Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
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The Juggler
Behind that bush over there. Posts: 47,337
I look forward to Gym Jordan and Came&Went contradicting this with the documentary evidence, much like what happened in POOTWH's fraud trial. Yea, right. And a reminder for all the POOTWH lovers out there who are keeping score, SteveO and Gym Jordan have yet to testify before Congress and answer their subpoenas.
James Biden says President Biden had no involvement in his business deals
The president’s brother, questioned Wednesday by House committees, said President Biden was never part of his work
President Biden’s younger brother James, in a lengthy opening statement at the start of a deposition for the House Republican-led impeachment inquiry, said Joe Biden had no role in any of his business dealings that are now under scrutiny.
“I have had a 50-year career in a variety of business ventures,” he said, according to a copy of his opening statement obtained by The Washington Post. “Joe Biden has never had any involvement or any direct or indirect financial interest in those activities. None.”
He testified that he has kept his professional life separate from their personal relationship, adding, “I never asked my brother to take any official action on behalf of me, my business associates, or anyone else.”
The testimony comes as House Republicans have struggled to uncover firm evidence that Joe Biden benefited from — or played a role in — the business pursuits of his family members, especially his brother and his son Hunter, who is scheduled to appear before the House next week.
The appearances of James and Hunter Biden before the Oversight and Judiciary committees could provide Republicans with a final chance to alter the trajectory of an impeachment inquiry that so far has produced mostly exculpatory statements, despite Republicans’ efforts to prove that the president benefited improperly from his family’s businesses. Republicans argue that because Biden sometimes made informal appearances at business meetings, he was in effect using his office and its prestige to enrich his family (though a number of these meetings occurred when he was not in office).
While James Biden’s opening statement provided sweeping denials, it was followed by hours of closed-door questioning Wednesday afternoon that could yield more information. The interview continued into the evening, making it among the longest sessions conducted during a burst of recent depositions.
Each side typically releases its own account of what occurred, and it takes at least several days for the Republican majority to release a full transcript of the interview.
During a break in the hearing, Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, told reporters that little new ground was being broken during the interview. “We obviously again have heard nothing indicating that Joe Biden had anything to do with the business ventures of Hunter Biden or James Biden,” he said. “And nothing has contradicted that basic understanding that we’ve had for many, many months now.”
He described the room and the interview as “a subdued affair.”
“It feels to me as if everyone knows the impeachment investigation is over,” Raskin said. “There’s a quality of just going through the motions here.”
Republicans’ efforts to build a case against President Biden took a hit recently when special counsel David Weiss charged a former FBI informant with lying about the Bidens’ business dealings. Republicans had previously touted the informant’s explosive assertion that executives of a Ukrainian energy firm said they had hired Hunter Biden so his father could protect their company in various ways.
During his opening statement, James Biden for the first time provided his account of a $200,000 loan repayment that he made to his brother. House Republicans have focused on that transaction because the money was repaid on the same day James Biden received $200,000 from a health-care company that later filed for bankruptcy and sued James Biden.
James Biden said that his consulting work at times provided episodic income and that he struggled to pay all his predictable bills — including tuition payments for three children — along with unforeseeable ones, such as medical expenses and hurricane damage to a Florida home.
“In those instances, we have turned to financial institutions, friends, business partners, or family for loans,” James Biden said in the statement. “Some of those obligations were reduced to writing; others were not. On each occasion, we did our best to repay the debts in full. Some individuals forgave the outstanding obligations.”
James Biden said he does not believe that his brother knew about the loans other than the one he himself provided.
“They were short-term loans that I received from Joe when he was a private citizen, and I repaid them within weeks,” he said. “He had no information at all about the source of the funds I used to repay him. The complete explanation is that Joe lent me money, and I repaid him as soon as I had the funds to do so.”
James Biden has long been an integral part of the Biden family, though often in the background. President Biden has in recent years described him as “my brother Jimmy, who fixes everything.” He was by his brother’s side at his first wedding, was at the hospital when Joe’s son Beau died and found a neurosurgeon when Joe had a brain aneurysm.
“I’m the guy who assists in everything. When it comes to my family I try to be as supportive as I can,” James Biden told The Post in a rare interview in 2022. “But this notion of ‘the fixer,’ or any reference that has a negative connotation, is offensive.”
He added, “The notion I am some underworld figure and I am a fixer or the cleaner or I’m this or that — I’m a very concerned family member who tries to protect my family in every way I can, in what is a very ethical way.”
During his opening statement Wednesday, James Biden recounted the early part of his brother’s career and how it intertwined with his own. James Biden left the University of Delaware to work full-time on his brother’s Senate campaign, with a focus on raising money. He traveled around the country meeting with potential donors.
“The intensity of that process forged some very strong bonds. Many of the people I met during that initial campaign, and over the next several years in subsequent campaigns, became my life-long friends, acquaintances, and contacts,” he said in his statement. “And indeed, many of those people knew me first and far better than they knew my older brother Joe.”
