(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . MAGAs claim Hunter's Conviction is more proof of bias against Trump [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-06-13 Wherin AOC makes it clear that Justice was served in both the Hunter Biden and Trump cases. "Every case is different," Johnson told CNN's Manu Raju (video below) when asked if "the president's son being convicted on three counts" undercuts the Republican Speaker's claims of a "two tier system of justice." Johnson added, "clearly the evidence was overwhelming" in the Hunter Biden prosecution, one which some legal experts said should not have been brought and at least one member of the jury who spoke to CNN said was a waste of the taxpayers' dime. "I don't think that's the case in the Trump trials, and all the charges that have been brought" against Trump "have been obviously brought for political purposes. Hunter Biden is a separate instance." Yeah, that makes sense. Trump’s signature was on the checks. Trump was the one who called David Pecker to set up the catch-and-kill in the first place. Trump deputized Michael Cohen to represent him with Pecker. Pecker testified that Cohen “wouldn’t pay for lunch” without Trump’s approval. Hope Hicks testified that “Cohen was not a charitable person.” There’s no scenario here where Cohen would volunteer to pay for an NDA with Stormy Daniels without Trump knowledge and consent. None. This plan was started by Trump and implemented by Trump. Period. Somehow that case is illegitimate because reasons, and also, the conviction of Hunter is just a “distraction.” As written by Greg Sargent. Republicans should, in theory, be relieved and vindicated over Hunter Biden's conviction on federal gun charges. But many of them are not satisfied, and are alleging it's all a vast government conspiracy to protect against the real crimes committed by President Joe Biden, wrote Greg Sargent for The New Republic. And there's a reason for that, he argued: the guilty verdict is actually causing their whole "sleazy scam" of attacking the criminal justice system to fall apart."Incredibly, they are declaring that this guilty verdict slapped on Biden’s son also proves that the system is rigged against Trump. Which reveals something essential about how dependent the MAGA worldview is on elaborate fantasies about the movement’s alleged persecution," wrote Sargent. These reactions range from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) criticizing the gun law under which he was charged, to MAGA student activist Charlie Kirk calling it a "fake trial," to former Trump adviser Stephen Miller claiming, "This is all about protecting Joe Biden and only Joe Biden." What they all really mean, wrote Sargent, is, "How the heck are we going to raise money off of this? The law being applied equally to the president’s son is an utter disaster for us!" How exactly is convicting his son of gun charges about “protecting Joe Biden?” That is just plain nonsense. Republicans have been on this crazy witch-hunt for corruption by Joe Biden ever since Russia Spy Andriy Derkash started whispering dark nothings in Rudy Giuliani’s ear. Derkach’s dossier was not flagged for officials inside the State Department until months later, when Derkach began holding press conferences and Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, reiterated the same talking points as Derkach on a range of issues. But officials inside the U.S. intelligence and national security apparatus, with the help of officials on the ground in Kyiv, had drafted reports warning that Russian proxies, including Derkach, were attempting to undermine the 2020 election process in America. Seven current and former U.S. officials spoke with The Daily Beast about Derkach, his relationship to Trump loyalists, and the escalating warnings about Derkach’s activities. Those warnings extended to leaders on Capitol Hill who learned that Ukrainians with ties to Russia were inserting themselves in the U.S. election. Last week, the Treasury Department blacklisted Derkach as an “active Russian agent.” It’s been the contents of that dossier from Derkach that have been driving GOP Politics for the last 9 years. Claims that Joe Biden corruptly displaced a Ukrainian prosecutor, and that he, his son Hunter and his brother James were involved in a foreign influence peddling scheme. This is the white rabbit they’ve been hunting for — but they haven’t found it yet, and they won’t give up the chase. This type of logic has been thoroughly debunk by CNN’s Hadas Gold. CNN reporter Hadas Gold on Wednesday took a hatchet to Trump allies' claims that the criminal conviction of President Joe Biden's son were part of a broader plot by Biden to cover up even worse crimes. Many observers have said that Hunter Biden's conviction massively undercuts former President Donald Trump's claims that President Biden has "weaponized" the Department of Justice against him. Because of this, many Trump allies have claimed that Biden essentially sacrificed his own son in order to justify his true goal of jailing his Republican rival. "You go further into the right-wing media sphere and you get... what they say is essentially a larger conspiracy here even though this was a guilty verdict," explained Gold. "This goes to show how the far fringes of the pro-Trump media world, they have drifted into sort of 'automatic conspiracy theories,' where the default is conspiracy theory when the news does not justify their talking points." Host Brianna Keilar laughed at this analogy and imagined Trump supporters pressing an "automatic conspiracy button" whenever world events don't go their way. Yeah, pretty much. More from the Daily Beast. The blacklisting has caused