Hunter Biden’s CA Motions to Dismiss
I’m just going to post them here. I will read them over the course of days.
Alexander Smirnov Admits Russian Spies Passed on Lies about Hunter Biden Hunter Biden’s Motions to Dismiss: The Technical Complaints 
A reminder to all new and existing community members participating in comments:
— We have been moving to a new minimum standard to support community security over the last year. Usernames should be unique and a minimum of 8 letters.
— We do not require a valid, working email, but you must use the same email address each time you publish a comment here. **Single use disposable email addresses do not meet this standard.**
— If you have been commenting here but have less than 1000 comments published and been participating less than 10 years as of October 2022, you must update your username to match the new standard.
Thank you.
I think we got so distracted by the insane sawdust fiasco that we missed that the photo underneath in the filing it was also devoid of any context? The one of “drug paraphernalia” (an Allen wrench?) and drugs in the Hermes box.
If I’m reading this article correctly, it seems to come from a text that Hunter sent his sister-in-law a text with the photo claiming to have found the box and drugs in her apartment, under her mattress, being upset about finding it since it could re-trigger his addiction. First she says the box was hers but not the rock, which she claims was his. But she also says that the box is old, “forgotten about” and it’s unclear to me whether she’s saying she forgot about it and it’s hers or she forgot about it and its his. I’m not sure which side is truthful. Either way, NEITHER party claims it’s from that time period of the gun purchase and that they were using. In fact, the entire conversation is happening because he’s sober and doesn’t want to be around drugs.
That’s then used as evidence he was still using drugs.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/19267023/hunter-biden-drug-box-crack-photo-hallie-beau/
If you look at the evidence in that filing, it seems to be trying to show Hunter was/is an addict. There’s one problem, it’s not illegal to be just an addict. The question on the form is are you using, which they could have established beyond reasonable doubt five years ago with physical evidence showing he was using at the time he answered the question. Instead they have pictures of saw dust, that were sent to Hunter from a third party, so not only is it not a picture of cocaine, it never belonged to Hunter.
I’m wondering if Weiss is going to try to resurrect the plea deal, and if he does, should Hunter accept it.
There’s likely one or more Federal judges that just can’t wait to hear from Weiss about a newly resurrected plea agreement?
Be wary of using The Sun as a source: it’s another Murdoch rag, notorious for lies, distortions and propaganda. Think of it as a worse version of the NY Post.
I don’t have my own record of HB’s text conversations, so have to use transcripts of them in the public record. I’d be surprised if this transcript of texts is incorrect.
Plus, isn’t it more fun when right-wing reporting comes back to bite?
That is not public record. That is information from a private company put into the public space for their own purposes. Public record would be court filings or congressional records.
You are correct. Fair! I’m not sure what a better term would be than “public record” — maybe “made public?” (That said, does not impact my point.)
Anyway, the HB texts are out there, so if you dispute this transcript that in my view embarrasses the prosecution, then by all means provide that info of where it’s wrong.
I think I’ll let Hunter’s lawyers embarrass the prosecution in court. Which doesn’t seem to be that difficult at the moment.
Page three is popular.
Not anymore, this has ended a few years ago, I think. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Page_3
Here’s a little more background on the campaign that persuaded Murdoch to change course, when even his managers at the Sun were reluctant to change it.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2015/jan/20/the-sun-page-3-17-november-1970-16-january-2015-rip
The Sun, like the Evening Standard, was one of those half-size papers that everyone read on their commute. Most of them were left on the seats at the end of the line, as the journalism wasn’t worth carrying home from the station. Page three was not often among them.
I’m finally losing my grip here – it seems there are two agreements, not just the Plea Agreement that wobbled in court then was reneged upon by the dastardly prosecution in Delaware under pressure from MAGAworld, but also a Diversion Agreement that was in fact fully signed off by both parties. Gulp. What does the latter confer? In my shallow grasp, it seems that Lowell’s colleague in Cal is arguing it justifies dismissal of the case there.
The more you read here, the more enjoyable it will be. That the original Delaware matter before Judge Noreika involved both plea and diversion agreements has been the subject of dozens of posts for quite some time.