He also talked about the family’s grief when Joe Biden’s first wife, Neilia, and their children were in a car accident shortly after the 1972 Senate election. Neilia and a baby daughter were killed, while Beau and Hunter were injured and spent weeks recovering in a hospital. It was James Biden who went to the hospital to identify the bodies, and he was the one to deliver the news to Neilia’s parents and his own.
He said he was about 15 credits short of graduation at the time, but he left college to spend time with his nephews and try to start a business career.
James Biden outlined some of the ventures he explored, including those that involved his nephew Hunter. Among other things, he provided new details of a lucrative deal that he and Hunter struck with a Chinese energy conglomerate called CEFC.
He said that Hunter had asked him to join and, partly because Hunter was in the throes of addiction and divorce, “I agreed to help, and I hoped that by staying nearby, I could provide Hunter with guidance and additional emotional support.”
Hunter and James Biden had several business partners in their negotiations with CEFC. One of those, Tony Bobulinski, has become one of the few witnesses to say that Joe Biden was aware of his family members’ business activities.
James Biden, however, said in his statement that he found Bobulinski was “tremendously arrogant; was often disrespectful and a bad listener; acted like a stubborn bully; and seemed intent on assuming control of the deal and undermining Hunter’s role.”
He suggested that Bobulinski’s disparaging comments reflected his frustration at being cut out of the deal at the time. “To the extent Mr. Bobulinski has said or suggested that I ever sought to, or did, involve my brother in any business dealings with CEFC — or anyone else for that matter — those allegations are false,” James Biden said.
He cast it as “a straightforward business venture,” adding, “My brother played no role, was not involved with, and received no benefits from my work with CEFC.”
And he concluded with an appeal to the lawmakers to bring their investigation to a close.
“It is difficult to open my personal and professional life to such intense public scrutiny, but I am doing so to comply with the Committees’ inquiry. And I have nothing to hide,” James Biden said. “With my appearance here today, the Committees will have the information to conclude that the negative and destructive assumptions about me and my relationship with my brother Joe are wrong. There is no basis for this inquiry to continue.”
I look forward to Gym Jordan and Came&Went contradicting this with the documentary evidence, much like what happened in POOTWH's fraud trial. Yea, right. And a reminder for all the POOTWH lovers out there who are keeping score, SteveO and Gym Jordan have yet to testify before Congress and answer their subpoenas.
James Biden says President Biden had no involvement in his business deals
The president’s brother, questioned Wednesday by House committees, said President Biden was never part of his work
President Biden’s younger brother James, in a lengthy opening statement at the start of a deposition for the House Republican-led impeachment inquiry, said Joe Biden had no role in any of his business dealings that are now under scrutiny.
“I have had a 50-year career in a variety of business ventures,” he said, according to a copy of his opening statement obtained by The Washington Post. “Joe Biden has never had any involvement or any direct or indirect financial interest in those activities. None.”
He testified that he has kept his professional life separate from their personal relationship, adding, “I never asked my brother to take any official action on behalf of me, my business associates, or anyone else.”
The testimony comes as House Republicans have struggled to uncover firm evidence that Joe Biden benefited from — or played a role in — the business pursuits of his family members, especially his brother and his son Hunter, who is scheduled to appear before the House next week.
The appearances of James and Hunter Biden before the Oversight and Judiciary committees could provide Republicans with a final chance to alter the trajectory of an impeachment inquiry that so far has produced mostly exculpatory statements, despite Republicans’ efforts to prove that the president benefited improperly from his family’s businesses. Republicans argue that because Biden sometimes made informal appearances at business meetings, he was in effect using his office and its prestige to enrich his family (though a number of these meetings occurred when he was not in office).
While James Biden’s opening statement provided sweeping denials, it was followed by hours of closed-door questioning Wednesday afternoon that could yield more information. The interview continued into the evening, making it among the longest sessions conducted during a burst of recent depositions.
Each side typically releases its own account of what occurred, and it takes at least several days for the Republican majority to release a full transcript of the interview.
During a break in the hearing, Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, told reporters that little new ground was being broken during the interview. “We obviously again have heard nothing indicating that Joe Biden had anything to do with the business ventures of Hunter Biden or James Biden,” he said. “And nothing has contradicted that basic understanding that we’ve had for many, many months now.”
He described the room and the interview as “a subdued affair.”
“It feels to me as if everyone knows the impeachment investigation is over,” Raskin said. “There’s a quality of just going through the motions here.”
Republicans’ efforts to build a case against President Biden took a hit recently when special counsel David Weiss charged a former FBI informant with lying about the Bidens’ business dealings. Republicans had previously touted the informant’s explosive assertion that executives of a Ukrainian energy firm said they had hired Hunter Biden so his father could protect their company in various ways.
During his opening statement, James Biden for the first time provided his account of a $200,000 loan repayment that he made to his brother. House Republicans have focused on that transaction because the money was repaid on the same day James Biden received $200,000 from a health-care company that later filed for bankruptcy and sued James Biden.
James Biden said that his consulting work at times provided episodic income and that he struggled to pay all his predictable bills — including tuition payments for three children — along with unforeseeable ones, such as medical expenses and hurricane damage to a Florida home.
