Federal criminal investigation Hunter Biden focuses on his business dealings (Update: DOJ appoints special counsel) (3 Viewers)

[SaintForLife]

Hunter Biden received a $3.5 million wire transfer from Elena Baturina, the richest woman in Russia and the widow of Yury Luzhkov, the former mayor of Moscow, Senate Republicans revealed in their report on the younger Biden’s work in Ukraine.

Baturina is referenced in the 87-page report, which was released Wednesday, addressing her payment to Biden’s investment firm in early 2014.

“Baturina became Russia’s only female billionaire when her plastics company, Inteko, received a series of Moscow municipal contracts while her husband was mayor,” it said in providing background on the businesswoman.

The report described her involvement with Biden as “a financial relationship,” but declined to delve deeper into why the wire transfer was made.

The probe also found that Baturina sent 11 wires transfers between May and December 2015 to a bank account belonging to BAK USA, a tech startup that filed for bankruptcy in March 2019.

Nine of those 11 wire transfers were first sent to Rosemont Seneca Partners, the investment firm founded by Biden and Chris Heinz, stepson of former Secretary of State John Kerry, before being transferred to BAK USA.

Hunter Biden received $3.5M wire transfer from Russian billionaire: Senate report

Hunter Biden received a $3.5 million wire transfer from Elena Baturina, the richest woman in Russia and the widow of Yury Luzhkov, the former mayor of Moscow, Senate Republicans revealed in their r…

nypost.com

We all know their is massive corruption on both sides of the aisle. Here is an alleged allegation against Hunter Biden who was allegedly enriching himself because his Dad was Vice President.

 

[RobF]

You know that Hunter Biden made millions based on his dad being Vice President and not because he had any experience to warrant his exorbitant salaries right? It happens on both sides. Our Government is extremely corrupt. The national media ignores that, but it's obvious to anyone paying attention.

No.

See, you keep repeating this, but the fact is Hunter Biden:

Graduated from Georgetown with a degree in history
Graduated from Yale Law School
Worked at MBNA America, becoming an executive vice president
Served in the Department of Commerce
Was appointed by GW Bush to the board of directors of Amtrak

All before his dad became VP. He has a ton of the kind of experience that enables someone to make millions, regardless of their connections. Now you can argue his family connections may have helped him gain that experience - although it's very much in a "you don't have to be the son of a senator to go to Yale and become an executive VP of MBNA but it helps" kind of way - but a cursory look shows that Hunter Biden absolutely has relevant experience to his work and this repeated notion that you keep putting forward that's not the case is false.

As for the both sides malarkey, there's a gaping chasm between Hunter Biden's background and work, and Ivanka Trump having a degree in economics and then being an executive vice president in her father's company - while apparently also simultaneously being a consultant to him - before being appointed by her father to a federal position.

That's "both sides are the same" in much the same way that a sparrow is like a tyrannosaurus rex.

 

[Krodwhodat]

I don't think anyone can hold up Joe Biden as being perfect, but he at least has shown he can be shamed into doing the right thing, which at this point I'll take. Granted, if he's actually taken a bribe (through his son or directly), then that's obviously a deal breaker.

this is such a sad statement to have to make when speaking of a presidential election. We must do better. The country deserves better. Hopefully next election it’s all new people that have honor and dignity where whoever wins we are lucky to have them.

 

[wardorican]

this is such a sad statement to have to make when speaking of a presidential election. We must do better. The country deserves better. Hopefully next election it’s all new people that have honor and dignity where whoever wins we are lucky to have them.

I wanted Mayor Pete. I hope he can gain some Federal experience if Biden wins it. Then he'll have a better resume.

 

[Lapaz]

And Ivanka didn’t get patents in China because she is running a not for profit business. Please, both sides do this, and it’s extremely disheartening.

But only one side, Trump, is raking in money because he is president. Forget his kids tangentially benefitting. Trump is directly manipulating the executive branch to enrich himself, and his kids.

 

[TaylorB]

Hunter Biden received a $3.5 million wire transfer from Elena Baturina, the richest woman in Russia and the widow of Yury Luzhkov, the former mayor of Moscow, Senate Republicans revealed in their report on the younger Biden’s work in Ukraine.

Baturina is referenced in the 87-page report, which was released Wednesday, addressing her payment to Biden’s investment firm in early 2014.

