If you’re looking for the people who say it’s ridiculous Russia hacking the DNC had any effect on the 2016 election, they are RIGHT NOW arguing the media not publishing Hunter’s shadily acquired emails swung the 2020 election. LOFL.
— Grudgie the Whale (@grudging1) March 17, 2022
The Justice Department has exhausted all avenues of investigation into Hunter Biden and turned up no evidence of wrongdoing. Ace reporter Ken Vogel gives us the latest on this crippling failure of imagination on the part of the investigators https://t.co/w4jU03hNz4
— Comirnaty By Nature (@canderaid) March 17, 2022
Somebody should’ve told the NYTimes that But the emails!!! only works against *female* politicians…
In the year after he disclosed a federal investigation into his “tax affairs” in late 2020, President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, paid off a significant tax liability, even as a grand jury continued to gather evidence in a wide-ranging examination of his international business dealings, according to people familiar with the case.
Mr. Biden’s failure to pay all his taxes has been a focus of the ongoing Justice Department investigation. While wiping out his liability does not preclude criminal charges against him, the payment could make it harder for prosecutors to win a conviction or a long sentence for tax-related offenses, according to tax law experts, since juries and judges tend to be more sympathetic to defendants who have paid their bills…
The investigation, which began as a tax inquiry under the Obama administration, widened in 2018 to include possible criminal violations of tax laws, as well as foreign lobbying and money laundering rules, according to the people familiar with the inquiry.
But prosecutors face a number of hurdles to bringing criminal charges, the people familiar with the investigation said, including proving that Mr. Biden intentionally violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, which requires disclosure to the Justice Department of lobbying or public relations assistance on behalf of foreign clients.
The Justice Department has given no public indication that it has made decisions about any element of the case, and Mr. Biden has not been charged with any crime…
if the DOJ hasn't found evidence to support criminal charges, even after it widened the investigation, shouldn't the big takeaway be that people alleging criminal behavior, and those giving their claims massive media attention, are full of … uh … "it"? https://t.co/P8WexhHKsm
— Jamison Foser (@jamisonfoser) March 17, 2022
Here are things that are true:
1) There is ABUNDANT public evidence that a good number of Trump associates, INCLUDING Trump, are being investigated.
— emptywheel (@emptywheel) March 17, 2022
2) It is a good thing that an already existing investigation into the son of the most powerful person in the country can continue w/o interference–it’s what we wanted, but were deprived of, with Kushner and Don Jr and Trump and Stone and Rudy and Manafort.
3) We should be pursuing sleazy influence peddling in both parties.
Please, someone, give Lanny Davis the same scrutiny we want Paul Manafort to get!!
4) EVEN GLENN GREENWALD admitted that the back story to the Hunter Biden laptop story didn’t hold together, especially given the involvement of suspected RU agent dangle Rudy G, and DOJ was already investigating anyway. It was ALL about distracting you pre-trial.
5) There is zero evidence that David Weiss is conducting himself with the recklessness, the sloppiness, and the fundamental preference for Russian hackers over Hillary Clinton (or Joe Biden) that John Durham is investigating with.
6) Investigations do not always result in prosecutions, and often there are good reasons for it.
With Bill Barr, there were terrible reasons for it.
But there’s no reason to believe DOJ is not pursuing what it can as aggressively as possible.
Vogel was pretty much the only guy to actually believe Giuliani & his Russian spy partners
— Grudgie the Whale (@grudging1) March 17, 2022
More snark:
All the NY Times did today was confirm that some real Hunter Biden emails were planted on the laptop the republicans pretended was his. This means the fake scandal involved hacking and was an even bigger crime than we thought. Many republican operatives could go to prison for it.
— Palmer Report (@PalmerReport) March 17, 2022
The people who concocted this scandal were always going to argue that they honestly thought the laptop was really Hunter Biden’s. But that reasonable doubt argument goes out the window now that they apparently stole his emails and planted them on the laptop.
The DOJ doesn’t bring criminal charges in instances where it thinks it’s going to lose at trial due to a reasonable doubt defense. This new development could mean the difference in terms of the perpetrators of this phony scandal actually being prosecuted.