“In those instances, we have turned to financial institutions, friends, business partners, or family for loans,” James Biden said in the statement. “Some of those obligations were reduced to writing; others were not. On each occasion, we did our best to repay the debts in full. Some individuals forgave the outstanding obligations.”
James Biden said he does not believe that his brother knew about the loans other than the one he himself provided.
“They were short-term loans that I received from Joe when he was a private citizen, and I repaid them within weeks,” he said. “He had no information at all about the source of the funds I used to repay him. The complete explanation is that Joe lent me money, and I repaid him as soon as I had the funds to do so.”
James Biden has long been an integral part of the Biden family, though often in the background. President Biden has in recent years described him as “my brother Jimmy, who fixes everything.” He was by his brother’s side at his first wedding, was at the hospital when Joe’s son Beau died and found a neurosurgeon when Joe had a brain aneurysm.
“I’m the guy who assists in everything. When it comes to my family I try to be as supportive as I can,” James Biden told The Post in a rare interview in 2022. “But this notion of ‘the fixer,’ or any reference that has a negative connotation, is offensive.”
He added, “The notion I am some underworld figure and I am a fixer or the cleaner or I’m this or that — I’m a very concerned family member who tries to protect my family in every way I can, in what is a very ethical way.”
During his opening statement Wednesday, James Biden recounted the early part of his brother’s career and how it intertwined with his own. James Biden left the University of Delaware to work full-time on his brother’s Senate campaign, with a focus on raising money. He traveled around the country meeting with potential donors.
“The intensity of that process forged some very strong bonds. Many of the people I met during that initial campaign, and over the next several years in subsequent campaigns, became my life-long friends, acquaintances, and contacts,” he said in his statement. “And indeed, many of those people knew me first and far better than they knew my older brother Joe.”
He also talked about the family’s grief when Joe Biden’s first wife, Neilia, and their children were in a car accident shortly after the 1972 Senate election. Neilia and a baby daughter were killed, while Beau and Hunter were injured and spent weeks recovering in a hospital. It was James Biden who went to the hospital to identify the bodies, and he was the one to deliver the news to Neilia’s parents and his own.
He said he was about 15 credits short of graduation at the time, but he left college to spend time with his nephews and try to start a business career.
James Biden outlined some of the ventures he explored, including those that involved his nephew Hunter. Among other things, he provided new details of a lucrative deal that he and Hunter struck with a Chinese energy conglomerate called CEFC.
He said that Hunter had asked him to join and, partly because Hunter was in the throes of addiction and divorce, “I agreed to help, and I hoped that by staying nearby, I could provide Hunter with guidance and additional emotional support.”
Hunter and James Biden had several business partners in their negotiations with CEFC. One of those, Tony Bobulinski, has become one of the few witnesses to say that Joe Biden was aware of his family members’ business activities.
James Biden, however, said in his statement that he found Bobulinski was “tremendously arrogant; was often disrespectful and a bad listener; acted like a stubborn bully; and seemed intent on assuming control of the deal and undermining Hunter’s role.”
He suggested that Bobulinski’s disparaging comments reflected his frustration at being cut out of the deal at the time. “To the extent Mr. Bobulinski has said or suggested that I ever sought to, or did, involve my brother in any business dealings with CEFC — or anyone else for that matter — those allegations are false,” James Biden said.
He cast it as “a straightforward business venture,” adding, “My brother played no role, was not involved with, and received no benefits from my work with CEFC.”
And he concluded with an appeal to the lawmakers to bring their investigation to a close.
“It is difficult to open my personal and professional life to such intense public scrutiny, but I am doing so to comply with the Committees’ inquiry. And I have nothing to hide,” James Biden said. “With my appearance here today, the Committees will have the information to conclude that the negative and destructive assumptions about me and my relationship with my brother Joe are wrong. There is no basis for this inquiry to continue.”
Did they have Hunter’s “other” laptop? Q wants to know.
Two arrested in break-in of vehicle used by Biden’s granddaughter
A man and a 14-year-old were arrested in connection with a break-in of a Secret Service vehicle used by President Biden’s granddaughter that was parked outside a Georgetown residence in November, according to authorities and court documents.
Stammering Gym 😂😂🤑 what a douche and where’s dough boy Gommer pile’s press conference on the new bombshell news? Oh and where are our MAGA friends from this board? I wanna hear their take on it 🥴
In an alternate reality, conservatives and RW media are up in arms over the government targeting a private citizen in an effort to bring down a relative who holds public office.
In an alternate reality, conservatives and RW media are up in arms over the government targeting a private citizen in an effort to bring down a relative who holds public office.
Well yeah, that's the real irony. Barr opened the investigation on Hunter, the son of the president's likely opponent, and released the information publicly. Isn't that ELECTION INTERFERENCE?
In an alternate reality, conservatives and RW media are up in arms over the government targeting a private citizen in an effort to bring down a relative who holds public office.
Well yeah, that's the real irony. Barr opened the investigation on Hunter, the son of the president's likely opponent, and released the information publicly. Isn't that ELECTION INTERFERENCE?
