[PJ] Last year, Joe Biden responded to allegations of bribery by saying, "Where’s the money? I’m joking. It’s a bunch of malarkey."
Well, it's not a bunch of malarkey, and impeachment investigators appear to have found a new bank that a witness says may have been used to funnel money to Joe Biden.
According to Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, this newfound information is part of a growing body of evidence that could potentially prompt Congress to issue subpoenas for Joe Biden's personal bank and credit card records.
"In one of the interviews — that we haven't, I don't believe, disclosed the transcript yet — the witness made reference to an account we didn't know about. We're researching that account," Comer said in an interview on "Just the News, No Noise." "They also said that that account could have possibly been paid with some infusion from the grandchildren."
Comer pointed out that, if true, it would be highly usual.
"Now, I don't know about you. But I don't know anyone in the world whose grandchildren have ever deposited money into a savings account for their elderly grandfather," Comer said. "But now, maybe I'm wrong. But that's something we're certainly looking into."
#1
Wait until someone stumbles upon his 'cover name' account deposits and transfers.
At one time there was an office in the IRS Financial Center that provided oversight for such activities. Perhaps they are still in business and could....answer a few quesitons.
[FreeBeacon] BAD ACTORS: Tony Podesta, John Podesta, Rockefeller brothers, Michael Bloomberg, Atanas Bostandjiev, Albert Avdolyan, Serguei Adoniev, Vladimir Putin, Georgi Samuilov
BAD FIRMS: Golden Pass, QatarEnergy, Protos Energy, Gemcorp, Huawei, Rostec, Sberbank
STORY: Tony Podesta represents foreign companies involved in the natural gas industry
Biden administration climate envoy John Podesta was behind the administration’s decision to pause U.S. liquefied natural gas exports. His brother Tony Podesta could reap the benefits as a longtime lobbyist for foreign Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) companies—including one founded by a Russian energy oligarch.
John Podesta played a major role in ushering in the new LNG policy, sources told the Washington Free Beacon, a move that is seen as a political giveaway to green energy activists in the Democratic Party base. Deep-pocketed left-leaning donors, including charities funded by the Rockefeller brothers and Michael Bloomberg, have poured millions of dollars into environmental groups that lobbied to cut off new LNG permit approvals, the Wall Street Journal reported.
But the decision could also boost current and former clients of Podesta’s brother, Washington power-lobbyist Tony Podesta, who has long represented foreign companies involved in the LNG industry.
Over the past decade, Tony Podesta’s client roster has included LNG group Golden Pass, which is co-owned by the state-run QatarEnergy, and the Bulgarian company Protos Energy, which reportedly hired him to work on LNG-related issues.
Since 2022, Tony Podesta’s firm has raked in over $1 million from Gemcorp, an investment fund that was barred from working on a Bulgarian LNG and energy development project due to the company’s links to Russia.
Tony Podesta’s lobbying work, and its potential overlap with his brother’s role in the Biden administration, has come under scrutiny in the past. In 2021, House lawmakers questioned whether Tony Podesta’s work for the Chinese telecom company Huawei would have an influence on the Biden administration’s China policy.
The lobbyist’s work in the LNG industry is raising similar questions, according to critics.
"It's no secret that John Podesta is the person behind this moratorium," one energy industry insider told the Free Beacon. "Congress should take a very hard look at the fact that his own brother stands to financially benefit from a restriction of U.S. LNG on the global market, whether it be from his past work with the Qataris or current reported work with Russian-backed entities with interest in LNG."
"Less U.S. LNG on the global market will ensure Qatar and Russia receive hundreds of billions of dollars that would otherwise go to the U.S."
Energy industry insiders have also warned that the administration’s decision to pause on LNG export permits will boost America’s foreign energy rivals, including Qatar and Russia. The countries are two of the world’s largest LNG exporters next to the United States.
Mike Sommers, CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, called the LNG pause a "win for Russia and a loss for American allies, U.S. jobs, and global climate progress."
