On a dreary Sunday, as severe storms crippled vast portions of the Great Lakes and families planned to return home after a long Thanksgiving weekend, Joe Biden sprung the second surprise of his presidency. He issued a presidential pardon for his son Hunter’s activities dating back to January 1, 2014. The pardon was overbroad and covered activities that were not even the subject of a DOJ trial of Hunter, such as lying about filling out a form to obtain a gun and failing to pay taxes on time.
[The first surprise he sprung resulted in a resounding defeat for the Democrats last month. Biden withdrew from running after winning his party’s nomination, anointed Vice-President Harris to run in his place, and saw the disgrace of his party losing the White House, the Senate, the House, and many governor’s and state legislature races].
The presidential pardon, however, shook Biden’s loyal supporters. They said Biden had said he wouldn’t do it, and yet he did—so he lied. Others said Biden shouldn’t have issued a pardon for an individual who was known to associate himself with prostitutes and indulge in sex parties, drugs, and alcohol. Some, like Rep. Greg Stanton (D-Arizona), criticized Biden for thumbing his nose at the justice system. “I respect President Biden, but I think he got this one wrong. This wasn’t a politically motivated prosecution. Hunter committed felonies and was convicted by a jury of his peers.”
Even the federal judge overseeing Hunter’s tax trial in the Central District of California was critical of Biden. US District Judge Mark Scarsi wrote: “The Constitution provides the President with broad authority to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, but nowhere does the Constitution give the President the authority to rewrite history.” Judge Scarsi was referring to the broad pardon for any crimes that Hunter may have committed in the past 11 years.
Why 2014 is a critical tipping point for Biden
Biden was the Obama administration’s point man in Ukraine. The official goal of American policy was to help Kyiv transition to a more democratic, Western-friendly governing authority that addresses endemic corruption. Biden, in 2013, deployed senior officials like Victoria Nuland at the State Department and CIA operatives to help wreck the pro-Kremlin Ukrainian government. Sen. Lindsey Graham and his best buddy, the late Sen. John McCain, openly supported the Kyiv Maidan Revolution, resulting in President Victor Yanukovich’s ouster and his bolting to Moscow. The date was February 21, 2014.
With significant American support, Petro Poroshenko, a former businessman, became president on June 7, 2014. The same day, Hunter Biden became a director in the Ukrainian energy company Burisma’s board to enforce “governance and transparency.” Hunter had no experience in this area, had never worked in Ukraine, and had little knowledge of the energy industry.
Burisma was a troubled company. It was owned by a corrupt Ukrainian oligarch, Mykola Zlochevsky, whose assets, totaling $23 million, had been seized by British authorities just a few weeks before Hunter assumed his role. To most observers, it was clear that Ukraine was trying to buy influence all the way to the White House by appointing Hunter to Burisma’s board.
George Kent, the former Acting Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Kyiv, raised concerns to officials in Vice President Joe Biden’s office in early 2015 about the perception of a conflict of interest with respect to Hunter Biden’s role on Burisma’s board. In September 2016, Kent emphasized in an email to his colleagues, “Furthermore, the presence of Hunter Biden on the Burisma board was very awkward for all U.S. officials pushing an anticorruption agenda in Ukraine.” Biden and his inner circle ignored such missives.
When it became clear that Trump would be the 2016 GOP nominee, the Biden Deep State turned their attention to Trump-aide Paul Manafort, who had a history of working with pro-Kremlin Ukrainian leaders. They sought the assistance of Ukrainian officials, who had become used to serving their Washington bosses’ interests in return for receiving financial and military aid, to deliver sensitive intelligence about Manafort’s activities to tarnish Trump and help Hillary win. She would continue Washington’s Ukraine policy unscathed.
Senior FBI lawyer Lisa Page and her lover, FBI agent Peter Strzok, plotted to stop the Trump train and exchanged numerous messages on their FBI-issued phones. Marc Elias, a lawyer for the Hillary campaign (who later was instrumental in filing over 145 lawsuits during the 2020 election to lower election integrity standards to help tilt the election to Joe Biden) conspired with Strzok. He invented a hoax that President Trump colluded with Russia, and Strzok filed paperwork with a judge to surveil the Trump campaign. What was phony opposition research of a political campaign became DOJ material to go after Trump. The plot failed when Trump won in 2016.
Hunter’s corrupt activities only increased during the Trump administration
Even under President Trump, the National Security Council was concerned about Ukraine’s corrupt ways. The NSC provided talking points to Trump to mention corruption in his congratulatory call with President Zelenskyy, who was elected in May 2019. Trump did not use those talking points, but in a more consequential call in July, he asked Zelenskyy for help investigating Hunter. A partisan House impeached Trump for using his presidential power to influence a future election.