Of course it is, but there are different rules for them then there are for everyone else.
These are supremacists and 1/3 of our country is all in on the supremacist mindset. It's not debatable at this point.
In an alternate reality, conservatives and RW media are up in arms over the government targeting a private citizen in an effort to bring down a relative who holds public office.
Well yeah, that's the real irony. Barr opened the investigation on Hunter, the son of the president's likely opponent, and released the information publicly. Isn't that ELECTION INTERFERENCE?
Of course it is, but there are different rules for them then there are for everyone else.
These are supremacists and 1/3 of our country is all in on the supremacist mindset. It's not debatable at this point.
I don't know. That's not quite the perspective I have (not that I disagree that a third believe they should have some special privilege). I think the right wing will play as dirty as it needs and the legacy media continues to play by a rulebook that feels outdated. CNN, NBC, ABC, etc. play by the historic rule book. Fox does not.
In an alternate reality, conservatives and RW media are up in arms over the government targeting a private citizen in an effort to bring down a relative who holds public office.
Well yeah, that's the real irony. Barr opened the investigation on Hunter, the son of the president's likely opponent, and released the information publicly. Isn't that ELECTION INTERFERENCE?
Of course it is, but there are different rules for them then there are for everyone else.
These are supremacists and 1/3 of our country is all in on the supremacist mindset. It's not debatable at this point.
I don't know. That's not quite the perspective I have (not that I disagree that a third believe they should have some special privilege). I think the right wing will play as dirty as it needs and the legacy media continues to play by a rulebook that feels outdated. CNN, NBC, ABC, etc. play by the historic rule book. Fox does not.
I'm talking less about the media and more the MAGA mindset.
In an alternate reality, conservatives and RW media are up in arms over the government targeting a private citizen in an effort to bring down a relative who holds public office.
Well yeah, that's the real irony. Barr opened the investigation on Hunter, the son of the president's likely opponent, and released the information publicly. Isn't that ELECTION INTERFERENCE?
Of course it is, but there are different rules for them then there are for everyone else.
These are supremacists and 1/3 of our country is all in on the supremacist mindset. It's not debatable at this point.
I don't know. That's not quite the perspective I have (not that I disagree that a third believe they should have some special privilege). I think the right wing will play as dirty as it needs and the legacy media continues to play by a rulebook that feels outdated. CNN, NBC, ABC, etc. play by the historic rule book. Fox does not.
I'm talking less about the media and more the MAGA mindset.
Had a magat client in my office yesterday. He was ranting to our office admin about how horrible the economy is, the deficits, how immigrants are leaching off of us, all of them are on welfare, he even mentioned something about how all blacks are on welfare or something to that effect.
His wife's W-2 (he's a house husband) was roughly $2mil.
Remember the Thomas Nine !! (10/02/2018)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago 2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy 2013: London ON, Chicago; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE) 2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston 2020: Oakland, Oakland:2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana 2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville 2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
Had a magat client in my office yesterday. He was ranting to our office admin about how horrible the economy is, the deficits, how immigrants are leaching off of us, all of them are on welfare, he even mentioned something about how all blacks are on welfare or something to that effect.
His wife's W-2 (he's a house husband) was roughly $2mil.
Had a magat client in my office yesterday. He was ranting to our office admin about how horrible the economy is, the deficits, how immigrants are leaching off of us, all of them are on welfare, he even mentioned something about how all blacks are on welfare or something to that effect.
His wife's W-2 (he's a house husband) was roughly $2mil.
I don't know how you do it.
I try to ignore it but it's hard sometimes.
Remember the Thomas Nine !! (10/02/2018)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago 2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy 2013: London ON, Chicago; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE) 2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston 2020: Oakland, Oakland:2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana 2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville 2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
Had a magat client in my office yesterday. He was ranting to our office admin about how horrible the economy is, the deficits, how immigrants are leaching off of us, all of them are on welfare, he even mentioned something about how all blacks are on welfare or something to that effect.
His wife's W-2 (he's a house husband) was roughly $2mil.
I don't know how you do it.
I try to ignore it but it's hard sometimes.
That dude needs to at least learn to read the room. (i.e., working people without 7-figure incomes).
Reminds me of a far less egregious complaint I heard at a city office I worked at in like 2006. Small city; no long drives.
"...and the ridiculous gas prices. It really adds up when you're driving an escalade up that hill."
1) read the room 2) you intentionally bought a $60,000 gas-guzzler for your small city driving around and now you're unhappy about the cost of a finite resource.
1995 Milwaukee 1998 Alpine, Alpine 2003 Albany, Boston, Boston, Boston 2004 Boston, Boston 2006 Hartford, St. Paul (Petty), St. Paul (Petty) 2011 Alpine, Alpine 2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
Had a magat client in my office yesterday. He was ranting to our office admin about how horrible the economy is, the deficits, how immigrants are leaching off of us, all of them are on welfare, he even mentioned something about how all blacks are on welfare or something to that effect.
His wife's W-2 (he's a house husband) was roughly $2mil.
