IRS supervisory special agent Gary Shapley and IRS special agent Joseph Ziegler provided extensive evidence of Biden’s efforts to avoid paying nearly $1.6 million in taxes from 2014 and 2019.

Here are the main revelations from their testimony before the House Oversight Committee.

Hunter Biden ‘should have been charged’ with tax felonies.

Ziegler, who opened the Biden probe in 2018, testified that Hunter Biden "should have been charged with a tax felony," but that federal prosecutors and the Justice Department settled only for misdemeanor charges.

Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of failure to pay his taxes for 2017 and 2018. Ziegler and Shapley testified that prosecutors initially approved of felony charges for the tax years 2014 to 2019.

Shapley said that as recently as August 2022, prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware supported felony counts against Hunter Biden for the years 2017, 2018, and 2019.

The Hunter Biden tax probe began with payments to prostitutes.

Ziegler, a registered Democrat, testified that he opened a tax investigation of Hunter Biden in November 2018 after reviewing bank records that "identified Hunter Biden as paying prostitutes related to a potential prostitution ring." The records also showed Hunter Biden spent "lavishly" from his corporate bank account, a pattern that Ziegler said is a red flag for potential tax fraud.

According to Ziegler, Hunter Biden filed false tax returns that included improper deductions for "prostitutes, sex clubs, and his adult children’s tuition."

Hunter Biden deducted payments to his "West Coast assistant," who was actually a prostitute. Ziegler also said that Hunter Biden deducted a $10,000 payment he falsely described as a golf club membership.

"That was not a golf club membership—that was for a sex club payment," Ziegler said.

IRS agents were warned against interviewing Hunter Biden’s adult children.

Ziegler testified that the IRS investigators were prohibited from interviewing Hunter Biden’s adult children about suspicious payments they received from their father. Ziegler said prosecutors told him the interviews would "get us in hot water."

Ziegler said the stand-down order was "abnormal" and a "deviation from normal procedure." He testified the interviews would have helped investigators determine whether Hunter Biden’s deductions for payments to his children were for legitimate business purposes, or evidence of tax fraud.

Prosecutors blocked agents from investigating Hunter Biden’s infamous WhatsApp messages.

Ziegler said prosecutors handling the Biden probe blocked him from investigating an infamous Hunter Biden text message in which he invoked his father in a threatening text message to his partners at CEFC China Energy.

"I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father," Hunter Biden wrote in a July 30, 2017, message to a CEFC China Energy executive.

"I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction."

Ziegler said prosecutors declined to approve his request to obtain location data to see if Hunter was with his father when he sent the message. The IRS agent said the line of inquiry "simply wasn’t supported by the prosecutors."

The Washington Free Beacon reported that Hunter Biden was photographed at his father’s home in Delaware on the day of the message.

Foreign entities made seven-figure payments to Biden family.

Shapley and Ziegler revealed that foreign entities in China, Romania, and Ukraine paid the Biden family $17 million from 2014 to 2019.

CEFC China Energy, an energy conglomerate linked to the Chinese Communist Party, made a total of $6.7 million in payments to Hunter Biden and his consulting company. Ukraine’s Burisma Holdings paid $6.5 million to Hunter Biden and his associates. A Romanian businessman under investigation for bribery paid another $3.1 million to Hunter Biden and his associates.

According to Ziegler, Hunter Biden did not report any income from Ukraine’s Burisma in 2014, though he received more than $80,000 a month from the company.

The post The Major Revelations From the Hunter Biden Whistleblower Hearing appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Kennedy distanced himself from Farrakhan as part of a clean-up effort after the Democrat asserted that the coronavirus may have been "ethnically targeted" to harm black and white people, while Ashkenazi Jews appeared to have greater immunity to the virus. Kennedy, who was denounced by some Jewish groups and Democratic Party leaders, claimed his statements were taken out of context and that he is not anti-Semitic.

Kennedy’s remarks brought his relationship with Farrakhan back into the spotlight. Farrakhan has railed against "satanic Jews" and in 2013 claimed that "the Jewish media" promoted "sexual degeneracy, profanity, and all kinds of sin." Farrakhan said in 2018 that "powerful Jews are my enemy."

Asked this week about his relationship with Farrakhan, Kennedy claimed he is an "opponent" of Farrakhan and has "never endorsed anything that Louis Farrakhan has said."

But Kennedy’s previous actions appear to contradict that claim.

In 2015, Kennedy visited Farrakhan and introduced him to the unfounded theory that measles vaccines are linked to higher rates of autism, the Washington Free Beacon reported. A Nation of Islam official who attended the meeting said that Kennedy informed the group that the measles "vaccine is genetically modified to give black boys autism," a claim without evidence.

Kennedy called Farrakhan a "truly great partner" at a protest outside Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in October 2015. Kennedy continued over the next few years to work with the Nation of Islam on the vaccine issue. In 2020, Farrakhan urged his supporters to "follow Robert Kennedy," and claimed that scientists administered the coronavirus vaccine in order to "depopulate the Earth."

Kennedy claimed in his recent interview that he was not aware of Farrakhan’s history of anti-Semitism when they began working together in 2015. But Kennedy’s writings in his private diary appear to contradict that. According to a 2013 report, Kennedy wrote that he was disenchanted with civil rights leader Jesse Jackson because of his "love affair with Louis Farrakhan and his Jewish xenophobia."

Kennedy claimed he cut ties with the Nation of Islam after a colleague informed him of Farrakhan’s comments about Jews. Kennedy said he asked his friend, Nation of Islam official Tony Muhammad, to publicly disavow Farrakhan. When Muhammad declined, according to Kennedy, "that was the end of our friendship."

Kennedy did not say when that conversation occurred, but he worked with Muhammad as recently as 2021. Kennedy hosted Muhammad to discuss his documentary Medical Racism: The New Apartheid. Kennedy pushed the unfounded claim that scientists are "conducting an experiment on black Americans" by vaccinating black children against measles.

In his interview, Kennedy said the "worst two accusations that anybody can make about you are that you’re an antisemite or a pedophile."

Kennedy recently interviewed Scott Ritter, a convicted child sex offender, on his podcast. The pair criticized United States support for Ukraine in its defensive war against Russia.

Kennedy’s campaign and Tony Muhammad did not respond to requests for comment.

The post RFK Jr. Disavows Anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan, Whom He Once Called a ‘Truly Great Partner’ appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

O'Rourke has kept $100,000 that Bankman-Fried donated to O'Rourke's failed gubernatorial campaign, according to campaign finance disclosures released this week. A spokesman for O'Rourke said in November that the campaign had returned an "unsolicited" $1 million donation from Bankman-Fried just before the Nov. 8 election. O'Rourke received positive media attention for announcing the refund, with one political scientist saying it "looks good" for O'Rourke to return Bankman-Fried's donation.

The Washington Free Beacon reported in January that O'Rourke's campaign refunded just $900,000 to Bankman-Fried and that it was placing the additional $100,000 into a fund for "victims of FTX's collapse." Campaign filings released this week do not show any refunds or payments related to the remaining $100,000.

O'Rourke clings to the cash even amid a series of damning developments in Bankman-Fried's case. Bankman-Fried was indicted in December on fraud and campaign finance charges, then slapped with additional charges in February. Prosecutors accused him of making tens of millions of dollars in political donations to "improve his personal standing" in Washington, D.C., and "curry favor" with candidates who could pass legislation favorable to his crypto trading company FTX. Former FTX executive Nishad Singh pleaded guilty in February to fraud and campaign finance charges. He contributed $100,000 to the O'Rourke campaign.

In February, the Justice Department issued letters to campaigns and political committees demanding that they forward donations from Bankman-Fried to the U.S. Marshals Service. Many recipients of Bankman-Fried's ill-gotten gains have complied. Rep. Rubén Gallego (D., Ariz.), for example, in March "disgorged" a $2,900 donation from Bankman-Fried by cutting a check to the U.S. Marshals Service, his campaign disclosures show.

O'Rourke, whose campaign has $166,758 in the bank, has not said whether he plans to run for political office in the future. Should he decide to run for office, he will likely be allowed to fund it with contributions from his gubernatorial campaign war chest. But the former congressman has faced a series of political losses in recent years. He lost in 2022 against Texas Republican governor Greg Abbott and in 2018 against Republican senator Ted Cruz. He dropped out of the 2020 Democratic field two months before the first primary.

