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In the early days of Russia's war on Ukraine, President Joe Biden boldly declared he was ready to seize "ill-begotten gains" of the region's oligarchs.
But in the years before Moscow twice invaded Ukraine, Democrats enriched themselves politically and personally from such oligarchs and businesses in the region while empowering Vladimir Putin with energy and technology deals that still haunt America today.
There’s a new peer-reviewed study from economist and gun expert John Lott, Jr. that is going to have a lot of folks talking again about the 2020 election.
Lott found there were at least 255,000 excess votes and maybe as many as 368,000 excess votes for Biden in key battleground states.
Afederal judge on Monday granted former President Donald Trump’s request for the appointment of a special master to review the documents seized by the FBI during a raid on his Mar-a-Lago home last month. Presiding Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, further held that the Department of Justice cannot review or use for criminal investigative purposes any material seized pending the review process.
Besides handing Trump a victory in his battle for some oversight of the Biden administration’s digging into his documents, Cannon highlighted several significant facts over the course of her 24-page order that further call into question the DOJ’s targeting of Trump.
Here are the seven top-line takeaways:
- President Biden Was Directly Involved
The very idea that a blanket preemptive pardon would be handed out is an anathema to the very idea of justice because it would occur before any charges were made. And it would prevent any charges from ever being leveled. As such, the idea of preemptive clemency simply gives one carte blanche to act in any manner he/she sees fit while in office, provided they have the expectation of pardon. //
I don't see how this leads to anything but a pathway to the abuse of political power. //
If you cannot ever have a trial, then a guy like Mayorkas can treat the entire country like his own little fiefdom and forever change the United States culturally, socially, and legally. All on his own. And with a blanket and preemptive pardon, presidential cabinet members, NGOs, and partisan bureaucrats have the freedom to make policy that we didn't vote for and probably never would.
What the progressives could gain, if Markey were to get his Christmas wish, is a short-term insurance policy against prosecution for guys like Mayorkas, or John Brennan, or Mark Milley, but it will set a precedent for long-term abuse by presidents in the future. Trump could employ the same tactics, and while the progs would scream and shout, there wouldn't be much they could do about it legally, not to mention the fact that they were the ones who started rolling that snowball down the hill in the first place. //
Now, for Trump, if he were to find himself in the position where he could not prosecute certain individuals for treason or malfeasance, perhaps he could at least have them investigated. The products of such interrogatories might not lead to any charges because of the pardons, but at least such "fact-finding endeavors" might illuminate what abuses (if any) actually occurred so that we could avoid more in the future. This information would be made public to the electorate, and from that, what happens happens.
Tearing down institutions and traditions tears apart a society, a country. Sure, things can evolve over time, but to rip stuff out by the roots all at once is very reckless. Issuing preemptive pardons before any charges are even leveled prevents justice because we never have an opportunity to find out if it was ever being served in the first place. Did Mayorkas break the border all of his own volition just because he felt like it? Was he instructed to do it? If so, by whom? Who does he report to? Oh...the president. //
Billy Wallace
20 minutes ago edited
Pardoning everyone in your administration will be the new normal if Biden does it
if Biden does it, Trump most certainly will in January 2029, and why wouldn't he? I would
it will just become standard operating procedure, as will issuing an executive order declaring any and all records and documents in your possession to be declassified personal records
Democrats and their media allies have never played nice. They do not have the moral high ground. These are the exact reasons why Trump plays hardball and it is the primary reason why he has endeared himself to a good chunk of the Republican base.
If Democrats think the answer to Trump playing hardball is to take it up another notch, they are going to be sorely disappointed at how spectacularly they will fail, something they should have learned on Election Day but sadly haven't.
During a Monday night panel on Fox News’ Hannity, investigative journalist John Solomon, editor of Just the News, and Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett discussed the ongoing risks facing Hunter and the Biden family. //
Solomon said, “You can’t bring criminal charges against Hunter Biden, but there’s nothing that prevents the Trump Justice Department from filing a fraud case and seeking civil remedy and taking money from him and other members of the family on allegations that they reported false information. They committed fraud. Those are things that are still on the table. A pardon doesn’t protect you from civil actions.”
“He no longer will be able to deny or say ‘I don’t want to testify in any proceedings because I invoke my Fifth Amendment right against incrimination.’ The president took that away from him, so he’s going to have to testify if he’s compelled.”. //
The panel unanimously agreed that the pardon was more than just a selfless gesture from a loving father. Its broad immunity, covering the period from January 2014 to December 2024, revealed its true intent. As I mentioned yesterday, 2014 marked the beginning of Hunter’s tenure on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings. This was the year the family’s influence-peddling operation ramped up, and the flow of money began.