“Baturina became Russia’s only female billionaire when her plastics company, Inteko, received a series of Moscow municipal contracts while her husband was mayor,” it said in providing background on the businesswoman.

The report described her involvement with Biden as “a financial relationship,” but declined to delve deeper into why the wire transfer was made.

The probe also found that Baturina sent 11 wires transfers between May and December 2015 to a bank account belonging to BAK USA, a tech startup that filed for bankruptcy in March 2019.

Nine of those 11 wire transfers were first sent to Rosemont Seneca Partners, the investment firm founded by Biden and Chris Heinz, stepson of former Secretary of State John Kerry, before being transferred to BAK USA.

Hunter Biden received $3.5M wire transfer from Russian billionaire: Senate report

Hunter Biden received a $3.5 million wire transfer from Elena Baturina, the richest woman in Russia and the widow of Yury Luzhkov, the former mayor of Moscow, Senate Republicans revealed in their r…

nypost.com

We all know their is massive corruption on both sides of the aisle. Here is an alleged allegation against Hunter Biden who was allegedly enriching himself because his Dad was Vice President.

I can't help but notice we didn't encounter a single one of the hole-poking tactics in this story ("this committee is partisan! where's the evidence the report is based on? what laws did Hunter Biden break? how is the wife of a dead mayor connected to the Kremlin? who gave this information to the committee? Hunter says it's not true! where's the evidence that Joe knew about it? 3.5 million dollars isn't that much money... etc...").

If the Kremlin had engaged in a covert election interference op to help get Biden get elected, then Biden had spent his time as vice president delivering trillions of dollars' worth of policy wins back to the Kremlin with little obvious benefit to the US while continuing to cast doubt that they actually tried to help get him elected, that'd be a lot of smoke to add to this 3.5 million dollar payment to give it the appearance of impropriety. But there's nothing even close to that -- I mean, the story implies that the Bidens are corrupted /corruptable by Kremlin money, but the Kremlin still wants Trump to win in 2020? Why else is Russia helping Ron Johnson peddle disinformation?

There is no question that the appearance of impropriety is there when high ranking officials or their immediate family engage in foreign business dealings, and there is no question that we should do more with the emoluments clause or other laws to prevent corruption or the appearance of it. But it's really hard to take seriously the suggestion that this is part of some broad concern the Rs have about corruption on both sides without more connective dots showing how this might have affected US policy toward the Kremlin, or vice versa. More likely, they want to smear the Bidens, but know they'll look silly if they don't first acknowledge that "both sides do it" with some sort of false equivalency.

If we were to start to take inventory of all the ways Trump's policy decisions were based on his personal financial interests and compare them to Joe Biden's record, it would immediately be clear that we are not comparing apples to apples. We could start with the COVID (non)response, move to Trump's refusal to condemn Putin for poisoning political rivals, bizarre withdrawal from Kurdish Syria, and just keep working our way backward in time. Look at who was / wasn't excluded from the travel ban. Look at who was / wasn't excluded from the DHH travel restrictions put in place last week. Look at which countries were carved out of the travel ban to Europe (the places where his golf properties were). The list might be longer than the list of people Trump owes hundreds of millions to, if we knew who they were and where they were from. I really could go on and on.

 

[FullMonte]

Hunter Biden received a $3.5 million wire transfer from Elena Baturina, the richest woman in Russia and the widow of Yury Luzhkov, the former mayor of Moscow, Senate Republicans revealed in their report on the younger Biden’s work in Ukraine.

Baturina is referenced in the 87-page report, which was released Wednesday, addressing her payment to Biden’s investment firm in early 2014.

Which is it? Did she send Hunter Biden $3.5 million, or did she make a payment to an investment firm?

 

[wardorican]

Which is it? Did she send Hunter Biden $3.5 million, or did she make a payment to an investment firm?

The answer is on post 14.

 

[Dragon]

Which is it? Did she send Hunter Biden $3.5 million, or did she make a payment to an investment firm?

She made the payment to an investement firm of which Hunter Biden is one of the co-founders along with several others..

The name of this thread is at best misleading if not completely false. Nothing in those documents shows Hunter Biden recieved any money personally. Should it be looked into - certainly. But even children of presidential candidates have a rigth to make a living and HB certainly have a background both with regards to education and experience to work at a high level investment firm. We don't even know if the investement services were provided by HB or other employees/partners in that group so lets get the facts straigth first.