problems for one legislator in particular: Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), who is nearing the end of a probe into Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s activities in Ukraine—specifically, the discredited notion that the then-vice president halted a corruption probe that might have interfered with his son Hunter’s business interests there. It’s a would-be controversy that’s been fueled by a nexus of Trump allies and pro-Russian Ukrainians. During Trump’s impeachment, the story was publicly discredited, but Johnson has said the imminent result of his probe will be damning for Biden. “What our investigations are uncovering, I think, will reveal this is not somebody we should be electing president of the United States,” Johnson told a local Wisconsin TV station on Tuesday. Those kinds of comments have prompted sharp rebukes, even from Republicans, about the use of a Senate committee as a vehicle for an explicitly political venture—and for Russia’s election-meddling hopes. In December 2019, as Politico first reported, then-Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) warned Johnson about his investigation into the Bidens and Ukraine. Burr told Johnson that the probe may only further Russia’s ambitions to undermine the 2020 election, according to two individuals familiar with the matter. So the GOP is after bigger fish, they think these gun charges are just small fry. The problem though, is that it throws a giant monkey wrench into their claims that the entire DOJ is “rigged against Republicans.” Paradoxically, Hunter Biden's conviction set back the GOP cause, wrote Sargent, because "The enormous contortions required to portray the justice system as rigged at every turn show yet again that pretty much everything the MAGA right is saying about these matters is about laying a pretext for Trump, once back in office, to launch prosecutions of Biden and Democrats without cause, under the guise of tit-for-tat payback for something that wasn’t actually done to Trump and his followers." "The sum total of all this monumental deception is that Trump and his followers are being massively victimized by our justice system, and that only carrying out mass prosecutions against the opposition will set that right," wrote Sargent. "That the president’s son was found guilty by a jury of his peers who evaluated actual evidence presented by prosecutors — just as happened to Trump in his hush money trial — is kryptonite to this sleazy scam. Nothing is more devastating to the MAGA worldview than the idea that the justice system is actually functioning fairly." I think as many people have stated, no one has seen a gun prosecution like this before. Where the gun wasn’t used in any other crime, where no other illegal conduct is alleged by Hunter other than being on drugs. Where there is no other offense. Technically, the statute stands — and technically he did violate it — but would this case have gone to trial if the GOP hadn't continued to push for imaginary additional charges? The plea deal agreement fell apart because the prosecutor refused to close out all cases against Hunter with the completion of the deal, so the Judge refused to accept it. But what other cases are there? Oh, right Burisma. Which came from Derkach. And Bribery, which came from Russian Intelligence operatives and was laundered into the FBI by Alexander Smirnov. WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court on Wednesday rejected a bid to release from jail a former FBI informant who is charged with fabricating a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden’s family. Alexander Smirnov ‘s lawyers had urged the California-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a lower court judge’s order that the man remain behind bars while he awaits trial. But a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit said the lower court was right to conclude Smirnov is a flight risk and there are no conditions of release that would reasonably assure he shows up in court. The appeals court also denied Smirnov’s request for temporary release, which his lawyers had pressed for so he could undergo eye surgery for glaucoma. Smirnov was arrested in February on charges accusing him of falsely telling his FBI handler that executives from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma had paid President Biden and Hunter Biden $5 million each around 2015. The claim became central to the Republican impeachment inquiry of President Biden in Congress. They have Hunter’s bank records and they have Joe’s bank records. That payment didn’t happen. The GOP still thinks this nonsense is going somewhere. This shit got Trump Impeached the first time around when he tried to strong-arm Zelensky into coming up with a fake investigation of Joe Biden based on Derkach/Giuliani’s lies. Hunter’s own testimony before Congress thoroughly debunked and defanged all of these allegations. x x YouTube Video He pretty much debunked and demolished every theory that’s been floated and he kind of knocked down every piece of flotsam and jetsom of this impeachment expedition shipwreck the Republicans have left us with. It’s been a comedy of errors from the beginning. But of course the original witness [Alexander Smirnov] is now in jail in California as a flight risk after being indicted by US Attorney/Special Counsel David Weiss who wa named by Donald Trump, and he was indicted for lying to the FBI in constructing a false record. […] The whole thing has a very strong wiff of Russian Propaganda and Disinformation now because of the recent revelations in that California prosecution. And from Hunter’s testimony… Mr. Raskin: Mr. Biden, you state -- there's a diamond in the