Tristan Leavitt
@tristanleavitt
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🚨 This opinion from the judge overseeing the tax prosecution of Hunter Biden is worth reading every word…
Jerry Dunleavy IV 🇺🇸
@JerryDunleavy
U.S. district court judge takes issue with Biden’s claim in his pardon that no reasonable person looking at the case could reach any conclusion other than that Hunter was targeted because he is the POTUS’s son, noting that federal judges & Biden’s own DOJ rejected that argument.
8:40 PM · Dec 3, 2024
The net effect of Scarsi's order is that the California case against Hunter is now also terminated. But after first noting that Hunter's team botched things by merely providing a hyperlink to the White House press release regarding the pardon rather than filing an accurate copy of the pardon, Scarsi included some delicious parting shots on the matter (emphasis added, citations omitted):
The President’s statement illustrates the reasons for the Court’s disapproval, as representations contained therein stand in tension with the case record.
For example, the President asserts that Mr. Biden “was treated differently” from others “who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions,” implying that Mr. Biden was among those individuals who untimely paid taxes due to addiction. But he is not. In his pretrial filings, Mr. Biden represented that he “was severely addicted to alcohol and drugs” “through May 2019.”...Upon pleading guilty to the charges in this case, Mr. Biden admitted that he engaged in tax evasion after this period of addiction by wrongfully deducting as business expenses items he knew were personal expenses, including luxury clothing, escort services, and his daughter’s law school tuition.
...
According to the President, “[n]o reasonable person who looks at the facts of [Mr. Biden’s] cases can reach any other conclusion than [Mr. Biden] was singled out only because he is [the President’s] son.” But two federal judges expressly rejected Mr. Biden’s arguments that the Government prosecuted Mr. Biden because of his familial relation to the President...And the President’s own Attorney General and Department of Justice personnel oversaw the investigation leading to the charges. In the President’s estimation, this legion of federal civil servants, the undersigned included, are unreasonable people.
In short, a press release is not a pardon. The Constitution provides the President with broad authority to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, U.S. Const. art. II, § 2, cl. 1, but nowhere does the Constitution give the President the authority to rewrite history.
Shaun Maguire
@shaunmmaguire
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So what happens to the $300k+ in back pay rent that Hunter Biden owes my family from 2019-2020?
Is that pardoned now?
Thanks Joe
(This is a true story)
11:37 PM · Dec 1, 2024
But what was truly funny was what Maguire said next about how Hunter allegedly proposed to pay what he owed.
"Hunter was our tenant in Venice, CA. Didn't pay rent for over a year. Tried to pay w/ art made from his own feces. Absolute s– bag," Maguire wrote, adding in a follow up post that the rent was $25,000 a month for the house, which is located on the canals in Venice, California.
He added that Hunter "changed the locks and used secret service to enforce. We had no access to the property."
When he was asked about the possibility of evicting him, Maguire replied they were "kind of a scary family to go after."
Retiring West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a former Democrat who turned independent in May in hopes of saving his career in what has become a solidly red state, has a suggestion for Joe Biden: pardon Donald Trump.
After all, the president just pardoned his son Hunter for tax and gun crimes after telling the world for months that he would do no such thing. Pardoning Trump would be the only to make this look less like the corrupt maneuver that it so clearly is, Manchin told CNN’s Manu Raju on Monday:
As a matter of past-practice in this district, courts do not dismiss indictments when pardons are granted. Rather, in each of the most recent cases where pardons have been granted by former President Obama and former President Trump, the United States District Court for the Central District of California has not dismissed the indictment. Instead, it has been the practice of this court that once an Executive Grant of Clemency has been filed on the docket, the docket is marked closed, the disposition entry is updated to reflect the executive grant of clemency, and no further action is taken by the Court. //
What is clear is that the Government, while it accepts Joe Biden's act of mercy as to his son, is not cool with the notion that the "charges should be wiped away because the defendant falsely claimed that the charges were the result of some improper motive." For good measure, the pleading adds, "No court has agreed with the defendant on these baseless claims, and his request to dismiss the indictment finds no support in the law or the practice of this district."
Nate Silver
@NateSilver538
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I discussed here how I voted for Harris despite feeling like Democrats indulged in a lot of bad behavior that voters were rational to publish. After the White House lying about the Hunter pardon I'm not sure how much more I can tolerate.
natesilver.net
SBSQ #15: Democrats have a "fool me twice" problem
7:58 PM · Dec 1, 2024
Nate Silver
@NateSilver538
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Replying to @NateSilver538
Don't vote for any Democrat in 2028 who doesn't repudiate the pardon within 48 hours.
