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New emails reveal that Hunter Biden demanded a $2 million retainer plus "success fees" to unlock Libyan assets frozen by the Obama-Biden administration.
Though President Biden has claimed ignorance about Hunter's family business schemes, the emails suggest otherwise.
Biden's worldwide web widens. And I'm not talking about Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook. We're talking about corruption.
Oh, what a tangled web we weave...
Be informed, not misled.
It sounds like something Shakespeare would have said, but it was Sir Walter Scott who wrote, "Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive."
The proposal.
The first email was dated January 28, 2015.
Business Insider (this link requires a subscription to access) reported Thursday the first email was sent from Sam Jauhari, a Democrat donor with businesses in the Persian Gulf, who was helping spearhead the "Libya Project."
It was addressed to Sheikh Mohammed al-Rahbani, another Obama campaign donor involved in the proposal. In the email Jauhari is frank about what Biden would bring to the table, and what he says Biden wanted in return:
Per phone conversation I met with #2 son. He wants $2 per year retainer+++success fees. He wants to hire his own people---it can be close circle of people for confidentially. His dad is deciding to run or not."
His positives are he is Chairman of UN World Food Program, son #2 who has Libya file, access to State, Treasury, business partner SofS [ Secretary of State] J. [John] Forbes K [Kerry] son and since he travels with dad he is connected everywhere in Europe and Asia where M.Q.[Muammar Qaddafi] and LIA [Libya Investment Authority] had money frozen. He said he has access to highest level in PRC [China], he can help there.
His negatives are that he is alcoholic, drug addict---kicked [out] of US Army for cocaine, chasing low class hookers, constantly needs money-liquidity problems and many more headaches.
We should meet in Gstraad or London to decide next steps.
As part of the deal, Jauhari and his partners were apparently offered a 5% finder fee for unfreezing the Libyan funds, which would have amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars.
It's not clear if Hunter's "success fee" would have been carved out of the "finder fee," which could have amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars, or from the unfrozen money itself.
Hunter brags in his own book about how he has connections with the world's big-money players.
The Los Angles Times notes that Hunter obtained a special meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah II, said to be about Syrian refugees, only "out of respect" for Hunter's father, the Vice President of the United States.
In his book, Hunter wrote: "The only reason the king had agreed to meet was out of respect for my dad. I guess you could chalk it up to nepotism, in the best possible way."
The second email was dated February 26, 2016.
I should note this is not from the laptop that has been seized by the FBI, but it makes it pretty clear that negotiations with Hunter Biden continued about unfreezing money in Libya.
In the second email, Jauhari al-Rahbani received a report by John Sandweg, a Washington lawyer who had served as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under Obama. Sandweg was reaching out to Biden's team about the Libya deal:
I spoke with HB's team yesterday. They are interested in the project, but emphasized that for them to get involved, the team (lobbyists, lawyers and PR) would need to be a small group of folks they have a tight relationship with. They do not want a large goup involved and they only want people with whom they have a close relationship with due to the sensitivities surrounding their involvement.
Lawyer Sandweg has confirmed he was communicating with the Biden team about unlocking assets in Libya.
Jauhari wound up hiring a different law firm.
It has also been confirmed that the laptop left in a local shop for repair last year was indeed Hunter Biden's.
This then is two major revelations about the Biden web of deception.
The evidence
A new book out this week by Ben Schreckinger titled, "The Bidens: Inside the First Family's Fifty-Year Rise to Power," clearly shows that the lost laptop was Hunter's.
The new book details evidence that Hunter did receive a 2015 email from an executive of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, "Thanking him, for the chance to meet Joe Biden," highlighting Joe's direct involvement with Hunter's business schemes.
Peter Schweizer, senior Fox News contributor, and best-selling author has explained to Fox that Hunter's laptop "highlights Joe's direct involvement with Hunter's business schemes.
The New York Times has removed its claim against a New York Post article that claims about the laptop were "unsubstantiated."
Apparently, they are now substantiated.
The Hunter emails that have been reviewed already show a very disturbing pattern of Biden family corruption.
In one particular communication with his daughter, Hunter is complaining that he pays half of the entire family's bills and he includes his mother and father in that and makes reference to 'pops'."
Schweizer says, "All this enrichment that has been taking place is also flowing to Joe Biden indirectly through his son, but the matter of fact is, he is still a beneficiary."
The consequences.
"Oh, what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive" means that when you lie or act dishonestly you are initiating problems and a domino structure of complications which eventually run out of control.
Where all this is taking our country remains to be seen. The consequences will play out in coming days, weeks...perhaps years.
Samuel Adams, a Founder of our country, said this in a letter to James Warren on November 4, 1775:
"Nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a State than that all persons employed in places of power and trust be men of exceptional characters. The public cannot be too curious concerning the character of public men."
And it was our first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Jay who told us:
"Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers..."
Indeed. Maybe next time we can get it right.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful.