt: He called her a “two-bit whore.”
bhunter@postmedia.com
@HunterTOSun
Marjorie Taylor Greene's Hunter Biden sex snapshot reveal her latest stunt
GOP gadfly Marjorie Taylor Greene is pulling out all the sexxx-rated stops to torpedo Hunter Biden.
Marjorie Taylor Greene's Hunter Biden sex snapshot reveal her latest stunt
Author of the article:Brad Hunter
Published Jul 20, 2023 • Last updated 2 days ago • 3 minute read
People watch as U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) holds up a graphic photo of Hunter Biden during the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability hearing regarding the criminal investigation into the Bidens, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on July 19, 2023.
People watch as U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) holds up a graphic photo of Hunter Biden during the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability hearing regarding the criminal investigation into the Bidens, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on July 19, 2023. PHOTO BY BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI
GOP gadfly Marjorie Taylor Greene is pulling out all the sexxx-rated stops to torpedo Hunter Biden.
And on Wednesday, the Georgia Republican topped herself at the House Oversight Committee hearing.
Greene — no stranger to controversy — pulled out a slew of NSFW full-frontal photos of the first son romping with a bevy of beauties.
She warned viewers watching at home that “parental discretion is advised” and called the images “disturbing.”
The blond bad girl asked IRS whistleblower Joseph Ziegler whether Hunter Biden had violated the Mann Act, a law that bans the transportation of women across state lines “for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose.”
Greene flashed an image of a woman caressing the political scion’s penis.
Ziegler offered one morsel: “I can tell you that there were deductions for what we believe to be escorts and then that $10,000 golf club membership, yes. That was not a golf club membership. That was for a sex club payment.”
For the rabid Donald Trump devotee, this is all par for the course. From sexual affairs with her personal trainers to a bitter feud with fellow guns and gams purveyor Lauren Boebert, Greene has made her mark.
WHO
MTG, as she is known, was born in Georgia and is 49. Before entering politics, she was a businesswoman with a penchant for conspiracy theories. She is divorced with three children and was first elected to Congress in 2020.
OUT THERE
MTG looooves conspiracy theories. Even before she was elected, her CC (curriculum conspiracy) included: The white genocide theory, QAnon, and Pizzagate. She also believes the U.S. government has a hand in the slew of mass shootings plaguing the country, the 9/11 terrorist attacks and has called for the execution of former U.S. President Barack Obama.
TANTRIC SEX
Family values proponent MTG was hit with divorce papers last year. Reason? Cheating with a tantric sex guru during her 27-year marriage to Perry Greene. There had also been whispers of carnal capers with personal trainers but for Perry, the sexcapades with the polyamorous tantric sex guru were the last straw. MTG called it “ridiculous tabloid garbage” started by a “communist.”
One co-worker told the Daily Mail: “It wasn’t a secret. Everyone who moved in her circles knew about both the affairs.”
DIVORCE
The MAGA queen bee officially was on the dating market last December when her divorce was finalized in a secret out-of-court settlement. The couple spent three months divvying up their multimillion-dollar marital assets, which included stocks, mansions and a construction company. Perry Greene described the marriage in court papers as “irretrievably broken.”
NEW MAN
That didn’t take long! MTG’s new main squeeze is right-wing radio host Brian Glenn. Fittingly, they reportedly became enraptured with each other at a high-octane Trump event. Oddly, his marriage imploded around the same time. He says they’re just “friends.”
MTG and pistol-packing Colorado Republican Lauren Boebert should be besties but they’re not. Boebert was against House Speaker Kevin McCarthy while MTG ticked his box. Things hit the boiling point in the ladies’ room. Greene allegedly stormed out of a stall castigating her former friend and was told “don’t be ugly.” A witness said Boebert “ran out like a little schoolgirl.”
“WHORE”
Not everyone loves MTG, including some of her GOP soulmates. Her support of McCarthy, who wouldn’t impeach President Joe Biden, feuding with GOP golden girl Boebert and her alleged sexual antics are cited as the reasons. Right-wing players have called her a “trailer park hood rat,” and Boebert mocked the controversial Georgian for her belief in “Jewish space lasers.”
Right-wing radio host Stew Peters hit below the belt: He called her a “two-bit whore.”
bhunter@postmedia.com
@HunterTOSun
View attachment 18787
Marjorie Taylor Greene's Hunter Biden sex snapshot reveal her latest stunt
GOP gadfly Marjorie Taylor Greene is pulling out all the sexxx-rated stops to torpedo Hunter Biden.
Well at least MTG can - hopefully - get into trouble over this.
Bitch needs to be kicked out of office, ASAP.