Tony Podesta has represented Gemcorp since 2022. But the investment group’s Russian roots have made it a controversial player in the energy industry.
In April 2022, the Bulgarian government agreed to co-finance Gemcorp’s energy modernization projects in the country, including an "Interconnector Greece Bulgaria (QGB) project for LNG," according to a copy of the memorandum. But the plan drew public backlash after media outlets reported on Gemcorp’s links to Russia.
Gemcorp’s founder and chairman is Atanas Bostandjiev, the former London head of Russian state-owned bank VTB Capital. The bank was placed under international sanctions in 2022.
Gemcorp was founded with $250 million in seed money from Russian energy tycoon Albert Avdolyan and telecom mogul Serguei Adoniev, the Financial Times reported in 2022. The funding reportedly came from their sale of a company connected to Rostec, the sanctioned Russian defense conglomerate.
Adoniev, a close ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin, was sanctioned by the U.S. government last year.
Both Avdolyan and Gemcorp were reportedly involved in Russia’s LNG industry. Gemcorp helped finance a loan to an LNG project in eastern Russia, according to the Financial Times. Avdolyan invested in a Russian LNG export terminal near China’s border in 2020.
Gemcorp was also involved in exporting Russian grain, and it signed an agreement with Moscow-controlled Sberbank to "support Russian exports, technological, agricultural, and some equipment that is so necessary for the African continent" in 2019, according to a statement from Bostandjiev at the time.
Avdolyan divested from Gemcorp in 2020, and the company has sought to distance itself from Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine. Gemcorp’s website says it was initially "backed by two Russian individuals who have never been subject to sanctions" but does "not now have any Russian investors or clients."
But its attempts to move away from Moscow failed to mollify critics in Bulgaria, and the Bulgarian government revoked its deal with Gemcorp shortly after it was signed in 2022. Bulgarian politician Desislava Trifonova claimed the energy agreement with Gemcorp was in the "service of the Russian state" and would have turned the government energy sector into "Russian property."
Prior to his work with Gemcorp, Podesta represented Protos Energy from 2021 to 2022. The company’s owner Georgi Samuilov told the Bureau for Investigative Reporting and Data that he hired Podesta because the company has an "interest" in the U.S. LNG market.
Between 2013 and 2018, Tony Podesta also lobbied for Golden Pass, a joint venture of QatarEnergy and ExxonMobil, according to lobbying disclosure records.
Tony Podesta, the White House, and Gemcorp did not respond to requests for comment.
Posted by: 3dc ||
02/16/2024 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[29 views]
Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life,
#1
"...Deep-pocketed left-leaning donors, including charities funded by the Rockefeller brothers..." This needs explanation. Have the Rockefellers lost (or support) control of their own Charity to left leaners, just as the Ford Foundation has?
#3
It always amazes me that crooks continue to crook even beyond their capacity to spend. How long does Mitch McConnell think he is going to last? He is months from death like an inverse of how we describe baby ages. How many months we don’t know, but we know it’s months. Why do the Podesta’s want more cash? Are they going to commission more Dahmer style art?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/16/2024 15:55 Comments ||
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[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis began her romantic relationship with her prosecutor 'lover' Nathan Wade in late 2019, three years earlier than they claimed in a court filing, her college friend told a court in bombshell testimony Friday.
It would mean the relationship began before Wade was hired in the Georgia election interference case Willis is pursuing against Donald Trump – and could provide a reason for a judge to disqualify them from the case.
Robin Yeartie's testimony directly contradicts information provided by Willis and Wade that the relationship did not begin until after Wade was hired in November 2021.
Yeartie told the court there was 'no doubt' Willis and Wade were in a romantic relationship before the hiring, and confirmed that she was 'certain' about it.
Wade in his own blockbuster testimony said the relationship began in 2022, and was forced to answer a series of questions about statements from his divorce filing as well as his travel with Willis.