Bankman-Fried contributed more than $40 million to Democratic candidates and political action committees, including $5 million to a political action committee that supported Joe Biden's 2020 campaign. He gave $300,000 to Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee, which oversees the cryptocurrency industry.

The donations opened doors for Bankman-Fried in Washington. He visited the White House at least four times in 2022, meeting with Biden's top adviser, Steve Ricchetti, and other aides. He also attended a Philadelphia retreat last year for House Democrats, where he rubbed shoulders with Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.), who at the time was chairwoman of the House Financial Services panel.

O'Rourke could not be reached for comment.

The post Dirty Money: Beto Clings to $100K from Sam Bankman-Fried After Pledge To Return Tainted Crypto Cash appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

The supervisory special agent’s testimony to the House Oversight Committee in a closed-door interview on Monday corroborates key claims from IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley about the peculiarities surrounding the bureau’s investigation. According to the agent, who was identified by Shapley as Joe Gordon, the two planned to interview Hunter Biden in Los Angeles on Dec. 8, 2020, but were stymied at the last minute after FBI headquarters notified the Secret Service and the Biden transition team about their plans.

Gordon said that intervention meant Biden, who pleaded guilty earlier this month to misdemeanor tax charges, avoided ever having to meet face-to-face with law enforcement. Such an intervention from FBI headquarters was unprecedented in the course of Gordon’s career, he testified.

Those claims match with what Shapley told lawmakers in an interview in May. Shapley, an IRS supervisory special agent, said that the Justice Department and the U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware took unusual steps to slow down or block certain aspects of the investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes and his foreign business dealings. Shapley also said that prosecutors prohibited investigators from inquiring into Joe Biden’s involvement in his son’s business affairs.

Gordon’s testimony is the first time an employee of the Department of Justice has corroborated some of Shapley’s claims, fueling Republican criticism that Hunter Biden received special treatment from prosecutors. Senior Republican lawmakers previously blasted Hunter Biden’s charges—none of which will result in jail time—as a "sweetheart deal."

"The Justice Department’s efforts to cover up for the Bidens reveals a two-tiered system of justice that sickens the American people," said Rep. James Comer (R., Ky.), the chairman of the House Oversight Committee.

Hunter Biden’s attorneys have tried to discredit Shapley as a disgruntled IRS employee. Abbe Lowell, one of Hunter Biden’s attorneys, called Shapley "biased" and "aggrieved." Chris Clark, who also serves on Hunter Biden’s legal team, has suggested that Shapley "committed a crime" by discussing Hunter Biden’s taxes.

Shapley, who will testify at a public hearing on Wednesday, alleged in his House testimony that prosecutors initially approved of felony tax charges against Biden, although those were never filed. He also called the case against Biden for tax evasion related to millions of dollars of income from foreign sources a "slam dunk." One of the ways Hunter Biden tried to evade taxes, Shapley said, was deducting payments he made to prostitutes and sex clubs from his taxes.

But those charges never came. Shapley testified that he and Gordon developed plans to interview Hunter Biden on Dec. 8, 2020. FBI agents planned to interview other Biden associates as part of their investigation as well, but Shapley said he was informed the night before the interview that someone at FBI headquarters "had notified Secret Service headquarters and the transition team about the planned actions the following day."

"This essentially tipped off a group of people very close to President Biden and Hunter Biden and gave this group an opportunity to obstruct the approach on the witnesses," Shapley said.

Shapley said Gordon was "clearly dejected" that someone had "interfered" with their plan to interview Biden. The two, according to Shapley, were later instructed to wait in a car outside Biden’s home until he called, but only heard from an FBI official who said that Biden’s lawyers refused to allow him to speak with the agents.

"We received a telephone call later that morning from Hunter Biden's attorneys, who said he would accept service for any document requests, but we couldn't talk to his client."

The post FBI Agent Confirms Agency Slow-Walked Hunter Biden Probe, Republicans Say appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Sixteen lobbyists contributed $9,635 to Gallego in the most recent fundraising quarter, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. Two lobbyists from Ogilvy Government Relations contributed $3,500 to Gallego. Lobbyists from Cornerstone Government Affairs, Thorn Run Partners, and the telecom industry also contributed to Gallego's campaign, which reported receipts of $3.1 million over the past three months. Gallego's lobbyist donors represent corporations with significant business before the federal government, including AT&T, Pfizer, Meta, and Wells Fargo.

Gallego accepted the lobbyist cash while fighting to make Sinema's apparent coziness with lobbyists a centerpiece of his campaign. Gallego accused the incumbent earlier this year of choosing "to side with the lobbyists and special interests" over Arizonans. He also took aim at the "deep-pocketed lobbyists funding [Sinema's] campaign."

It's not the only example of Gallego being in bed with lobbyists. Gallego is married to the director of government relations at the National Association of Realtors, one of largest lobbying organizations in the country, the Washington Free Beacon reported. Gallego and his wife, Sydney Barron, attended an all-expenses-paid event hosted by the National Association of Realtors held at a resort in West Virginia.

Gallego in April 2021 took an all-expenses-paid trip to Qatar funded by the U.S.-Qatar Business Council, a trade group that supports stronger ties between the United States and the oil-rich Gulf nation, known for sponsoring Islamic terrorist organizations. The trade group paid $22,000 for Gallego and his wife's flights, meals, and lodging. The junket gained national attention after Gallego was photographed riding shirtless on a camel in the Qatari desert with fellow congressman Eric Swalwell (D., Calif.).

Gallego's latest campaign filing shows he paid $7,500 to Solidarity Strategies, the consulting firm led by his campaign adviser, Chuck Rocha. Rocha was convicted of felony charges a decade ago for embezzling money from the United Steelworkers union, where he served as political director.

Two of the union's sister organizations, the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers and International Association of Sheet Metal Workers, contributed $12,500 to Gallego's campaign this quarter.

Gallego's campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

The post Rubén Gallego Rakes in Lobbyist Cash as He Blasts Sinema Over Ties to 'Deep-Pocketed Lobbyists' appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Federal law prohibits agencies from awarding grants to companies with unpaid federal taxes. But Deployed Resources, a New York-based contractor that owes $585,075 in unpaid taxes, received $964 million in federal contracts this year to house illegal immigrants in North Carolina and Texas. That windfall comes as Deployed Resources cultivated ties to the Democratic Party.

Tom Ziemba, an executive at Deployed Resources and president of its sister company, Deployed Services, has contributed more than $34,000 to Democrats, and has consulted for various Democratic groups. His ex-wife, Julie Mason, served as chief of staff for Vice President Kamala Harris’s husband until June 2022. Mason joined Deployed Services earlier this year as executive vice president for communications.

"The federal government has numerous controls to ensure award recipients are lawful and ethical actors, but these appear to be disregarded amid the Biden administration’s humanitarian crisis at the border," said Pete McGinnis, the communications director for the Functional Government Initiative, a government watchdog group.

Contracts to Deployed Resources, awarded largely by the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Health and Human Services, ballooned from $147 million in 2020 to $944 million in 2022. The IRS filed tax liens against the New York-based company in October 2022 for unpaid taxes from 2020 and 2021, according to documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Deployed Resources is not the first Democrat-linked firm to score lucrative contracts from the Office of Refugee Resettlement. The San Antonio-based Family Endeavors, which hired Biden transition adviser Andrew Lorenzen-Strait in early 2021, received a $579 million no-bid contract from the office in March 2021, the Free Beacon reported. The Office of Refugee Resettlement’s budget has quadrupled even as it lost track of more than 100,000 unaccompanied children. Nearly all of the new spending has gone to Deployed Resources, Family Endeavors, and one other contractor.

Deployed Services has received $335 million in contracts since 2021 to provide "direct care" services at the North Carolina facility operated by Deployed Resources. That includes $261 million in no-bid contracts since last year, a practice that Vice President Harris and other Democrats have decried.

McGinnis said the contracts have been awarded "without proper oversight, even after contract recipients were tagged with clear misconduct, including unpaid taxes."

"Sadly, these cartel-friendly policies appear dysfunctional at every turn," he told the Free Beacon.

In 2019, the Government Accountability Office found that Health and Human Services and four other agencies rarely complied with the regulations regarding contracts for companies with IRS debts. Federal contractors are required to disclose whether they have any unpaid debt. Agencies must either deny contracts for tax scofflaws or consider whether they should be suspected.