Hunter Biden served on the board of Burisma Holdings for approximately five years. According to the House Oversight Committee, the total amount the Biden family and their associates received during this period touched $6.5 million.
President Biden was clearly worried that Hunter could be criminally vulnerable to an investigation by Trump’s second-term DOJ and the FBI, which is why the President extended Hunter’s pardon to the date when Hunter joined Burisma’s board and five months prior.
Biden’s pardon proves that a concerned Trump was right in asking Ukraine to investigate the Biden family’s corrupt dealings. Rather than Congress applauding Trump for advancing America’s stated policy goals of rooting out corruption in Ukraine, a partisan House impeached Trump!
California’s newest senator, Adam Schiff, who is now in the minority but was the key congressional leader who pushed for Trump’s impeachment, is also probably lawyering up. So should Alexander Vindman, the staunch Ukraine supporter on Trump’s then-NSC, who worked with a whistleblower to leak Trump’s call details to Schiff, thus kickstarting the impeachment inquiry and foreclosing any investigation into the Biden family’s dealings.
As we go to press, reports suggest that Biden is considering preemptive pardons for Adam Schiff and Liz Cheney. This development only strengthens the belief that Trump’s impeachments were unjustly orchestrated. After all, if their actions were as transparent and untainted as they claim, why would they need pardons at all?
We have noted numerous times in these pages that the Obama-Biden-Hillary-Pelosi-Schiff-Schumer cabal has been addicted to a symbiotic relationship with Ukrainian officials for more than ten years. President Biden’s pardon of his son confirms that Trump was wrongfully impeached in 2019.
TIPP Picks
Selected articles from tippinsights.com
The Winning Has Already Begun – Editorial Board, Issues & Insights
Trump Promised A Ukraine-Russia Peace Deal — Here’s One Plan – Alberto Coll, DCNF
Trump Is Going To Give America A Spectacular 250th Birthday Celebration – Victoria Hughes, DCNF
‘Where Are Black Democrats?’: Charles Payne Tells Personal Story To Call Out ‘Huge Double Standard’ Of Biden Family – Nicole Silverio, DCNF
Sen. Cruz Predicts All Trump Nominees Will Be Confirmed, Including Patel – Fred Lucas, The Daily Signal
Trump’s Team Agrees To FBI Vetting Following New DOJ Agreement – Mariane Angela, DCNF
Supreme Court Case Exposes Medical Scandal Of Epic Proportions – Tyler O’Neil, The Daily Signal
China Escalates Trade War With US By Slapping Ban On Minerals Used In Ammunition, Semiconductors – Ireland Owens, Daily
US Bond Yields Rise As Reserve Currency Status Wanes – Artis Shepherd, Mises Wire
DEI Has Made America Meaner – Mike Gonzalez, The Daily Signal
South Korean Leader’s Brief, But Ill-Advised Flirtation With Martial Law – Bruce Klingner, The Daily Signal
TIPP Takes
Geopolitics, Geoeconomics, And More
1. Israel Has Committed Genocide Against Palestinians In Gaza, Amnesty Report Says – Reuters
Amnesty International, the London-based human rights group, said it concluded after months of analyzing incidents and statements of Israeli officials.
Amnesty said the legal threshold for the crime had been met, in its first such determination during an active armed conflict. Israel has consistently rejected any accusation of genocide, saying it has respected international law and has a right to defend itself after the cross-border Hamas attack from Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023 that precipitated the war.
2. Top U.S., Russian Generals Spoke By Phone Amid Tensions – Reuters
U.S. Air Force General C.Q. Brown, spoke by phone with Russia’s Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov last week, the U.S. military said, the first time Brown spoke with his Russian counterpart.
“The leaders discussed a number of global and regional security issues to include the ongoing conflict in Ukraine,” a spokesperson for Brown said in a statement. The rare call took place on Nov. 27. The Russian Ministry of Defense made the request for the call, the spokesperson said.
3. NATO Agrees To Prioritize Protecting Ukraine’s Infrastructure – RFE/RL
NATO members have agreed to make protecting Ukraine’s infrastructure a top priority, alliance chief Mark Rutte said, as Russia continues to pound Ukrainian cities and towns with drone and missile strikes.
Speaking to reporters before the second day of a meeting of foreign ministers from the 32-member military alliance, Rutte said the gathering discussed providing Ukraine with enough air defenses to protect its infrastructure from Russian attacks.
4. U.S. ‘Concerned’ Over Reports Showing Russia Interfered In Romania’s Election – UPI
“We have been closely following the elections in Romania. It is the choice of the Romanian people whom they elect, and the United States does not interfere with that choice or process,” U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
“We are concerned by the Romanian Supreme Council for National Defense (CSAT)’s report of Russian involvement in malign cyber activity designed to influence the integrity of the Romanian electoral process.”