8:03 PM · Dec 1, 2024
Nate Silver
@NateSilver538
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Replying to @NateSilver538
But please stop thinking of yourself as a defender of "democracy" or norms or the rule of law if you're defending this. You're just a garden-variety partisan dressing yourself up in sheep's clothing. And voters are smart enough to see this even if you aren't.
10:02 PM · Dec 1, 2024. //
DaveM
9 hours ago
"I discussed here how I voted for Harris despite feeling like Democrats indulged in a lot of bad behavior that voters were rational to publish. After the White House lying about the Hunter pardon I'm not sure how much more I can tolerate."
Given that you voted for Harris knowing the truth... spare us your whining. You had a chance to do sonething about it- and didn't. //
GBenton
8 hours ago edited
Nice cope, Nate.
Guess what, if you voted for Kamala you are the partisan hack you now accuse others of being.
You think this meaningless pardon is the Rubicon crossing moment?
Lol, silly con artist. Even if you ignore that Biden stole the 2020 election and lied about the Very Fine People hoax and Hunters laptop, on day one of his pResidency he opened the border and ended the Keystone pipeline and Anwar and more, setting up the inflation and illegals to cause mayhem, not to mention his illegal mandates and fascist speeches demonizing more than half the country and illegal student loan scams.
The time any moral sane person should have left the Democrat crime syndicate was then, or at least when he tried to throw Trump in jail by any means necessary or when he got Americans and Afghan allies killed in the withdrawal.
The fking pardon was the red line for you not the alleged 20m in pay to play Hunter collected for the Big Guy or lying about his dementia for 4 years?
GFY, Nate. Not fooling anyone. You're not a pollster and you're not an honest broker, either. You're a lying partisan hack who wants to rebrand for self preservation and opportunism. //
GBenton anon-dhms
an hour ago
Thanks, I appreciate your feedback. I do try to pull zero punches, for better or worse, lol.
One of the things I rail against are liars like Nate Silver - especially if their scam is they pretend to be reasonable and credible. Rassmussen broke down the stats on the polls and Nate was demonstrably skewed left and clearly was dishonest when he said it was too close to call. The data never showed Kamala in the lead and he's not a real pollster. His model is a subjective scam like that Keys idiot.
RNC Research
@RNCResearch
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CNN reports Biden was under mounting "pressure" from Jill, Ed.D., to grant Hunter a pardon
2:36 PM · Dec 2, 2024 //
In other words, when it comes to decisions that have had long-term (negative) consequences for the Biden family, Jill Biden, and sometimes Hunter, too, has been right in the middle of them. Read into that what you will.
It was thought that Trump, who was handed gobs of political capital on November 5th, would have to spend some of his capital to get his more controversial nominees, like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Pete Hegseth, approved by the GOP-led Senate. This may still be true, but Joe Biden just gave him something even better:
The mother of all mandates. //
Joe Biden's pardoning of his son, Hunter Biden, further diminishes an already-neutered Democrat Party and empowers Donald Trump to an extent we probably haven't seen in modern times. No more can Democrats cry, "No one is above the law!" because their "big guy" just blew that idea to smithereens.
Even better, Joe Biden and his fiercely lying press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, have just confirmed that the Department of Justice is corrupt. //
Joe Biden granted his son Hunter Biden a sweeping pardon on Sunday covering any possible crimes between Jan. 1, 2014, and right up through Dec. 1, 2024. This despite lying and saying he would not do such a thing. It shows you just how much Joe Biden's word means. His action is truly unprecedented in its breadth. But that may not be all -- there may be more coming from Joe Biden between now and Jan. 20. //
The pardon wasn't just for the things to which Hunter had pled guilty, which Joe claimed involved "selective prosecution." That was a nonsense claim to begin with. If anything, the "selectivity" was in not prosecuting him for years for all the behavior that was revealed on the laptop. It meant there would be no prosecution for any federal crime including the alleged foreign influence questions that could touch Joe Biden. Notice the pardon started from Jan. 1, 2014. Hunter joined the Burisma board that year. It also covers all the time that Joe Biden was occupying the Oval Office up until Dec. 1 and Biden meeting or talking with Hunter's business associates. //
But what Biden has done is made it impossible to criticize any pardon that President-elect Donald Trump might give, when Biden is willing to go this low with his son and lie about it. This is true, especially if Biden pardons himself. Not that the MSM wouldn't go after Trump anyway for pardoning J6ers or any other pardon. Of course they will, and they'll talk about how it's destroying all the norms -- that Biden already imploded.