The Government Accountability Office criticized Customs and Border Protection in 2019 over a $12 million contract with Deployed Resources for a migrant housing facility in Tornillo, Tex. According to the report, the government paid Deployed Resources for 650,000 meals that were never ordered. The facility was designed to hold 2,500 migrants at a time, but only 68 stayed there on average per day.

Deployed Resources did not respond to numerous requests for comment. DHS and HHS did not respond to requests for comment.

The post Biden Admin Awards Massive No-Bid Contracts to Dem-Connected Firm with $600k Tax Lien appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan unsealed charges this week against Luft, who claims to have given the FBI information in 2019 about the Biden family's Chinese business dealings. Assistant U.S. attorneys Catherine Ghosh and Daniel Richenthal, who conducted the interview with Luft in 2019, are the two lead prosecutors on his case, court records show. Both have contributed exclusively to Democrats. Ghosh made 35 contributions in the 2020 election cycle to Biden's campaign and the Democratic National Committee, according to campaign finance records. Richenthal contributed to the 2008 Obama-Biden campaign when he served in private practice, the records show.

The revelations come as IRS whistleblowers and Republicans question whether federal prosecutors, for political reasons, stymied investigations into Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings. IRS whistleblowers have alleged that Biden-appointed federal prosecutors in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., blocked requests to file tax charges against Hunter Biden in their jurisdictions. The whistleblowers also claim that investigators were prohibited from fully investigating the Biden family's foreign business ventures, including with CEFC China Energy.

The charges against Luft have already sparked allegations of a double standard in how the administration investigates the first family.

"The amazing thing is we don't prosecute foreign corruption and failure to register as a foreign agent when it's Hunter Biden. We do when it's somebody who specifically is accusing and says they have information about the wrongdoing of the Biden family," Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) said this week after Luft's indictment was unsealed.

Prosecutors charged Luft, the co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, with violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act through his work for CEFC China Energy. He is accused of recruiting former CIA director James Woolsey on behalf of CEFC China Energy to write articles touting pro-Beijing policies. According to the indictment, Luft failed to register with the Justice Department for his work for a "Chinese foreign principal."

Hunter Biden has avoided similar charges, even though CEFC China Energy paid him nearly $6 million for business and legal consulting in 2017 and 2018. Joe Biden was also allegedly involved in his son's work for CEFC China Energy. Longtime Biden family friend Rob Walker told the FBI in December 2020 that Joe Biden and his son took part in a meeting with CEFC China Energy executives at the Four Seasons in Washington, D.C. That contradicts Joe Biden's claims to have no involvement in his son's business ventures.

Richenthal and Ghosh have investigated CEFC China Energy since at least 2017 when they handled the prosecution of Patrick Ho, a CEFC China Energy executive with ties to both Hunter Biden and Luft. Ho was indicted in November 2017 for attempting to bribe two African officials on behalf of CEFC China Energy. CEFC China Energy paid Hunter Biden $1 million to represent Ho in the case.

Richenthal asked the judge presiding over the Ho case to redact Biden’s name from emails introduced as evidence at trial, according to court transcripts.

"Our view is that the name of that individual is not relevant and could introduce a political dimension to this case that we don't think is worth dealing with," Richenthal said at Ho’s trial, referring to a December 2015 email in which Hunter Biden was invited to a dinner with CEFC China Energy chairman Ye Jianming.

Luft met with Richenthal, Ghosh, and four FBI agents in Brussels in March 2019, shortly after Ho was convicted at his bribery trial. Luft has said he told the prosecutors that CEFC China Energy paid Hunter Biden to use the Biden family’s connections to the FBI in order to find out whether CEFC China Energy and its chairman, Ye Jianming, were under investigation. Luft also said he told prosecutors that CEFC China Energy paid Hunter Biden to promote the Belt and Road Initiative, the Chinese government’s infrastructure investment initiative.

Prosecutors charged Luft with lying during the interviews in Brussels, which occurred on March 28 and 29, 2019, regarding his attempts to broker weapons sales on behalf of CEFC China Energy.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan did not respond to a request for comment.

The post Prosecutors of Biden Family Corruption Witness Gal Luft Donated to Joe Biden, Other Dems appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

According to federal prosecutors, CEFC China Energy funded a scheme to "recruit" former CIA director James Woolsey to pen articles for Chinese state-run media that promoted Chinese government initiatives. Prosecutors allege that CEFC China Energy ran the operation through Gal Luft, the co-director of a think tank Woolsey founded. Luft is charged with failing to register as a foreign agent for "work related to Chinese foreign principals." Luft, a dual Israeli and American citizen, disclosed earlier this year that he was under investigation, but claimed he was targeted because he provided the FBI with information about Hunter Biden’s work for CEFC China Energy in 2019.

The allegation that CEFC China Energy targeted a top American intelligence official for an influence operation is certain to add intrigue to the company’s dealings with the Biden family. The family's links to CEFC China Energy drew the attention of the Justice Department’s and FBI’s counterintelligence investigators, according to IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley, who led the agency’s tax fraud investigation of Hunter Biden. Republicans have asserted that the family’s work with CEFC China Energy "posed counterintelligence and extortion concerns," in part because of CEFC China Energy’s alleged ties to Chinese military intelligence.

In some ways, CEFC China Energy’s approach to Biden is similar to its outreach to Luft. Prosecutors allege that Patrick Ho, a CEFC China Energy executive and leader of the company’s China Energy Fund Committee think tank, gave $350,000 to Luft’s think tank in 2015. The following year, Ho asked Luft to "recruit and ‘educate’" Woolsey so that he "would make public statements…which were in the interest of China." According to prosecutors, Luft wrote articles under Woolsey’s name for Chinese state media outlets that promoted China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the massive infrastructure project that Beijing has used to gain influence in foreign countries. CEFC China Energy paid Woolsey $6,000 per month, according to the indictment.

CEFC China Energy also made its first outreach to Hunter Biden in 2015, when his father was vice president. The father of a classmate of Hunter Biden’s daughter contacted Hunter Biden in October 2015, offering to facilitate a donation from CEFC China to a charity where Hunter Biden served as a director. The man, Scott Oh, also asked to discuss "investment opportunities" and "invitations for the B’s to speak in China," an apparent reference to the Biden family.

Weeks later, former United Nations official Vuk Jeremic, who served as a consultant for CEFC China Energy, contacted Hunter Biden to arrange a meeting with the company.

It is unclear what transpired between CEFC China Energy and the Bidens until 2017, when Hunter Biden formally struck a lucrative consulting deal with the company.

The exact nature of Hunter Biden’s work for CEFC China Energy has remained a mystery. He discussed potential energy mergers for CEFC China Energy and energy companies in Louisiana, but those deals fizzled. The company paid Hunter Biden $5 million from August 2017 through May 2018, according to bank records.

There is evidence that Joe Biden was involved in his son’s dealings with CEFC China Energy. Rob Walker, a longtime Biden family friend, told the FBI in December 2020 that Joe and Hunter Biden attended a meeting with CEFC China Energy officials at the Four Seasons in Washington, D.C. And Tony Bobulinski, a former Hunter Biden partner, has released text messages that indicate he met with Joe Biden in May 2017 to discuss a venture with CEFC China Energy.

Hunter Biden invoked his father in a threatening text message to CEFC China Energy executives on July 30, 2017, demanding payment as part of their business arrangement. The company wired Hunter Biden $100,000 days later, and would send him millions of dollars more over the ensuing months. In September 2017, Hunter Biden asked the building manager for his Washington, D.C., office to make a set of keys for his father and CEFC China executives, referring to them all as "office mates."

CEFC China Energy also paid Hunter Biden another $1 million to provide legal services to Patrick Ho, the CEFC China Energy executive who worked closely with Luft. Ho, who is described as Luft’s "co-conspirator" throughout the latest indictment, was indicted in November 2017 for attempting to bribe two African officials to purchase oil rights on behalf of CEFC China Energy. Ho’s meetings with the African officials were arranged by Vuk Jeremic, the CEFC China Energy consultant who contacted Hunter Biden about working with the firm in late 2015.

House Republicans have sought interviews with Jeremic, a former Serbian foreign minister, but he has declined the request.

The indictment provides other details about CEFC China Energy’s ties to the Chinese government, and covert activities aimed at helping Beijing.

