Posts Made By: Rod Kaufman

Originally Posted by James Brown

You know darn well that Schiff sold a much deeper and much more false collusion conspiracy theory involving Trump himself.  The Manafort nit is revisionist history.  The Mueller investigation was not launched and sustained by anything Manafort did.

It's more like Schiff talking like a lawyer. Who'd have thought?
The Manafort findings from the Republican led committee in the senate came after the Mueller investigation concluded and they were damning:
"Russia used Republican political operative Paul Manafort and the WikiLeaks website to try to help now-U.S. President Donald Trump win the 2016 election, a Republican-led Senate committee said in its final review of the matter on Tuesday."
"The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence alleged Manafort collaborated with Russians, including oligarch Oleg Deripaska and “Russian intelligence officer” Konstantin Kilimnik, before, during, and after the election."
"The panel found Manafort’s role and proximity to Trump created opportunities for Russian intelligence, saying his “high-level access and willingness to share information with individuals closely affiliated with the Russian intelligence services... represented a grave counterintelligence threat.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-senate/senate-committee-concludes-russia-used-manafort-wikileaks-to-boost-trump-in-2016-idUSKCN25E1US

Originally Posted by Maurice Clark

Hi Jim, 

My concern regarding this lawsuit against Trump is that if somehow it fails for whatever reason, Trump will scream vindication and it will cement his control over the republican party and their nomination. 

Biden against Trump again  is not much of a choice for your president. 

Maurice 

Trump's strategy is always the same: delay. 
He wants to run out the clock with the hope that he gets re-elected so all of this goes away including any potential upcoming indictments. And since he can't be elected  for a third term, he'll be free to do whatever he wants to do so cementing control over the Republican party, which he has already done, isn't even a question...
PS: What's your beef against Biden? 

I watched an exchange on Hunter Biden's so-called "sweetheart deal" on CNN last night and I found ex-federal prosecutor Eli Honig's explanation quite informative.
First, on the so-called "slow walking" of Hunter Biden's case" as alleged by the whistleblower. Honig pointed out that at least half of this "slow-walking" occurred under the Trump administration.  So, if there was some sort of political bias favoring Hunter Biden, it would have to have come from an opposition party and that, obviously, just isn't the case. Honig agrees the case should, in general, have proceeded more quickly through the system but unless you or somebody can give a rational explanation as to why it would have been "slow-walked" by the Trump folks, this allegation of political favoritism fails on its merits.
Second, as regards to the lack of felony prosecutions in the Hunter Biden case, Honig said it's not unusual at all and, in fact, it's very common for an IRS agent to recommend a felony prosecution while the federal prosecutor looks at the case and decides otherwise. He saw this all the time in these types of cases. And, of course, there was no political pressure applied in any of them to do otherwise. And, I'll again remind you that it was a Trump appointed attorney who decided what charges to bring in this case...

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

I watched an exchange on Hunter Biden's so-called "sweetheart deal" on CNN last night and I found ex-federal prosecutor Eli Honig's explanation quite informative.
First, on the so-called "slow walking" of Hunter Biden's case" as alleged by the whistleblower. Honig pointed out that at least half of this "slow-walking" occurred under the Trump administration.  So, if there was some sort of political bias favoring Hunter Biden, it would have to have come from an opposition party and that, obviously, just isn't the case. Honig agrees the case should, in general, have proceeded more quickly through the system but unless you or somebody can give a rational explanation as to why it would have been "slow-walked" by the Trump folks, this allegation of political favoritism fails on its merits.
Second, as regards to the lack of felony prosecutions in the Hunter Biden case, Honig said it's not unusual at all and, in fact, it's very common for an IRS agent to recommend a felony prosecution while the federal prosecutor looks at the case and decides otherwise. He saw this all the time in these types of cases. And, of course, there was no political pressure applied in any of them to do otherwise. And, I'll again remind you that it was a Trump appointed attorney who decided what charges to bring in this case...

Now we have a statement from the DOJ AG, Merrick Garland:
"Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday rejected claims that the Justice Department interfered in the yearslong criminal probe into Hunter Biden, saying that the United States attorney in Delaware, a Trump appointee, had “complete authority” over the investigation."
“Mr. Weiss had, in fact, more authority than a special counsel would have,” Garland added. “He had and has complete authority, as I said, to bring a case anywhere he wants in his discretion.”
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/23/politics/merrick-garland-hunter-biden/index.html

Originally Posted by James Brown

I'd have been surprised if Merrick Garland had told the truth: Joe Biden is an important politician, of course we slow walked this and gave Hunter Biden a slap on the wrist!   We here in Washington protect our own.  Why would you expect anything different?

