House Approves Biden Impeachment Inquiry as G.O.P. Hunts for an Offense

[Dill]

(12-15-2023, 01:50 PM)Nately120 Wrote:
The argument isn't about whether Trump did stuff or not, it's whether people care that he did stuff.  I recall people admitting Bill Clinton was guilty BUT the economy is good and blah blah blah....so why not just do that with Trump?

If you can honestly tell me that Trump's guilt or innocence plays a role in whether you'd vote for him or Biden in 2024, then we can talk details.  Otherwise, what's the point?  A lot of people will admit that Trump can be 100% guilty of all this stuff and still be their choice for president over Biden.  Just like all the investigations about Biden can be true but people who fear Trump being a dictator will still vote for Biden to prevent that.

In politics or your personal life or in business, that's the value of convincing people that the alternatives are poison...you and/or what you are selling suddenly becomes far less open to scrutiny.

The bolded pretty much nails it. 

And in this case, "stuff" includes attempting to overturn a legitimate election, rape, and un-securing reams of top secret documents on purpose.

Hence the desperate need for a "Biden crime family" to almost balance the scales a little bit for the upcoming election.

They're both old and BOTH criminals. Maybe soon BOTH will have been impeached. 

So see? Both sides. You just gotta go with your gut.  

[*Nately120*]

(12-17-2023, 02:25 PM)Dill Wrote: The bolded pretty much nails it. 

And in this case, "stuff" includes attempting to overturn a legitimate election, rape, and un-securing reams of top secret documents on purpose.

Hence the desperate need for a "Biden crime family" to almost balance the scales a little bit for the upcoming election.

They're both old and BOTH criminals. Maybe soon BOTH will have been impeached. 

So see? Both sides. You just gotta go with your gut.  

That's why I've said the bottom line argument if we are going to accept that both are corrupt crime family bosses...go with the corrupt crime family boss that is more likely to leave office when his term is up.

[hollodero]

(12-15-2023, 11:03 AM)Luvnit2 Wrote: You have a lot of facts listed about the Trump family, but provide no links for us to see the evidence the Trump business was done in the shadows or illegal.

If I have name called and personally attacked someone's intellect, I apologize and will work on not doing it in the future. 

If you read my comments, I said it in caps, ANYONE WHO SAYS NO EVIDENCE AGAINST JOE BIDEN, KEY WORD NO. There is evidence Joe was involved in Hunter's business, please read the whistle blower's testimony. Also, one in an interview this week, there is ample evidence Joe Biden was involved in Hunter's business. He also testified under oath the DOJ shut down IRS investigators gathering evidence on Joe Biden.

Comer, Jordan and Smith are doing all of the lifting proving the DOJ is corrupt. Why is DOJ protecting the Biden family? Why did the DOJ turn over every rock the day Trump won. They persecuted Trump and family, but Biden and his family are getting a free pass including letting the statutes of limitations run out on tax crimes Hunter Biden committed in 2014 and 2015. Why?

https://www.foxnews.com/media/dojs-handling-hunter-biden-case-inexplicable-turley-ex-prosecutor-faces-questioning

DOJ's handling of Hunter Biden case is 'inexplicable,' says Turley, as ex-prosecutor faces questioning
'I can't think of one' reason to allow the statute of limitations on unpaid taxes to expire, Turley noted


FOX News contributor Jonathan Turley told "America’s Newsroom" on Thursday that the "glaring issue" in the Hunter Biden case is how the Department of Justice allowed early potential tax felonies against the first son to expire. The George Washington University law professor questioned why Special Counsel David Weiss, who is investigating Hunter Biden’s possible misconduct, would allow the statute of limitations to run out during an investigation. 

So, since you said you're off on your holidays I delayed a response, but I want to give you one in time. First off, I think I am quite willing to call things suspicious or weird when they are, no matter which party brings up this stuff against whom. With Hunter, there is weird stuff going on, like Mr. Weiss initially going for a plea deal for offenses that now seem to warrant extended jail time, and then some. As for the bolded, I am not in a position to dispute any of that either.