According to prosecutors, Luft claimed that CEFC China Energy chairman Ye Jinming "has very close relations with President Xi Jinping." Hunter Biden met Ye numerous times, including at Ye’s house in Miami in February 2017, where Ye gave him an $80,000 diamond. Hunter Biden wrote a letter to Ye on June 1, 2017, offering "best wishes from my family and I."

"We are all hoping to see you here again soon, or in Shanghai," Biden wrote. He also touted "top relationships we have with the leaders both politically and economically in countries you are interested in expanding into."

Hunter Biden seemingly acknowledged concerns that CEFC China Energy was linked to the Chinese government. He referred to Patrick Ho as the "fucking spy chief of China" in audio recordings in 2018. In May 2017 text messages, Hunter Biden said that he wanted to avoid registering work for CEFC China Energy under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, the same law that Luft is now accused of violating.

Neither Hunter Biden nor Woolsey, who served as Clinton’s CIA chief until 1995, have been charged with any crimes related to their work for CEFC China Energy.

The post Hunter Biden's Chinese Partners Recruited Ex-CIA Director To Do Beijing's Bidding appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan accused Gal Luft of covertly working for China and attempting to facilitate arms sales to Iran, Libya, and Qatar. Luft, the co-director of the Maryland-based Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, was arrested in Cyprus on Feb. 17, but skipped bail while facing extradition to the United States. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams and Justice Department assistant attorney general for national security Matthew Olsen, both Biden appointees, announced the charges against Luft.

Luft said after his arrest earlier this year that the Justice Department was targeting him because he provided information about the Bidens to the FBI and Justice Department in 2019.

​​"DOJ is trying to bury me to protect Joe, Jim & Hunter Biden," said Luft, who met with FBI agents and Justice Department officials in Brussels.

Luft’s allegations come as IRS whistleblowers accuse the Justice Department of stymying an investigation into Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings. Hunter Biden entered a plea deal with federal prosecutors on misdemeanor tax charges for failure to pay taxes in 2017 and 2018. IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley, who worked on the investigation, said his team was prevented from fully investigating the sources of Hunter Biden’s income. Shapley also said that the FBI had national security concerns about Hunter Biden’s ties to CEFC China Energy, a Chinese energy conglomerate with extensive ties to Luft.

The Washington Free Beacon reported in March that Luft worked closely with CEFC China Energy, which gave his think tank $350,000 in grants. CEFC paid Hunter Biden at least $6 million in 2017 and 2018. The firm, which has suspected ties to Chinese military intelligence, gave Hunter Biden at least $5 million for business consulting, and another $1 million to provide legal services to Patrick Ho, a CEFC executive who was indicted for trying to bribe two African officials for oil rights.

Both Hunter Biden and Luft worked closely with Ho, who was convicted on bribery charges. Hunter Biden referred to Ho as the "fucking spy master of China" in audio recordings in 2018. Luft submitted a letter of support for Ho at his federal trial. A former employee of Ho’s told the Free Beacon that he was frequently accompanied by Luft at CEFC’s offices in New York.

House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R., Ky.), who is investigating the Biden family’s business ventures, has sought interviews with Luft. He said last week he plans to ask the FBI for documents related to Luft’s interviews with the FBI, which were conducted in Brussels.

Prosecutors charged Luft with violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act and Arms Export Control Act. They allege he violated the foreign agent law by commissioning articles in Chinese state media from a former U.S. government official.

While the official is not identified in the indictment, Luft recently said that he paid former CIA director James Woolsey to write opinion articles for China Daily. Woolsey was a founder of Luft’s think tank and spoke at numerous events with Patrick Ho, the CEFC China Energy executive.

The post Justice Department Charges Think Tank Official Who Gave FBI Info on Hunter Biden appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

The National Parents Union joined forces with the Youth Communist League, ACT Up Philadelphia, and other organizations to protest Moms for Liberty’s summit in Philadelphia. The union and its partners claim that Moms For Liberty, which was formed to oppose coronavirus-related school lockdowns, is stoking a "culture war" through its opposition to left-wing classroom curricula related to critical race theory and transgender issues.

Tax filings show the National Parents Union was formed in 2020 with significant financial support from Koch and his network of philanthropies. That year, the Charles Koch Institute and Walton Family Foundation contributed $1 million to the VELA Education Fund to provide grants to parents and educators to deal with "Covid learning disruptions." The National Parents Union was one of four organizations to receive the grants, which were for between $5,000 and $25,000 to support "student learning" during the coronavirus pandemic.

According to tax filings, VELA Education Fund gave $700,000 to the National Parents Union in 2020, making up half of the union’s $1.4 million in revenue for that year. And VELA received roughly two-thirds of its funding that year from the Seminar Network, an organization formed by Charles Koch in 2002. According to tax records, the Seminar Network contributed $3,064,867 to the VELA Education Fund in 2020. Its revenues that year were $4,566,567.

Moms for Liberty has emerged as a leading critic of what it calls a left-wing agenda in America’s public schools. The group’s Philadelphia summit featured Republican presidential hopefuls Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, and Vivek Ramaswamy.

The National Parents Union and its partners denounced Moms for Liberty as "radical right-wing extremists," and blamed the group for supporting bans on books at schools across the country. One union member praised a sign at the rally that read "Fuck Christo-Fascism."

Moms for Liberty has landed in the crosshairs of other progressive groups over its activism. The Southern Poverty Law Center placed Moms for Liberty on its "hate map" last month, alongside neo-Nazi and white supremacist organizations. Republican Sen. J.D. Vance (Ohio) blasted the Southern Poverty Law Center as a "garbage organization now dedicated to harassing groups that advocate for parents."

Charles Koch has in recent years funded causes aligned with the far-left. Koch and progressive billionaire George Soros fund the Quincy Institute, an isolationist think tank. Koch has also poured millions of dollars into the criminal justice reform movement.

A spokesman for the National Parents Union said the organization distributed all of the money received from the Charles Koch Institute to "organizations and families that supported student learning."

"National Parents Union has not received any other funding from the Charles Koch Institute," the spokesman said.

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Soros and former president Bill Clinton met with Albanian prime minister Edi Rama in Tirana, according to Soros’s social media posts. Soros touted Rama, the head of Albania’s socialist party, as his "brother" and one of the world’s great leaders. But Rama’s reputation has taken a major hit in the wake of the indictment of former FBI counterintelligence official Charles McGonigal.

What a treat to be with President Clinton in Albania. One of the most pro-American countries in the world & a stalwart ally thanks in part to its prime minister @ediramaal, who is coincidently born on July 4th. Great to spend today with an hero and one of the US’s best friends pic.twitter.com/JuNqBvFfuI

— Alex Soros (@AlexanderSoros) July 5, 2023

According to federal prosecutors, McGonigal sold access to Rama and other Albanian officials for hundreds of thousands of dollars while still on the FBI payroll. After meetings with Rama, the Albanian leader allegedly fed McGonigal information about an American lobbyist who worked for Rama’s political rival. McGonigal then allegedly coaxed FBI colleagues to open an investigation into the lobbyist.

McGonigal is charged with concealing his ties to foreign nationals and making false statements. Rama has denied wrongdoing, but it is not the first time he has been accused of using Americans to help him politically. In 2019, an Albanian-American businessman admitted he made $80,000 in illegal campaign contributions to Barack Obama on Rama’s behalf in 2012. Rama allegedly wanted a photo-op with the American president in order to help his campaign for prime minister.

Soros’s meetings with the embattled Albanian leader could raise questions about Open Society’s claim to support "open" and "democratic" governments in Albania and across the world. Open Society has spent tens of millions of dollars in the Balkan nation since 1992, funding organizations to "strengthen local democracy" and fight organized crime. The philanthropy spent $2 million in Albania in 2020, largely on judicial reform and to enhance "democratic practice." Open Society spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year on groups in the United States that back the movement to defund police, expand the Supreme Court, and enact radical climate change initiatives.

Alex Soros, who his father tapped to lead Open Society earlier this year, has used his connections to the Biden White House to advocate for foreign leaders supported by Open Society. Soros has met at least five times with Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer, the Washington Free Beacon reported. One of those meetings occurred the same day the Brazilian leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva visited the White House. Soros was accompanied in the meeting by Pedro Abramovay, the director of Open Society’s Rio De Janeiro office who served in Lula’s previous administration. It is unclear whether Soros has discussed Rama during his White House visits.