Jim,
Apparently you are refractory to facts. Weiss, the prosecuting attorney, has the consummate authority to prosecute this case and bring the charges that he believes are warranted by the evidence. And it's not what some IRS agent thinks that determines when and what charges are brought, it's what the prosecutor thinks he can prove. Weiss works out of Vermont, not Washington, and has no vested interest in protecting Washington's own, as you put it. He's about as far away from being some sort of political hack as it can possibly be. 

Originally Posted by James Brown

Weiss is being a good soldier after the fact, he has a career to worry about, after all.   According to one of the whistleblowers as recounted in the WSJ,  "Mr. Shapley, leader of an elite team of agents specializing in international tax investigations, was brought in as supervisor of the Hunter case in January 2020. He says he quickly was stopped from taking normal investigatory steps. One example: He says his team was told in September 2020 by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf that they couldn’t pursue a search warrant of Joe Biden’s guest house (Hunter’s onetime residence) because of the “optics” and because “there is no way we will get that approved.”

In December 2020 the team wanted to search a storage unit in Virginia where Hunter had moved business documents. Ms. Wolf again objected, then tipped off Hunter’s defense counsel, “ruining our chance to get to evidence before being destroyed, manipulated, or concealed,” Mr. Shapley said. Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters also tipped Hunter’s Secret Service team to a proposed “day of action” in which members of U.S. Attorney David Weiss’s team intended to conduct surprise interviews of witnesses—including Hunter. This gave a group “close to Hunter” the opportunity to “obstruct the approach,” and of the “12 interviews we hoped to conduct on our day of action, we only got one substantive interview.” Hunter lawyered up."

It gets worse:  "The IRS team nonetheless prepared a document in late 2021 covering tax years 2014-19, in which it recommended charging Hunter with felony tax evasion, felony false tax returns, and failures to pay tax. Mr. Shapley says this was partially based on Hunter’s “textbook” tax evasion of declaring his income from the Ukrainian firm Burisma as a “loan.” Mr. Shapley says the team was also looking into a Foreign Agents Registration Act case.

According to Mr. Shapley, the Weiss team was prepared to pursue these charges but was blocked by Biden appointees—despite Attorney General Merrick Garland’s public claim of Mr. Weiss’s independence. Mr. Shapley notes that the proper venue for a tax case is where a subject resides or a return is filed; in Hunter’s case, the District of Columbia or California. But he says the U.S. attorney in the capital, Matthew Graves, refused to bring charges, and when Mr. Weiss asked for authority to bring charges there, he “was denied.” Mr. Shapley said U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada of California’s Central District, similarly declined to bring charges. Messrs. Graves and Estrada were both appointed by Joe Biden."

Look, maybe the whistleblowers are lying under oath.  And maybe the IRS and DOJ just honestly fucked up this prosecution and let the statute of limitations run on the felony tax charges.   Ha Ha.  Do you really believe that?!!   If you do, then I sure hope you or me get this "incompetent" team at the IRS and DOJ if we are ever accused of tax fraud.
   
Frankly Rod, the IRS and DOJ never intentionally let the statute run on criminal tax fraud run.  Except this time.  Explain that.

Also, you have not addressed the political price Biden is going to pay (in my opinion) even if the investigation and prosecution of Hunter was on the up and up.  I of course believe that this deal was a sweetheart deal of the sort accorded to well connected insiders.   But even if I am wrong, I am very confident that very few people, other than maybe you, actually believe that Hunter Biden got the same deal they would have received in the same circumstances.   Either way, there may be a political price to pay.   Jim

Oh, I think we both agree that there will be a political price to pay but how much? Nobody can really say. I don't think it'll be a dealbreaker against Joe Biden. If you look at the top runner up for the Republicans, Ron DeSantos, virtually every speech he makes concentrates on "woke". That's almost all you hear from him. Is THAT message getting through? Is he getting political traction out of that? Not much that I can see in the polls and that's his main message. So is somebody going to make it on Hunter Biden? I doubt it.
That said, the bottom line is Weiss had the ultimate authority to decide what charge(s) to bring against Hunter. I haven't seen any statement from him and/or evidence that he was dissuaded from doing so. Garland made the point today that Weiss never asked for anything such as being a special prosecutor. Indeed, as my prior link noted, "Garland said he would “support Mr. Weiss explaining or testifying” about the allegations raised by the whistleblowers “when he deems it appropriate.”
So, if Weiss had been pressured not to take action or felt any undue influence, don't you think he would say something?

