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Post by onelasttime on Feb 9, 2023 15:41:04 GMT
Based on how forthcoming trump and Republican members of Congress were in providing information when asked for it by the Democrats the only response these folks should give this Committee is the finger. At that time the Republicans were not willing to provide transparency to the American People that they now think is important. As far subpoenas go, if I’m not mistaken it was ruled during the trump years that while Congress has the power to issue subpoenas they don’t have the power to enforce them. Plus how can Congress “investigate “ the doings of a private citizen? Talk about opening a can of worms if Congress is allowed to investigate the doings of private citizens on a whim. From NBC News link“ House Republicans ask Hunter Biden for records on his business dealings” “Republicans on the House Oversight Committee sent a formal request to Hunter Biden on Thursday for information and records related to his business dealings. The panel is also seeking records from James Biden, the younger brother of President Joe Biden, and Hunter's business partner, Eric Schwerin. Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, have targeted Hunter Biden for years, but they have ramped up scrutiny after taking control of the House this year. The committee gave the trio until Feb. 22 to respond before they decide whether to issue a subpoena. CBS was first to report the news. In a statement on Thursday, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said the panel investigating whether the president was involved in his family's business dealings and whether he has "compromised national security." “The American people deserve transparency and accountability about the Biden family’s influence peddling," Comer said. "The Oversight Committee is committed to exposing the waste, fraud, and abuse that has taken place at the highest levels of our government. Hunter Biden, James Biden, and Eric Schwerin’s documents, records, and communications are critical to this investigation." The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The committee also held a hearing on Wednesday to investigate Twitter's role in suppressing a story from the New York Post on Hunter Biden's laptop. Comer accused the company of participating in a "coordinated campaign by social media companies, mainstream news, and the intelligence community to suppress and delegitimize the existence of Hunter Biden’s laptop." Yoel Roth, Twitter’s former head of trust and safety, said the company had concerns because the story “at first glance bore a lot of similarities to the 2016 Russian hack and leak operation targeting the DNC. We had to decide what to do. And in that moment, with limited information, we made a mistake.” Republicans have long accused the president's son of using his father's political connections for personal gain. Hunter Biden's involvement with the Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma led to Trump's first impeachment after he asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate the Bidens. “
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Post by elaine on Feb 9, 2023 16:31:31 GMT
This is a task for the FBI, and the security that provides, not Congress, because Hunter Biden is a private citizen.
I’m all for the FBI investigating and charging him for whatever crimes Hunter Biden has committed.
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Post by revirdsuba99 on Feb 9, 2023 17:10:06 GMT
If they are allowed to issue and enforce subpoenas to private citizens, Hunter and brother of a sitting president, they can subpoena anyone of us, our families etc, for whatever they claim is for their investigation!
Think I remember reading that the House can jail those who do not appear when subpoenaed in their small cell under the Capitol. Not sure anyone has the key though..
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Post by littlemama on Feb 9, 2023 17:41:06 GMT
The House should be conducting business on behalf of the American people rather than dicking around on personal vendettas. There has to be a way to stop them from doing this. Hunter Biden is not a government employee and holds no office. He is a private citizen and should be treated as such.
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lindas
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,146
Jun 26, 2014 5:46:37 GMT
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Post by lindas on Feb 9, 2023 17:55:08 GMT
If they are allowed to issue and enforce subpoenas to private citizens, Hunter and brother of a sitting president, they can subpoena anyone of us, our families etc, for whatever they claim is for their investigation! Think I remember reading that the House can jail those who do not appear when subpoenaed in their small cell under the Capitol. Not sure anyone has the key though.. They certainly can issue subpoenas to private citizens, did you forget they subpoenaed Donald Trump Jr?
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Post by iamkristinl16 on Feb 9, 2023 18:19:41 GMT
I think Hunter Biden should respond in the same way many of them responded to subpoenas.
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Post by onelasttime on Feb 9, 2023 18:36:48 GMT
Yes Congress can issue subpoenas for private citizens. But only in conjunction of another investigation. dumpster don junior was subpoenaed for the investigation into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election. That was a legitimate reason for Congress to hold hearings for and as such subpoena individuals that may have knowledge of the events.
From The NY Times..
WASHINGTON — The Senate Intelligence Committee has subpoenaed Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, who met with Russians in June 2016 after being promised political dirt about Hillary Clinton, according to people familiar with the committee’s decision.
The younger Mr. Trump is the first of President Trump’s children to be subpoenaed in the continuing congressional investigations into Russia’s 2016 election interference, and the move by the Republican-led committee is a sign that some members of the president’s party are not aligned with his desire for a swift end to all of the Russia inquiries.
The Committee has given Biden and the others until 2/22 to turn over their business records or they will consider subpoenaing them.
Once again Hunter Biden, James Biden & the other guy are private citizens. The ONLY reason the Committee is having hearings about their business dealings is to get at President Biden. In other words it’s a fishing expedition. An abuse of their power.
If this Committee thinks the President has committed whatever they are looking for then go straight at him.