But in general, Mr. Comer and others run into the problem of repeatedly announcing the bombshells of the week that always turn out to be duds. If you cite informants that turn out to be a shady Ukrainian businessman reciting debunked accusations, or try scandalizing a payment that turns out to be a loan for a car, and apparently that's the best shots you have as of now, then lots of credibility is lost. That is pretty much where all accusations against Joe Biden himself have ended up on, duds or unsubstantiated claims. Every issue I mentioned about Trump and his family is backed up by more evidence than anything you or Comer ever brought up against Joe Biden. Some of those Trump issues were litigated in court, like all the fraudulent charity issues, of which there are plenty. The fraud university case was settled, Trump paid 25 millions, which of course he would not have done were there not plenty of evidence making a conviction likely. What Kushner's admin did in regards to Qatar and his scyscraper was plainly to see. As for diplomats booking int Trump's hotels, there's one link to one instance, here's another example, but quick searches make clear that's far from all. The Ukraine plot I mentioned was not only already heavily implied by Trump himself on the phone call with Selensky he published, but was also confirmed in sworn statements by ambassadors Taylor and sSndland and Mr. Holmes, that is public information really. All that of course is just the tip of the iceberg, eg. there's also Trump on tape pressuring a state secretary into finding him votes and whatnot. You want people to be at least curious about Biden, then the first thing you need to do is to be a bit curious about your own guy and lead by example instead of declaring him squeaky clean and every credible accusation a political hit piece ot worth even looking at. You utterly refuse to follow through with your own demand and that makes your position appear partisan and dishonest.

[*pally*]

(12-24-2023, 03:48 AM)hollodero Wrote: So, since you said you're off on your holidays I delayed a response, but I want to give you one in time. First off, I think I am quite willing to call things suspicious or weird when they are, no matter which party brings up this stuff against whom. With Hunter, there is weird stuff going on, like Mr. Weiss initially going for a plea deal for offenses that now seem to warrant extended jail time, and then some. As for the bolded, I am not in a position to dispute any of that either.

But in general, Mr. Comer and others run into the problem of repeatedly announcing the bombshells of the week that always turn out to be duds. If you cite informants that turn out to be a shady Ukrainian businessman reciting debunked accusations, or try scandalizing a payment that turns out to be a loan for a car, and apparently that's the best shots you have as of now, then lots of credibility is lost. That is pretty much where all accusations against Joe Biden himself have ended up on, duds or unsubstantiated claims. Every issue I mentioned about Trump and his family is backed up by more evidence than anything you or Comer ever brought up against Joe Biden. Some of those Trump issues were litigated in court, like all the fraudulent charity issues, of which there are plenty. The fraud university case was settled, Trump paid 25 millions, which of course he would not have done were there not plenty of evidence making a conviction likely. What Kushner's admin did in regards to Qatar and his scyscraper was plainly to see. As for diplomats booking int Trump's hotels, there's one link to one instance, here's another example, but quick searches make clear that's far from all. The Ukraine plot I mentioned was not only already heavily implied by Trump himself on the phone call with Selensky he published, but was also confirmed in sworn statements by ambassadors Taylor and sSndland and Mr. Holmes, that is public information really. All that of course is just the tip of the iceberg, eg. there's also Trump on tape pressuring a state secretary into finding him votes and whatnot. You want people to be at least curious about Biden, then the first thing you need to do is to be a bit curious about your own guy and lead by example instead of declaring him squeaky clean and every credible accusation a political hit piece ot worth even looking at. You utterly refuse to follow through with your own demand and that makes your position appear partisan and dishonest.

They also have him on tape pressuring Wayne Couny (Detroit) election canvassers not to certify the election…going as far as promising, along with RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel, to get them lawyers. Why would they need lawyers if what Trump wanted them to do was legal?

[Forever Spinning Vinyl]

(12-17-2023, 01:58 PM)pally Wrote: Lindsey Graham sees no evidence of Biden's guilt

(12-17-2023, 02:09 PM)Nately120 Wrote: Well yeah, evidence of Biden's guilt is in the garage not the closet.

Well done, Sir.

A+ joke.

