Wendell Husebø – Breitbart News – December 19th…
“The tapes reveal how members of the Biden family worked to rake in millions of dollars while Joe Biden, referenced as the “Big Guy” by at least five Biden associates, held federal office, according to the House Oversight Committee:
- The Biden business earned $24 million dollars between 2015 and 2019.
- The business used more than 20 shell companies.
- Associates sold the “Biden brand.”
James Biden, who received a subpoena to appear before a House impeachment inquiry, controls Lion Hall Group, an entity that investigators suspect of wrongdoing. According to the Post, many of James Biden’s business ventures operated via the Lion Hall Group, including some negotiations caught on tape by the FBI.”
Washington Post – December 17th…
“[Richard “Dickie”] Scruggs turned to Biden’s younger brother James, an old acquaintance who ran a D.C. consulting firm with his wife, Sara.
Scruggs paid the firm $100,000 in 1998 for advice on passing the bill, Scruggs said in an interview at his office here — the first time he has disclosed the amount.
“I probably wouldn’t have hired him if he wasn’t the senator’s brother,” Scruggs said.
Biden eventually backed the bill, which ultimately failed to pass […].
“Jim was never untoward about his influence,” Scruggs said. “He didn’t brag about it or talk about it. He didn’t have to. He was the man’s brother.”
Scruggs’s deal with James Biden highlights how President Biden’s brother has for decades benefited financially from his proximity to his powerful sibling, a relationship that is newly relevant today as congressional Republicans investigate whether President Biden assisted his family members’ business deals.
During Joe Biden’s 36 years in the Senate, 8 years as vice president and now 3 years as president, James Biden’s private business work — as a consultant for hire and behind-the-scenes political fixer — has often intersected with his brother’s public responsibilities.
For months, that probe has focused on the president’s son Hunter Biden, but the House Oversight Committee recently issued subpoenas for James and Sara Biden to testify, drawing attention to James Biden’s unique role in his brother’s life and career.
James and Sara Biden’s company Lion Hall, to which Scruggs paid $100,000, also is cited in one of the subpoenas as central to the probe.
[…]
The White House did not respond to a list of questions from WaPo about [Joe] Biden’s action on the tobacco legislation and, more broadly, on his relationship with his brother and whether he has ever used his public position to help him financially.
The deal with Lion Hall also illuminates the Bidens’ decades-long relationship with Scruggs, once one of the country’s most powerful trial lawyers, who made his fortune taking on corporate interests and making friends in politics.
Scruggs took James Biden on a boat trip while discussing a potential partnership on asbestos lawsuits; flew Joe Biden on his private plane to a fundraiser; and met with Biden family members at a […] football game, Scruggs and his associates said in interviews.
But James and Sara Biden’s ties to Scruggs also later brought them to the periphery of a sweeping federal investigation, one that eventually led to the trial lawyer’s epic downfall in 2008 over a bribery scheme.
As FBI agents circled in on Scruggs and his associates over a plan todeliver $40,000 in bribes toa local judge, they also secretly recorded conversations with James Biden — who, at the same time, was trying to create a consulting firm with the Scruggs partners.
[…]
Much of the material related to James Biden in the Mississippi case is not available in court files, but the recordings, transcripts and other material were collected by Curtis Wilkie, who wrote a 2010 book about Scruggs, “The Fall of the House of Zeus,” which reported a number of details about the Biden connections.
[…]
James Biden became one of his brother’s key fundraisers — in some cases because he was willing to take money from donors whenhis brother was wary.
When Joe Biden first ran for the Senate, in 1972, James Biden pleaded for money from a top union official, who agreed to give $5,000 on condition that he could meet Joe Biden.
[…]
Scruggs was at risk of losing hundreds of millions of dollars in legal fees without a deal. Scruggs said Patterson urged him to talk to Joe Biden, so he went to Washington in mid-1997 and met with the senator for the first time, as well as with other lawmakers he considered to be potential roadblocks. He said he realized he needed more help winning over the senator from Delaware and other members of Congress. That is when he turned to James and his wife, Sara, a former congressional aide.
Starting on April 9, 1998, Scruggs made a series of $10,000 payments to their firm, Lion Hall, during a year-long period. Those payments totaled $100,000, according to records that Scruggs provided to The Post.
When […] the tobacco settlement finally reached the Senate floor in June 1998, Biden had gone from being one of its biggest critics to becoming one of its leading defenders — a significant victory for Scruggs.
[…]
At the time, little was known about Lion Hall. But one lawsuit at the time alleged that James and Sara Biden openly sought to benefit from their connection to Joe Biden.
