Bill Barr and his October Surprise

[TahiniBinShawarma]

Ah yes the "It doesn't matter that I'm anti-intellectual trolling conspiratorial nonsense because I'm just doing it on the internet" defense.

The blame it on Russia with no evidence is the conspiracy theory actually. The rest just is what it is. Without the actual emails and metadata no one could know either way. The FBI has the laptop. Although I doubt computer repair guy lied to the FBI about how he came into possession of the laptop. And I doubt Rudy has a crystal ball to know that repair guy's mediator would contact Costello.

 

[JoeMorgue]

By definition, a secret bank account won't be on his tax returns.

That's some good conspiratorial thinking there.

"There's no evidence because it's a secret!"

 

[Trebuchet]

Why are you guys giving air to this obivious pile of Russian disinformation? Two Big Dog clones are tag-team-trolling this thread just to keep the discussion going. Let it die.

TBS? TBD? People get confused!

 

[TahiniBinShawarma]

Except Joe has already released his tax returns. He doesn't have a secret China Bank account like Trump does.

The secret Chinese account on Trump's tax returns? LOL, you really don't know how this works.

 

[shuttlt]

That's some good conspiratorial thinking there.

"There's no evidence because it's a secret!"

It's not a secret if you tell people about it. That's the definition of not-a-secret.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

By definition, a secret bank account won't be on his tax returns.

Biden's financial activities haven't been suspicious enough to have him audited year after year after year.

 

[TahiniBinShawarma]

Biden's financial activities haven't been suspicious enough to have him audited year after year after year.

And yet Trump has never been charged with any type of tax evasion or money laundering. Unless you think the IRS are a bunch of chumps, kinda ruins the narrative you're trying to push.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

And yet Trump has never been charged with any type of tax evasion or money laundering. Unless you think the IRS are a bunch of chumps, kinda ruins the narrative you're trying to push.

of course they are - Republicans made sure they would be.

 

[Stacyhs]

As he explains, the Johnson report made him aware of things that made him see what he knew in a new light.

Yeah, because "strongly worded insinuations with little evidence to back them up," make us see things so much more clearly.

 

[TahiniBinShawarma]

Yeah, because "strongly worded insinuations with little evidence to back them up," make us see things so much more clearly.

An e-mail to Hunter Biden's partner from a top Chinese official on July 26, 2017 shows the Chinese energy company CEFC proposed a $5 million "interest-free" loan to the Biden family "based on their trust on [Biden] family[.]"

"Should CEFC keep lending more to the family?"

Less than two weeks later, on August 8, 2017, $5 million was wired from a CEFC-affiliated investment vehicle to a Delaware LLC, which spent the next year transfering nearly $4.8 million directly to Hunter Biden's firm, according to Senate investigators.

https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/med...port_FINAL.pdf

Interest Free Loans are illegal (violation of IRC). Loans over $100,000 require interest payment of AFR%-any amount paid. Further, that's around 70k per year interest which Bidens would have to report on their 709. Again if true, but those are the rules.

 

[TahiniBinShawarma]

of course they are - Republicans made sure they would be.

And the audits before Trump was elected? And of course you have evidence of Republicans made sure they would be, don't you? This wouldn't be a baseless conspiracy theory of yours would it?

 

[The Great Zaganza]

And the audits before Trump was elected? And of course you have evidence of Republicans made sure they would be, don't you? This wouldn't be a baseless conspiracy theory of yours would it?

as far as we can tell, none of the audits of Trump's since his Casino sale have been finalized.
This is not normal.

There is a Congressional Committee that needs to sign of on Trump's massive rebate, and they still haven't done so.

 

[Segnosaur]

And yet Trump has never been charged with any type of tax evasion or money laundering. Unless you think the IRS are a bunch of chumps, kinda ruins the narrative you're trying to push.

You are right, Trump hasn't been charged with any sort of tax evasion or similar financial crimes. (Although I could point out that the IRS probably wouldn't be involved in investigating money laundering, but I will give you the benefit of the doubt and just assume you meant financial crimes in general.)

But I think that has more to do a lack of oversight by the government. The IRS severely cut back on the resources available for performing audits (and they have been avoiding auditing the super wealthy, since those audits are more time consuming.) And in general governments have a less than stellar record at dealing with financial crimes.

Remember, Manafort was charged (and convicted!) with crimes going back to 2010 (and it is likely that he was engaged in similar crimes before that. So that was the better part of a decade where his criminal activities were overlooked by the government. And it was likely only because of his association with Stubby McBonespurs that investigators bothered to look at his crimes in the first place... had he avoided the campaign, he probably would never have gone to jail.

I suspect the same thing is going on with Trump... years (or decades) of crimes that have been overlooked because of the complexity of investigating and prosecuting them, but now that he is currently in the spotlight, investigators are taking a closer look at stuff they might not have been aware of previously.

 

[Gulliver Foyle]

I don't think it is fair to compare Hunter to the Trump kids. Neither Barron nor Tiffany have carreers based off of their father's name, yet.