The Fulton County prosecution of Donald Trump and alleged accomplices took on elements of dramatic soap opera Thursday as the former friend of Willis testified in a court hearing about the DA's 'romantic' relationship with a special prosecutor on her team. Yeartie testified that the DA leading the Trump prosecution personally informed her of her romantic relationship with Wade. The two had been friends since college in the 1990s – although their bond fractured and Yeartie is now testifying on behalf of an alleged Trump accomplice who wants to get Willis and Wade disqualified from the case.
The explosive testimony came at an hearing where lawyers are battling over evidence that could decide whether Willis and her team are disqualified from prosecuting Trump and his associates in an election interference case.
Yeartie said she and Willis were 'good friends,' though not best friends, and that they socialized together.
'Did you observe them do things that are common among people having a romantic relationship,' another lawyer asked her.
'Hugging, kissing, just affection,' said Yeartie.
'Ms Willis is not on trial,' interjected the DA's lawyer Anna Cross during one of many tense exchanges.
She also joined Willis in the DA's office – although ended up resigning after some office clashes. She also rented her condo to Willis, although she said they did not live together.
Thursday's televised hearing came after Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee determined there was reason to go forward to weigh what evidence would be allowed after the move to disqualify Willis.
"... their Fulton County case was entirely prepped for them out of DC by Mary McCord, the veteran blob lawyer active in every Get-Trump hoax cooked up since 2016. (And I’d bet cash-money that she had plenty of assistance from Lawfare blobsters Norm Eisen and Andrew Weissmann.) The complex particulars of the case were all teed up, ready to go. All Ms. Willis and her lead prosecutor, Mr. Wade, had to do was get the trial date set, raise the curtain, and follow the script."
"Alas, the couple got carried away in the raptures of amour and, all of a sudden, we’re in something like The Real Housewives of Atlanta. And then they lied about the details under oath, especially around the money involved."
Special counsel David Weiss charged Alexander Smirnov with lying about Biden after he became a presidential candidate
Smirnov was arrested at the airport in Las Vegas on Thursday
The charges undercut the Republican claims of Biden benefitting financially from his son's business dealings in Ukraine
The indictment alleges Smirnov transformed his routine business contacts with Burisma in 2017 and later into bribery allegations against Biden after expressing bias against Biden and his presidential candidacy.
When Smirnov was interviewed by the FBI in September 2023, the indictment alleges he repeated some of his false claims, changed his story with other claims, and 'promoted a new false narrative after he said he met with Russian officials.'
House Republicans had seized on the FBI document alleging the $5 million bribe as part of their investigation into the president. The indictment undermines that key component in their case.
Following the indictment, House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin, D-MD, called on House Republicans to end their impeachment inquiry.
#6
Apparently the DoJ is saying Smimov claimed he saw the Biden bribes at one date then later claimed it was a different date, making one statement or the other a lie... and thus discrediting his testimony on the bribes themselves.
[FoxNews] Shortly after taking office in January 2021, President Biden signed an executive order requiring that the U.S. Census Bureau factor in all residents, including noncitizens, as part of its decennial calculation of the U.S. population. As a result, the apportionment of House seats and, therefore, electoral votes for presidential elections, could be swayed as migrants continue to pour over the southern border.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
02/16/2024 11:11 Comments ||
Top||
#3
It's easy to fix, we just need to start soylent green production and feed it to the people on Welfare. Then they get kuru and become more soylent green and soon, it's down to manageable levels and nobody comes here illegally if you get turned into soylent green.
Migrants can't vote, but they can swell the census count for congressional districts. 2 electoral votes for 2 senators. 1 electoral vote for each congressional district, the boundary lines of which are often redrawn by judicial mandate based on population density not citizen count.
An interesting game is afoot in moving illegals from Texas to the Democrat sanctuary states. After processing, the Dems are 'covertly' moving these bodies via air and bus to destinations unknown, mostly.
I anticipate a number of redistricting court actions this summer.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