Which makes me think they have bupkis so they are abusing their power by holding hearings on the activities of private citizens.
Which opens the door for future hearings on the activities of private citizens.
Let me repeat this. By this Committee holding hearings on the activities of private citizens, it opens the door for this to happen again and again by other committees.
Hunter Biden is being investigated by the FBI. And I read he has been since 2018. At this point they may have charged him with tax evasion and not completing some form correctly. They have the laptop but it’s a hot mess and it’s questionable what if any information on the laptop would stand up in a court of law. But in any case the FBI is handling this and they are the only ones that should be. Not a vengeful pack of 🤡s.
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Post by onelasttime on Feb 9, 2023 18:49:58 GMT
Good!
From The Washington Post…
“Hunter Biden’s lawyer rebuffs House GOP request for records”
“Opening shots fired in the legal and political battle between congressional Republicans and president’s son”
By Matt Viser February 9, 2023 at 12:39 p.m. EST
“House Republicans late Wednesday submitted their first request to President Biden’s family members, asking them to provide a range of documents related to foreign business dealings, and were immediately rebuffed by Hunter Biden’s attorney.
The request and rejection came in the form of competing letters that laid the groundwork for what is expected to be a drawn-out battle that raises questions about how far congressional oversight can reach into the activities of a president’s family members.
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, sent letters to Hunter Biden as well as the president’s brother, James Biden, and their former business partner Eric Schwerin. In his request to Hunter Biden, Comer asked for a wide range of communications with Joe and James Biden, as well as with James’s wife, Sara.
Comer also sought financial records, scheduling documents and rent payments. The request for documents covers the period of Jan. 20, 2009, to Jan. 20, 2021 — extending from Joe Biden’s rise to the vice presidency until his swearing-in as president — and appears focused on business deals that Hunter Biden and his uncle pursued with a Chinese energy conglomerate.
The Washington Post examined that business arrangement in a story last year, finding that over the course of 14 months, the Chinese company and its executives paid $4.8 million to entities controlled by Hunter Biden and his uncle.
The Post did not find evidence that Joe Biden personally benefited from or knew details about the transactions with CEFC, which took place after he had left the vice presidency and before he announced his intentions to run for the White House in 2020.”
The American people deserve transparency and accountability about the Biden family’s influence peddling. The Oversight Committee is committed to exposing the waste, fraud, and abuse that has taken place at the highest levels of our government,” Comer said in a statement. “Hunter Biden, James Biden, and Eric Schwerin’s documents, records, and communications are critical to this investigation.”
While Hunter Biden’s legal team argues that he is a private citizen and Congress has no business investigating him, Comer and his allies say their interest is in potential legislation to strengthen federal ethics laws, making Hunter Biden’s business activities fair game for congressional scrutiny. This legal and political battle is likely to unfold for much of the upcoming campaign season.
“Evidence obtained in our investigation reveals the Biden family business model is built on Joe Biden’s political career and connections,” Comer said. “Biden family members attempted to sell access around the world, including to individuals who were connected to the Chinese Communist Party, to enrich themselves to the detriment of American interests. If President Biden is compromised by deals with foreign adversaries and they are impacting his decision-making, this is a threat to national security.”
Joe Biden has long denied any role in the business deals that were pursued by his son or his brother, and neither has any role in his administration. The White House declined to comment. In the past, the administration has signaled that it would cooperate with congressional probes it views as legitimate, such as those focusing on Afghanistan or covid, but would be less likely to participate in those it views as strictly political, including investigations into the president’s son.
James Biden and Schwerin also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a response to Comer sent on Thursday morning, Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell challenged the committee’s authority to seek such documents.
“As your Letter is a sweeping attempt to collect an expansive array of documents and communications from President Biden and his family, I write to explain that the Committee on Oversight and Accountability lacks a legitimate legislative purpose and oversight basis for requesting such records from Mr. Biden, who is a private citizen,” Lowell wrote. He cited case law to say that Congress must have a legislative purpose to pursue records and cannot be a vehicle to undertake a criminal investigation.
He also mocked Comer’s claim to be examining ethics legislation.
“It is more than ironic, perhaps hypocritical, for Republican members who now hold the gavel to declare such a legitimate purpose, when, while in the minority, they were vocal opponents of House Democrats seeking similar information from President Trump and his family, some of whom held official government positions,” Lowell wrote, providing several comments from prominent House Republicans who criticized efforts to obtain records related to Trump and his family members.
The response reflects an aggressive strategy pursued by Lowell, who has a reputation as a hard-hitting attorney with long experience in navigating Washington’s crosscurrents of politics, messaging and the law. He argued that Hunter Biden holds no role in government and has no business ties to his father, and therefore is beyond the purview of congressional investigations.
“Whether you think Mr. Biden acted properly or not, and whether you think his private business dealings and associations are inappropriate or not, his behavior is that of a private citizen, not a public official,” Lowell wrote. He added, “That his father was a Senator, Vice President, or now President is not an endorsement of your choice to make every aspect of Mr. Biden’s personal life your political weapon.”
