Nothing is certain, but evidence is mounting that, shortly after Joe Biden became vice president, a scheme was hatched. Biden, a former senator with foreign policy experience, would angle for foreign policy responsibilities, leaving “fundamental transformation” of America to Obama. But there was more …
Treasury documents released by Congressional Republicans credibly suggest a “scheme” – as conceived and executed – more insidious, brazen, and focused on Biden profiting than anyone has yet imagined.
While other documents are being sought, corroboration for whistleblowers, some things are clear – and they are probative. As Chairman Comer’s long report notes: “Evidence … reveals Joe Biden lied to the American people about his involvement in his family’s business schemes,” specifically the way in which “Biden family members dol access for profit around the worlds to the detriment of US interests.”
Some 20 small companies, seemingly shells for money laundering, were set up by the Biden family, into which money from foreign sources – legally questionable actors in corrupt Ukraine, Romania, and Communist China funneled money.
Arguably to avoid federal scrutiny, sums deposited were broken up, spread among accounts, presumably to avoid reporting requirements triggered by CMIR, CTR, and “Suspicious Transaction” regulations.
By itself, these facts should pique the interest of Justice, every member of Congress – their party notwithstanding – and all Americans.
But the scheme appears to have been more detailed, more like traditional organized crime than a two-man operation. In organized crime, a “front” is used. Here, the vice president would travel to countries known for public corruption, demand they root it out. He got authority to be the point on this, unusual for a vice president.
At the same time, Biden prepared to bring his son – possibly others – to serve as what prosecutors call the “bagman,” an “intermediary” between the “front” and party paying protection money, or bribes.
The scheme appears to have started small and expanded, with Biden promising and threatening countries like Ukraine, while widening the aperture to China. Again, his son, the bagman, came along.
Total sums rose into the millions, according to information released, and appear to have been recurring, not one-offs. In some cases, money was paid by foreign entities to the son for expertise he did not have; in others, the route to these accounts is more circuitous, hard to discern, still murky.
The scheme was both simple, and successful, for a time. Joe Biden operating as an anti-corruption front, his son as bagman, perhaps involvement from then-Clinton’s State Department. No one said anything.
This is especially shocking when we ask a central question: For what did countries pay? In some cases, they paid – as Biden has partially admitted – to avoid sanctions or losing foreign aid, specifically Ukraine.
In others, they appear to have wanted “access,” which means either political favors or information, from the Vice President. When the timeline of Biden’s meetings with questionable actors is tied back to documents recording the money flows, real questions emerge.
Open questions are many, but start here: How could Hillary Clinton’s State Department, Eric Holder’s Justice Department, James Comey’s FBI, John Brennan’s CIA, James Clapper’s DNI Office, and all federal eyes NOT have known this was going on? Why did ALL of them say nothing, many when asked?
The answer: Either they knew and felt it was politically dangerous to mention what they knew, did not know but should have known, or were – draw your own conclusions – part of a wider scheme to permit pilfering and profit from public office, like crime families dividing territory, all ends justifying means.
If they knew about all this and did nothing, perhaps they saw Biden’s corruption as the price of Obama’s “fundamental transformation,” or imagined they would gain later from silence. But no one raised a flag.
Worse, as time passed, evidence suggests the scheme grew. Biden likely did not imagine he would be president, especially after Clinton lost to Trump in 2016; Biden’s plan was likely just “take the money and run,” or ride into the sunset with his ill-gotten gains, dubious service.
But that is not what happened. Rather than Clinton winning, covering all their tracks and moving “transformation” forward while normalizing public corruption, Trump won.
That threw more than a monkey wrench into things; it threw the whole monkey. That is likely why names on the foregoing list went apoplectic, panicked, began a political operation to undermine Trump.
Even then, as Biden’s family profited from Chinese and other foreign money, including a huge Chinese “educational” contribution to a university that paid Joe Biden a million dollars for nothing – no flags.
Again, this is likely because no one, not even Joe Biden, believed until April 2019, or mid-COVID 2020, that he would return to public office – and more intense public scrutiny.
Wind the clock forward. What we have just learned, hinted at after Biden became president but in black-and-white after Republican subpoenas have begun to produce documents, is the pieces fit together.
Big foreign money went to the Biden family, could not have been missed by senior law enforcement, Treasury, or banking officials, or their chains of command. Meetings occurred between the then-VP and his son’s “business” contacts, those paying the money. Fallout may be considerable.
In the end, all the flags were there. They are now – of a clear scheme, attempts to cover it up, silence at the top, and a bold robbery of the taxpayers, sale of office, perhaps even sale of national security – not unlike how public corruption and organized crime works all over the world.
The only remaining question: Where is Justice now? Where are Democrats who believe in the country first, their party second? Where are those who put public integrity above public corruption? Biden’s world is collapsing. The sign things are over – is when Democrats start to say they see flags.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman2 for AMAC.
