Biden Corruption Secrets
Judicial Watch Sues National Archives for Biden Family Business Records
Judicial Watch Sues Treasury Department for Communications with Failed Banks
Another Illegal Protected by Sanctuary Laws Charged with Violent Crimes
Memorial Day – Why We Fight
Judicial Watch Sues National Archives for Biden Family Business Records
Joe Biden is hiding his shady business dealings abroad behind his National Archives. So we’ve filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) suit against the agency for Biden family’s records and communications regarding travel and finance transactions, as well as communications between the Bidens and several known business associates (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. National Archives (No. 1:23-cv-01432).
We had to sue because the National Archives has yet to produce any records in response to our February 2023 FOIA request for:
Records and/or communications from former Vice President Joseph R. Biden regarding:
- Any communication with Robert Hunter Biden, James Brian Biden, Francis William “Frank” Biden or Sara Jones Biden between January 20, 2009, and January 20, 2017, regarding:
- a) any international or domestic travel
- b) any international or domestic financial activity, including but not limited to banking and financial institutions, overseas bank accounts, credit card companies, bills, invoices, fees, agreements, financial arrangements, payments, wire transfers, contracts, QuickBooks, financial spreadsheets, business proposals, office or residential leases, rent payments, real estate transactions
- Any communication with Robert Hunter Biden, James Brian Biden, Francis William “Frank” Biden or Sara Jones Biden between January 20, 2009, and January 20, 2017, regarding the following individuals or companies:
a) Devon Archer;
b) JiaQi Bao;
c) Tony Bobulinski;
d) Jeffrey Cooper;
e) Catherine Dodge;
f) Gongwen Dong;
g) James Gilliar;
h) Patrick Ho Chi-ping;
i) Vuk Jeremie;
j) Zang Jianjun;
k) Ye Jianming;
l) Jonathan Li;
m) Joan Mayer or Joan Peugh;
n) Francis Person;
o) Vadim Pozharskyi;
p) Eric Schwerin;
q) Robert Walker;
r) Mervyn Yan;
s) Nita Madhav;
t) Maiy Guttieri
u) Any Metabiota entity or company;
v) Any Rosemont Seneca entity or company;
w) Any Hudson West entity or company;
x) Any Owasco entity or company;
y) Any Bohai Harvest entity or company;
z) Skaneateles LLC;
aa) Eudora Global LLC;
bb) Coldharbour Capital LLC;
cc) Lion Hall Group LLC;
dd) Any CEFC entity or company; and
ee) Burisma.
- Any communication, between January 20, 2009, and January 20, 2017, between or among former Vice President Joseph R. Biden and the individuals or entities set forth in Items 2(a)-(ee) above.
- All records and documents including paper or electronic calendars such as (Outlook or Gmail) regarding former Vice President Joseph R. Biden and the individuals or entities set forth in Items 2(a)-(ee) above.
We explained to the court that in a March letter the National Archives acknowledged receiving the FOIA request, assigned it a case number and claimed it had identified “approximately 1,567 emails, 2,501 electronic files, and 445 pages of potentially responsive records that must be processed in order to respond to your request.”
The Archives also stated that, according to the Code of Federal Regulations, it is required to “notify representatives of the former President and the incumbent President and the former Vice President prior to the release of any Vice Presidential records.” The letter did not say when or even whether any such notice had been given or would be given. On information and belief, no such notice has been given.
On May 10, House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-KY.) released financial records of the Biden family’s business dealings showing that millions of dollars flowed from China and other foreign sources through a labyrinth of Biden family companies:
[The] financial records reveal the Biden family and associates’ complicated network of companies set up during Joe Biden’s vice presidency and the millions the Bidens received from foreign sources. The financial records also reveal how the Bidens used complicated transactions to hide payments from foreign nationals, including CCP-linked associates, and provide clear indications of influence peddling schemes during then-Vice President Biden’s tenure.
Clearly, the Biden National Archives agency is stonewalling the release of thousands of records that could go to the heart of Biden family corruption allegations.
Judicial Watch Sues Treasury Department for Communications with Failed Banks
We’re going to court to uncover the details of Biden administration actions that could cost billions of dollars.
Your Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) suit against the U.S. Department of the Treasury for all communications between Treasury components Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) and the Office of Financial Research (OFR) and the failed Silicon Valley and Signature banks (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of the Treasury(No. 1:23-cv-01397)).
Both banks were forced into failure by the Biden administration in March.
The Biden administration’s actions in attempting to resolve the bank failures will cost tens of billions of dollars, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) estimated.
We sued after Treasury failed to respond to March 14, 2023, FOIA requests.
The Financial Stability Oversight Council, established by Title I of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and signed into law by President Barack Obama on July 21, 2010, is tasked with monitoring the stability of the U.S. financial system. However, former Judicial Watch client Vern McKinley and I previously warned, “[T]he Financial Stability Oversight Council clearly is incapable of providing either financial stability or oversight. It should be eliminated.”
(On April 26, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry, along with Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Bill Huizenga, and Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy Subcommittee Chairman Andy Barr sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in her capacity as Chair of the Oversight Council, demanding it provide information previously requested more than a month prior from its meetings immediately following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.)
The Office of Financial Research was created, according to its website, to promote “financial stability by delivering high-quality financial data, standards and analysis” in support of the FSOC and its member agencies.
In its 2022 report to Congress, the Office of Financial Research states that it found “overall threats to U.S. financial stability were elevated compared to last year. The 2022 report discussed how the systemic risk landscape was elevated as financial institutions faced more uncertainty from rising inflation, tight credit conditions, and the geopolitical landscape.”
Massive bank failures induced by the Biden administration have rocked our economic system. The American people deserve to know the details of the costly interventions and government takeovers of Silicon Valley and Signature Banks.
