The Hunter Biden bribery allegations have been a Russian op since the start

I agree, otherwise you are on a witch hunt in search of a potential crime. I'm just not sure the other evidence of the shell companies and bank transactions is enough or not. But if the basis of the inquiry was strictly from false pretenses and they knew they were false then yes, we do have a problem. I just haven't seen enough to know this evidence was all they had, that it indeed is all false, and that they knew it was false. I reserve the right to change my opinion as more comes out though!

 

Right? I have yet to see a statute that states that a valid defense is " someone else either did worse or got away with it". Try that next time a cop pulls you over for speeding.

 

It's honestly tough to get a grasp because there's so much innuendo and hearsay as it relates to the allegations against Hunter and Joe. This was I believe one of the few, if not only, solid pieces of evidence having come through the FBI. Now maybe the truth is that they were relying on the FBI, but so much of the evidence against Hunter has an incestuous GOP connection (e.g., Rudy being involved in chain of custody for Hunter's laptop) that I wouldn't at all be surprised if there was advanced knowledge of this informant and that the information wasn't true.

That being said, I don't think there's any law or rule against starting an impeachment inquiry as a complete fishing expedition, but in a worst case scenario, if members of Congress knew it was at least in part based on Russian disinformation I think we have a right to know.

 

The whole "impeachment inquiry" is designed to keep the words - Biden, impeachment, corruption, - in the forefront of American political discussion and on the lips of those on political TV during an election year in order to win the election. Nothing more. It is exactly the same tactic that trump attempted to use when he wanted Zelensky to announce that Ukraine was launching an investigation into Hunter/Joe. Then he got poor ol' Rudy to sacrifice himself for the cause (trump). This time he got Comer and Jordan to do the dirty work and may or may not have been aided by Putin providing an "informant".

 

It is technically an impeachment inquiry although if he was the target the defeated indicted former president would refer to it as witch hunt. More accurately what the House Republicans are doing with respect to the Bidens can best be described as a fishing expedition. So far there is little substantive evidence that Joe Biden was influenced by either Ukrainian or Chinese interests although admittedly Hunter did try to scam gullible foreigners that he could do so and interestingly to the extent there is any evidence at all Hunter was pulling the scam in 2017 and 2018 when Joe Biden was out of government and Republicans controlled the presidency and both Houses of Congress.

 

Would I have a committed a crime or civil fraud if the lies resulted in a lower mortgage rate than what I would have otherwise had to pay if I was honest? Interestingly it's apparently much more difficult for ordinary borrowers to scam lenders than it is for sketchy real estate developers.

 

The Feds seem to have gone a lot harder on Hunter than they would have if Joe wasn’t his father.

 

MSN

Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) sharply criticized his fellow House Republicans for latching onto the testimony of an "FBI informant" who was arrested last week and accused of peddling lies straight from Kremlin disinformation operators.​

“We were warned at the time that we received the document outlining this witness’s testimony, we were warned that the credibility of this statement was not known,” Buck told CNN's Kaitlan Collins, reported Edith Olmsted for The Daily Beast.

And yet, people, my colleagues went out and talked to the public about how this was credible and how it was damning and how it proved President Biden’s — at the time Vice President Biden’s — complicity in receiving bribes.”

 

You are definitely right that real estate developers get a much higher. better consideration than the average homeowner. I'm not sure exactly how I feel about whether that would be a crime or fraud. Is a victimless crime actually a crime? I would tend to believe that anyone looking for a loan for themselves or their business will do what they can to be shown in the best light possible. If I have a low credit rating, due some circumstance, and it will cause me to get a higher rate, but I know I have the means and the ability to pay and then do pay, and fudge numbers to get the better rate, is that a crime? In a general way, if you and I agree to X, and we both fulfill our obligations of X, not sure I feel that is a crime.

 

Yes, lying to a bank for financial gain, even if you think you are justified in your lies, is a crime.

 

Using another analogy that one commentator used as to whether Trump's gross overvaluation of his properties was a crime since there was no real victim. If a person embezzled funds from his employer, used the funds to gamble, won and paid the employer back before the embezzlement was discovered did he commit a crime since no one lost anything?

 

Here is a better idea for you. This is what I think not some talking point from the handbook. I kniow you guys only speak from the handbook. I realize it is a foreign concept to the lefty's to have independent thought and sometimes that thought aligns with what just happened. I'm not defending him, I'm defending whether I think the process and the crime was worth prosecution.

 

Going 110 MPH can lead to a victim. No victims or lead to possibility of a victim in this supposed crime.

 

Didn't this line of thinking lead, in large part, to the last recession with banks handing out loans like candy? And if there is no possibility of a victim, why have financial laws at all? Let it be a free-for-all with the best freeloader/cheater wins! Who needs a level playing field when it's all about profit?

 

Really? Lying so that somebody gives you money has no potential victims? Let's see if we can brainstorm some, since you are opposed to talking from handbooks. Can you come up with a potential victim for inflating the value of a property to a bank?