The younger Soros’s tenure is off to a rocky start. Open Society announced last week it will slash its workforce by at least 40 percent in order to create a "nimbler" organization. The charity is offering "well–being" workshops to its employees in the wake of the layoffs.

Soros’s and Clinton’s visit to Tirana could provide Rama a much-needed reputational boost at home and abroad as he faces questions about his relationship with McGonigal. Albania’s opposition party called for Rama to appear before Parliament to answer questions about his relationship with the disgraced FBI official, who led the counterintelligence division at the FBI’s New York City field office. Rama has refused to appear before Parliament, and said the allegations were "to politically exploit a legal process in the USA that has no links at all to Albania, the government or me personally."

Clinton appeared with Rama at an event in Tirana to accept the Great Star of Gratitude for Public Achievements, the highest honor bestowed by Albania’s prime minister on foreigners. Soros hailed Albania as a "great ally" of the United States, and credited the "leadership of Edi Rama."

"And what a coincidence that Edi Rama was born on the Fourth of July!!! Ringing in Independence Day and my brother Edi’s bday with these two great men was a highlight I will forever cherish!" Soros wrote in social media posts adorned with photos of him, Clinton, and Rama.

Rama met with McGonigal at least four times before McGonigal retired from the FBI in 2018. According to prosecutors, McGonigal lobbied Rama on behalf of an Albanian-American businessman, Agra Neza, who sought contracts with the Albanian government. Neza allegedly paid McGonigal $225,000 to arrange meetings with Rama and his adviser, Dorian Duka.

After a meeting with Rama in November 2017, McGonigal asked a federal prosecutor to investigate an American lobbyist for Rama’s chief party rival, the Democratic Party of Albania. The party was led by Lulzim Basha, a conservative who supported Donald Trump. Prosecutors allege that McGonigal obtained information from Rama’s office about the American lobbyist, Nicholas Muzin, and fed it to his colleagues at the FBI. The bureau officially opened an investigation into Muzin in February 2018. Neza and Duka served as sources for the FBI as part of the investigation, according to prosecutors.

Rama acknowledged in March that he met with McGonigal and Neza but denied paying bribes to the FBI official.

Open Society Foundations did not respond to a request for comment.

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Open Society Foundations announced it will make a "substantial reduction in headcount" in the coming months, according to Bloomberg News. The charity, which Soros has funded to the tune of $30 billion, acknowledged the layoffs were a "difficult decision," but claimed it will emerge a "nimbler" organization. Open Society offered resources to employees to cope with the coming layoffs, including a "Well-being in Uncertain Times" workshop, and the opportunity to meet with a "People and Culture Advisory Partner."

The changes come as George Soros, 92, has ceded control of Open Society to his son, Alex, who was until recently best known for hosting NBA athletes and supermodels at luxury parties in the Hamptons.

It also portends a rocky road for one of the progressive movement’s most prominent charities. Open Society, which awarded $325 million in grants in 2021, sponsors a number of left-wing causes in the United States and across the globe. It funds organizations behind the movement to defund the police, pack the Supreme Court, and expand climate change regulations.

The younger Soros recently said he plans to use Open Society’s $25 billion war chest to fund the cause to expand abortion rights and voting rights. He also claimed to be "way more political" than his father, the Democratic Party’s largest individual donor.

While Alex Soros has given only a fraction of his dad’s campaign donations, he has been spotted hobnobbing with President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), and other Democratic luminaries. Alex has visited the Biden White House nearly 20 times, and had several meetings with National Security Council officials.

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The California State Library this week announced $8.1 million in grants to 62 news outlets to raise awareness about hate crimes, according to a press release. That includes $100,000 to EDI Media, which is registered as a foreign agent of China. The library awarded $100,000 each to Sky Link TV and U.S. News Express, both of which publish a steady stream of pro-China content. The grants are the second round of funding for ethnic media outlets. The first round provided $100,000 to Sing Tao, a Chinese state-owned outlet that is registered as a foreign agent.

The grants could raise questions about the Newsom administration funding pro-Beijing mouthpieces as California stares down the barrel of a $32 billion budget deficit. Newsom, who has reportedly considered running for president in 2024 or 2028, has proposed cutting billions of dollars in spending on public universities, transportation, and climate initiatives to save money.

Newsom touted the grant program after the first round of funding last year, saying they will "increase awareness of the valuable services provided by the Stop the Hate Program, reduce stigma surrounding the reporting of hate incidents, and promote community healing."

The grants will fund "specialized reporters," news briefings, and social media content for outlets that cater to Asian, African-American, LGBT, Hispanic, and Arab communities. Other recipients included Black Voice News, Hispanic LA, Outward Magazine, and Slavic Sacramento.

Newsom has boosted Chinese propagandists before. He hailed Sing Tao for its "journalistic integrity" and "balanced news stories" at its annual gala in 2021. That was shortly after the news outlet registered with the U.S. government as a foreign agent of China, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

EDI Media, which registered as a Chinese foreign agent last year, publishes newspapers for Xinmin Evening News, which the State Department has declared a state-controlled propaganda outlet.

In 2015, Reuters revealed EDI Media’s secret links to China Radio International, the Chinese state radio channel. According to Reuters, EDI Media owner James Su has described his plans to use media outlets in the United States to promote Chinese government policy. In 2003, he described plans to set up a media company that complies with U.S. law but would "endorse China’s ideology."

The two other grant recipients—Sky Link TV and U.S. News Express—are not registered as Chinese foreign agents, though they often promote Chinese government policies.

According to a report from the Hoover Institution, Sky Link TV "follows and quite often reports verbatim the official line" on international relations from Chinese state media. China’s Ministry of Commerce hailed Sky Link TV as a "cultural export" in 2014.

U.S. News Express, based in San Francisco, has promoted some of China’s foreign influence initiatives. In 2019, the outlet organized the Silk Road Americas Forum to promote the Belt and Road Initiative, the massive international infrastructure program that Beijing has used to influence foreign countries. U.S. News Express was also represented at a journalism forum organized by the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department in 2019.

The California State Library and Newsom’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

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Rep. Jamie Raskin (D., Md.), the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, released a transcript of a conversation that Burisma Holdings owner Mykola Zlochevsky had in 2019 regarding his company’s relationship with Hunter Biden. Raskin’s release was a rebuttal to Republican inquiries regarding an FBI informant who told the bureau that Zlochevsky boasted of paying $10 million in bribes to Hunter Biden and then-Vice President Joe Biden.

According to the transcript, Zlochevsky denied having any conversations with Joe Biden as vice president or paying any bribes. Zlochevsky also claimed that "no one from Burisma ever had any contacts with VP Biden or people working for him during Hunter Biden’s engagement."

But this claim is false, raising questions about the veracity of Zlochevsky’s statement. Emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop show Burisma executive Vadym Pozharskyi met Joe Biden at a charity event in Washington, D.C., in 2015. Pozharskyi, who served as Zlochevsky’s right-hand man at Burisma, thanked Hunter Biden in an email for "giving an opportunity to meet your father and spent [sic] some time together."

Republicans cited that email as evidence that Joe Biden had knowledge of his son’s business dealings. Since then, numerous other examples have emerged showing the elder Biden involved in his son’s affairs. Joe Biden attended at least two meetings with Hunter Biden that involved a deal with CEFC China Energy. And Hunter Biden sent a threatening text message in July 2017 to a CEFC executive in which he said he and his father were waiting together for a phone call to discuss an unpaid business agreement.

Republicans have acknowledged that they have not verified that Zlochevsky paid bribes. But they have asked the FBI whether the bureau investigated the claims.

While Raskin has questioned Republicans’ evidence, there is reason to be skeptical about the latest transcript.

According to Raskin, the transcript released Thursday is from a conversation between Zlochevsky and Lev Parnas, a former associate of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who was convicted of fraud. Parnas claimed to have interviewed Zlochevsky as part of his investigation into Hunter Biden’s work for Burisma. It is unclear whether Zlochevsky was aware that Parnas was working at the time with Giuliani.

The post Dems Claim These Documents Show Joe Biden Didn’t Take Bribes. There’s Just One Problem. appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

The veracity of an Oct. 19, 2020, letter claiming the content from Hunter Biden's laptop was Russian disinformation has all but crumbled in the wake of testimony from IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley, raising questions about the judgment and motives of the letter’s signatories. Notably, none of the organizers of the letter have defended their claim or commented on Shapley's testimony. The group includes former CIA deputy director Michael Morell, former CIA chief of staff Nick Shapiro, and White House spokesman Andrew Bates. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who spoke with Morell prior to the letter, has also not weighed in.

The White House has largely ignored Shapley, who provided the House Ways and Means Committee with evidence that federal prosecutors pulled punches in their investigation of Hunter Biden. President Biden on Wednesday disputed a revelation from Shapley’s testimony regarding a July 30, 2017, text message in which Hunter Biden demanded payment from his Chinese business partner while claiming he was sitting with his father. The president angrily denied that he was with his son at the time, though the Washington Free Beacon reported photos that placed Hunter Biden at his father’s home the same day of the text message.

Morell recruited 50 former intelligence officials to sign the now infamous letter, which asserted the release of the younger Biden’s emails days earlier "has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation." The missive, published by Politico, spurred public doubt about the authenticity of the laptop, which contained details of his foreign business dealings and taxes. Joe Biden cited the intel letter in his debate with Donald Trump days later, calling it a "Russian ruse."

But unbeknownst to those operatives, the FBI had authenticated the laptop nearly a year earlier, according to Shapley.

Shapley, who oversaw an IRS investigation into Hunter Biden, told the House Ways and Means Committee that FBI agents authenticated Hunter Biden’s laptop in November 2019 and turned it over to the IRS the following month because it "likely contained evidence of a tax crime." That claim was supported last week after the U.S. attorney in Delaware charged Hunter Biden on charges he failed to pay taxes on more than $3 million in income.

According to Shapley, the FBI obtained electronic evidence that placed Hunter Biden in the vicinity of the repair shop where he allegedly left his computer for repairs in April 2019. Hunter Biden has suggested that he may not have dropped the laptop off for repairs and that it may have been stolen, perhaps by Russians.

Shapley also testified that FBI investigators found no evidence that information on Hunter Biden’s laptop was manipulated or altered. "We have no reason to believe there is anything fabricated nefariously on the computer and or hard drive," Shapley wrote in an Oct. 22, 2020, memo he gave the House Ways and Means Committee.

Morell and Shapiro have yet to weigh in on Shapley’s claims. They did not respond to requests for comment. Bates, who served as the Biden campaign’s rapid response director, did not respond to requests for comment. The State Department did not respond to a request for comment about Blinken’s views of Shapley’s testimony.

Morell organized the letter after a conversation with Blinken on Oct. 17, 2020, about a New York Post story that detailed some emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop. Morell said Blinken sent him a USA Today article that said the FBI was investigating whether the release of Hunter Biden’s emails was part of a Russian disinformation operation. The article, based on anonymous sources, did not reveal that the FBI had authenticated the laptop nearly a year before.

The retired spy chief told the House Judiciary Committee he undertook the initiative in order to provide Joe Biden a "talking point" to use in his upcoming debate with Donald Trump, and because he wanted the Democrat "to win" the election.

According to emails released by the House Judiciary Committee, Shapiro corresponded with Andrew Bates, the Biden aide, about efforts to publish the letter at the Washington Post, Associated Press, and Politico. "Here is what I gave them," Shapiro informed Bates in an Oct. 19, 2020, email about his correspondence with the news outlets. Politico ultimately published the letter under the headline, "Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say."

He circulated the letter among a tight-knit group of former CIA and intelligence community officers asking them to sign the document. Fifty others did, including former CIA Directors John Brennan and Michael Hayden. Jeremy Bash, an MSNBC pundit who serves on Biden’s Intelligence Advisory Board, also signed the letter.

The post Deep State of Denial: Ex-Spies and Biden Aides Silent on Hunter Biden Laptop Revelations appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Menendez and his wife, businesswoman Nadine Arslanian, sold between $200,000 and $400,000 in gold from April 2022 and June 2022, according to Menendez’s annual financial disclosure. Menendez and Arslanian still own between $100,000 and $250,000 in gold bullion, which is gold usually kept in the form of bars or coins.

Menendez did not list the gold on his 2020 financial disclosure, but amended that filing in March 2022 to list between $100,000 and $250,000 of the precious metal held by Arslanian.

The timing of the sale could add a new wrinkle to an ongoing federal investigation into the New Jersey power couple. Menendez and Arslanian sold the bullion amid a probe into a New Jersey-based halal meat company whose owner is said to be longtime friends with Arslanian and has allegedly given her jewelry and other gifts in the past. FBI agents raided the home of IS EG Halal’s owner in 2019 as part of an investigation into whether the company paid bribes to secure licenses to export halal meat to Egypt. Menendez and Arslanian were first identified as targets of the investigation on Oct. 26, 2022. It is unclear when Menendez learned of the probe and if the gold bullion sales are related.

Prosecutors are reportedly investigating whether Menendez and Arslanian received luxury cars and a Washington, D.C., apartment in exchange for Menendez’s help in securing a contract for IS EG Halal to certify halal meat exported to Egypt. Menendez is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which oversees $2 billion in aid to Egypt.

There have been several discrepancies in Menendez’s disclosures of his wife’s gold holdings. Menendez did not initially disclose the gold in his annual filings for the year 2020. He amended his disclosure to add his wife’s gold bullion in March 2022, a month before she began selling the asset.

Menendez’s latest filing this week also raises questions about whether Arslanian owned more gold than the $100,000-$250,000 listed in previous disclosures. The latest filing suggests they owned between $300,000 and $650,000 in gold bullion.

Menendez’s office did not respond to questions about the gold bullion sales, how proceeds from the transactions were used, or discrepancies in the amount of gold they own. Menendez reportedly set up a legal defense fund earlier this year, and paid around $175,000 to lawyers from his campaign.

Menendez has denied wrongdoing, but it’s not the first time the Democrat has faced bribery allegations. He was indicted in 2015 on charges that he accepted cash bribes from disgraced eye doctor Salomon Melgen. Menendez traveled with Melgen to the Dominican Republic, Europe, and elsewhere, though was acquitted at trial.

Menendez has disclosed gifts from other scandal-plagued business associates, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

Donald Scarinci and Raúl Alarcón, two longtime Menendez associates who testified for the defense at the senator's 2017 corruption trial, gave $2,000 each to Menendez and Arslanian at their wedding in 2020.

Scarinci, a New Jersey political operative, was recorded in 1999 asking a New Jersey psychiatrist to do "a favor" for Menendez in order to gain "protection" for a $1 million government contract.

In 2002, Menendez introduced legislation that would help Alarcón’s company, Spanish Broadcasting Systems, secure broadcast licenses. Menendez failed to disclose that he owned between $15,000 and $50,000 in shares of the company. In 2013, he intervened to block a merger between Spanish-language outlets that Alarcón publicly opposed.

New Jersey U.S. attorney Philip Sellinger gave $1,000 in "home goods" to Menendez and Arslanian, the disclosure said. Sellinger, who contributed $40,000 to Menendez's legal defense fund in his last corruption case, is not involved in the current investigation, which is being conducted by the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan.

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The whistleblowers, IRS supervisory criminal investigator Gary Shapley and a second unnamed IRS investigator, provided evidence to the House Ways and Means Committee that top Justice Department officials stonewalled an investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes and foreign business ventures. They also call into question President Biden’s repeated denials that he has no knowledge of his son’s business dealings.

Here are 16 of the biggest revelations from transcripts of their interviews:

Hunter linked dad to Chinese deal in threat to business partner

Hunter Biden invoked his father’s name in a text message, threatening his Chinese business partner to come down on him with their full weight if the business partner did not fulfill his "commitment."

Biden claimed he was sitting right next to his father in an encrypted message on July 30, 2017, to an associate at CEFC China Energy. While the message does not verify that Joe Biden was sitting with his son, the Washington Free Beacon obtained photographic evidence that places Hunter Biden at his father’s Delaware home the day of the text message.

"I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father," Hunter Biden wrote to CEFC official Henry Zhao. Hunter pressed Zhao to call him to discuss a delay in payment as part of the multimillion-dollar consulting agreement.

"I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. All too often people mistake kindness for weakness—and all too often I am standing over top of them saying I warned you," Hunter wrote.

Joe Biden attended other business meetings with Hunter and his Chinese partners

Biden family friend and business partner Rob Walker told the FBI that the elder Biden often attended business meetings with his son, including when he was vice president.