I don't know how you do it.
I try to ignore it but it's hard sometimes.
That dude needs to at least learn to read the room. (i.e., working people without 7-figure incomes).
Reminds me of a far less egregious complaint I heard at a city office I worked at in like 2006. Small city; no long drives.
"...and the ridiculous gas prices. It really adds up when you're driving an escalade up that hill."
1) read the room 2) you intentionally bought a $60,000 gas-guzzler for your small city driving around and now you're unhappy about the cost of a finite resource.
What gets me is that his verbiage is about identical to my brother in law who famously told me that the only reason Obama was elected was because of "all the niXXXXX".
Except his W-2 is probably closer to $60K. Same values/same rhetoric though.
Remember the Thomas Nine !! (10/02/2018)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago 2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy 2013: London ON, Chicago; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE) 2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston 2020: Oakland, Oakland:2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana 2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville 2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
You don't say? Now, how's that fruit from the poison tree tasting? Any. Day. Now. Can somebody bring Gym back to reality?
OpinionThe Biden impeachment inquiry has utterly collapsed
Until this month, House Republicans referred to information provided by a “highly credible” FBI informant as the core of their case to impeach President Biden. This week, they quietly deleted any mention of that source from official documents. This one small move speaks volumes about an ill-founded GOP crusade that seems finally to be reaching an embarrassing denouement.
Special counsel David Weiss — the man in charge of the Justice Department’s criminal case against Hunter Biden — last week filed charges against Alexander Smirnov. The 43-year-old U.S.-Israeli citizen, prosecutors say, lied to federal investigators about the Biden family’s business dealings. These lies, crucially, included claims that the president and his son each sought $5 million bribes from Ukrainian energy company Burisma when Mr. Biden was vice president, in exchange for protecting the firm from scrutiny by Ukraine’s national authorities. Now, Mr. Smirnov has also disclosed that “officials associated with Russian intelligence” fed him his information.
Of course, there’s reason for skepticism about that latest explosive allegation from this supplier of apparently bogus bombshells. The memo released on Tuesday portrays Mr. Smirnov as a con man hawking “an amalgam of otherwise unremarkable business meetings and contacts,” none of which occurred during the time period he purported, as proof of corruption. He apparently lied about his wealth, his profession and more. Prosecutors even refer to “new lies” Mr. Smirnov is “actively peddling … that could impact U.S. elections,” involving suggestions that Moscow “may use as ‘kompromat’ ” information taken from intercepted phone calls of Hunter Biden in a foreign hotel.
Might Mr. Smirnov also be lying about Russian officials providing him with dirt on the president? Absolutely. But that is the point. Either Mr. Smirnov is an asset in a current Kremlin plot to spread disinformation about the president, an eerie echo of 2016’s election interference, or he is dissembling about that, too. Either way, congressional Republicans have staked their impeachment inquiry on the words of a fabulist.
This turn of events is devastating for the Republican effort to oust the president, given how heavily the politicians orchestrating it have leaned on Mr. Smirnov’s claims. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), partnering with House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), sent a letter to the Justice Department in May demanding it release a key document that could reveal a “criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Joe Biden … involving an exchange of money for policy decisions.” “This is the biggest political corruption scandal, not only in my lifetime, but I would say the past 100 years,” Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) told Fox News when Mr. Grassley posted the form on his website last summer after the FBI refused to provide Congress with copies.
“That to me is really the heart of this matter,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said this year. “The most corroborating evidence we have is … from this highly credible, confidential human source.” On Wednesday, he insisted that the revelations about Mr. Smirnov don’t “change the facts.”
In a sense, Mr. Jordan is right: The facts about Hunter Biden’s business dealings never supported the effort to remove Joe Biden from office. Mr. Smirnov’s assertions had already been dismantled, including in a GOP Senate investigation, before the past week’s discrediting, and the witnesses Republicans have called to their hearings have sworn under oath that the president wasn’t involved in any of his son’s schemes.
The House Republicans’ impeachment quest has never been credible. Payments from son to father supposedly from Chinese businessmen looking to buy influence have turned out to be reimbursements — the father loaned his son money to buy a Ford Raptor truck because his bad credit precluded financing, nearly two years after he left the vice presidency. Similarly, a much-ballyhooed personal check to Joe Biden from his brother James Biden obtained by Mr. Comer’s committee turned out to be another repayment, offered when Joe Biden was neither a government official nor a candidate.
After authorizing their inquiry in December, Republicans could abandon it before summer — holding out hope before then that closed-door interviews with James Biden and Hunter Biden will turn up the proof of wrongdoing that so far has failed to materialize. Giving up is the right answer. The Justice Department’s case against Hunter Biden for federal tax crimes as well as falsifying paperwork on a gun purchase might be strong. But Congress’s attempt to punish President Biden for Hunter Biden’s poor decisions was always weak. Now, it has utterly collapsed.
In an alternate reality, conservatives and RW media are up in arms over the government targeting a private citizen in an effort to bring down a relative who holds public office.
