Biden's pay for play scams

 Adam Mill:

Did Joe Biden take a bribe? The tech giants and legacy media have taken extreme and unprecedented measures to silence news accounts that probe this question. Beyond Twitter and Facebook, there are reports of TikTok censoring contributors attempting to share the New York Post reporting on Hunter Biden.

Contrary to the ridiculous attempts to discredit the New York Post reporting, the sourcing in that story is actually far superior to the journalistic standards followed in published attacks on Trump, which often rely on verbal accounts by anonymous sources. To bolster these attacks, other publications “corroborate” anonymous sources with still more anonymous sourcing—leading to the suspicion that it’s all just the same anonymous sources spreading rumors.

In contrast, the New York Post has produced an email trail from a trove of documents obtained from a now on-the-record store owner who received the laptop directly from Hunter Biden. Neither Joe nor Hunter has disputed the authenticity of any specific document. Indeed, as of Monday, the campaign called a “lid” on all public campaign activities until after the Thursday debate. With so few days left before the election, it’s unprecedented to hide a candidate from the public for four days. That’s a desperate measure to avoid answering questions.

Let’s walk through the evidence to consider whether Biden did, in fact, take a bribe.

Federal law defines “bribery of a public official” as when a “public official . . . receives, accepts, or agrees to receive or accept anything of value . . . in return for being influenced in the performance of any official act.” Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani claims to have a screenshot of a text message from Hunter revealing that he was expected to pay for family expenses and give the elder Biden half his salary. This text appears to be evidence that the Democrats’ standard-bearer took a piece of Hunter’s salary (in-kind and directly), which seems to meet the bribery statute’s terms “receive” or “accept” something “of value.”

But there’s more.

The Washington Post just published an article recounting an interview with a former advisor to Hunter. According to that account, the advisor warned Hunter Biden, “They’re using you for your name. They will exploit your name to your detriment and your father’s.” Hunter Biden responded, “My mom and dad don’t have any money . . . I have to make money for the family.” This corroborates the text message Giuliani publicized—that Hunter was expected to use his salary to pay family expenses.

Even if Joe Biden hadn’t accepted money directly, Hunter’s enrichment could qualify under the precedent set in the prosecution of Representative William J. Jefferson (D-La.), who famously stashed $90,000 in cash in a freezer.
Ukraine, Again

But did the money influence an official act by Biden? The New York Post reporting seems to show evidence of a quid pro quo, i.e. that Hunter received a lavish salary in return for using his father’s influence to stop a prosecution.

On May 12, 2014, Hunter’s Burisma handler Vadym Pozharskyi wrote Hunter Biden, the new member of the Board of Directors for Burisma holdings, an appeal to help stop prosecutors from moving against “N.Z.” Those initials (N.Z.) are believed to refer to Burisma Founder Mykola Ziochevksy.

According to Pozharskyi, “representatives of new authorities” were attempting to shake-down Burisma for cash. Burisma reportedly did pay prosecutors a bribe but then these authorities “proceeded with concrete actions.”

Then came the reason Hunter had anything to do with Burisma in the first place. Pozharskyi wrote, “We urgently need your advice on how you could use your influence to convey a message / signal, etc. to stop what we consider to be politically motivated actions bearing in mind the following…Negative influence on our companies may result in multy(sic)-level negative social, econimical (sic) and political consequnces (sic).”

The phrase, “our companies,” seems to imply that both Burisma and Hunter’s consulting company would be exposed to an investigation.

The New York Post produced an April 2015 email between Pozharskyi and Hunter Biden. It read, “Dear Hunter, thank you for inviting me to DC and giving an opportunity to meet your father and spent (sic) some time together.” Joe Biden’s campaign disputed this email, noting that the meeting did not appear on Biden’s official schedule. But, as Politico noted in 2012, “the published schedule offers only a narrow window into his activities,” and that “about one-third of the events depicted [in official White House photographs] were never on his public schedule.” Thus the absence of a schedule entry does not rule out that the meeting took place.

John Solomon places March 2016 as the date of Biden’s demand to fire Burisma’s prosecutor. The Washington Post wrote that Biden’s threat to withhold aid unless the prosecutor was fired actually happened during a 2015 visit. This appears to fulfill the request made by Burisma to Hunter in the 2014 email. There’s no dispute that Biden acted in his official capacity as the vice president when he threatened to withhold aid unless the prosecutor was fired.
...

There is more.

This appears to have all the elements of a corrupt bargain.  The Biden's were monetizing the office of the Vice President to enrich themselves.