They will have no credibility in doing so, and Biden is going to cost the Democrats even more damage to their brand with his actions.
But there may be one thing Joe Biden (or whoever is pulling his strings) overlooked — the Fifth Amendment. Namely, for the time frame covered in the pardon, Hunter Biden can no longer assert his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Hunter Biden would have to answer questions about his business interests if called before Congress, a criminal defense lawyer has said. //
From the wording here, it appears that even if evidence surfaced that Hunter was a serial killer in the specified time period, he could not be prosecuted because of the blanket pardon — which is within the power of the president. But the twist? He cannot assert his Fifth Amendment rights because he cannot self-incriminate. //
Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan strongly suggested on X, formerly Twitter, that Hunter may be called to give evidence as Republicans consider whether to impeach President Biden for his business interests with his son. "Democrats said there was nothing to our impeachment inquiry. If that's the case, why did Joe Biden just issue Hunter Biden a pardon for the very things we were inquiring about?" Jordan wrote on Sunday. //
With that said, I'll offer another prediction: This won't be the last family member Joe Biden pardons. //
Twist Gamma you cant make this stuff up
14 hours ago
Chasing Biden instead of the deep state would be a waste of time and political capital. Find out who instigated and coordinated the Trump lawfare. Get them out of government, and charge them if there's any charge to be found.
And let the DOGE run wild.
That will be hard enough. Prosecuting the case against Biden would just be a distraction from the far more important goals.
It is incredibly shameless for Biden to claim he "kept his word" when he lied to the American people for over a year, insisting he would not issue a pardon or commutation for Hunter Biden. Further, the pardon is incredibly broad, essentially offering blanket protection for any crimes his son has committed. //
For my entire career I have followed a simple principle: just tell the American people the truth. They’ll be fair-minded. Here’s the truth: I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice – and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further. //
Kyle Cheney
@kyledcheney
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Replying to @kyledcheney
WOW: This pardon is sweeping. Anything crimes he committed or “may have committed for an 11 year period.
7:41 PM · Dec 1, 2024 //
With that in the books, there will be no justice for the Biden family's corrupt business dealings. The cover-up is complete, and Hunter Biden is once again shown to be the privileged son, unaccountable for any of his actions. That means he'll likely end up in trouble again. It's just a matter of time. //
wildmlm
2 hours ago
So...I would say the bright side is this gives Trump additional political cover for pardoning the J6 folks...after all, Joe just admitted that his DOJ is corrupt.
A scathing new report claims that the Biden administration's Department of Education's (ED) enforcement actions were focused at least 70 percent on Christian and career-based schools, even though they represent less than 10 percent of the students in the nation. This uncovers an unseen campaign that persisted over the administration's term and can hardly be seen as impartial.
Musicman
13 hours ago
So much for the Constitutional Right to face your accuser. If true, this is the cherry on top that proves beyond all doubt that Merrick Garland is a partisan hack. Thank God he didn’t make it to the Supreme Court.
NavyVet Musicman
13 hours ago
"no one cares about this anymore"?
I do. This is a deliberate and malicious swipe at the president-elect, hence an effort to divide and harm our country. It is an indicted ham sandwich, selectively packaged "evidence" that buries all exculpatory evidence.
It angers me, and it calls for a thorough investigation by a trustworthy special counsel. I nominate Sidney Powell. Let that bulldog go after those scumbags and ruin their lives, just like they have been doing to Trump and everyone close to him. //
GreenLanternMD Largo Patriot
12 hours ago
If they had anything persuasive, they would have released it before the election. //
emptypockets
11 hours ago
"full of sound and fury signifying nothing".
Incoming AG Bondi should respond, not Trump. She should begin by noting--clearly and loudly that Smith was an illegally appointed SC. Remind that many others also "mishandled classified docs" including Biden who treated them like a pack rat stashing shinies. Ones he never HAD any right to have while ALL Trump's were his to legally remove as POTUS.
Then she could add that she would be doing some deep cleaning, reviewing of records which should be carefully NOT "lost" or heads might indeed roll sooner than even she expected.
This is sore loser-itis highly inflamed. Maybe someone still loves them enough to give them an ointment for that. Not me, though.
Rusty
@Rusty_Weiss
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This is heartbreaking. A 10-year-old boy was rescued by Texas State Troopers after he crossed the border on Thanksgiving Day. He was abandoned by smugglers in the middle of nowhere.