Well yeah, that's the real irony. Barr opened the investigation on Hunter, the son of the president's likely opponent, and released the information publicly. Isn't that ELECTION INTERFERENCE?
Of course it is, but there are different rules for them then there are for everyone else.
These are supremacists and 1/3 of our country is all in on the supremacist mindset. It's not debatable at this point.
I don't know. That's not quite the perspective I have (not that I disagree that a third believe they should have some special privilege). I think the right wing will play as dirty as it needs and the legacy media continues to play by a rulebook that feels outdated. CNN, NBC, ABC, etc. play by the historic rule book. Fox does not.
I'm talking less about the media and more the MAGA mindset.
Well then yeah, those fuckers are racists.
I'm not even talking about white supremacists specifically (although that's a major part of the problem, no doubt). Some are Christian supremacists, some are class supremacists... the common denominator is they genuinely think they are better then others and the rules don't apply to them.
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 35,934
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Where do you think he was fleeing to? Me thinks Israel because that's who I think he was ultimately working for. And Tel Aviv has better weather than Moscow.
Where do you think he was fleeing to? Me thinks Israel because that's who I think he was ultimately working for. And Tel Aviv has better weather than Moscow.
I think he has dual citizenship with Israel, so that would make sense. He would try to fight extradition.
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 35,934
Where do you think he was fleeing to? Me thinks Israel because that's who I think he was ultimately working for. And Tel Aviv has better weather than Moscow.
I think he has dual citizenship with Israel, so that would make sense. He would try to fight extradition.
oh and Israel would certainly block extradition....
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Where do you think he was fleeing to? Me thinks Israel because that's who I think he was ultimately working for. And Tel Aviv has better weather than Moscow.
I think he has dual citizenship with Israel, so that would make sense. He would try to fight extradition.
What do you think, a little quid pro quo between Bibi and Jared Dear Boy and POOTWH for "you move the embassy to Jerusalem, and we'll help you get re-elected, eh?"
The beautiful Middle East peace deal ever, some would say the most beautiful peace deal that ever happened, was just a smoke screen.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 35,934
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
So Hunter Biden gave a deposition to the House impeachment committee behind closed doors and stated for the record and under oath that he did not involve his father in any business dealings. Straight from the horses mouth.
In exchange for this deposition, Homer and Gym agreed not to have the deposition video taped and that they would release a full transcript immediately, upon redaction of staffer names.
I fully expect they’ll hem and haw while answering questions from the press that they think Hunter wasn’t truthful, was evasive and came across as dishonest and hiding “something.” This will last through the weekend news cycle until they release the transcript late at night with little to no fanfare or heads up.
In the absence of any physical evidence or testimony that contradicts Hunter’s deposition and knowing what we know up to today, who are you going to believe?
Comments
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Chicago; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Remember, no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.
James Biden says President Biden had no involvement in his business deals
The president’s brother, questioned Wednesday by House committees, said President Biden was never part of his work
President Biden’s younger brother James, in a lengthy opening statement at the start of a deposition for the House Republican-led impeachment inquiry, said Joe Biden had no role in any of his business dealings that are now under scrutiny.“I have had a 50-year career in a variety of business ventures,” he said, according to a copy of his opening statement obtained by The Washington Post. “Joe Biden has never had any involvement or any direct or indirect financial interest in those activities. None.”
He testified that he has kept his professional life separate from their personal relationship, adding, “I never asked my brother to take any official action on behalf of me, my business associates, or anyone else.”
The testimony comes as House Republicans have struggled to uncover firm evidence that Joe Biden benefited from — or played a role in — the business pursuits of his family members, especially his brother and his son Hunter, who is scheduled to appear before the House next week.
The appearances of James and Hunter Biden before the Oversight and Judiciary committees could provide Republicans with a final chance to alter the trajectory of an impeachment inquiry that so far has produced mostly exculpatory statements, despite Republicans’ efforts to prove that the president benefited improperly from his family’s businesses. Republicans argue that because Biden sometimes made informal appearances at business meetings, he was in effect using his office and its prestige to enrich his family (though a number of these meetings occurred when he was not in office).
While James Biden’s opening statement provided sweeping denials, it was followed by hours of closed-door questioning Wednesday afternoon that could yield more information. The interview continued into the evening, making it among the longest sessions conducted during a burst of recent depositions.
Each side typically releases its own account of what occurred, and it takes at least several days for the Republican majority to release a full transcript of the interview.
As he headed into the hearing Wednesday, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the Judiciary Committee chairman, told reporters that he expected the questioning to focus on the period when Joe Biden was out of office and attempting to make money. “I call that the money, the business, the brand,” Jordan said.
During a break in the hearing, Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, told reporters that little new ground was being broken during the interview. “We obviously again have heard nothing indicating that Joe Biden had anything to do with the business ventures of Hunter Biden or James Biden,” he said. “And nothing has contradicted that basic understanding that we’ve had for many, many months now.”
He described the room and the interview as “a subdued affair.”
“It feels to me as if everyone knows the impeachment investigation is over,” Raskin said. “There’s a quality of just going through the motions here.”
