US Domestic Politics and internal affairs

“A serious blow to reputation”: how the scandal surrounding Biden Jr. could affect the position of the US President, by Irina Taran and Elizaveta Komarova for RT in Russian. 12.10.2023.

The US Congress reported on the Biden family's "abuse of influence" schemes.

Findings in the US Congress about the Biden family's influence peddling schemes are consistent with testimony from IRS whistleblowers, the House Oversight Committee said. However, the US Department of Justice prevented IRS investigators from finding relevant evidence, the committee added. Moreover, earlier this department brought new charges against Biden Jr., who could face up to 17 years in prison. The White House actually refused to comment on the growing scandal around Hunter, and his lawyers called the new case political. According to experts, the situation around the Bidens could lead to a further drop in the ratings of the current head of the White House. In addition, analysts believe that by discrediting Hunter, Republicans are counting on Joe Biden to refuse to participate in the new presidential campaign.

Findings in the US Congress about the Biden family's influence peddling schemes are consistent with the testimony of whistleblowers at the Internal Revenue Service, said Republican James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee.

However, according to him, the Department of Justice prevented investigators from finding relevant evidence.

“The Department of Justice prevented courageous and credible IRS investigators from tracking down evidence that could have led to Joe Biden. "Testimony from IRS whistleblowers confirms the Oversight Committee's findings of the Biden family's influence peddling patterns," Comer wrote on his social media page X.

He subsequently noted that Hunter's "corporate entities" were funneling foreign currency "that ended up in Joe Biden's bank account."

Comer also referred to the released transcript of a House Budget Committee hearing involving IRS whistleblowers who wanted to investigate Joe Biden but were unable to do so.

Thus, this document quotes the words of Special Agent Shepley, who indicated that he and his colleagues “were not allowed to conduct an investigation.”

"Thousands of pages of evidence"

It should be noted that the Republicans, citing the fact that the current US President allegedly knew about his son’s machinations, are demanding that Biden Sr. be brought to justice. As House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Fox News, Joe Biden needs to be impeached due to the White House's obstruction of an investigation into alleged wrongdoing by members of the American leader's family. Johnson believes this is necessary because several jurisdictional committees are doing a tremendous job of finding evidence of wrongdoing by the Bidens, but the White House is blocking them and “hiding thousands of pages of evidence.”

As Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said, despite the fact that “every Democrat” and every media outlet continues to lie about the lack of evidence linking Joe Biden to his son’s fraud, the House Oversight Committee has it.

“Here is direct evidence that Joe Biden profited from the Biden crime family's influence peddling and bribery scandal. The documentation requested (for the investigation) does not lie!” — she wrote in her Telegram channel, attaching the relevant documents.

As explained in the Oversight Committee of the House of Representatives, we are talking about bank records obtained “under subpoena”, indicating that the 46th President of the United States received monthly sums of money from the company of his son Hunter. According to lawmakers, the documents show that Biden Sr., contrary to his own statements, “knew of, participated in and benefited from his family’s influence peddling schemes.” The Republican-controlled committee is conducting an investigation to prove the involvement of the American leader in the business transactions of his relatives, who allegedly traded his name around the world.

However, the head of the White House rejected such allegations.

After this, the US Department of Justice brought new charges against Biden Jr. on nine counts of tax evasion in the amount of about $1.4 million between 2016 and 2020. Hunter could face up to 17 years in prison in this case.

According to the court document, "the defendant spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle... drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels, rental homes, cars, clothing and other personal items in lieu of paying taxes."

At the same time, the White House actually refused to comment on what was happening, and Hunter’s lawyers called the new case political.

According to  Biden's son, Republicans are allegedly "trying to kill" him, knowing that "this pain will be greater than what his father could bear." According to Hunter, in this way they want to “destroy his presidency.”

New charges against the son of the US president could have extremely serious consequences, suggested Washington Times columnist Charles Hurt in an interview with Fox News. He compared the indictment to the detonation of an atomic bomb for the Biden family. The head of the White House, Hurt believes, should be horrified that his son was accused of something that the president himself might be involved in.

"Poison political life"

Experts, for their part, admit that the growing scandal around the Bidens could ultimately affect the election positions of the current president.

“This deals a very serious blow to the reputation of the head of the White House. New details of the investigation from Republicans in the lower house and the Justice Department are causing a wide resonance in American society. Apparently, the Americans did not imagine the lifestyle of their president’s family, which is now increasingly called corrupt,” said Vladimir Vasiliev, chief researcher at the Institute of the USA and Canada of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in a commentary to RT.

According to him, the fact that it was the Ministry of Justice that brought new charges against Hunter may indicate that not only the Republicans, but also the so-called deep state are actually against the Biden family.

“Moreover, it primarily includes sponsors of the Democratic Party, who, apparently, are thus hinting that it would not hurt for the Democrats to consider other candidates for the presidency, in addition to Joe Biden, who is already having difficulty coping with his responsibilities, including including due to age and state of health,” Vasiliev explained.

In addition, he did not rule out that another round of accusations against the Biden father and son could become a trigger for a full-scale impeachment process initiated by the Republicans.

“This will only embolden the Republicans. They may begin implementing a scenario to overthrow the head of the White House in the near future, increasing psychological pressure on Biden. The fact is that party caucuses begin on January 15, then the primary elections. And the Christmas holidays and the period after the New Year in the United States are considered a kind of “window of opportunity.” In the case of the Republicans, there is an expectation that on the eve of the new political season, Joe Biden will think three times before making the final decision to enter the presidential race,” Vasiliev explained.

The Republican Party hopes that such pressure will force the current head of the White House to refuse to participate in the election campaign.

“Republicans want to show Biden that he is unlikely to be able to beat Donald Trump. In addition, this is a hint that the president’s opponents have other quite serious incriminating evidence that has not yet been made public. Don’t forget that congressional Republicans are demanding from the Justice Department additional data about Hunter’s machinations and his father’s role in this, which could be used for impeachment,” says Vasiliev.

He also recalled that Biden’s rating is already declining, and with the possible publication of additional compromising data, support will decrease even more.

“Biden's popularity numbers are going down. Data from Republicans, including Comer, additionally puts pressure on the president’s ratings among not only swing voters, but also those who traditionally vote for the candidate from the Democratic Party,” Vasiliev noted.

Professor of the Institute of Media at the National Research University Higher School of Economics Dmitry Evstafiev, in a conversation with RT, also considered it possible to launch impeachment proceedings against Joe Biden.

“And this process will poison the political life not only of Biden, but also of the Democrats. Therefore, the task of Republicans is to ensure that this effect lasts as long as possible. They know their job and are gradually pushing not only Biden and his family, but also the entire administration against the wall - this is a fundamental point. “Elephants have moved from attacks directly on Biden and his team in the White House to attacks on the system of power in the United States in principle,” the analyst noted.

Thus, the findings of the House of Representatives committee contain the assumption that the American law enforcement system “has switched to a political operating mode” in order to protect the Biden family from various types of accusations, Evstafiev explained.

“This aspect, which the Republicans managed to reveal, can significantly change the alignment of the election campaign. We are talking about discrediting the prosecutor’s office, courts and other bodies, which in recent years have become almost the main authorities for determining who will become president of the United States,” the expert concluded.

https://russian.rt.com/world/article/1243294-ssha-baiden-hanter-skandal-minyust-respublikancy