'For Christ’s sake, watch yourself': Biden warns family over business dealings

Still, one brother discussed new venture with major donor before Biden entered the White House.

In the midst of his campaign for president, Joe Biden took his younger brother, Frank, aside to issue a warning.

“For Christ’s sake, watch yourself,” Biden said of his brother’s potential business dealings, according to a person with knowledge of the conversation. “Don’t get sucked into something that would, first of all, hurt you.”

Biden, whose tone was both “jocular and serious,” according to the person, seemed to know then what is becoming plainly obvious now: His family’s business ties threatened to undermine an administration whose messaging is centered on restoring integrity in the White House.

Relatives’ money-making ventures, most prominently his son Hunter’s overseas dealings, have long dogged Biden. But it's taking on a new dimension now that he's in the White House.

Only a week into his presidency, Biden already has had to answer for matters related to his family. A law firm ad promoting Frank Biden’s relationship with the president caused a stir when it ran on Inauguration Day. A federal investigation into Biden’s son, Hunter, has invited scrutiny of just how strict a firewall he’ll keep between the White House and the Justice Department. And another of the president’s brothers, James, has previously come under fire for his business dealings.

Florida super attorney and Democratic donor John Morgan said business sensitivities were coursing through Bidenworld this week after the report about Frank Biden’s law firm.

“What Frank told me is ‘my brother loves me dearly, but if I lobbied, he would cut my legs from underneath me,” Morgan said Frank Biden told him this week.

The intent of Joe Biden’s initial conversation, according to the person with knowledge of the discussion, was to protect Frank from “being hurt and vilified” in the event his big brother, “Joey,” was elected to the most powerful position in the world.

“Frank made it clear to me what the president made clear to him: The day he got elected, the long knives came out for all things Biden,” Morgan said. “There’s a target on all of them.”

One person interested in working with Frank Biden was Morgan himself, a fellow Floridian who is close to the younger Biden.

“Great guy,” Morgan said of Frank Biden. “I had my jet take him to the inauguration.”

Morgan said he’d started talking with Frank Biden about business opportunities last year but that nothing had come together yet. “We are talking about him doing some things inside the law firm,” Morgan said, referring to his firm, Morgan & Morgan, which bills itself as “America’s Largest Injury Law Firm.”

Any partnership would have a “100 percent legal focus” and wouldn’t involve any lobbying, Morgan added.

There is no evidence of wrongdoing tied to their discussions or violations of ethics rules. Frank Biden is a private citizen. Morgan does not lobby the federal government.

Frank Biden is not a lawyer but works as a senior adviser at another Florida-based law firm, the Berman Law Group. Morgan is a prominent Democratic donor who gave $355,000 to the Biden Victory Fund in August, according to campaign finance records.

Frank Biden’s business partner, Joe Abruzzo, was also involved in a preliminary discussion about the potential business with Morgan and Frank Biden, but pulled out after he was elected Palm Beach County clerk of the circuit court and comptroller.

“As a businessman for years, Frank is inundated with offers and opportunities,” said Abruzzo, who is also one of Frank’s closest friends. “He tends to focus on what he is passionate about: education and social justice issues.”

He added, “John and Frank are good friends and it is not surprising to those who know them that they have engaged in conversations.”

A source with knowledge of the conversations said Thursday, “It is extremely unlikely that there is going to be any business arrangement between Frank Biden and John Morgan.”

Renewed discussion about Biden’s family business ties come after a campaign in which former President Donald Trump relentlessly hammered Hunter Biden for his past dealings in China and Ukraine. Asked about his family’s business ties on the campaign trail in 2019, Biden, then the Democratic front-runner, vowed he would build an “absolute wall” between the White House and his relatives. He also pledged that, if elected, no one in his family would serve on foreign boards. In December, Hunter Biden acknowledged an existing federal investigation into his taxes.

Though nothing was in place, word of the discussions between Morgan and Frank Biden have bounced around Biden's orbit after he won the presidential election. One person in Bidenworld took calls from senior Biden campaign officials, Florida lobbyists and Washington insiders who had all gotten wind of the conversations. Most expressed shock that Frank Biden was so quickly engaged in talks about new business opportunities, given the uproar his professional dealings caused during his brother’s presidential campaign, the person said.

Frank Biden has long run business ventures in Florida, including with charter schools, and has told others he has no intention of taking on any new work in Washington, D.C. He remains with Berman Law Group and is involved in the firm’s work fighting against sugar companies that burn sugar cane as part of their business practice.