Republicans’ efforts to build a case against President Biden took a hit recently when special counsel David Weiss charged a former FBI informant with lying about the Bidens’ business dealings. Republicans had previously touted the informant’s explosive assertion that executives of a Ukrainian energy firm said they had hired Hunter Biden so his father could protect their company in various ways.
During his opening statement, James Biden for the first time provided his account of a $200,000 loan repayment that he made to his brother. House Republicans have focused on that transaction because the money was repaid on the same day James Biden received $200,000 from a health-care company that later filed for bankruptcy and sued James Biden.
James Biden said that his consulting work at times provided episodic income and that he struggled to pay all his predictable bills — including tuition payments for three children — along with unforeseeable ones, such as medical expenses and hurricane damage to a Florida home.
“In those instances, we have turned to financial institutions, friends, business partners, or family for loans,” James Biden said in the statement. “Some of those obligations were reduced to writing; others were not. On each occasion, we did our best to repay the debts in full. Some individuals forgave the outstanding obligations.”
James Biden said he does not believe that his brother knew about the loans other than the one he himself provided.
“They were short-term loans that I received from Joe when he was a private citizen, and I repaid them within weeks,” he said. “He had no information at all about the source of the funds I used to repay him. The complete explanation is that Joe lent me money, and I repaid him as soon as I had the funds to do so.”
James Biden has long been an integral part of the Biden family, though often in the background. President Biden has in recent years described him as “my brother Jimmy, who fixes everything.” He was by his brother’s side at his first wedding, was at the hospital when Joe’s son Beau died and found a neurosurgeon when Joe had a brain aneurysm.
“I’m the guy who assists in everything. When it comes to my family I try to be as supportive as I can,” James Biden told The Post in a rare interview in 2022. “But this notion of ‘the fixer,’ or any reference that has a negative connotation, is offensive.”
He added, “The notion I am some underworld figure and I am a fixer or the cleaner or I’m this or that — I’m a very concerned family member who tries to protect my family in every way I can, in what is a very ethical way.”
During his opening statement Wednesday, James Biden recounted the early part of his brother’s career and how it intertwined with his own. James Biden left the University of Delaware to work full-time on his brother’s Senate campaign, with a focus on raising money. He traveled around the country meeting with potential donors.
“The intensity of that process forged some very strong bonds. Many of the people I met during that initial campaign, and over the next several years in subsequent campaigns, became my life-long friends, acquaintances, and contacts,” he said in his statement. “And indeed, many of those people knew me first and far better than they knew my older brother Joe.”
He also talked about the family’s grief when Joe Biden’s first wife, Neilia, and their children were in a car accident shortly after the 1972 Senate election. Neilia and a baby daughter were killed, while Beau and Hunter were injured and spent weeks recovering in a hospital. It was James Biden who went to the hospital to identify the bodies, and he was the one to deliver the news to Neilia’s parents and his own.
He said he was about 15 credits short of graduation at the time, but he left college to spend time with his nephews and try to start a business career.
James Biden outlined some of the ventures he explored, including those that involved his nephew Hunter. Among other things, he provided new details of a lucrative deal that he and Hunter struck with a Chinese energy conglomerate called CEFC.
He said that Hunter had asked him to join and, partly because Hunter was in the throes of addiction and divorce, “I agreed to help, and I hoped that by staying nearby, I could provide Hunter with guidance and additional emotional support.”
Hunter and James Biden had several business partners in their negotiations with CEFC. One of those, Tony Bobulinski, has become one of the few witnesses to say that Joe Biden was aware of his family members’ business activities.
James Biden, however, said in his statement that he found Bobulinski was “tremendously arrogant; was often disrespectful and a bad listener; acted like a stubborn bully; and seemed intent on assuming control of the deal and undermining Hunter’s role.”
He suggested that Bobulinski’s disparaging comments reflected his frustration at being cut out of the deal at the time. “To the extent Mr. Bobulinski has said or suggested that I ever sought to, or did, involve my brother in any business dealings with CEFC — or anyone else for that matter — those allegations are false,” James Biden said.
He cast it as “a straightforward business venture,” adding, “My brother played no role, was not involved with, and received no benefits from my work with CEFC.”
And he concluded with an appeal to the lawmakers to bring their investigation to a close.
“It is difficult to open my personal and professional life to such intense public scrutiny, but I am doing so to comply with the Committees’ inquiry. And I have nothing to hide,” James Biden said. “With my appearance here today, the Committees will have the information to conclude that the negative and destructive assumptions about me and my relationship with my brother Joe are wrong. There is no basis for this inquiry to continue.”
James Biden says President Biden had no involvement in his business deals - The Washington Post
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"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Two arrested in break-in of vehicle used by Biden’s granddaughter
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https://x.com/jules31415/status/1508970613574090755?s=46&t=8gcgOb63bxt_SN15MkuwYg
These are supremacists and 1/3 of our country is all in on the supremacist mindset. It's not debatable at this point.
His wife's W-2 (he's a house husband) was roughly $2mil.