 

[wardorican]

She made the payment to an investement firm of which Hunter Biden is one of the co-founders along with several others..

The name of this thread is at best misleading if not completely false. Nothing in those documents shows Hunter Biden recieved any money personally. Should it be looked into - certainly. But even children of presidential candidates have a rigth to make a living and HB certainly have a background both with regards to education and experience to work at a high level investment firm. We don't even know if the investement services were provided by HB or other employees/partners in that group so lets get the facts straigth first.

Agreed, but the fault lies within the senate report. Their summary says Hunter received a payment, while their discussion states plainly that his firm did. They never established him being involved or not or how much, if any, actually went to him.

 

[TaylorB]

Agreed, but the fault lies within the senate report. Their summary says Hunter received a payment, while their discussion states plainly that his firm did. They never established him being involved or not or how much, if any, actually went to him.

HB's lawyers say he's not even a co-founder of the entity that received the payment, Rosemont Seneca Thornton LLC. He's associated with some other Rosement Seneca entity, not the one that received the payment. Perhaps the senate could correct its report as to whatever relationship HB has to the entity in question -- and I have no idea whether he actually is connected to that entity or not, as the name is almost the same as the one he's connected to -- but since the purpose of this committee's report is to feed Hannity, Charlie Kirk et al. talking points, it doesn't really matter if their facts are all buttoned up.

 

[wardorican]

HB's lawyers say he's not even a co-founder of the entity that received the payment, Rosemont Seneca Thornton LLC. He's associated with some other Rosement Seneca entity, not the one that received the payment. Perhaps the senate could correct its report as to whatever relationship HB has to the entity in question -- and I have no idea whether he actually is connected to that entity or not, as the name is almost the same as the one he's connected to -- but since the purpose of this committee's report is to feed Hannity, Charlie Kirk et al. talking points, it doesn't really matter if their facts are all buttoned up.

Data hunt: Hunter Biden and $3.5 million from Russian widow

President Donald Trump, who himself faces questions about his ties to Russia, hinted at some sort of murky dealings invo

www.politifact.com

Looks like the Senate report used the Financial Times article, which didn't reply as to how they knew he was a co-founder. There has been no evidence that he's even associated with Rosemont Seneca Thornton LLC. Let alone, received a direct payment, which is how the allegation sounds.

 

[TaylorB]

Data hunt: Hunter Biden and $3.5 million from Russian widow

President Donald Trump, who himself faces questions about his ties to Russia, hinted at some sort of murky dealings invo

www.politifact.com

Looks like the Senate report used the Financial Times article, which didn't reply as to how they knew he was a co-founder. There has been no evidence that he's even associated with Rosemont Seneca Thornton LLC. Let alone, received a direct payment, which is how the allegation sounds.

That's right. Having re-read some of the articles I'd seen, I think it's known that he founded Rosemont Seneca Partners, but if HB is to be believed, the Thornton entity appears to have been a consortium consisting of some other principles of RSP -- not HB -- and another entity that he had no equity share in.

I'll note that his lawyer's wording carefully says he has no "equity interest in RST," which leads me to believe there's some financial interest there other than an equity interest, as they'd have likely used stronger language otherwise. HB did co-found Rosemont Seneca Partners, so it's hard to imagine he's got no association whatsoever with this overlapping consortium. But it's still incorrect to say "Hunter Biden received 3.5M" if he has no equity interest in it.

Also, the more I've read, the more clear it is that this is a re-upping of allegations that have been ongoing for a couple years. Even if "Hunter Biden received 3.5M," they don't have anything else to say about what was illegitimate about it? I actually tend to think there's some truth to the notion that Hunter's a wormy guy, but this is the best they could come up with? An inaccurate and attenuated hit job against the candidate's son with repackaged info they likely got from Russia? The same people that didn't care that the current president's son *actually met with Russians about a scheme to influence our election*?

It's all rather pathetic. November 3 is coming quickly. Ds looking more and more likely to sweep. Either way, these clowns' names will appear next to Nixon's and McCarthy's in the history books.

 

[efil4]

That's right. Having re-read some of the articles I'd seen, I think it's known that he founded Rosemont Seneca Partners, but if HB is to be believed, the Thornton entity appears to have been a consortium consisting of some other principles of RSP -- not HB -- and another entity that he had no equity share in.