Frank’s work on the case drew headlines this week after CNBC reported the law firm was touting his relationship with his brother, the new president, in an advertisement.

“My brother is a model for how to go about doing this work,” Frank Biden says in an ad that ran in the Daily Business Review, according to the CNBC report. “One of his central tenets is that one should never question another man’s or woman’s motives or assign blame to them. That way, you avoid creating a disparity that prevents any kind of coming together. You can of course question someone’s judgment, and that’s what we’re doing by bringing this to court.”

Asked about the ad on Thursday, a White House official said, “It is this White House’s policy that the President’s name should not be used in connection with any commercial activities to suggest, or in any way that could reasonably understood to imply, his endorsement or support.”

Biden brother, James, co-opted a healthcare company;
criminal investigation alleges Fraud and Racketeering calculatedly using VP Biden’s name and connections.

Lawsuit Documents Allege James Biden Committed Fraud, Racketeering The Federalist ^ | May 21, 2020 | Mark Hemingway / FR Posted by Kaslin
Documents prepared as part of an ongoing lawsuit against Biden and his business partners allege they are in violation of Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and have committed fraud.

In January the FBI raided the offices of Americore Health, a health care company that manages rural hospitals, where James Biden was a major investor. Documents prepared as part of an ongoing lawsuit against Biden and his business partners, hedge fund managers Michael Lewitt and Amer Rustom, allege they are in violation of Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and have committed fraud related to their investments in Americore and another company, Diverse Medical Management.

The documents, prepared in March, were never submitted to the court and sources now say the lawsuit is headed for a settlement.

In the documents, Grant White, the former CEO of Americore, makes detailed allegations that Biden’s corrupt business practices helped drive his company into bankruptcy.

White also alleges that Biden and Lewitt improperly took money meant for company operations and lined their own pockets. He further alleges that James Biden failed to make good on promises that his (meaning VP Joe Biden’s) political connections would deliver large investments from the Middle East.

A filing in federal bankruptcy court in February by the federal trustee, Paul A. Randolph, alleges White has “grossly mismanaged” his business; “has not operated the hospitals in a manner that is consistent with public safety”; and “improperly siphoned money from the Debtors for his personal benefit.” The court subsequently removed White as CEO of Americore by the court. In a lengthy missive to legal commentator Jonathan Turley’s blog in March, Michael Lewitt questioned White’s credibility at length.

However, White was prepared to submit a sworn declaration in the ongoing lawsuit against Biden and his business partners backing up his allegations. Further, he turned over a significant number of primary documents undergirding these claims that were reviewed for this article.

“[Biden told me] there’s not a single door in the country that we can’t open. So if I wanted to meet, you know, the head of Google, it’s a phone call,” White says. “James Biden always represented himself as the fundraiser for his brother’s campaigns… he was the guy raising the money and so he knew everybody.”

According to White, James Biden, along with hedge fund managers Michael Lewitt and Amer Rustom, became enamored of Americore’s business model and approached White about investing in the company. They agreed to enter into business together on the “promise” that James Biden and his partners would be able to deliver upwards of $30 million to invest in Americore.

The Biden-connected law firm-—the Berman Law Group-—— needs 24/7 observation. Taxpayers demand to know
the extent to which Joe Biden exploits his office, using tax-paid resources, to do favors for his brother’s employers.

CASE IN POINT: Crackhead son Hunter got plenty of “official” help from dear old Dad to pull off several money making schemes. Read on.

Revealed 2019: Joe Biden twice used his position as senator to intervene to boost son Hunter’s lobbying
Joe Biden lobbied Department of Justice Congress and Homeland Security for Hunter’s lobbying clients
By Alana Goodman, Washington Examiner| October 24, 2019 07:37 PM

As a senior and influential U.S. senator, Joe Biden contacted DHS and DOJ to discuss issues that his son Hunter’s firm was being paid to lobby on, according to official government records.

On at least two occasions, Biden contacted federal departments to discuss issues related to Hunter’s firm’s lobbying clients, according to govt records reviewed by the Washington Examiner.

Then-Sen Biden’s secretive behind-the-scenes outreach illustrates how his Senate work overlapped with his crackhead son’s business interests. Biden has faced scrutiny for taking actions that were perceived to benefit his son’s work, including (A) calling for the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor, and, (B) backing policies that helped the credit card industry while Hunter was working for MBNA, which is headquartered in the state of Delaware....the state that elected Biden.

Government records show that Biden, who has always insisted he knows nothing about his son’s business activities, helped Hunter’s work with strategic and highly specific interventions that could have benefited his son to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars.

On Feb. 28, 2007, Sen Biden contacted DHS to express that he was “concerned about the Department’s proposed chemical security regulations authorized by Section 550 of DHS Appropriations Act of 2007,” according to the department’s official log of its contacts with members of Congress.

REFERENCE—Section 550, which was passed in 2006 as part of the DHS appropriations bill, requires high-risk chemical plants to submit site safety plans to DHS for approval, including security credentialing and training for employees.

Eight weeks earlier, the Industrial Safety Training Council had hired Hunter Biden’s firm to lobby DHS on the issue. The trade group, which represents companies that provide safety training for chemical facility employees, was mounting a heavy lobbying campaign over section 550, submitting congressional testimony about the need to expand background checks for chemical plant employees.

The Industrial Safety Training Council was seeking to expand the “language in DHS legislation regarding security clearance and credentialing for chemical facility employees and employers” in January 2007, according to lobbying disclosure records.

While Hunter Biden did not register as an individual lobbyist for the trade association, he was one of three senior partners in his firm at the time. The Industrial Safety Training Council paid Oldaker, Biden & Belair a total of $200,000 between early 2007 and the end of 2008.

The Biden campaign did not respond to request for comment. The National Legal and Policy Center, a government watchdog group, said Biden should have avoided involvement with issues that his son’s firm was also lobbying on because of the appearance of conflict.

“It’s implausible Sen. Biden did not know his son’s firm was lobbying on this arcane issue,” said Tom Anderson, the director of NLPC’s Government Integrity Project. “Sometimes appearances are exactly what they are,” he said. “This is a recurring problem we’ve seen on the Hill, where family members are enriched because of their relationship with a member.”

Biden also sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Jan. 31, 2007 requesting a meeting with the Department of Justice to discuss expanding the federal fingerprint background check system.

“I write to request your assistance in implementing an expanded background check system for our nation’s volunteer organizations,” wrote Biden. “If we can work together to expand the number of volunteer organizations that have access to fast, accurate, and inexpensive fingerprint background checks, we will make significant and important strides in our ongoing effort to protect kids across our country.”

Biden added, “I would like to convene a small meeting with key representatives” from DOJ, the FBI, members of Congress and volunteer groups.

One of Hunter’s firm’s lobbying clients at the time, a coalition of state-level criminal justice advocates called SEARCH, was also lobbying the federal government for a broader fingerprint screening system at the time.

The same day as Biden’s letter, SEARCH adopted a resolution calling on Congress to consider “any effort to improve the quality, completeness and accessibility of criminal history records” and expand the current system to “allow the return of all criminal history record information maintained by the States on the search subject through a single fingerprint check.”

The group initially hired Oldaker, Biden & Belair in 2006 to lobby for federal funding for state-level criminal justice programs, paying the firm $114,000 over the next year. In early 2008, SEARCH was seeking funding “to assist states in development and use of information to accelerate automation of fingerprint authentication processes and criminal justice data which are compatible with the FBI’s” system, according to lobbying records.

Biden introduced a bill called the “Child Protection Improvements Act” on March 13, 2008, which created a national fingerprint background check system for volunteer groups that worked with children. Oldaker, Biden & Belair promptly began lobbying for the bill on behalf of their client, SEARCH, according to lobbying records. SEARCH paid the firm $93,000 in 2008, records show.

Hunter Biden founded Oldaker, Biden & Belair with William Oldaker, a former adviser to his father. During his time at the firm, he was registered to lobby for clients on issues ranging from online gambling to higher education. After Biden became a vice presidential candidate in 2008, Hunter stepped away from lobbying, and the firm was renamed Oldaker, Belair & Wittie.

ABC News reported last week that Biden was concerned conflicts with his son’s lobbying work could negatively affect his presidential run in 2008. Biden was “concerned with the impact that Hunter’s lobbying activities might have on his expected campaign for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination,” according to court documents filed by a former business partner of Hunter Biden’s in 2007, ABC News reported.

“Because my dad was vice president of the United States, there’s literally nothing, as a young man or as a full-grown adult, that my father in some way hasn’t had influence over,” Hunter told the outlet in an interview.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/biden-outreach-to-dhs-and-doj-overlapped-

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