Filed by the firm of the lawyer Leonard Barrack, who hired Lion Hall during the same period it worked for Scruggs, it alleged that James had provided assurancesthat he would“generate business for the Barrack Law Firm through his family name and his resemblance to his brother.” Barrack claimed Lion Hill never delivered and sought damages. Sara Biden countersued, and the matter was settled confidentially. Barrack did not respond to a request for comment.
Scruggs had no such complaints. He said he was satisfied with the work done by James and Sara Biden.
[…]
Seven years later, after Biden launched his second bid for the presidency, he once again headed to Mississippi for a fundraiser, arriving in Oxford with James at his side in August 2007.
He gave a talk about his just-released memoir, “Promises to Keep,” at a bookstore around the corner from Scruggs’s law firm.
Then Biden traveled to the nearby University Club for a presidential campaign fundraiser, which brought in $70,000, according to media reports at the time.
Behind the scenes, James Biden was focused on another deal with some key players at the fundraiser — including Patterson, who had resigned in 1996 as state auditor after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor tax charge, and a lawyer named Tim Balducci.
Patterson, Balducci and James Biden had for weeks been discussing their plan: an influential new consulting firm with offices on the Oxford town square and in Washington. The firm would be called Patterson, Balducci & Biden, PLLC Law Group, according to a 24-page promotional booklet […], with Sara as the named partner […].
[…]
Five weeks after the Oxford fundraiser, James Biden was on the phone with Balducci discussing the final details about the firm’s creation, according to court records.
That same day, Balducci had handedan envelope containing the first of two $20,000 payments to a Mississippi judge who was slated to rule in a case involving Scruggs, according to court records.The filings say $26.5 million in legal fees was at stake, and Scruggs wanted the judge to give him a favorable settlement.
“Lord have mercy,” said the judge, Henry Lackey, as he took the envelope, according to court records.
Balducci did not know that Lackey was working with the FBI.
Weeks earlier, Balducci had floated the idea of Lackey’s being hired after retirement as “of counsel” to Balducci’s law firm, according to the judge’s statement to federal officials.
Lackey viewed that offer as a quid pro quo to get him to favorably settle the Scruggs suit, leading him to contact the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office, according to court records.
The tip led the FBI to begin recording Balducci’s phone calls, including some with James Biden; the tapes provide insight into how Jamesand his wife explored business opportunities.
After handing off the cash, Balducci drove to Scruggs’s office, where he sought support […] for the new consulting firm Balducci was trying to form with Patterson and Sara Biden.
Afterward, Balducci called James Biden to say how well the meeting with Scruggs had gone, laying out how the consulting firm would have not only Sara Biden as a named partner, but also […] the involvement of James Biden and Hunter Biden, the senator’s son.
[…]
Just as the plan for the Patterson, Balducci and Biden firm was about to be publicly unveiled, Balducci was confronted by the FBI about the payment to the judge.
He promptly agreed to flip, according to court records. The FBI sent Balducci, wearing a wire, to Scruggs’s office, where their conversations were recorded. A few weeks later, the FBI raided Scruggs’s office and seized some computer hard drives.
The next day, Scruggs and his son, Zach, agreed to surrender at the federal courthouse, just a few blocks away.
By mid-2008, weeks before Biden was nominated to be vice president, the key players had all pleaded guilty to various charges related to the effort.
Dickie Scruggs ultimately served about five years in prison for his role in the Lackey case and for another conviction.
[…]
Prosecutors never questioned James Biden, according to a former federal official familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation.
But the financial connection of key players in the case to Joe Biden’s campaign was widely noted in media reports at the time […].
The year after the arrests, Joe Biden dropped his presidential bid and Barack Obama picked him as a running mate. It’s not clear whether the case or James Biden’s other business ventures were discussed during the vetting process to add Joe Biden to the ticket — at the time, the existence of the FBI tapes of James Biden were not publicly known, and little attention had been paid to his business ventures.
[…]
The House Oversight Committee has issued subpoenas to James and Sara Biden as well as Hunter Biden seeking information about a number of ventures, including more recent activities of Lion Hall.
Republicans on the committee have sought to link Chinese money to funds that were deposited into the Lion Hall account, alleging a money trail that they say ended with a $40,000 check from James and Sara Biden to Joe Biden and labeled “loan repayment.”
[…] Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) has said that “laundered Chinese money landed in Joe Biden’s bank account.”
[…]
The White House […] has dismissed Comer’s claims.
Scruggs, asked whether he thinks James and Hunter Biden went too far or tried to profit off the family name, said he empathized about what they are facing in the congressional investigation.”
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