Securing an ambassadorial post under Biden carries a price tag

A significant number of Joe Biden's ambassadors were not appointed on the basis of their qualifications or expertise, but rather as a reward depending on how much money they had contributed to the Democratic Party over the past decade. As revealed, many did not possess the qualifications required by US law to hold the post. Instead, the ambassadors bought their way into the positions. This is an issue that will certainly not help in halting Mr Biden's plummeting approval ratings. Zoltan Lomnici, a constitutional lawyer and legal expert at Szazadveg Foundation, and Rezso Krisztian Erdelyi, an analyst at the Nezopont Institute explained what is currently happening in the US political arena one year before the presidential election, and how the string of scandals Mr Biden is entangled in could affect its outcome.

China, Ukraine and Romania

One investigation focuses on the Chinese connection, namely the business interests of the relatives and associates of the Biden family in the CEFC oil company. The firm was founded in 2002 by Chinese businessman Ye Jianming and ranked China's seventh largest private company in 2014. It was declared bankrupt by a Shanghai court in 2020, and practically ceased to exist. As is known, in 2018, founder Ye Jianming was charged with economic crimes and bribery. An important detail is that in 2017, the US Federal Justice Department also accused the company of bribery, claiming that through its representatives Patrick Ho and Cheikh Gadio, CEFC had offered bribes to Chad’s president and Uganda’s foreign ministry in exchange for oil extraction rights

And this is where Hunter Biden comes into the picture, who received more than 1.5 million US dollars from the company and gifts of great value, including a three-carat diamond, apparently in exchange for providing no legal services.

According to information obtained by The Washington Post, it was Patrick Ho, accused of bribery, who paid Hunter Biden a million dollars in legal fees for "legal representation" by the son of the current US president.

Hunter Biden received the gem in 2017 from the company’s now convicted founder, Ye Jianming, for offering him his connections during a meeting in order to lay the groundwork for investment opportunities for CEFC China Energy through his father's position in the government. It also came to light that CEFC China Energy had paid a total of 4.8 million dollars to legal entities with links to Hunter Biden and his associates over a 14-month period.

From a geopolitical aspect, it is perhaps even more intriguing - especially in today’s Europe - how Hunter Biden’s 2014 appointment (without any executive experience) to the board of directors of Ukraine’s energy company Burisma for a lavish 50 thousand dollars a month, and the expansion of the unbroken influence of US politics and economy in Ukraine appeared to progress in tandem. “If the prosecutor is not fired, you're not getting the money," then Vice-President Joe Biden allegedly told Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, urging the removal of Viktor Sokin. At the time, Sokin was investigating Burisma and the Ukrainian businessman Mikola Zlochevsky, who had hired Hunter and paid him the huge sum. Later, it was revealed that Biden’s younger son was involved in the Ukrainian grain export.

The investigations are also tracing a Romanian thread. A detailed examination of Hunter Biden's business dealings in the European country revealed that barely five weeks after then Vice-President Joe Biden and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis had met in 2015 in Washington, a Cyprus-based company owned by convicted businessman Gabriel Popoviciu allegedly began to transfer significant amounts to the account of Rob Walker, Hunter Biden’s business associate. Popoviciu hired Hunter Biden in 2016 to serves as his legal advisor, after serious corruption charges were brough against the Romanian businessman. Mr Walker' has transferred approximately $1.038 million dollars to several bank accounts belinging to the Biden family.

The Republicans are still investigating these transactions, as they suspect that the Bidens used Walker’s company to hide the actual source of the money.

Joe Biden had to keep together a broad coalition of voters to move into the White House after the 2020 elections. Alongside the inertia of the Democratic Party and the hatred towards Donald Trump, this coalition had one important cohesive force: the voters’ belief that Joe Biden was one of them and that he would be able to reclaim the prestige of the country that the Left believed had been lost under Mr Trump. But this belief is being fundamentally called into question by the scandals that keep coming to light about the president and his family. It is worth clarifying this, because it's a very fragile electorate, and many can easily become apolitical or even defect to the Republican Party in the run-up to the 2024 elections as a result of the issues surrounding the president.

– said Rezso Krisztian Erdelyi, an analyst at the Nezopont Institute, responding to a question by the daily Magyar Nemzet. He added that it may be a central topic in a well-constructed presidential election campaign, as it is both a question of national security and sovereignty. “If the suspicion is proven that Biden accepted money in exchange for certain decisions while he was still vice president, it will naturally affect the next presidential campaign, and it could also tarnish the image of the Biden family in the long run." 

Joe Biden may have been involved in lobbying 

An informant’s account - claiminmg that Joe Biden may have been involved in a bribery case in a foreign country during his time as vice-president - has recently gone viral on the internet. According to the suspicion, Joe Biden made political decisions in return for money, and the FBI has evidence of this, at least this is what the Republican members of the committee investigating the scandals around the president’s assert. Zoltan Lomnici Jr. explained to our paper why this case appears to raise some serious questions.

According to the Republicans in the committee, the evidence shows a possible violation of the Emoluments Clause of the US Constitution. The Foreign Emoluments Clause (art. I, § 9, cl. 8) sets out the following: “[N]o Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under [the United States], shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.” Despite a legally binding subpoena from the chairman of the Oversight Committee, the FBI refuses to release the file of the informant containing that Biden used five million dollars in bribes

– the constitutional lawyer explained to our paper.

Democrats are taking a very serious risk

According to an poll conducted in the United States in April, only 39 percent of decided voters were in favor of Joe Biden's re-election in the upcoming presidential race. In contrast, almost half (48 percent) of voters thought that the incumbent president should not re-run for office. May's figures are even worse, Zoltan Lomnici Jr. points out. The legal expert of the Szazadveg Foundation says that the approval rating of Joe Biden's presidency stands at 36 percent among Americans, according to a joint survey by ABC News and The Washington Post. “In addition, Republicans are benefitting from the fact that voters in battleground states are dissatisfied with Biden, and his image is unappealing to the majority of voters," says the constitutional lawyer, referring to a joint survey by Szazadveg and the pollster McLaughlin & Associates.

Regarding battleground states, Krisztian Rezso Erdelyi told our paper that

there are several key states, such as Georgia, Arizona or Wisconsin, where the Democratic Party won by less than half a percent. In other words, the president could hardly afford to lose voters because of scandals involving his family. In addition, he is losing potential voters for other reasons, such as the disastrous situation at the southern border, the oil drilling in Alaska and the failure of electoral reforms. As he is losing his image of transparency and expertise, swing voters will turn away from the president in the so-called Rust Belt, or in social groups that influence entire states, such as suburban white women.

The Republicans will build their campaign around several themes, one of which will most likely be related to the Biden family's affairs, according to Nezopont’s analyst. For the Democratic Party, however, the strategy is clear: complete support to Joe Biden, which also means that the dealings of the Biden family are off limits. Of course, this is partly a necessity, but there is no doubt that any new information that comes to light will be ignored by the Democrats," Mr Erdelyi added.

Cover photo: US President Joe Biden (Photo: AFP/Brendan Smialowski)