ATF Misclassifies Desk Jockeys as Cops, RCI
Pakistan Fertile Ground for Dubious Aid, RCI
Helping Make Social Security Insecure, RCI
NY's Failed $1B Tesla Solar-Panel Plant, RCI 
Record Billions for NJ-NYC Tunnel, RCI

Biden, Trump and the Beltway 

Ex-Pal to Testify: Hunter Put Dad
on Phone With Deal Partners 
New York Post 

It’s been clear since at least 2020 – when Hunter Biden’s former business partner Tony Bobulinski identified Joe Biden as “the big guy” ‒ that the president has been lying about his claim that he never even discussed his son Hunter’s business dealings. This week’s revelations – that another former business partner of Hunter, Devon Archer, will testify next week to dozens of business calls involving Joe, Hunter and foreign clients – is so explosive that the White House is now trying to finesse the issue. It now says Joe was never in business with his son, as opposed to never even discussed it with him. Miranda Devine reports:

Hunter Biden would dial in his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, on speakerphone into meetings with his overseas business partners, according to testimony expected before Congress this week from Devon Archer, the first son’s former best friend. … One such meeting was in Dubai late in the evening of Friday, Dec. 4, 2015, after a board meeting of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, which was paying Hunter $83,000 a month as a director. … While they were sitting outside at the bar, Vadym Pozharskyi, a senior Burisma executive, phoned to ask where they were because Burisma’s owner, Mykola Zlochevsky, needed to speak to Hunter urgently. Soon afterward, the two Ukrainians joined Hunter and Archer at the Four Seasons bar and Pozharskyi asked Hunter: “Can you ring your dad?” At the time it was early afternoon Friday in Washington, DC. Hunter then called his father, put him on speaker, placed the phone on the table, and introduced the Ukrainians to Joe Biden by name as “Nikolai and Vadym.” He also said words to the effect that the Burisma bigwigs “need our support.”  

Joe Biden later demanded the firing of the Ukrainian prosecutor investigating Burisma.  

In a separate article, the Daily Mail reports that artwork by Hunter has generated $1.379 million in sales. One of those buyers has been identified as Los Angeles-based real estate investor and Democratic donor Elizabeth Hirsch Naftali. It's also not clear how much Naftali spent on Hunter's art. One single purchaser spent $875,000 on 11 of Hunter's paintings ‒ though the identity of that person is unclear. Eight months after Hunter's exhibition opened in New York City, Joe Biden appointed Naftali to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad. 

Other Biden, Trump and the Beltway 

Other Noteworthy Articles and Series 

The VA’s New Medical Records System
Has Gone Haywire 
Politico 

The Veterans Affairs Department’s fumbling effort to replace its decades-old electronic health records system ‒ billions over budget, tied to at least four veterans’ deaths ‒ has led to a spate of bills in Congress, some aiming to shut the project down, others to boost oversight and accountability. In April, this article reports, the VA put the system on pause indefinitely after the agency acknowledged that the system had contributed to the deaths and “catastrophic harm” to others:

An assessment commissioned by the VA from the Institute for Defense Analyses last year found that the initial cost projection from 2018, $10 billion over 10 years, had grown to $50.8 billion over 28 years. … “It’s a government thing,” said [House Veterans’ Affairs Chair Mike] Bost. “Good idea, bad rollout. The company can’t get it figured out. We as Congress have got to take control.”  

About a decade ago, this article reports, Tesla rigged the dashboard readouts in its electric cars to provide “rosy” projections of how far owners can drive before needing to recharge, a source told Reuters. The automaker last year became so inundated with driving-range complaints that it created a special team to cancel owners’ service appointments. 