Lots has been said about Hunter Biden being a terrible person. As a therapist who treats addicts, I find this case heart breaking.
First addiction as a trauma symptom goes hand in hand. Hunter is a trauma survivor of parent loss. One of the most traumatic things a child can survive. As a therapist it is heart breaking to treat because the grief never really ends for the child as they continue to live with the loss through all the events that a parent would normally be present for. All the way into adulthood. And then also sibling loss. TWICE. And yes he did terrible things as an addict but that is the very essence of addiction.
When in the worst of my food addiction years ago I would take food that my kids threw away out of the trash and eat it. Ugh. I admit this to make my point. My husband now 18 years sober at a funeral last night sharing with nephews about the laws they broke back in the day rings in my head as I read this article.
I can’t imagine what this level of gas lighting is doing to him. I can’t imagine how Joe Biden does not collapse under the stress of the way this truly could kill Hunter. Addiction left untreated is fatal.
The stress alone could be cause of memory problems, not just age. Not to mention the research that the adverse childhood experiences survey (ACES) has gathered about the link between trauma and life expectancy.
Knowing that beneath those accusations was a man who wanted to be free from his compulsion breaks my heart. If you know you know. Millions of recovered addicts with criminal pasts and tawdry behavior living a solid life today.
Love and understanding more key than even accountability, many laws broken that were never charged and never held accountable for unanswered but recovery far more valuable.
Addicts act like narcissists, sociopaths, but the narcissistic sociopath can never truly recover. (At least not today-they can stop criming but may never ever truly be able to love or attach.)
We must start living in this reality. We as society pay the price for traumatized children. It’s exponential. It’s preventable. Not all of it but also much of it is treatable with love and understanding. New study saying that psychotherapy MORE effective than both meds and therapy, and more effective than just meds. We need connection to heal.
Mental illness is the canary in the coal mine that helps us measure how we are doing as a society. Too many zombies and we all go down together.
Trump survivors have a mental illness. And we are nearly at a tipping point. Authoritarianism. Internalized power and control an invariant in damaging connection.
Prevent mental illness by healing your own trauma first, so as not to wound the next generation. And know that love, and connection are always the answer as humans are hard wired to love, bond and understand.
Power and control, violence, invalidation. Kill the bonds. Kill empathy. Kill connection. We are all part of the solution AND the problem.
When we separate ourselves from the Hunter Biden’s of the world and even the Donald Trumps, it allows us to live in a lie of self righteousness. Us and them, this perpetuates denial and disconnect from our own unloving behavior (power and control, blame) and nails the coffin of humanity shut.
We don’t have much time to change the tide. What I love about this site is the dedication to facts. Truth is love. Love is truth. Let understanding replace blame. Let the truth set us free and right our course. And it triggers me to no end when people are missing the most compelling part of the story. For one moment feel Hunter Biden’s struggle. Feel Joe Biden’s struggle. This president must solve this dialectic every single day to move forward.
I appreciate your feedback as a therapist on Hunter Biden’s condition as an addict. That said, at 653 words in length I need you to consider greater focus and tighter editing as users on mobile devices may simply scroll past overlong comments.
One piece I’d add to your very thoughtful (if lengthy) comments is that, with respect to Hunter and his addiction, a support structure is essential, especially a structure beyond your family and your therapist. The role of those folks includes reminding him that his loved (despite his addiction and the problems around it) and that he has worth.
You wrote “I can’t imagine what this level of gas lighting is doing to him” and I immediately thought of Abbe Lowell and his team. In every one of their filings, while they are speaking to the court, they are also speaking to Hunter. *They* are calling out the gaslighting for him, and reminding him that this is not reality.
Think about the photo with the lines of sawdust. Lowell’s mockery of the prosecution is balm for Hunter. “This is not reality” says Lowell, to the prosecution, the court, and especially to Hunter. Calling out that kind of obvious gaslighting makes it easier to keep Hunter grounded in reality, and focused on staying clean.
Abbe Lowell is not Hunter’s father. Abbe Lowell is not Hunter’s therapist. But Abbe Lowell is a huge part of Hunter’s support system right now, especially when it come to calling out the crap. He’s saying to Hunter that he’s not alone in dealing with this mess.