rough here -- "I did not involve my father in my business." And you go on to state, that was true as a lawyer, in any of your investments, your transactions, not as a corporate board member, not as an artist, never. Will you just give us the rationale behind that? Was your father trying to be involved in your businesses and your legal practice and so on and you had to keep him out? Or was it just an assumption both of you had? The Witness. Yes. I think number one is, it's just a natural family relationship. I was a professional adult and I had my business, and my dad had his business. But there was one thing that we -- that I was fully aware of my entire life, is that my dad was an official of the United States Government, and there were very bright lines that I abided to and that I was very, very cognizant of. And I made certain that I never engaged with my father in asking him to do anything on my behalf or on behalf of any client of mine. Hunter specifically explained the "10 for H to hold for the Big Guy?”: Q "20, TB." Is that Tony Bobulinski? A Yes. Q "10, Jim," is that your uncle? A Yes. Q And then "10 held by H," which would be you, "for the big guy," which presumably is your dad, correct? Mr. Goldman. Question mark, correct? Q Question mark. A Question mark. Not only question mark, but all I know this is, is that, number one, there's only one agreement that includes Tony Bobulinski, that is executed, that is signed by me. There's only one message that I had as it relates to any involvement that I had with Tony Bobulinski, James Gilliar, my uncle, and Rob Walker, and it did not involve my dad. There's an executed agreement in which I got 20 percent, Jim got 20 percent, Rob got 20 percent, Tony got 20 percent, and James Gilliar got 20 percent. Nothing do with Joe Biden. And the only agreement that was drafted before that had 50-50, and I was -- I was the one 50. I was 50, and Mr. Ye was the other 50. And the only company that ever existed that had any involvement with Mr. Ye that was ever an actual operating company was the company Hudson West Three, in which I owned 50 percent, and Mr. Ye owned 50 percent. So this idea that because James Gilliar goes out and he says to Tony, You guys have seen the communications of Tony. You have the communications of Tony. I told Tony literally weeks after I met him that he was out of his mind, that he was going around, trying to promote the idea that my dad was somehow going to be involved in this. And that's why I never did business with Tony. And that's why Tony is a bitter, bitter man that did not get in on a deal that he wanted to get in on, because I thought that he was both incompetent and an idiot. And he's proved himself to be so by the complete misstatements that he's made. Lastly, Joe had nothing to do with Hunter’s business. Q The whole thing is that the former Vice President is coming to meet potential - A But he didn't, number one. You know that he didn't. Number two is that you know that I never involved him in any of my business. Number three is -- Q Well, that's -- A -- he never benefited from any of my business. Number four, you know there are no evidence of any transactions in which I sent money for my dad or my dad took action to benefit me or any of my businesses. You know all of those things. But you look at one text message out of context. And when I say, Hey, my dad's going to be in town. He's also visiting my daughter, I'm going to have lunch, maybe we'll all get to see each other, because it's also with my uncle, I'd love him to meet my new partner, you say there's something wrong with that? I really mean it. He's out of office. Q I mean, I think it raises questions. A No, he's out of office. You're saying he can't do that. So when you -- when Jared Kushner flies over to Saudi Arabia, picks up $2 billion, comes back, and puts it in his pocket, okay, and he is running for President of the United States, you guys have any problem with that? Mr. Gaetz. The clock has stopped. . Anyway -- The Witness. No, the clock has not stopped. Do you guys have any problem with that? I'm asking. . I have one more question before our hour is up. The Witness. It's unbelievable to me. Congress hasn’t been able to disprove any of this. Not one word. And please recall, they all knew these were lies — and they knew they came from Russian Intelligence from Day-1. x x YouTube Video Giuliani associate Lev Parnas testified that he helped link him up with Derkach they ran largely into “dead walls” and found most of their sources were coming “from Russia.” Parnas says after hitting brick walls, they started to “shift the narrative” and even though they had no evidence they started to push false arguments and claims against Biden. In May/June of 2019, Giuliani had not qualms about spreading lies by Russia agents to hurt the Biden campaign. Most media wouldn’t report these stories except for Fox, and only people in Congress like Senator Ron Johnson would push these claims. It was only after being arrested that Parnas was able to escape the Cult of Trump. While you’re in it - “you brainwash yourself to believe things that are not true.” This is what still happening with MAGAs, they are brainwashed to believe these lies. They Want to believe these lies, because this absolved them of everything, and puts the blame magically on Joe Biden, Hunter Biden and Democrats for everything happening in the country. So Hunter’s Biden conviction is just “more of the coverup” — and they’ll keep digging, and digging, until they hit rock bottom. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/6/13/2246409/-MAGAs-claim-Hunter-s-Conviction-is-more-proof-of-bias-against-Trump?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/