That we had to sue for basic information about this banking crisis suggests the Biden administration has something to hide.
Another Illegal Alien Protected by Sanctuary Laws Charged with Violent Crimes
Jurisdictions that grant illegal aliens sanctuary are putting their citizens at risk of violent crimes, as our Corruption Chronicles blog reports.
In yet another disturbing example of the devastation caused by open border policies, an illegal immigrant who entered the U.S. as a child a decade ago has been charged with first-degree rape, kidnapping and armed robbery in a county that proudly offers migrants sanctuary. The 20-year-old, Jose Roberto Hernandez-Penal, is accused of raping a woman and robbing her friend this month at a Maryland park after threatening the woman with a machete. Days earlier police say he raped a 15-year-old girl at the same park in Montgomery County, which has long protected illegal aliens from federal authorities.
The illegal immigrant lives in Hyattsville, which sits in another Maryland county—Prince George’s—famous for its sanctuary policies. The measures protect illegal aliens by, among other things, releasing even the most dangerous criminals from jail to shield them from deportation. Hernandez-Penal, a native of El Salvador, entered the country illegally in 2013, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told a local media outlet, and was“ordered removed in absentia by an immigration judge” about a year later and again approximately seven months after that. Nevertheless, he remained in the country and committed heinous crimes against unsuspecting residents. Police say at approximately 2:40 p.m. on May 16 Hernandez-Penal approached two adult females on the Northwest Branch Trail of Burnt Mills East Special Park, displayed a machete, stole their property and sexually assaulted one of the victims. Upon leaving the scene, the illegal immigrant assaulted an adult male. Officials told several local news outlets that Hernandez-Penal is also suspected of raping a 15-year-old girl on the same trail of the two-acre facility a week earlier. The park is one of the hundreds operated by Montgomery County along with other recreational facilities such as basketball courts, campsites, tennis courts and playgrounds.
Detectives handling the case for the Montgomery County Police Department believe there may be additional victims of sexual assault by Hernandez-Penal that have not contacted authorities. The agency reveals that the illegal immigrant “made statements of involvement” during interviews with detectives after his recent arrest. He was then transported to the Montgomery County Central Processing Unit where he was charged with first degree rape, first degree assault, second degree assault, armed robbery, kidnapping, and weapons-related crimes. In its news release detectives urge anyone who may have been a victim of Hernandez-Penal to contact the agency’s Special Victims Investigations Division (SVID).
It is important to note that this is the same law enforcement agency that regularly releases dangerous criminals like Hernandez-Penal from jail to protect them from federal authorities. For example, a few years ago an illegal immigrant from El Salvador who raped a seven-year-old girl multiple times was released because under Montgomery County’s sanctuary law police are banned from cooperating with the feds. Rather than honor a detainer issued by ICE under a partnership known as 287(g) that notifies the federal agency of inmates in the country illegally so that they can be deported, local officials freed the child rapist on bond. Not surprisingly, the rapist vanished. Prince George’s County, where Hernandez-Penal lives, practices the same sanctuary measures. In fact, ICE has resorted to unconventional methods to capture criminals in both jurisdictions. In one instance the agency preempted Montgomery and Prince George’s counties’ imminent release of a batch of illegal immigrant offenders by publicly disclosing their identity, complete with mug shots. Most were incarcerated for sexual crimes involving children, including rape and serious physical abuse that resulted in death. A couple were jailed for murder and assault.
The Maryland cases are part of a national crisis generated by local governments around the country that offer violent illegal immigrants sanctuary. Under 287(g), ICE is notified of jail inmates in the country illegally so that they can be deported after serving time for state crimes or making bail. Unfortunately, a growing number of city and county law enforcement agencies are instead releasing the illegal aliens—many with serious convictions such as child sex offenses, rape and murder—rather than turn them over to federal authorities for removal.
Memorial Day – Why We Fight
Memorial Day helps our nation focus on the ultimate sacrifice of untold numbers of fellow Americans – Americans who gave their lives to preserve and defend our God-given freedoms and our constitutional republic.
As we honor those heroes next week, I’d like to draw your attention again to the Veterans Day speech given in 1985 by then-President Ronald Reagan. Much of his speech applies to Memorial Day, especially this portion, which remains timely today:
And the living have a responsibility to remember the conditions that led to the wars in which our heroes died. Perhaps we can start by remembering this: that all of those who died for us and our country were, in one way or another, victims of a peace process that failed; victims of a decision to forget certain things; to forget, for instance, that the surest way to keep a peace going is to stay strong.
Weakness, after all, is a temptation — it tempts the pugnacious to assert themselves — but strength is a declaration that cannot be misunderstood. Strength is a condition that declares actions have consequences. Strength is a prudent warning to the belligerent that aggression need not go unanswered.
Peace fails when we forget what we stand for. It fails when we forget that our Republic is based on firm principles, principles that have real meaning, that with them, we are the last, best hope of man on Earth; without them, we’re little more than the crust of a continent. Peace also fails when we forget to bring to the bargaining table God’s first intellectual gift to man: common sense. Common sense gives us a realistic knowledge of human beings and how they think, how they live in the world, what motivates them. Common sense tells us that man has magic in him, but also clay. Common sense can tell the difference between right and wrong. Common sense forgives error, but it always recognizes it to be error first.
We endanger the peace and confuse all issues when we obscure the truth; when we refuse to name an act for what it is; when we refuse to see the obvious and seek safety in Almighty. Peace is only maintained and won by those who have clear eyes and brave minds.
I’d like to think many Americans have “clear eyes and brave minds” and these patriots desire the same qualities in our political and judicial leaders. It certainly reflects Judicial Watch’s modest approach to our efforts.
Have a safe and blessed Memorial Day!
Until next week …
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