Though that's not without a lot of trying on the part of Tiffany.

 

[Dr. Keith]

An e-mail to Hunter Biden's partner from a top Chinese official . . .

<snip >


Interest Free Loans are illegal (violation of IRC). Loans over $100,000 require interest payment of AFR%-any amount paid. Further, that's around 70k per year interest which Bidens would have to report on their 709. Again if true, but those are the rules.

And the DOJ has known about all of this for over ten months and yet has not done anything to anyone in the Biden family. They have not sent a sternly worded letter to the campaign or even asked the Bidens in for questioning?

Does it not seem strange to you at all that you appear to understand the importance of these facts better than Mr. Barr?

Or is there any chance, even just a chance, that the Trump DOJ and Mr. Barr have been through this and see that it lacks even the bun of a nothing burger so they are staying quiet?

 

[TahiniBinShawarma]

An e-mail to Hunter Biden's partner from a top Chinese official on July 26, 2017 shows the Chinese energy company CEFC proposed a $5 million "interest-free" loan to the Biden family "based on their trust on [Biden] family[.]"

"Should CEFC keep lending more to the family?"

Less than two weeks later, on August 8, 2017, $5 million was wired from a CEFC-affiliated investment vehicle to a Delaware LLC, which spent the next year transfering nearly $4.8 million directly to Hunter Biden's firm, according to Senate investigators.

https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/med...port_FINAL.pdf

Interest Free Loans are illegal (violation of IRC). Loans over $100,000 require interest payment of AFR%-any amount paid. Further, that's around 70k per year interest which Bidens would have to report on their 709. Again if true, but those are the rules.

"@seanmdav
Text messages obtained by
@FDRLST
show Hunter Biden personally arranging a meeting with his business partners and Joe Biden to discuss a major deal with CEFC, a Chinese energy company. The meeting occurred at the Beverly Hilton in L.A. in early May. Texts are from May 2, 2017."

"@seanmdav
The next morning, on May 3, 2017, Hunter's business partner-turned-whistleblower Tony Bobulinski texted James Biden--Hunter's uncle/Joe Biden's brother--and asked him to "please thank Joe for his time" for the meeting they all had on May 2 to discuss the China business deal."

 

[Dr. Keith]

This part does seem like it is the case at the moment.

I don't think it actually is the case, but it does seem to be a central claim of the conspiracy theory.

I wouldn't know about this.

And yet your whole presentation depends on it.

There seem like there are other possibilities. It doesn't seem impossible given that we know came out around Peter Strzok and altered/concealed evidence but it is way too early to say. I was disagreeing with you that just because Trump is President, the FBI is necessarily batting for him.

I'm not saying they would be on his side, I'm saying that a large number of career FBI agents and supervisors would have to be actively working against the President of the United States to keep this secret. There is no evidence that any FBI agents are that fracking stupid, even in your half handed examples.

Well, if anybody is going to get fired a public announcement that they were being fired over this case would seem to conflict with not commenting on open cases. I don't know how long it would normally take for them to fire somebody, but this timescale seems very short. How long did it take for Strzok to go? Also, its one thing to find that they have sat on an investigation and another to prove that that was done for corrupt reasons.

Firings happen when Trump says they happen, or when someone tells them they need to happen. Have you forgotten you voted for a man whose catch phrase is "you're Fired!"

 

[uke2se]

I don't think it actually is the case, but it does seem to be a central claim of the conspiracy theory.



And yet your whole presentation depends on it.



I'm not saying they would be on his side, I'm saying that a large number of career FBI agents and supervisors would have to be actively working against the President of the United States to keep this secret. There is no evidence that any FBI agents are that fracking stupid, even in your half handed examples.




Firings happen when Trump says they happen, or when someone tells them they need to happen. Have you forgotten you voted for a man whose catch phrase is "you're Fired!"

What's the point of answering all of that? The conspiracy theory in the post you quoted is Q-anon level stupidity.

 

[TahiniBinShawarma]

And the DOJ has known about all of this for over ten months and yet has not done anything to anyone in the Biden family. They have not sent a sternly worded letter to the campaign or even asked the Bidens in for questioning?

Does it not seem strange to you at all that you appear to understand the importance of these facts better than Mr. Barr?

Or is there any chance, even just a chance, that the Trump DOJ and Mr. Barr have been through this and see that it lacks even the bun of a nothing burger so they are staying quiet?

Neither you or I know what the FBI or DOJ is doing, stop pretending you do, and stop complaining about me putting out facts just because you don't like them.

 

[Stacyhs]

Leona Helmsley* was only charged with and convicted of tax evasion and fraud because she was sued by a contractor for failing to pay him for work done on her mansion. During the course of the lawsuit, falsified invoices were produced that appeared to be an attempt to avoid tax liabilities. This started a criminal investigation that lead to the tax convictions. Without the lawsuit, she'd have likely gotten away with the tax fraud/evasion.

Trump hasn't been charged with tax crimes. Yet. But I wouldn't bet that he won't be once he's out of office.

*"I don't pay taxes. Only little people pay taxes."