Last summer, the company quietly created a “Diversion Team” in Las Vegas to cancel as many range-related [service] appointments as possible. The Austin, Texas-based electric carmaker deployed the team because its service centers were inundated with appointments from owners who had expected better performance based on the company’s advertised estimates and the projections displayed by the in-dash range meters of the cars themselves, according to several people familiar with the matter. … Managers told the employees that they were saving Tesla about $1,000 for every canceled appointment, the people said. … In most cases, the complaining customers’ cars likely did not need repair, according to the people familiar with the matter. Rather, Tesla created the groundswell of complaints another way – by hyping the range of its futuristic electric vehicles, or EVs, raising consumer expectations beyond what the cars can deliver. 

Hundreds of Women Charged
With Endangering Fetuses 
Marshall Project 

Law enforcement and prosecutors in four states ‒ Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma and South Carolina ‒ have expanded their use of child abuse and neglect laws in recent years to police the conduct of pregnant women under the concept of “fetal personhood.” These laws have been used to prosecute women who use drugs while pregnant – both those whose babies die before birth and those who deliver healthy babies who show evidence of maternal drug use:

This tactic represents a significant shift toward criminalizing mothers: In most states, if a pregnant woman is suspected of using drugs, the case could be referred to a child welfare agency, but not police or prosecutors. Medical privacy laws have offered little protection. In many cases, health care providers granted law enforcement access to patients’ information, sometimes without a warrant. … Most women charged plead guilty and are separated from their children for months, years – or forever. The evidence and procedures are rarely challenged in court. 

This article also reports that prosecutors who pursue these criminal cases say they’re protecting babies from potential harm and trying to get the mothers help in some cases. But some medical experts warn that prosecuting pregnant women who seek health care could cause them to avoid going to a doctor or hospital altogether, which is dangerous for the mother and the developing fetus. Proper prenatal care and drug treatment should be the goal, they argue – not punishment. 

Ultra-Rich Skip Taxes
Via Gifts With Little Public Benefit 
ProPublica 

When billionaire Charles Johnson sought a tax break in 2013 for donating his mansion to his private foundation, the organization assured the Internal Revenue Service and state officials that the public would be welcome to visit. While Johnson got $38 million in savings, this article reports that he has not honored his pledge to open his California mansion Carolands to the public – providing just one two-hour tour per week. Johnson is not alone:

For the ultrawealthy, donating valuables like artwork, real estate and stocks to their own charitable foundation is an alluring way to cut their tax bills. In exchange for generous tax breaks, they are supposed to use the assets to serve the public: Art might be put on display where people can see it, or stock sold to fund programs to fight child poverty. Across the U.S., such foundations hold over $1 trillion in assets. But a ProPublica investigation reveals that some foundation donors have obtained millions of dollars in tax deductions without holding up their end of the bargain, and sometimes they personally benefit from donations that are supposed to be a boon to the public. A tech billionaire used his charitable foundation to buy his girlfriend’s house, then stayed there with her while he was going through a divorce. A real estate mogul keeps his nonprofit art museum in his guesthouse and told ProPublica that he hadn’t shown it to a member of the public since before the pandemic. And a venture capitalist couple’s foundation bought the multimillion-dollar house next to their own without ever opening the property to the public. 

China Secretly Sends Russia
Enough Gear to Equip an Army 
Politico 

Although China is officially neutral regarding the war in Ukraine, it is exporting hundreds of millions of dollars-worth of “dual use equipment” that can have both civilian and military uses to Russia, which may violate EU sanctions. This article reports:

Russia has imported more than $100 million-worth of drones from China so far this year ‒ 30 times more than Ukraine. And Chinese exports of ceramics, a component used in body armor, increased by 69 percent to Russia to more than $225 million, while dropping by 61 percent to Ukraine to a mere $5 million, Chinese and Ukrainian customs data show.  

One company headquartered in the remote Eastern Siberian region of Russia has sold 100,000 bulletproof vests and 100,000 helmets to Russia that were, in fact, manufactured in China. The company, Silva, “reported zero revenues for 2022."A Google Street View search of its address ... takes visitors to a dilapidated apartment block. Politico tried to contact Silva but the phone number given on its filings rang off the hook and a message sent to its email address bounced."