I'll note that his lawyer's wording carefully says he has no "equity interest in RST," which leads me to believe there's some financial interest there other than an equity interest, as they'd have likely used stronger language otherwise. HB did co-found Rosemont Seneca Partners, so it's hard to imagine he's got no association whatsoever with this overlapping consortium. But it's still incorrect to say "Hunter Biden received 3.5M" if he has no equity interest in it.

Also, the more I've read, the more clear it is that this is a re-upping of allegations that have been ongoing for a couple years. Even if "Hunter Biden received 3.5M," they don't have anything else to say about what was illegitimate about it? I actually tend to think there's some truth to the notion that Hunter's a wormy guy, but this is the best they could come up with? An inaccurate and attenuated hit job against the candidate's son with repackaged info they likely got from Russia? The same people that didn't care that the current president's son *actually met with Russians about a scheme to influence our election*?

It's all rather pathetic. November 3 is coming quickly. Ds looking more and more likely to sweep. Either way, these clowns' names will appear next to Nixon's and McCarthy's in the history books.

I just find ti laughable that they focus on $3.5mm payment to RST, when for the last 4 years, Trump has been hosting foreign leaders/dignitaries at his DC hotel.
Or Mar-A-Lago.

if we apply their logic, Trump has received 10s of millions in payment.

 

[TaylorB]

I just find ti laughable that they focus on $3.5mm payment to RST, when for the last 4 years, Trump has been hosting foreign leaders/dignitaries at his DC hotel.
Or Mar-A-Lago.

if we apply their logic, Trump has received 10s of millions in payment.

Right. The fall-back point is "everybody's corrupt so it doesn't matter if Trump is corrupt." That's one of the goals of Russian propaganda -- Putin would have everyone believe that Western democracy is no better than his oligarchy. Trump is the same way. He thinks he looks better if everyone believes that every politician is corrupt and that truth is unknowable. So anything they can find, even if it lacks basis, will do.

Sure, there are always corrupt politicians, and it's not limited to one "side" of the political spectrum or another. Yes, the IC and partisan oppo groups will continue to drop "bombshells" made from recycled stories about HB and Hillary and Obama. Joe Biden is still winning, though, because it's obvious to enough people that he's nothing like Donald Trump. They'll always come up short by trying to make Biden look like a crook, especially compared to the most corrupt American politician in our lifetimes.

 

[FullMonte]

I'll note that his lawyer's wording carefully says he has no "equity interest in RST," which leads me to believe there's some financial interest there other than an equity interest, as they'd have likely used stronger language otherwise. HB did co-found Rosemont Seneca Partners, so it's hard to imagine he's got no association whatsoever with this overlapping consortium. But it's still incorrect to say "Hunter Biden received 3.5M" if he has no equity interest in it.

If RST is an investment firm, it's possible that Hunter has some investments with them, so he does have a financial interest just like every other investor.

 

[MT15]

I think the title of the thread should be corrected.

 

[SaintForLife]

I think we have all seen or heard of this article that Twitter and Facebook censored according to their policy which appears to be so vague that it could cover many things.

Exclusive | Hunter Biden emails show leveraging connections with his father to boost Burisma pay

Hunter Biden discussed leveraging his connection to his father in a bid to boost his pay from a Ukrainian natural gas company, according to an email he sent around the time he joined the firm’s cor…

nypost.com

This sounds like a confirmation:

Biden’s campaign would not rule out the possibility that the former VP had some kind of informal interaction with Pozharskyi, which wouldn’t appear on Biden’s official schedule. But they said any encounter would have been cursory. Pozharskyi did not respond to a request for comment.

And senior Biden advisers who spoke to POLITICO on Wednesday — including Michael Carpenter and Amos Hochstein, who staffed the vice president at the time — similarly said that while there was never an official meeting, it's technically conceivable that Pozharskyi would have approached Biden on the sidelines of some broader U.S.-Ukraine event. But they emphasized that they have no indication that happened, and that they had never heard of Pozharskyi before.

Biden campaign lashes out at New York Post

The campaign cast the allegations against Joe and Hunter Biden as “Russian disinformation,” while Republicans complained that social media companies were censoring the story.

www.politico.com

 

[wardorican]

Doesn't seem like anything clear. "my guy". And even said they can't control what happens.