5. Norway’s Wealth Fund Divests From Israeli And Russian Firms – D.W.
The sovereign wealth fund of Norway, the largest such institution in the world, has pulled its holdings from one Israeli and one Russian group.
Norway’s central bank, which manages the fund of around $1.8 billion in assets, confirmed the decision on Tuesday. The Israeli company in question is telecoms group Bezeq, which has been accused of providing service to settlements in the West Bank that are considered illegal under international law. The fund is also selling its stake in Evraz, a Russian steel company with international reach.
6. China Deletes Warning That Youth Unemployment Is Tanking Economy – RFA
Internet censors have taken down a speech by a top Chinese economist that went viral after he warned that a widespread lack of opportunities for young people was dragging down growth, which he said had been overstated by several percentage points in recent years.
Instead of embarking on promising careers and pouring their disposable income into the economy, young people in today’s China are tightening their belts and “turning off the lights and eating noodles,” Gao Shanwen, chief economist at SDIC Securities, told an investor conference in Shenzhen.
7. Japan’s Chip Traders See China Opportunities In U.S. Crackdown – Nikkei Asia
Japanese semiconductor distributors are looking to move deeper into the Chinese market, as U.S. export controls raise the difficulty level of cross-border chip transactions.
Restar, one of Japan’s biggest chip traders, plans to introduce Taiwanese peer WPG Holdings’ logistics management system at its sales company in Singapore as early as 2025, allowing it to see the supply capacity of chipmakers around the world in real time and connect them with customers.
8. U.S. Aims To Deter China, North Korea With New Space Force Unit In Japan – RFA
The U.S. Space Forces Japan – a unit similar to the one established at South Korea’s Osan Air Base in 2022 – will operate out of Yokota Air Base, Tokyo, with a staff of about 10 and be subordinate to U.S. Force Japan, Stars and Stripes, an American military newspaper, reported.
“Space is becoming increasingly congested, contested and critical to national security,” said Brigadier General Anthony Mastalir, head of the Hawaii-based U.S. Space Forces Indo-Pacific, citing “persistent threats like North Korea and Russia.”
9. France: Lawmakers Topple Pro-Macron Minority Government – D.W.
331 lawmakers voted to bring down his government, out of a total of 577. French Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s minority government has become the shortest-lived since the 1958 establishment of the Fifth Republic.
President Emmanuel Macron appointed Barnier to the office on September 5 this year, after snap elections in the summer.
10. Mexico Nabs Over A Ton Of Fentanyl In Biggest Raid Ever – D.W.
Authorities said that the amount of fentanyl they seized was equivalent to 20 million doses and would blow an economic dent to organized crime of an estimated $400 million.
The seizure of fentanyl comes at a time when there has been a steep drop in fentanyl seizures in Mexico earlier this year and also days after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said he will levy 25% tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico unless the countries take measures to curb the flow of migrants and drugs across the border.
11. South Korea Ruling Party Vows To Block Impeachment Motion Against Yoon – Kyodo News
The chief of South Korea’s ruling People Power Party said it will do its utmost to prevent the passage of an impeachment motion against President Yoon Suk Yeol following his short-lived declaration of martial law.
But Han Dong Hoon demanded that Yoon quit the party and said the president and others responsible for the martial law declaration, which lasted only six hours from late Tuesday before being rescinded, must be held accountable for causing public anxiety.
12. An Overhyped U.S. Market Is Stoking The ‘Mother Of All Bubbles,’ Market Expert Says – Business Insider
“United by faith in the strength of U.S. financial markets and their capacity to keep outperforming all other economies, global investors are committing more capital to a single country than ever before in modern history,” Ruchir Sharma, the Rockefeller International chair, said.
“Talk of bubbles in tech or AI, or in investment strategies focused on growth and momentum, obscures the mother of all bubbles in U.S. markets,” he wrote in the Financial Times.
13. Bitcoin Surges To Record High As Trump Picks SEC Chair Seen As Being Pro-Crypto – CNN
Bitcoin hit $100,000 for the first time on Wednesday, surging to a new record after President-elect Donald Trump unveiled administration picks seen as holding the keys to ushering in crypto-friendly policies when he takes office in January.
Chief among the picks is Paul Atkins, whom Trump nominated to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which regulates cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin touched $100,000 just hours after Atkins was announced as Trump’s choice for SEC chair.
14. Brain Stimulation Can Help Injured People Walk: Study – AFP
Scientists have said that electrically stimulating a particular region in the brain could help people with injured spinal cords walk more easily. One patient described how the technique allowed him to conquer his fear of stairs.
The new technique is intended for people with spinal cord injuries where the connection between their brain and spinal cord has not been totally severed, and who still have some movement in their legs.
Republished with permission from TIPP Insights