To an addict, that is a glass of cold water on a hot hot day.
Most of us in the addiction/recovery community lack Hunter Biden’s resources. We could never afford an Abbe Lowell to fight our legal battles for us. Thus his every victory–even the rhetorical–allows us (if we choose) to experience a vicarious vindication through his words and apparent belief in his client.
The other side of that coin: we would never be targeted as Hunter has been, because our struggles offer no political upside to powerful and conscience-free forces. Peacerme, I’m glad to see you back, because the temptation remains: to sacrifice Hunter to his hunters, on the grounds that he was a lousy addict who deserves nothing more.
I’m seeing much less of that here than I did, perhaps because Hunter has so publicly taken matters into his own, now-sober hands. I can only imagine the support system that allows him to sustain that sobriety in the face of such derision, including from supposed “friends.”
The part I don’t have to imagine? His surviving biological parent standing by him through everything. Joe Biden himself has modeled a way for us to heal. He should run on this, the opposite of the blame-it-on-anyone-else message of his opponents. For me it is his deepest strength.
Excellent point!
My thoughts exactly, Peterr. However much more well written than I could have pulled off. I love seeing Lowell’s public statements through this lens & am so glad Hunter has him.
“And yes he did terrible things as an addict but that is the very essence of addiction.”
Where did Hunter Biden ever do terrible things? His cocaine and sex addictions were part of the same. The essence of addiction is a stigma so powerful it might have gotten into even your otherwise very humane and thoughtful discussion.
Whatever the case, I hope Hunter is able to recover sufficiently from the psychic harm that emanates from all serious cases of addiction. It is up to those harmed directly to forgive or not where these things are concerned.
peacerme:
you observations are always the wisest, and calming, messages when they appear here.
thank you.
As someone who has spent a career working in an ICU and seeing the effects of addition daily, you have hit the nail on the head. Exactly.
I am sorry. I did it on my own phone again and editing is so hard on the phone. I will make a pact with myself to write on my iPad. It was way longer than I thought. I’ve done it several times and always shocked at the length. I totally get it because I have had to scroll through many comments when on my phone.
You did that on a phone? Lol, you are going to give yourself carpal tunnel syndrome.
A quick take on the “SCO appointment” filing (which looks solid as hell, and is the only one I’ve read so far):
Since the GOP was howling for Weiss to get this appointment well before it was granted, their predictable, formulaic knee-jerk response (that Garland had nefariously planned its implosion and the resulting collapse of the Hunter prosecution all along) will only serve as joke-fodder on late night TV.
But there’s also the depressing prospect that it will simultaneously scuttle Weiss’ prosecution of Smirnov. Here’s hoping the USAO-DC is right now prepping to file those charges against Smirnov as soon as a dismissal is issued on these grounds for Hunter, and before the Russian stool pigeon is released from pre-trial custody — or , even better, to have the case reassigned before this issue even gets a hearing.
Weiss appointment order is here
https://www.justice.gov/d9/2023-08/order.appointment_of_david_c._weiss_as_special_counsel.pdf
The authority Garland invokes is 28 USC ss 509, 510, 515,
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/28/part-II/chapter-31
And s 533 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/28/533#:~:text=to%20conduct%20such%20other%20investigations,directed%20by%20the%20Attorney%20General.
510, 533 are AG powers to delegate and appoint
28 U.S. Code § 515 – Authority for legal proceedings; commission, oath, and salary for special attorneys
By invoking the delegation powers, which authorises payment the AG avoids both the appointments clause issue and 28 CFR s 600.3, neither of which apply whereas the AG has chosen to apply ss 600.4 et seq.
The appointment orders of
Hur https://www.justice.gov/d9/2023-01/Order.Appointment%20of%20Robert%20Hur.11223%20%28002%29.pdf
Durham https://www.justice.gov/file/1370931/download
Jack Smith https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23314155-special-counsel-appointment
Mueller https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/press-release/file/967231/dl#:~:text=(a)%20Robert%20S.,United%20States%20Department%20of%20Justice.&text=(ii)%20any%20matters%20that%20arose,%C2%A7%20600.4(a).
were in similar terms though s533 is invoked in some but not all of those cases
The SCO motion based on 28 CFR 600.3 is contrary to a lot of recent DOJ practice so IMHO is worth a try, but unlikely to be persuasive
Ed Meese runs the appointment clause argument again in the Supreme Court as amicus to derail Jack Smith https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/23/23A745/300972/20240220173530766_Trump%20v%20US%20Stay%20Amicus%20Final.pdf
§ 600.7 is the one Weiss needs to worry about if Marcy’s analysis is germane — although that would require an AG with balls.