This developent also raises serious questions about the NY Post’s decision to run with this story. It’s one (bad) thing to have known the story was false. It’d be much worse if the NY Post knew that crimes had been committed in the name of falsifying evidence for the story.
Republicans are declaring victory over today’s developments, because they always declare victory on everything, even when it’s a clear loss. But that won’t help them any.
(As opposed to most liberal activists, who always declare defeat, even when it’s a clear win for their side).
Remember when Hunter Biden made 640 million dollars while working as an unqualified advisor to his dad the president?
Nope, neither do I.
That was Ivanka.— Shari Lynn (@LynnSharig8) March 17, 2022
John Revolta
Uh huh. Funny thing, that’s the same excuse the CLINTONS always use!
“No evidence”!!
Coincidence???
WAKE UP SHEEPLE!!
SpaceUnit
How the hell does this put the DOJ in a tough political bind? What does that even mean?
I can’t even with these nutjobs.
Cameron
Is it possible that they’re struggling so hard to find evidence because, y’know, there isn’t any?
SamIAm
The laptop bullshit eas always obviously bullshit.
But this is the first time I’m hearing about Hunter Biden being in trouble for unpaid taxes. So what is the context for that?
sanjeevs
I will always be grateful to Ken Vogel for fucking up the Hunter Biden emails story in 2020, when it was supposed to simultaneously kneecap both Joe Biden and Zelenskyy.
Without his incompetence at ratfucking, the world would look completely different right now.
sanjeevs
@SamIAm: No he is in trouble for paying his taxes.
Kalakal
But did they look in Ohio diners?
Even as I write a crack FTFNYT team is on its way
Omnes Omnibus
@SpaceUnit: It’s a Democratic administration.
Danielx
Keep digging, Vogel – there has to be a connection with Hillary buried somewhere!
Fuckng douche rocket.
Gin & Tonic
I’d be happy to see Ken Vogel hanging by his heels from a bridge over I-95, right next to Tucker Carlson.
raven
And St Peters beats Kentucky!!!!!
SpaceUnit
@Omnes Omnibus:
So “a tough political bind” really means everybody at the DOJ keeps showing up at work in the mornings and going about their jobs?
Okay, works for me.
sab
@sanjeevs: So much this.
prostratedragon
@raven: Wow! That’s why they play them out.
Gin & Tonic
@raven: Many years ago, I had a co-worker who made fairly serious bucks betting on the college hoops, almost invariably betting on underdogs.
raven
@Gin & Tonic: I’m in a calcutta and long shots are all I can afford. I dropped 1200 on the Illini last year and took gas.
zhena gogolia
@Gin & Tonic: We are on the same page here.
Gin & Tonic
@raven: Yeah, he made money on the hoops and then left it all at Belmont. So it goes.
evodevo
@raven: Yeah, I am upstairs on my computer lol – hubby is NOT in a good mood! Big Blue wiped out…
CROAKER
But we aren’t talking about the War. He and they have succeed. The game has been played. The trap set. DISTRACT from another Russian regiment made combat infective, A few more major generals and couple of colonels too but the the laptop.
debbie
Vogel might get more respect if he retained Sydney Powell. //
Morzer
https://www.greatpower.us/p/escalating-fears-that-putin-might?s=r
CROAKER
Comments need moderation?
CROAKER
Test – can’t post from ipad as the comments need moderation but I can post from laptop. Being summoned to return to bed.
It’s all interesting and a nice distraction you see from the actual events in the world.
“Significant losses on units of the 252nd Motorized Rifle Regiment of the Western Military District, which are fighting in the areas of Kharkiv and Izyum. Up to 30 percent of personnel, weapons and military equipment were lost. Besides, divisions of forces of defense liquidated the commander of the 3rd motorized infantry division of colonel Igor Nikolaev.”
Loosing count of the Major Generals and Colonels not going back home now.
Russian airpower FYI
960th Assault Aviation Regiment of the 4th Army of the russian Armed Forces suffered significant losses. The moral and psychological condition of the flight crew is extremely unsatisfactory. Cases of dismissal reports continue due to unwillingness to take part in hostilities on the territory of Ukraine.
Jeffro
They’re in a ‘bind’ because they found nothing, after looking under every rock in creation?
Didn’t we used to call that, “case dismissed” or a “nothingburger” or something like that?
Nobody’s in a ‘bind’, except for the both-sides media and the loons trying to pretend that some guy’s laptop holds the keys to DEMOCRAT DISSSOLUTION 4EVER!!!1!!
Always after that Grail, these loons
Jeffro
100% This is and always be the only way to deal with abusers, bullies, psychopaths. go. f*ck. yourself.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
have a nice distraction
Butter Emails!
@Morzer: So Putin is unraveling before our eyes because everything is going according to his master plan?
SpaceUnit
@Jeffro:
Exactly. This is the lamest spin ever.
debbie
@Morzer:
I don’t agree that Putin let us see his “plan.” He wasn’t brilliant enough to avoid the sanctions. He’s brutal and sociopathic, and he’s managed to manipulate the doltish, but he’s no genius.
zhena gogolia
@Jeffro: Unless they have nukes.
SpaceUnit
@Morzer:
This notion that we have ‘boxed ourselves in’ is a shitty but predictable frame being promoted by all the usual suspects.
Nothing is off the table.
Bill Arnold
@Morzer:
Judging by that piece, Molly McKew is a really shitty analyst. (And she probably thinks very highly of her own thoughts.)
Bill Arnold
@Morzer:
Judging by that piece, Molly McKew is a really shitty analyst. (And she probably thinks very highly of her own thoughts.)
(ETA, to clarify: The US is the one doing the boxing in of Russia, not vice versa. The Russians are flailing. And they should know that nuclear threats will increase the probably of collapse of the current Russian government, not decrease it. They focus the mind and seriously anger a lot of people.)
debbie
The stories of Russian parents not believing their children living in Ukraine are heartbreaking.
Villago Delenda Est
Nuke the Vichy Times from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
Steeplejack
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
That’s great!
Villago Delenda Est
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: She did it with one of the commie/nazi/hippie masks on, too!
Bill Arnold
@Butter Emails!:
The conspiracy is not Russian. It started with a long operation to defeat DJT in the 2020 election. Putin was next, since he interfered in the 2016 US election (and Brexit). (Netanyahu was a sideshow.) :-) :-)
Those who haven’t read it, this bonkers thread is LOL funny and perhaps even partially true. (threadreader as well for those who don’t do twitter)
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1504343530356969472.html
Another Scott
It takes people of all shapes and sizes…
(No sound necessary.)
Good, good.
(via CharlesPPierce)
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, …
OMG…
Cheers,
Scott.
James E Powell
I never followed the Hunter Biden laptop story so I have no idea what it’s supposed to be about. Apparently the story – whatever it is – was buried by the liberal media, but at the same time written about all over and talked about endlessly throughout the late months of the 2020 campaign.
Hasn’t the FTFNYT had a reporter on this thing since day one? Hasn’t that reporter faithfully repeated every allegation the Republicans wanted repeated?
What story was buried?
Is this like Whitewater, where there was an assumption of wrongdoing without anyone ever saying what the wrongdoing was?
Bill Arnold
@James E Powell:
Their complaint is that it didn’t dominate a weeks worth of news cycles immediately prior to the 2020 election. Their problem is that the people pushing the story were telegraphing that it would be a last-few-weeks-before-the-election push a year (maybe more) in advance. In that time, the majority of the US press was primed/primed itself to be skeptical. It helped that some of the pushers were buffoons, like R. Giuliani. It was spectacularly-bad influence-op tradecraft, to be generous and use that word.
Matt McIrvin
@Morzer: Sorry. I read this and think: We are all going to be dead by summer.
Morzer
@Matt McIrvin: It does seem rather more possible than one would like.
Soprano2
@raven: That busted a lot of brackets.
Geminid
@Bill Arnold: It was also terrible campaign strategy. Messaging bandwidth is precious two weeks before an election. The Trump campaign jumped down a rabbit hole and nobody followed. I remember Ted Cruz being interviewed at the time, and when asked about the laptop story he made about the only correct comment I ever heard from him: “I don’t think it will move a single vote.”