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Chicago; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Chicago; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
Reminds me of a far less egregious complaint I heard at a city office I worked at in like 2006. Small city; no long drives.
"...and the ridiculous gas prices. It really adds up when you're driving an escalade up that hill."
1) read the room
2) you intentionally bought a $60,000 gas-guzzler for your small city driving around and now you're unhappy about the cost of a finite resource.
2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
Except his W-2 is probably closer to $60K. Same values/same rhetoric though.
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Chicago; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
Opinion The Biden impeachment inquiry has utterly collapsed
Until this month, House Republicans referred to information provided by a “highly credible” FBI informant as the core of their case to impeach President Biden. This week, they quietly deleted any mention of that source from official documents. This one small move speaks volumes about an ill-founded GOP crusade that seems finally to be reaching an embarrassing denouement.Special counsel David Weiss — the man in charge of the Justice Department’s criminal case against Hunter Biden — last week filed charges against Alexander Smirnov. The 43-year-old U.S.-Israeli citizen, prosecutors say, lied to federal investigators about the Biden family’s business dealings. These lies, crucially, included claims that the president and his son each sought $5 million bribes from Ukrainian energy company Burisma when Mr. Biden was vice president, in exchange for protecting the firm from scrutiny by Ukraine’s national authorities. Now, Mr. Smirnov has also disclosed that “officials associated with Russian intelligence” fed him his information.
Of course, there’s reason for skepticism about that latest explosive allegation from this supplier of apparently bogus bombshells. The memo released on Tuesday portrays Mr. Smirnov as a con man hawking “an amalgam of otherwise unremarkable business meetings and contacts,” none of which occurred during the time period he purported, as proof of corruption. He apparently lied about his wealth, his profession and more. Prosecutors even refer to “new lies” Mr. Smirnov is “actively peddling … that could impact U.S. elections,” involving suggestions that Moscow “may use as ‘kompromat’ ” information taken from intercepted phone calls of Hunter Biden in a foreign hotel.
Might Mr. Smirnov also be lying about Russian officials providing him with dirt on the president? Absolutely. But that is the point. Either Mr. Smirnov is an asset in a current Kremlin plot to spread disinformation about the president, an eerie echo of 2016’s election interference, or he is dissembling about that, too. Either way, congressional Republicans have staked their impeachment inquiry on the words of a fabulist.
This turn of events is devastating for the Republican effort to oust the president, given how heavily the politicians orchestrating it have leaned on Mr. Smirnov’s claims. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), partnering with House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), sent a letter to the Justice Department in May demanding it release a key document that could reveal a “criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Joe Biden … involving an exchange of money for policy decisions.” “This is the biggest political corruption scandal, not only in my lifetime, but I would say the past 100 years,” Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) told Fox News when Mr. Grassley posted the form on his website last summer after the FBI refused to provide Congress with copies.
“That to me is really the heart of this matter,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said this year. “The most corroborating evidence we have is … from this highly credible, confidential human source.” On Wednesday, he insisted that the revelations about Mr. Smirnov don’t “change the facts.”
In a sense, Mr. Jordan is right: The facts about Hunter Biden’s business dealings never supported the effort to remove Joe Biden from office. Mr. Smirnov’s assertions had already been dismantled, including in a GOP Senate investigation, before the past week’s discrediting, and the witnesses Republicans have called to their hearings have sworn under oath that the president wasn’t involved in any of his son’s schemes.
The House Republicans’ impeachment quest has never been credible. Payments from son to father supposedly from Chinese businessmen looking to buy influence have turned out to be reimbursements — the father loaned his son money to buy a Ford Raptor truck because his bad credit precluded financing, nearly two years after he left the vice presidency. Similarly, a much-ballyhooed personal check to Joe Biden from his brother James Biden obtained by Mr. Comer’s committee turned out to be another repayment, offered when Joe Biden was neither a government official nor a candidate.
After authorizing their inquiry in December, Republicans could abandon it before summer — holding out hope before then that closed-door interviews with James Biden and Hunter Biden will turn up the proof of wrongdoing that so far has failed to materialize. Giving up is the right answer. The Justice Department’s case against Hunter Biden for federal tax crimes as well as falsifying paperwork on a gun purchase might be strong. But Congress’s attempt to punish President Biden for Hunter Biden’s poor decisions was always weak. Now, it has utterly collapsed.
Opinion | House Republicans’ Biden impeachment quest is doomed - The Washington Post
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Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
oh and Israel would certainly block extradition....
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
The beautiful Middle East peace deal ever, some would say the most beautiful peace deal that ever happened, was just a smoke screen.
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
In exchange for this deposition, Homer and Gym agreed not to have the deposition video taped and that they would release a full transcript immediately, upon redaction of staffer names.
I fully expect they’ll hem and haw while answering questions from the press that they think Hunter wasn’t truthful, was evasive and came across as dishonest and hiding “something.” This will last through the weekend news cycle until they release the transcript late at night with little to no fanfare or heads up.
In the absence of any physical evidence or testimony that contradicts Hunter’s deposition and knowing what we know up to today, who are you going to believe?
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©