As to § 600.3 not having been invoked despite the use of Department personnel as SCs over the last several years: just because no other SC-opposing defense atty has made an issue of it to date doesn’t bode well for the govt, really; the language isn’t ambiguous, as Lowell points out several times.
IOW, “We’ve been fucking this up fairly regularly of late” isn’t a great defense against this motion for dismissal, imo.
As to applicability to Smith: He was definitely outside of govt when he was hired so the above doesn’t apply, and Lowell does some fancy footwork around the small i/capital I distinction with “I/independent” designations, which is, as I understand it, how he parses the apportionment issue. Since Weiss was neither an Independent (which no longer exists) nor an independent (because he never left the bowels of the DOJ) Counsel, the legislature-backed blank check that Smith is getting does not apply for him (as it might not have for Durham if anyone’s lawyer involved in that fiasco had decided to read that subsection of the US Code and do something about it).
[*** BRUCE ***: Please use the same username AND EMAIL ADDRESS each time you comment so that community members get to know you. You have made the same typo twice today in your email address; I fixed the last one and didn’t tell you but this time you need to flush your browser cache and check your autofill because it’s the same error inserting an extra L in your address. PLEASE FIX THIS because another error like this one and I won’t clear it for publication. /~Rayne]
Sorry Rayne. Fixed it.
Now, on to my next mistake~!
See also 28 CFR 600.10
And https://www.gao.gov/products/b-302582
GOA Special Counsel and Permanent Indefinite Appropriation
B-302582
Sep 30, 2004
Permanent indefinite appropriation established to “pay all necessary expenses of investigations and prosecutions by independent counsels appointed pursuant to the provisions of 28 U.S.C. 591 et seq. or other law” is available to fund the expense of a United States Attorney appointed Special Counsel who possesses all the authority of the Attorney General to investigate alleged unauthorized disclosure of CIA employee’s identity since the appropriation does not require the appointment of person from outside the government to serve as independent counsel. Further, regulation stating that special counsel shall be selected from outside the government does not have the force and effect of law and serve as a substantive limitation of the Attorney General’s (or Acting Attorney General’s) authority and may be waived.
Ted Stevens, trail blazer! His imprimatur is like that of Cicero, or Pope Benedict at the very least!~
§600.10 does of course cover that, and again, the language is clear and simple. Stevens arrogated that “right” to dismiss a portion of recently enacted US Code ‘unto himself,’ to cop an old-school formulation. And he did it under the watchful eye of Bill Frist! How was that even possible???~
Thanks for all the great cites!
…and Stevens did that by calling a section of the US Code a “regulation” and declaring that it doesn’t have the force of “law.”
Should we be surprised that the current crop of GOP “lawmakers” are as abject as they are, given that kind of pedigree? Maybe the adjudication of this motion will highlight Stevens’ duplicity in this portion of it.
Fortunately for Smith’s relationship to that appropriations enactment, the flawed language is actually presented as an addendum to the money-spigot portion, so bringing into conformity with the Code doesn’t have to affect his budget.
“ and Stevens did that by calling a section of the US Code a “regulation” and declaring that it doesn’t have the force of “law.”.”
Does he?
The closest he seems to get to something like that is the inelegantly phrased
“ Acting Attorney General Comey appointed Special Counsel Fitzgerald under 28 U.S.C. 509, 510 and 515. [16] The Department has relied upon such authority in the past to appoint regulatory independent counsel from outside the government”
But it is clear from the rest of the opinion that he recognises 28 USC 509 etc as statutory authority to appoint, and regulatory independent means not subject to some or all of 28 CFR 600 et seq
Unless of course I have missed your point – in which case apologies for being dim.