He also laid the groundwork to argue that separation-of-powers principles limit Congress’s authority to investigate a president’s family.
Lowell’s letter was notable for its tone as well as it content. It begins, “Peddling your own inaccurate and baseless conclusions under the guise of a real investigation turns the Committee into ‘Wonderland’ and you into the Queen of Hearts shouting, ‘Sentence first, verdict afterward.’”
Still, the four-page letter concluded with an offer to meet “to see whether Mr. Biden has information that may inform some legitimate legislative purpose and be helpful to the Committee.”
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Post by refugeepea on Feb 9, 2023 20:10:48 GMT
Investigate him, I don't care. What pisses me off is that Michael Cohen is meeting the Manhattan DA for the 15th time today about Trump. And all the members of congress that tried to overturn a valid election and are now passing bullshit legislation and holding meetings about Twitter.
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Post by hop2 on Feb 9, 2023 21:13:08 GMT
This is a task for the FBI, and the security that provides, not Congress, because Hunter Biden is a private citizen. I’m all for the FBI investigating and charging him for whatever crimes Hunter Biden has committed. Ditto
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Post by aj2hall on Feb 9, 2023 22:51:29 GMT
I can't wait for the hypocrisy of the Republicans like Jim Jordan and McCarthy who ignored their own subpoenas to complain about Hunter not cooperating. And James Comer's (R-NY) claim that the Republicans are interested in strengthening federal ethics laws in complete bullish%t. If that were true, the Republicans would also issue subpoenas for Trump's children who were employed by the administration and potentially benefited from their positions, like a $2 billion investment from the Saudis. I like Hunter's lawyer's response. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/02/09/hunter-biden-comer-congress-committee/“As your Letter is a sweeping attempt to collect an expansive array of documents and communications from President Biden and his family, I write to explain that the Committee on Oversight and Accountability lacks a legitimate legislative purpose and oversight basis for requesting such records from Mr. Biden, who is a private citizen,” Lowell wrote. He cited case law to say that Congress must have a legislative purpose to pursue records and cannot be a vehicle to undertake a criminal investigation.
“It is more than ironic, perhaps hypocritical, for Republican members who now hold the gavel to declare such a legitimate purpose, when, while in the minority, they were vocal opponents of House Democrats seeking similar information from President Trump and his family, some of whom held official government positions,” Lowell wrote, providing several comments from prominent House Republicans who criticized efforts to obtain records related to Trump and his family members.
“Whether you think Mr. Biden acted properly or not, and whether you think his private business dealings and associations are inappropriate or not, his behavior is that of a private citizen, not a public official,” Lowell wrote. He added, “That his father was a Senator, Vice President, or now President is not an endorsement of your choice to make every aspect of Mr. Biden’s personal life your political weapon.”
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Post by aj2hall on Feb 9, 2023 23:26:05 GMT
If they are allowed to issue and enforce subpoenas to private citizens, Hunter and brother of a sitting president, they can subpoena anyone of us, our families etc, for whatever they claim is for their investigation! Think I remember reading that the House can jail those who do not appear when subpoenaed in their small cell under the Capitol. Not sure anyone has the key though.. They certainly can issue subpoenas to private citizens, did you forget they subpoenaed Donald Trump Jr? Actually, Republicans were in charge of the Senate Intelligence Committee that subpoenaed Donald Jr. And he may have been a private citizen, but he worked on his father's campaign and his testimony was directly relevant to the investigation of collusion with Russia. www.politico.com/story/2019/05/08/senate-subpoenas-donald-trump-jr-1312707www.npr.org/2019/05/08/721591131/senate-intelligence-committee-issues-subpoena-for-donald-trump-jr-to-testify-agaCongress can subpeona private citizens, but there has to be a legitimate legislative purpose, it can't be just for political revenge.
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Post by onelasttime on Feb 10, 2023 5:48:49 GMT
He has a point…
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Post by onelasttime on Feb 10, 2023 16:04:43 GMT
Good!
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Post by aj2hall on Feb 11, 2023 3:13:03 GMT
Thought this was an interesting opinion about how at the center, the Hunter Biden controversy is about family and parenting decisions. Also an interesting contrast to the corruption in the Trump family that the Republicans are ignoring. wapo.st/3jSM3qDIt must gall Biden to know that his predecessor, who never served a day in public service before becoming president, not only shrugged while his already-rich children enriched themselves further, but actually installed his dilettante daughter and-son-in-law at the highest level of policymaking. (Jared Kushner is still profiting mightily from his favors to the Saudis, which none of the Republicans savaging Hunter Biden seem to mind very much.)
That’s real corruption, and if we had any genuine sense of outrage, we’d be passing a law right now to make it illegal for relatives to serve in the West Wing, just as they’re not allowed to serve as Cabinet members. Biden didn’t let his son anywhere near the center of power and decision-making. Instead, it seems he looked the other way while Hunter spun himself into an ever stickier web, using his father’s good name. That’s a parenting decision Biden almost certainly regrets now. You can imagine it’s not the only one.
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