The bombshell claim undermines Joe Biden’s claims to have never been involved in his son’s business ventures.

Walker said he was present when Joe Biden stopped by a meeting at the Washington, D.C., Four Seasons hotel with executives from CEFC China Energy.

The FBI authenticated Hunter Biden's laptop almost a year before we knew it existed

The FBI authenticated Hunter Biden’s laptop as far back as November 2019 and knew the device was not part of a foreign disinformation campaign.

Democrats had questioned the authenticity of the laptop after it was released in October 2020. They cast doubt on Delaware computer shop owner John Paul Mac Isaac, who said Biden had abandoned his computer at his store in April 2019. The Biden campaign even orchestrated an initiative to portray the laptop as a Russian intelligence operation.

But FBI agents authenticated the laptop as Biden’s in November 2019 and found no evidence that its contents were manipulated, according to IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley.

Investigators also obtained evidence that placed Hunter Biden near Isaac’s computer shop on the day he allegedly dropped it off for repairs.

Hunter deducted hooker and sex club payments from his taxes

Hunter, who has been known to frequent strip clubs and pay for sex, deducted payments he made to prostitutes and a Los Angeles sex club from his 2018 taxes, according to Gary Shapley, who called the evidence a "slam dunk case" of tax fraud.

According to another whistleblower, Biden sent wire payments to a "West Coast assistant," who was actually a prostitute. He also sent a $10,000 wire earmarked for a golf club membership that was actually a dues payment for a sex club.

The FBI division that investigates foreign spies was involved in Biden probe

The FBI’s national security division, which investigates foreign intelligence and espionage operations, took an interest in Biden’s dealings with China, according to Shapley.

"The FBI is considering a lot of national security type issues here," Shapley said in a discussion about Hunter Biden’s work with CEFC China Energy, which had links to Chinese military intelligence.

Hunter Biden received at least $6 million from CEFC China Energy. The company approached Biden in late-2015 with an offer to donate to a charity affiliated with the first son.

Biden referred to one of his CEFC associates, Patrick Ho, as the "fucking spymaster of China" in a 2018 audio recording. CEFC had hired Biden to the tune of $1 million to represent Ho after he was indicted for trying to bribe African officials for oil rights.

The Justice Department and FBI obtained Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants to surveil Ho based on suspicion that he was acting as a covert agent of China.

Shapley said he does not know the status of the FBI’s national security probe.

The investigation into Biden had porn-related origins

The investigation into Hunter Biden has a strange but not entirely shocking origin given Hunter’s history of sex addiction.

"The investigation into Hunter Biden, code name Sportsman, was first opened in November 2018 as an offshoot of an investigation the IRS was conducting into a foreign-based amateur online pornography platform," Shapley testified.

Shapley did not provide additional details, but said that the investigation turned up evidence that Biden had committed tax crimes.

Prosecutors wanted to charge Hunter with felonies, but he ended up with misdemeanors

In early 2022, prosecutors and IRS investigators recommended felony tax evasion charges against Biden for the years 2014 to 2018.

Shapley said Biden engaged in "textbook" tax evasion and detailed Biden’s scheme to record his foreign income as loans, which are not taxable. Biden evaded $2.2 million in taxes, by Shapley’s conservative estimate.

U.S. attorney David Weiss ultimately settled on a plea deal with Hunter Biden on misdemeanor charges of failure to pay taxes in 2017 and 2018.

Biden’s Department of Justice blocked investigation at multiple turns

According to Shapley, Biden-appointed prosecutors in Washington, D.C., and California rejected David Weiss’s requests that they charge Biden with tax crimes in their jurisdictions.

Shapley also claimed that Weiss said in an Oct. 7, 2022, meeting that he sought special counsel status for the investigation, but was rejected by "Main DOJ" and told to "follow the process."

The denial prevented Weiss from taking aggressive steps in the investigation or from bringing charges against Biden in jurisdictions where he allegedly committed tax fraud.

The IRS whistleblower’s boss corroborated bombshell claims

Shapley’s boss, IRS special agent Darrell Waldon, confirmed Shapley’s recollection of the meeting with Weiss on Oct. 7, 2022.

Shapley emailed his summary of that three-hour meeting to Waldon, who concurred with his memory.

"You covered it all," Waldon wrote.

Hunter won’t ever pay tax on $400,000 income from Ukraine

While Biden has paid off around $1.4 million in unpaid taxes, he will never have to pay taxes on more than $400,000 in income he received in 2014 from Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings.

That’s because the statute of limitations has expired on Biden’s possible tax evasion crimes for that year, according to Shapley.

In his testimony, Shapley described Biden’s alleged scheme to conceal income from Burisma, where he served as a director. Shapley said Biden funneled his Burisma income through his consulting firm, and then disguised payments to himself as loans, which are untaxable.

Agents wanted to search Biden family homes, but were shot down due to ‘optics’

IRS and FBI agents were blocked from searching Hunter Biden’s residence and a guest house at Joe Biden’s compound where his son often stayed, according to Shapley.

The whistleblower said the Biden investigative team discussed search warrants during a meeting on Sept. 3, 2020. Assistant U.S. attorney Lesley Wolf said there was enough probable cause to support a warrant, but she questioned the "optics" of conducting a search of Biden properties close to the election.

The next day, officials at the Justice Department ordered investigators to "cease and desist" from any "overt" investigative steps—such as search warrants—because of the upcoming election.

Ironically, if that search had been conducted, investigators may have discovered the reams of classified documents that Joe Biden stored at his house.

IRS wanted search warrant for Hunter’s storage locker, but prosecutor tipped off his lawyers

After Joe Biden’s election, investigators learned that Hunter Biden maintained a storage locker in northern Virginia where he stored documents related to his company, Owasco.

Seeing this as a potentially fruitful tranche of evidence, Shapley and other investigators pushed for a search warrant for the unit.

But before agents could conduct the search, according to Shapley, assistant U.S. attorney Lesley Wolf informed Hunter Biden’s legal team that investigators had identified his storage unit.

This gave Biden a chance to remove evidence from the facility. 

A mole tipped off Hunter that FBI wanted to interview him

According to Shapley, someone from the FBI informed Hunter Biden’s legal team and the Joe Biden transition team of investigators’ interests in interviewing Hunter Biden on Dec. 8, 2020.

"I was informed that FBI headquarters had notified Secret Service headquarters and the transition team about the planned actions the following day," Shapley testified.

He said the tip-off gave Hunter Biden and his team "an opportunity to obstruct" the investigation.

Hunter’s lawyer said prosecutors would be committing ‘career suicide’ if he was charged

According to Shapley, Hunter Biden attorney Chris Clark threatened prosecutors that if they charged his client, they would be committing "career suicide."

Clark did not respond to the Free Beacon’s request for comment about this allegation. But he smeared Shapley in a statement on Friday as a "very biased individual" whose allegations are "dangerously misleading." Clark claimed without merit back in April that Shapley broke the law by making whistleblower disclosures to Congress.

Joe Biden visited FBI Delaware office during investigation

As vice president, Joe Biden visited an FBI field office in Delaware, the unnamed whistleblower alleges. Although that visit was about an "unrelated matter," the whistleblower said it was "joked" about with investigators.

"Delaware was in the State in which the subject's father lived, and the family was extremely well-known throughout the State, including people on the team," the whistleblower said.

Hunter deducted hotel rooms for father and drug dealer from his taxes

The unnamed whistleblower said that Hunter Biden "deducted expenses for hotel rooms for one of his drug dealers, or what we believed to be one of his drug dealers."

In another instance, investigators found a hotel invoice in President Joe Biden’s name. That stay was for two nights and subsequently deducted as a business expense.

The post 16 Bombshells on Hunter Biden From The IRS Whistleblowers appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Whistleblower Gary Shapley's boss confirmed Shapley's account of a key meeting that occurred on October 7, 2022, between IRS agents and DOJ prosecutors handling the Biden probe. After the meeting, Shapley wrote to his boss, Darrell Waldon, that U.S. attorney David Weiss indicated he was prohibited from bringing charges against Biden in Washington, D.C. Weiss said that he requested special counsel status but that Justice Department headquarters had denied that request.

"Weiss stated that he is not the deciding person on whether charges are filed," Shapley wrote.

Waldon, who attended the meeting with Shapley, signed off on his subordinate's characterization of the meeting. "Thanks, Gary. You covered it all," Waldon wrote.