I am the dim one. I read 660.10 completely wrong, thinking it was meant as a constraint on Starr-like overreach, given that that the 600 section was promulgated by Reno just after the failed Clinton impeachment fiasco. If I’d read it even remotely carefully I would have figured out that it is basically a “pirate code” statement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl0hMfqNQ-g
My mistake was assuming that Lowell wasn’t tossing shit against the wall (wrt this SCO section) and I was apparently wrong.
And I also note that it looks like Reno put this meaningless sop to “special prosecutorial independence” in it’s own category, unmoored from the Rest of Title 28,
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/28
Is there another self-nullified section in the Code that I’m not aware of? (sure, 18 USC § 953 is nullified, but only by general consent, it seems).
Captain Barbossa would be proud. Sorry I made any comment at all about this. Am I wrong now to assume this portion of this dismissal pleading will get laughed out of Scarsi’s court?
Maybe someone has explained this in a previous post or comments, but why did Weiss drop the Smirnov indictment at this point in time? When he knew it could only help Hunter Biden in his motion to dismiss.
[Thanks for updating your username to meet the 8 letter minimum. Please be sure to use the same username and email address on all future comments. /~Rayne]
The capsule description for this previous Emptywheel post puts it succinctly: “By indicting Alexander Smirnov before Judge Mark Scarsi reviews discovery requests of Hunter Biden, David Weiss has closed off discovery that would implication him personally, as well as Scott Brady, Bill Barr, and Rudy Giuliani.”
https://www.emptywheel.net/2024/02/15/the-gaps-in-leo-wises-belated-indictment-of-alexander-smirnov/
My guess is bc he’s going to have to give this in discovery. So he needed to indict.
That doesn’t totally rule out ineptness. From what I gather, the FBI asked him to look into bringing charges on Smirnov, after he gave conflicting information later because congress critters asked for the file that was apparently deemed to be irrelevant at the time. Why it took so long to find all this out is beyond me. But then again we have saw dust, so anything is possible.
It is actually a bit worse than that.
See para 40 of indictment: The investigation re the claims re the Biden’s was considered for closure by August 2020 and formally closed on 12 August 2020
But para 5 of the indictment outlines Smirnov was authorised to engage in criminal activity, subject to a strict proviso he was required to sign. The last date of signing acknowledging the limit of such authorisation was 8/7/2020
And para 4 of the indictment states that he was advised numerous occasions throughout his career as a CHS of the requirement to be truthful and the last 4 occasions of this were 2/19/21 10/28/21 10/17/22 9/29/23
Which suggests he was reauthorised to participate in crime for investigative purposes and seemingly debriefed on at least 3 occasions before being taxed further with the contradictions in his accounts re Bidens in September 2023
Just starting to read through the documents and I am horrified by what our Government has done to Hunter Biden. The IRS agents being allowed to release all the confidential tax information with no repercussions save an email reminding them they are not allowed to disclose confidential tax information to unauthorized people is terrifying. As Trump is fond of saying, if they can do this to Hunter Biden, they can do it to anyone, however in this case most of us have legally filed tax returns that should be kept confidential by the IRS and not so many who are fraudulent business operators.
The Las Vegas, Nevada Judge who granted bail yesterday to Smirov is naive. Although the Judge confiscated Smirnov’s Israel and US Passports, and told Smirnov he could not apply for a new Israel Passport, Putin and Roman Abramovich, Putin’s Netanyahu/Israel and Trump, Jared Kushner/US handler, will take measures to ensure Smirnov never goes to trial.
As for Hunter Biden’s case, it is Judge Noreika’s time once again.
Weiss would probably not be too sad to see Smirnov disappear. No odds posted in Vegas yet.
Well there’s no Atlantic City casino executives to put in a helicopter and have it crash this time around!
The waste of time and energy and money on Hunter Biden is just ridiculous. Addiction is a disease and it is usually kept private unless it impacts your job. given Hunter Biden was not on the government/White House pay roll, its not any one’s business.
Last time I checked the U.S.A. still had one of the highest baby mortality rates in the developed world. You’d think all those Republican anti abortionists might want to fix that problem instead of fixating on Hunter Biden.