1) From a source familiar with the transcribed interview with former Hunter Biden business partner Devon Archer.
Archer testified there was value of adding Hunter Biden to Burisma’s board was “the brand.”
2) The argument was that then-Vice President Joe Biden brought the most value to “the brand.” Archer also stated that Burisma would have gone under if not for “the brand.”
3) In December 2015, Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner of Burisma, and Vadym Pozharski, an executive of Burisma, placed constant pressure on Hunter Biden to get help from DC regarding the Ukrainian prosecutor, Viktor Shokin.
Shokin was investigating Burisma for corruption.
4) Hunter Biden, along with Zlochevsky and Pozharski, “called DC” to discuss the matter. Biden, Zlochevsky, and Pozharski stepped away to take make the call.
5) Archer testified that Hunter Biden put then-Vice President Joe Biden on the speakerphone during business meetings, over 20 times. Archer testified that Joe Biden was put on the phone to sell “the brand.”
6) These phone calls include a dinner in Paris with a French energy company and in China with Jonathan Li of BHR.
7) In spring of 2014, then-Vice President Joe Biden attended a business dinner with his son, Hunter, and his associates at Café Milano in DC. Elena Baturina, a Russian oligarch who is the widow of the former mayor of Moscow, attended the dinner.
8) The Biden Administration’s public sanctions list for Russian oligarchs does not contain Baturina.
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1) The privileged resolution to censure Rep. George Santos (R-NY) is not yet “live” and likely won’t come up this week.
2) However, Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) indicates he will make the resolution “live” in the coming days and force the House to tangle with the measure late next week, before the House’s August recess.
3) An increasing number of Republicans have indicated they would vote to censure Santos. That includes Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-NY). Fox is told privately that some Republicans are tired of the foot-dragging by the House Ethics Committee.
1) The Hitchhiker's Guide to Tuberville's holds on senior military promotions. In the Senate, one senator can hold up anything.
And, a determined supermajority of senators can overcome a blockade erected by that sole senator on a nomination or a bill. It just takes time
2) That aforementioned supermajority can thwart the tactics of the lone senator bottlenecking the parliamentary traffic. Eventually. Senators must file “cloture” and later “invoke” cloture. That’s the Senate term for overcoming a filibuster.
3) But what happens when a single senator holds up an entire slate of nominees? Or, in this case, the routine promotions of 250 military flag officers? These are the top military leaders in the country.
1) The Hitchhiker’s Guide To Where the Defense Bill Stands In the House After It Tilted To The Right
House Republicans are optimistic they can conclude debate and pass the annual defense policy bill today.
2) This comes after the measure shifted well to the right after adoption of amendments important to social conservatives.
The House adopted amendments oveturning the Pentagon’s abortion policy.
3) The House also voted to bar service members using the military’s health care system from receiving reimbursements for seeking transgender-related procedures.
The House also rejected an amendment to slash assistance for Ukraine.
1) Schumer: This disappointing and cruel ruling shows the callousness of the MAGA Republican-controlled Supreme Court.
2) Schumer: The hypocrisy is clear: as justices accept lavish, six-figure gifts, they don’t dare to help Americans saddled with student loan debt, instead siding with the powerful, big-monied interests.
3) Schumer: The fight will not end here. The Biden administration has remaining legal routes to provide broad-based student debt cancellation.
A) Scalise on Fox Business: What we've been finding out in these investigations is incredibly alarming and disturbing. The American people should be alarmed as well. And we're just scratching the surface.
B) Scalise: You see even the disparity between the IRS, which says a little over $8 million they've identified in payments to Hunter Biden that we're not reported, Jamie, Commerce committees getting bank records that show it could be over $40 million.
C) Scalise: You saw the audio recordings. You see the whistleblowers. We have two different whistleblowers at the IRS, including one who's a Democrat who have said that they see even more alarming things.
A) Grassley on FBI 1023 which GOPers say shows evidence of a crime by Biden: From what I've been told by folks who reviewed it is filled with redactions of the document that Chairman Comer and I read had maybe two or three half inch redactions, not all sentences redacted
B) Grassley: The FBI made Congress review a redacted, unclassified document in a classified facility. That goes to show you the disrespect that the FBI has for Congress
C) Grassley: The 1023 also indicates that then Vice President Joe Biden may have been involved in Burisma employing Hunter Biden...