The email is powerful evidence supporting Shapley's claims that the Biden Justice Department interfered in the investigation into the embattled first son and that, contrary to statements from Attorney General Merrick Garland and others, Weiss could not operate freely.

Hunter Biden this week agreed to a plea deal on two misdemeanor charges for failure to pay taxes in 2017 and 2018. Shapley testified, however, that IRS investigators and Weiss's office initially sought felony tax evasion charges against Biden for the years 2014 to 2018. Shapley detailed Biden's schemes to evade taxes, including deductions for payments he made to prostitutes and a Los Angeles sex club.

Shapley's email also opens Garland to congressional scrutiny. A 10-year IRS veteran, Shapley told Congress that Weiss's statements conflicted with Garland's testimony that the prosecutor had full authority over the Biden investigation.

"The Hunter Biden investigation … is being run by and supervised by the United States attorney for the District of Delaware," Garland testified at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on April 26, 2022, referring to Weiss. "He is in charge of that investigation. There will not be interference of any political or improper kind."

"I believe this to be a huge problem—inconsistent with DOJ public position and Merrick Garland testimony," Shapley wrote in his Oct. 7, 2022, memo.

According to Shapley, Weiss disclosed that he went to Matthew Graves, the Joe Biden-appointed U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., in early summer 2022 to request to file charges in that jurisdiction. But according to Shapley, Weiss said the request was rejected. "Biden-appointed [U.S. attorney] said they could not charge in his district," Shapley wrote.

Weiss said that he had requested special counsel authority to charge a case in Washington but that "Main DOJ denied his request and told him to follow the process," according to Shapley.

Shapley wrote that in mid-September 2022, Weiss asked newly appointed prosecutor E. Martin Estrada to charge Biden in California. That decision was pending at the time, but Estrada, another Biden appointee, ultimately rejected the request.

Weiss's office declined to comment on Shapley's allegations. The U.S. attorney's offices in Washington and California did not respond to requests for comment.

The Justice Department said in a statement that Weiss "has full authority over this matter, including responsibility for deciding where, when, and whether to file charges as he deems appropriate."

The post This IRS Email Corroborates Whistleblower's Claims About Biden DOJ Interference in Hunter Probe appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

In that message, sent on July 30, 2017, to an official, Henry Zhao, working with a Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC Energy—linked to Chinese military intelligence—Hunter Biden said he was sitting next to his father and that "we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled."

The message became public on Thursday, when Congress made public testimony from an IRS whistleblower, Gary Shapley, who obtained the message during his investigation of Hunter Biden's various tax crimes. Hours after the message was sent, Hunter Biden was pictured at his father’s home sitting behind the wheel of the president’s beloved 1967 Corvette Stingray with family members.

While Shapley did not supply evidence that Joe Biden was in fact in that room with his son, the timing indicates that he very well could have been sitting alongside the president as he said. Four photographs on the hard drive of Hunter Biden's laptop show him posing behind the wheel of Joe Biden’s 1967 Corvette Stingray at 6:49 p.m. on July 30, 2017. GPS metadata embedded in the photos shows they were taken in close proximity Joe Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware home.

If Joe Biden was sitting next to his son as he sent the message as it suggests, it would be a fatal blow to the president’s repeated claims that he never discussed overseas business deals with his son, and the photographs of Hunter Biden at what appears to be a family gathering at the Delaware home is the strongest indication that he was in close proximity to his father when he threatened the Chinese businessman. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

In the WhatsApp message, Hunter Biden continued: "Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight. And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. All too often people mistake kindness for weakness—and all too often I am standing over top of them saying I warned you. From this moment until whenever he reaches me."

"I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father. I sure hope whatever it is you are doing is very very important," Hunter Biden said in a subsequent message, adding that it was 9:45 a.m. when he sent the message.

The Washington Free Beacon initially reported on the picture of Hunter Biden in the Corvette after classified documents were found in the garage where his father kept it.

It is not clear whether the Bidens received a call from their Chinese counterparts that day, but the two sides appear to have settled their differences. Hunter Biden wrote to Zhao a few days later on Aug. 2, 2017, that "my family sends their best wishes and looks forward to playing some golf when the director has time." Zhao extended his "best regards to you, Jim and VP," an apparent reference to Joe Biden and his brother, Jim Biden.

That same day Hunter Biden invoked "me and my family" in an email to CEFC director Gongwen Dong confirming that they had agreed to a $10 million contract for "introductions alone," with bonus payments for any successful business deals the Biden family introduces.

The relationship proved lucrative for the Biden family. CEFC Energy paid Hunter Biden at least $5 million in the ensuing months to scout out potential investments for the Chinese firm. The company paid Biden another $1 million to provide legal services for CEFC Energy executive Patrick Ho, who faced charges that he tried to bribe African officials for oil rights.

Biden and his father were at the time sharing office space in Washington with their Chinese partners, according to emails from Hunter’s abandoned laptop. Biden asked the building manager to make a set of keys for his father, step-mother Jill Biden, his uncle Jim Biden, and CEFC executives, who were referred to as "office mates."

There is other evidence that Joe Biden was aware of his son’s involvement with CEFC Energy.

Rob Walker, a longtime Biden family friend, told FBI agents on Dec. 8, 2020 that he was present when Hunter and Joe Biden attended a meeting at the Four Seasons in Washington, D.C., with CEFC officials. Walker said he believed Hunter brought his father into the meeting to impress the Chinese executives.

Tony Bobulinski, a California businessman, said he met with Hunter and Joe Biden in Los Angeles in May 2017 to discuss their CEFC venture. According to Bobulinski, "the big guy" Joe Biden was poised to receive a 10 percent equity stake in their joint venture with CEFC.

Hunter Biden's attorney, Chris Clark, did not respond to a request for comment.

The post Photos Place Hunter Biden At Father's House The Day He Invoked Dad’s Name to Threaten Chinese Business Partner appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

One whistleblower, an IRS criminal investigator whose identity remains a mystery but who worked on the Biden tax probe, told members of the House Ways and Means Committee in a June 1 interview that Biden improperly deducted those expenses from his 2018 taxes.

That's one of the years covered under Biden's plea deal with federal prosecutors, which critics are deriding as a sweetheart deal. Another whistleblower, IRS criminal supervisory special agent Gary Shapley, told lawmakers that the Justice Department's tax division and the prosecutors handling the Biden probe viewed the deductions as "a slam dunk case" of tax fraud. The whistleblowers' testimony fills in many of the gaps on how exactly Biden evaded paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes.

Payments like the ones described, doled out to prostitutes and sex clubs, were not just unlawful tax deductions but also may have been violations of federal sex trafficking laws, the whistleblower alleged, if the prostitutes crossed state lines. And the IRS had indeed located records showing that Biden flew prostitutes across state lines, "paying for their travel, paying for their hotels."

According to the IRS investigator, a self-described Democrat, Biden underreported his total income in 2018 by $267,000, resulting in an underpayment of $106,000 in taxes. "That includes deductions for personal wages and salaries paid, personal travel expenses paid, personal children expenses that he paid, and personal other expenses that he paid," the investigator said, according to a transcript of the interview released Thursday.

The investigator told Congress that Biden made deductions for payments to "no-show employees," including a woman Biden called his "West Coast assistant."

"But she was essentially a prostitute," said the investigator.

Biden also made $18,000 in wire payments to another woman, using coded language to conceal the purpose of the transaction. Another payment of $10,000, labeled as a "golf club member deposit," was actually for a sex club membership.

"We've talked to the person that owned that sex club, and they confirmed that he was there," the investigator said. Biden went on to deduct that $10,000 expense from his tax return.

The embattled first son, who carried on an affair with his late brother's wife following his own divorce, has admitted to his frequent use of prostitutes and is known as a regular at strip clubs. Though the sex club in question is not identified, Shapley told lawmakers that Biden’s payment was for a membership in Los Angeles. The owner of the Los Angeles club Snctm recently revealed that Biden was a client.

In an ironic twist, the investigation into Biden, who was given the FBI code name "Sportsman," was an offshoot of an FBI probe into a foreign online amateur pornography site that started in November 2018, the whistleblowers said. Shapley said the FBI agent who opened that case found Biden's name on a list of some sort, but did not provide additional detail.

Update June 23, 9:20 a.m.: This piece has been updated with additional context.

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