Octopus Overlords

Alefroth wrote: ↑Fri Dec 16, 2022 3:24 pm I really hope whoever is subpoenaed delays and foot-drags for all they're worth.

Hunter Biden has reached a deal with federal prosecutors to resolve a five-year federal investigation into his failure to pay about $1 million in federal taxes and his purchase of a handgun in 2018.

Under an agreement detailed Tuesday in a filing in federal court in Delaware, President Joe Biden’s son will plead guilty to a pair of misdemeanor tax charges. Prosecutors have also charged him with possessing a firearm while being a user of illegal drugs — a felony — but have agreed to dismiss that charge if he completes a two-year period of probation.

Hunter Biden, 53, is unlikely to serve time in prison if he complies with release conditions. The deal calls for both sides to recommend that he be put on probation.

GreenGoo wrote: ↑Tue Jun 20, 2023 10:42 am what were the drugs involved?

The gun purchase that led to the criminal charge happened in late 2018, at a time when, by his own telling in his autobiography, Hunter Biden was regularly abusing crack cocaine. When he filled out paperwork to buy the gun, however, he denied using drugs or having a drug problem, exposing him to a potential charge of making a false statement on the document, as well as illegal gun possession once he acquired the weapon.

LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Tue Jun 20, 2023 10:38 am Regarding the tax charges, I'm fine with the plea deal since not dragging this out saves the taxpayers at least $1M.

The weapons charge, not a fan of dropping the felony but again, resources. Free up the US Attorney to go after other things.

During the investigation, Hunter Biden reportedly paid off his tax debts by tapping more than $2 million he was loaned by a Hollywood attorney and producer, Kevin Morris. Morris is also said to be funding a movie about Hunter Biden based in part on his 2021 memoir, “Beautiful Things.”
...
Lying on the gun-purchase form can be a felony, though prosecutions for it are rare. It’s unclear how many of those cases involve lying about being a drug user, but prosecutors and defense attorneys say they’re infrequent and are almost always brought in connection with some other set of alleged crimes.

Grifman wrote: ↑Fri Dec 16, 2022 11:11 am We know it’s coming, might as well start the thread with a summary of what we know so far:

Grifman wrote: ↑Tue Jun 20, 2023 11:09 am e paid all back taxes, interest and penalties, so I'm ok with that, though that itself raises questions as to there the money came from given his financial difficulties.

But he should have done some minimal time on the gun charges, I suspect a poorer, less well known defendant wouldn't have gotten off so easily.

The federal statute making it unlawful for a drug addict to possess a gun faces court challenges. The misdemeanor tax charges also rarely result in jail time.

Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Fri Jun 23, 2023 3:16 pm “They” don’t care whether or not you care about Hunter. They need something, anything that smells like corruption for the “both sides” of it all.

Also, they want it to hurt Joe Biden, either for shits and giggles, or for taking a few points off his polling.

Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Fri Jun 23, 2023 3:16 pm “They” don’t care whether or not you care about Hunter. They need something, anything that smells like corruption for the “both sides” of it all.

Also, they want it to hurt Joe Biden, either for shits and giggles, or for taking a few points off his polling.

Holman wrote: ↑Fri Jun 23, 2023 3:59 pm

Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Fri Jun 23, 2023 3:16 pm “They” don’t care whether or not you care about Hunter. They need something, anything that smells like corruption for the “both sides” of it all.

Also, they want it to hurt Joe Biden, either for shits and giggles, or for taking a few points off his polling.

They're also high on their own farts and have convinced themselves of Rudy's stories about The Laptop.

Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Sun Jun 25, 2023 1:38 pm I'm stealing "high on their own farts". And I can't believe it's taken me 50 years to come across it. Likewise "asshole casserole" has been stolen from a different source.

Gal Luft, a Dual U.S.-Israeli Citizen, Allegedly Evaded FARA Registration While Working to Advance the Interests of China in the United States and Sought to Broker the Illicit Sales of Chinese-Manufactured Weapons and Iranian Oil to China

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Matthew G. Olsen, the Assistant Attorney General for National Security, and Christie M. Curtis, the Acting Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), announced today the unsealing of an eight-count Indictment charging GAL LUFT with offenses related to willfully failing to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (“FARA”), arms trafficking, Iranian sanctions violations, and making false statements to federal agents. LUFT, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, was arrested on February 17, 2023, in the Republic of Cyprus based on the charges in the Indictment. LUFT subsequently fled after being released on bail while extradition proceedings were pending and remains a fugitive.

Luft has been the “missing witness” of House Republicans’ investigation into the Biden family’s business dealings for months, according to the Post. House investigators have been unable to locate him to request his testimony to Congress.

Luft, who spends most of his time in Israel, offered to meet with the DOJ in 2019 to hand over evidence and information from Hunter Biden’s dealings with CEFC. Luft advised the now-defunct Chinese energy company for roughly four years and during the time that Hunter and the company were working together.

LordMortis wrote: ↑Tue Jul 11, 2023 7:51 am Obviously he was set up, so as to protect Hunter.

malchior wrote: ↑Tue Jul 11, 2023 10:08 am That indictment is sorta of hilarious. The great hope of Republicans is probably a ... Chinese spy. You can't make this stuff up. When you read the indictment it almost reads like it had to be made up. It's pretty cartoonish. The guy probably tripped a half dozen national security trip wires.

Republicans in Congress Seek to Block Hunter Biden’s Plea Deal

The chairman of the Ways and Means Committee filed a brief in federal court saying the plea agreement for the president’s son had been tainted by political interference.

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On the eve of Hunter Biden’s court appearance to enter into a plea deal for misdemeanor tax crimes that would allow him to avoid prison time, House Republicans and conservative groups sought to intervene in the case, urging a judge to throw out the agreement he reached with prosecutors.

The highly unusual legal maneuvering — which experts said was unlikely to succeed — illustrated the lengths that House Republicans and their allied groups have been willing to go to as they have tried to use Mr. Biden’s legal and personal troubles to inflict political damage on his father, President Biden.

...

Another brief was filed by the Heritage Foundation, the conservative research group, which has started an operation dedicated to aiding the Republican investigations into President Biden.

Hunter Biden’s lawyers tried to stop Mr. Smith from filing his brief, saying that he had no standing and that the materials included in the filing should be filed under seal because they contain confidential taxpayer information.

The judge overseeing the case, Maryellen Noreika, agreed to seal the filing, but not before The New York Times was able to obtain a copy. The brief argued that the plea deal was “tainted,” citing the testimony of the two I.R.S. officials.

GreenGoo wrote: ↑Wed Jul 26, 2023 9:54 am I suggest getting the all of Hunter's victims in these crimes to testify against him.

From the start, the judge seemed highly skeptical of the unusual deal — which offered Hunter Biden broad immunity from prosecution in perpetuity, questioning why it had been filed under a provision that gave her no legal authority to reject it. When she asked Leo Wise, a prosecutor, if there was any precedent for the kind of deal being proposed, he replied, “No, your honor.”

malchior wrote: ↑Wed Jul 26, 2023 12:28 pm Note: Some people online are pointing out the judge was appointed by Trump. That's great and all but the account indicates she asked some straight forward questions and it led to DOJ and Hunter's lawyers arguing about the deal in open court. She didn't even rule against accepting the deal - it fell apart between the parties. It's a complete clusterfuck. DOJ just gifted the GOP with a corruption storyline that very well might stick to Biden.