I previously wrote
a column marveling at the success of the
Bidens in pulling off one of the neatest
tricks in political history. I analogized it
to how Houdini used to make his 10,000-pound
elephant Jennie disappear on a stage in
front of a live audience. The media and
political establishment is now striving to
top that performance by declaring $20
million in payments to Biden family members
as an “illusion” of influence. At the heart
of this scandal is the BFF, the Biden Family
Fund.
Here is the column:
This week, President Joe Biden responded
to calls for greater access to the media
with a
blockbuster interview with . . . the Weather
Channel.
The interview immediately prompted
critics to speculate that the president
wanted to continue to talk about the weather
— the same
claim made after the disclosure of his
participation in various dinners with
his son’s foreign associates.
As the number of these dinners, meetings
and outings increase, Joe Biden appears to
have covered more meteorological subjects
than Al Roker.
The problem is that conditions are
worsening in Washington.
This week, House Oversight Committee
Chairman James Comer released a third report
on the ongoing investigations into the Biden
corruption scandal.
The latest bank
records indicate the Biden family has
received more than $20 million,
including from corrupt Kazakh figures.
We have been breaking people out of the Matrix
for more than 23 Years!
Some of this money provided Hunter Biden
with extravagant toys. On April 22, 2014,
Kazakh oligarch Kenes Rakishev wired
$142,300 to the Rosemont Seneca Bohai bank
account.
That account then shows the exact same
amount being wired to a New Jersey car
dealership for a Fisker sports car for
Hunter. Finding the Fisker unsuitable,
Hunter traded it in for a Porsche.
Notably, these payments often coincided
with dinners and meetings with Joe Biden.
Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina, the
widow of Moscow ex-Mayor Yury Luzhkov, wired
$3.5 million to Rosemont Seneca Thornton
Feb. 14, 2014.
She later attended
a dinner with Joe and Hunter Biden at
Washington, DC, hotspot Café Milano.
For weeks, Joe Biden’s prior claims have
been collapsing as his allies in the media
and Congress struggle for an alternative
spin on these new disclosures.
The president’s denials of any knowledge
of his son’s foreign dealings finally have
been exposed as a lie.
Even the Washington
Post has acknowledged Biden lied when he
insisted that Hunter never made any money in
China.
It was always a boldfaced falsehood (and
a confusing claim from a man who insisted
that he had no knowledge of his son’s
foreign dealings).
But the testimony
of associate Devon Archer and new bank
records forced the paper and others to
recognize the falsehood.
There is also the confirmation that
Biden’s long denials that he attended key
dinners with Hunter’s business
associates were false.
Most notably, the media are grudgingly
admitting that Hunter was openly selling
influence peddling and access to his father
as part of what Archer called “selling the
brand.”
The final line of defense is now that
Hunter Biden was selling access to Joe Biden
but it was an “illusion.” The reason, they
claim, is there is no evidence of direct
payments to Joe and Jill Biden.
There is, of course, nothing
“illusionary” about tens of millions moving
to Hunter and other family members.
But political spins are often built on
illusions. The latest is that Joe Biden only
benefits from these payments if they were
directly deposited in his accounts.
For a family that Hunter explained was “the
best” at this type of dealing, it is
absurd to expect a deposit slip from a
corrupt Ukrainian official to the account of
Joe and Jill Biden, one of the most
vulnerable accounts in the world to review
and monitoring.
These claims, moreover, ignore emails
discussing Hunter’s and his father’s use of
joint accounts to pay for expenses,
including how one account was used to pay
Joe’s taxes. There is also Hunter’s
complaint that he was using half of his
earnings to support his father. Indeed, one
trusted FBI informant said that, in planning
a bribe, one foreign figure was told to
avoid direct payments to Joe Biden. Today,
that is as amateurish as an envelope of cash
and the Bidens have been in the business of
influence peddling for decades.
Responding to the new evidence,
Washington Post columnist Phillip Bump led
the charge in asking: Where’s the bribe?
In other words, as long as Hunter got the
luxury car, Joe didn’t benefit or receive a
bribe.
(Notably, Bump did not have the same high
standards when he pushed the
false claim over a photo op in Lafayette
Park and later refused
to concede with the rest of the media on
the lack of Russian collusion with Donald
Trump.)
Not even millions to Biden children and
grandchildren would seem to satisfy Bump as
an inducement for the then-vice president.
Yet the greatest illusion is the claim
Joe Biden would only be motivated by a
direct payment to one of his accounts.
Biden clearly benefited from millions
going to the Biden Family Fund (BFF). Even
grandchildren received some of the transfers
funneled through a labyrinth of accounts.
Joe Biden is 80 years old. Despite
holding only government jobs in his career,
he is worth an estimated $8 million.
Forbes reported he earned $17.3 million
over the four years he was out of office. He
will never spend his fortune. Any additional
money would have to pass to his descendants.
For most wealthy people in their final
years, the challenge is not raising more
money but getting that money to your
children without heavy taxes or delays.
This money was going to his BFF. That is
a benefit and probably of greater value to a
man of Joe Biden’s age and wealth.
None of this has stopped politicians,
press and pundits from insisting that absent
a direct payment to the president’s account,
there is no corruption or crime.
After all, $20 million going to a
president’s family is like complaining about
the weather in Washington.
Jonathan Turley is an attorney and
professor at George Washington University
Law School.
