COMMENT: Mr. Armstrong thank you for your work and opinion.
RE: The Impeachment of Trump – Here We Go Again
Certainly the two Bidens deserve to be investigated by the countries where the sweet heart deals were made. This situation surfaced many months ago and there were no investigations by any country including the United States.

It can be said President Trump is merely pointing out the obvious that something corrupt was in play with the seat heart deals.

He’s in trouble in the eye’s of his political adversaries because he’s calling on the countries of (sweat heart deal) origins to look into these deals because Joe Biden is CURRENTLY running for the nomination of his part for President. I haven’t heard anybody address the idea of how would the situation change if Joe Biden WASN’T running for the Democratic nomination, or fails to win it.

Maybe Joe Biden is running for President to evade being investigated, but what I do know is his son isn’t running for any elected office. Maybe he should because you can’t be investigated by a foreign government if you are.

What a joke.

REPLY: This is a clear violation of the FCPA which states offering: “… payment, promise to pay, or authorization of the payment of any money, or offer, gift, promise to give, or authorization of the giving of anything of value to—…” The penalty in the private sector is 5 years in prison. They define it as:

“Any natural person that is an officer, director, employee, or agent of a domestic concern, or stockholder acting on behalf of such domestic concern, who willfully violates subsection (a) or (i) of this section shall be fined not more than $100,000 or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.”

I am sure Biden will claim he made no such offer, but his son was hired knowing it would benefit with access to his father. If his son made such a suggestion, and his father was a director of a corporation, Biden would be in prison. It’s no different than the Clinton Foundation. Saudia Arabia even donated until she lost the election and then the donations stopped. They were clearly to “buy” influence. Biden’s son was hired for the same reason. The Statue reads:

A person’s state of mind is “knowing” with respect to conduct, a circumstance, or a result if—

(i)such person is aware that such person is engaging in such conduct, that such circumstance exists, or that such result is substantially certain to occur; or
(ii)such person has a firm belief that such circumstance exists or that such result is substantially certain to occur.

In the private sector, claiming your son made the offer not you would not cut it. They would call it still a conspiracy. The jury would find you guilty and off you go. But for politicians, playing word-smith with statutes works.

QUESTION: Hi Martin,
In your “Nepotism & Politics = Corruption” post you focus on the Dems. What’s your take on the Ivanka, Jared, Don Jr. nepotism seen in the current admin?
Best,
James
ANSWER: That is not Nepotism whereby they are working directly to advise a family member. Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner are unpaid presidential advisers. The amount of money they could be paid is minimal in comparison to what they have. The corruption comes into play when a politician uses their power to get a family member a job which is paid. Make no mistake about it, the Republicans have done the same over the years. It is just that Hillary and Biden were very upfront and it involved foreign governments that violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Doing that domestically would NOT be a violation of that law, but would violate domestic laws covering nepotism.

It was John F. Kennedy during his time in office that inspired the “Bobby Kennedy Law” or its formal name The Postal Revenue and Federal Salary Act of 1967. Congress prohibited ONLY hiring a family member who would work in the same agency to paid government positions (see: 5 U.S. Code § 3110. Employment of relatives; restrictions). A violation is of course not criminal. They merely have to return their salary.

There is also a loophole. “This section shall not be construed to prohibit the appointment of an individual who is a preference eligible …” Therefore, if the family member can be shown to be qualified more so than someone else, then they can be given the job.

In the case of Biden and Hillary, the jobs they secured for family members were outside the USA. If they did the same thing in the United States, they would violate the law.

Other presidents such as Woodrow Wilson, John Adams, and Ulysses S. Grant also gave family special jobs during their respective terms. A president who provides family members with government positions may raise many questions related to ethics, objectivity, and integrity. The question often turns on the qualifications.

The Treasury Secretary under Woodrow Wilson was William Gibbs McAdoo. While McAdoo was not a blood-family member, he ended up marrying Woodrow Wilson’s daughter in 1914.

Ulysses S. Grant was the worst of the lot. Three of Grant’s brothers-in-law held positions in the federal government as well as Grant’s cousin, Silas A. Houston, who served as the Ambassador to Guatemala. Grant also hired personal friends and associates for important government positions who were not particularly qualified.

John Quincy Adams

If you go back to one of the founding fathers, John Adams, you will see that he hired his son as secretary for his father during the negotiations of the Treaty of Paris concluded back in 1783. Later, he appointed his son to the position of minister to Prussia in 1797. This set the stage for John Quincy Adams becoming president from 1825 to 1829.

QUESTION: Didn’t Hillary get her brother a mining contract after giving relief to Haiti?

FG

ANSWER: Yes. This is what I mean. In the real world we live in, you go to prison for a long time if you do a deal in the private sector where a family member receives some benefit. Hillary’s brother, Tony Rodham, had absolutely no experience in the mining industry whatsoever. He was notorious for nepotism and used his Clinton connections in questionable business ventures ranging from mining to electric cars to importing hazelnuts. If I agreed to manage the money for Haiti, but told the other party they had to give a mining contract to a family member, I would go to prison for a long time.

This is a standard operational procedure. Biden’s son getting a job to run a Ukrainian energy company was the typical quid-pro-quo. The practice of getting their family lucrative jobs and deals is rampant in American politics. This is part of the corruption to the core as anyone else would go to prison.

There have been studies on nepotism and the hiring decisions of Italian firms. This is a worldwide problem. Even the Bangkok Press wrote about the same problems in Thailand.

I find this latest attempt to flip this into an impeachment action against Trump without addressing HOW Biden’s son got such a job when his father was VP is the ultimate corruption.