Where is @AOC and her little sullen, puppy dog eye photo-ops for this little boy?
9:54 AM · Nov 29, 2024.
Democrats owe this boy an apology.
"They left me alone," he tells authorities through a quivering voice.
Not only was he abandoned by the smugglers, but he's been abandoned by the very party that, for years, pretended to champion the cause of children brought to the United States illegally. There has not been one Democrat politician who has commented on this video as of yet. Not one person who previously cried their little crocodile tears over fake stories of 'kids in cages' spoke up in support of this poor, young child. //
It's odd how there was also radio silence from the 'but the children' Democrats earlier this week, when a two-year-old girl from El Salvador was found alone at the US border in Maverick County, Texas.
This child was clutching a piece of paper with a name and phone number, telling police she was there to find her parents, who reportedly already live in the United States.
She was among a group of over 200 illegal immigrants, including 60 unaccompanied minors, detained after crossing the border. //
Trump's incoming border czar, Tom Homan, himself grew emotional when discussing the two-year-old found alone at the border.
“That is an example of what I’ve been saying for the last few years, that illegal immigration is not a victimless crime,” Homan told the New York Post.
He added,
“People always ask, ‘Why do you get so emotional when you’re on Fox News, why do you get so emotional when you’re testifying to Congress and start yelling?’ It’s because I’ve seen more tragedies in 34 years than I can stomach. I’ve held dying children and I’ve helped dead children."
Nobody on the left helped. Nobody has even said a word. //
OrneryCoot
3 hours ago
I want the Democrats that let this happen or championed it to have to wander with only a piece of paper and the clothes on their backs throughout the wilderness in that area with no guide, and certainly no help from Border Patrol, who they despise and want to dismantle. Maybe the ones that made it out alive could knock sense into the rest of their ilk. Inclusion and equity, you know?
Iran thundered in apocalyptic prose: Israel will be destroyed! Death to America! Destroy the infidels! Kill the Jews! The future is ours!
General Ali Fadavi, the deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, smugly told the media, “Iran’s response to the Zionist aggression is definite. We are capable of destroying all that the Zionists possess with one operation.”
At least, Fadavi felt that way on October 31, when he issued that statement. Since then, America had a pretty big presidential election. (You might’ve heard about it.) But if you haven’t, here’s the highlight: The crazy, scary Orange Man is back in the saddle.
And suddenly, Iran’s singing a dramatically different tune.
It was released on Thanksgiving Day, so most people probably didn’t see it, but The New York Times released a fascinating story yesterday: “With Trump Returning and Hezbollah Weakened, Iran Strikes a Conciliatory Tone.”
The sub-header: “As Iran faces domestic and foreign challenges, its bellicose rhetoric on the United States and Israel has given way to signs that it wants less confrontation.”
The contrast is striking: Just weeks earlier, Iran was vowing to utterly eviscerate its enemies. No compromises, no exceptions! And remarkably, the world was largely falling into line: Biden even pressured America’s allies to “respond in proportion” to Iranian missile attacks on civilian targets.
But after Election Day? Even The New York Times noted the Iranian sea change:
In mid-November, Iran dispatched a top official to Beirut to urge Hezbollah to accept a cease-fire with Israel. Around the same time, Iran’s U.N. ambassador met with Elon Musk, as overture to President-elect Donald J. Trump’s inner circle. And on Friday, it will hold talks in Geneva with European countries on a range of issues, including its nuclear program.
Get ready for the money quote:
Five Iranian officials, one of them a Revolutionary Guards member, and two former officials said the decision to recalibrate was prompted by Mr. Trump winning the Nov. 5 election, with concerns about an unpredictable leader who, in his first term, pursued a policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran. [emphasis added]
During the Nixon years, we called it the madman theory: When foreign adversaries cannot predict the actions of a “mad” U.S. president, they’re suddenly risk-adverse. It’s a very old idea: Niccolo Machiavelli wrote in 1517 that sometimes, it’s “a very wise thing to simulate madness.”
But there’s nothing “mad” about it.
All nations make risk-reward calculations. //
Flawed worldviews lead to flawed results.
Iran isn’t motivated by insecurity; Iran is motivated by self-interest. When you’re not a superpower, your actions aren’t driven by utopian ideals, but risk-reward calculations: How much can we get away with before the cost is too great?
During the Obama-Biden-Harris years, they read the numbers one way. With Trump, it’s an entirely different calculation.
It’s not just morning again in America: It’s morning again in the Middle East, too.