Originally Posted by James Brown

No you are not.   But if the child commits a crime and the parent directly or indirectly exercises privilege and influence to minimize the cost to the child, all the while claiming that "no one is above the law" then the hypocrisy and actions may extract a political price.   

Also, there are new allegations here that President Biden was in fact directly involved.   That would shock me, but it does warrant looking into.   Jim

The GOP reps, particularly in the house, advance these kinds of allegations, without any evidence, on a weekly or biweekly basis. Comer has already said in so many words the quiet part out loud: exact a political price in the polling. He even harkened back to the example of what the GOP did to Hillary with Benghazi and the multiple investigations that revealed nothing but were enacted to reduce her favorability rating.

In a timely letter to Jim Jordan, prosecuting attorney David Weiss pushes back on the Hunter Biden conspiracy theories:
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-appointed-prosecutor-pushes-back-republicans-hunter-biden-claims-1810570
That said, I get a kick out of those who claim Hunter's Biden's case was being slow-walked when Trump's classified documents case would have likely landed anybody else in prison by now...

Originally Posted by David Cotterell

from the BBC...

A year ago Russia considered themselves the second best army in the world.
Three months ago it became clear that Russia had the second best army in Ukraine.
Now it seems Russia has the second best army in Russia!

This is a fast-moving story right now but it bears keeping an eye on...

Dave

It appears they've worked out a deal and the Wagner group of thousands of mercenaries will depart Russia and hol'up in Belarus, at least for awhile. The Wagner group has been one of the most successful fighting forces that Russia has in invading/attacking Ukraine. Their leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is extremely wealthy and controls Russian interests and diamond mines in Africa. He is one of 13 Russians who have been indicted in the USA for interfering in the 2016 election in order to get one Donald John Trump elected as president. And the MAGA Republicans in the house get Adam Schiff censured...

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

It appears they've worked out a deal and the Wagner group of thousands of mercenaries will depart Russia and hol'up in Belarus, at least for awhile. The Wagner group has been one of the most successful fighting forces that Russia has in invading/attacking Ukraine. Their leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is extremely wealthy and controls Russian interests and diamond mines in Africa. He is one of 13 Russians who have been indicted in the USA for interfering in the 2016 election in order to get one Donald John Trump elected as president. And the MAGA Republicans in the house get Adam Schiff censured...

BTW, the MAGA folks have their own "theories" behind the events in Russia:
"On Saturday, for example, Fox News’ Rachel Campos-Duffy questioned whether the United States was involved in the Russian crisis, adding that she doesn’t trust what she hears from the United States government. A day later, Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo was even more direct on this point, arguing that the threat of a Russian civil war was part of an elaborate scheme to shift attention away from Hunter Biden."
“The White House wanted to give the media something else to cover, and this is the m.o.,” Bartiromo told viewers. “This is exactly the way they do things.” She added that the State Department was “drumming up all the drama” about a possible coup effort in Russia."
"Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia — who’s been accused of being a part of Congress’ so-called Putin Caucus — published a tweet on Saturday afternoon that read, “After our government has been funding a proxy war with Russia in Ukraine for over a year, I sure hope our government isn’t behind a coup attempt currently happening in Russia. Regime change in a nuclear armed country may lead to terrible consequences the American people don’t want.”
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/putin-faces-crisis-republicans-tout-conspiracy-theories-rcna91105
Nuts running amok...
On edit: Not to be outdone, "Republican Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas, for example, suggested Congress should open an investigation into whether the Biden administration withheld information about the Titan implosion to distract the public from Hunter Biden."
"Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee was thinking along similar lines, publishing a tweet on Friday that read:
“If the U.S. Navy suspected that the Titan Submersible imploded just hours after it began its voyage, why did the Coast Guard wait until Thursday — the same day the IRS whistleblowers testified before Congress — to make their announcement to the public?”
"So, a few things.
"First, the IRS whistleblowers in question testified weeks ago, not Thursday"
"Second, there’s no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the Navy or the Coast Guard."
"And third, I’m curious if Blackburn has ever heard a far-right conspiracy theory she didn’t embrace without regard for accuracy."
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/gops-blackburn-connects-titan-submersible-hunter-biden-story-rcna91119