[Luvnit2]

(12-24-2023, 03:48 AM)hollodero Wrote: . You want people to be at least curious about Biden, then the first thing you need to do is to be a bit curious about your own guy and lead by example instead of declaring him squeaky clean and every credible accusation a political hit piece ot worth even looking at. You utterly refuse to follow through with your own demand and that makes your position appear partisan and dishonest.

You have missed my comments on Trump. I have far from said Trump is squeaky clean.I have also there is not one crook in public office for more than 8 years, they are all crooks.

So to make a comment as this,I suggest you do some research prior to calling me DISHONEST. I make a lot of post and directly answered Pally and a few others on my views on Trump.

In the end, I want the best POTUS and if you put the economy, inflation, interest rates, immigration and foreign policy decisions of Trump and Biden or Trump and most presidents, Trump wins over most and kills the Biden policies.

[Luvnit2]

(12-24-2023, 07:26 AM)pally Wrote: They also have him on tape pressuring Wayne Couny (Detroit) election canvassers not to certify the election…going as far as promising, along with RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel, to get them lawyers. Why would they need lawyers if what Trump wanted them to do was legal?

Did Gore hire lawyers to dispute Florida in 2020? Yes, because lawyers are required to get into the voting systems to see if the voting system itself is legal.

[*pally*]

(12-26-2023, 10:28 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: You have missed my comments on Trump. I have far from said Trump is squeaky clean.I have also there is not one crook in public office for more than 8 years, they are all crooks.

So to make a comment as this,I suggest you do some research prior to calling me DISHONEST. I make a lot of post and directly answered Pally and a few others on my views on Trump.

In the end, I want the best POTUS and if you put the economy, inflation, interest rates, immigration and foreign policy decisions of Trump and Biden or Trump and most presidents, Trump wins over most and kills the Biden policies.

what is Trump's plan to improve the economy or end inflation?  how about healthcare...he has promised a new and better program,...what is it?

He yells a lot and uses a lot of scary words but there doesn't seem to be much substance.  He is totally focused on 2020, not 2024 and beyond.   So tell us, since you seem to be in the know.  What are Trump's economic plans for 2025-2029?

[hollodero]

(12-26-2023, 10:28 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: You have missed my comments on Trump. I have far from said Trump is squeaky clean.I have also there is not one crook in public office for more than 8 years, they are all crooks.

So to make a comment as this,I suggest you do some research prior to calling me DISHONEST. I make a lot of post and directly answered Pally and a few others on my views on Trump.

In the end, I want the best POTUS and if you put the economy, inflation, interest rates, immigration and foreign policy decisions of Trump and Biden or Trump and most presidents, Trump wins over most and kills the Biden policies.

Well, the latter statement is rather subjective than the objective truth, but I certainly can understand the perspective and your motivations to prefer Trump over Biden. I see it quite differently (from a similarly subjective perspective), but that's not the issue.

As for me saying dishonest, it might appear like a distinction without a difference, but I did not call you dishonest, I called your position dishonest. I did not think you deliberately lie about things, I do think you often have a distorted perspective that is based on you preferring Trump over Biden in the first place. Eg when you call all the other media partisan and biased and at the same time sing the praises of FOX news, then I consider that a partisan position. I do not doubt that you really see it that way; but at the same time, with some merit, you'd call out anyone who turns that around and slams FOX while calling MSNBC fair and objective. Both are far from it and that to me is the most honest assessment. Similarly, I find it a dishonest perspective to go after the Biden family over its alleged - and comparatively unproven - crimes while implicitly or explicitly claiming that for this reason alone Trump is the logical, more ethical alternative. When actually Trump, as you now agree, comes with his own baggage. It was not meant to be a personal offense and I'm sorry it apparently came across that way.

That you called Trump far from squeaky clean before is news to me - but I certainly missed lots of posts. This was not your initial reaction to me though, you at first rather claimed I throw out unfounded accusations without links or proof. Which, again, seems a bit dishonest when in reality you actually know Trump is not squeaky clean and that most if not all things I said about him are actually demonstrably true.

[*pally*]

(12-26-2023, 10:31 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: Did Gore hire lawyers to dispute Florida in 2020? Yes, because lawyers are required to get into the voting systems to see if the voting system itself is legal.

Gore hired lawyers for HIS CAMPAIGN in the aftermath of an election being decided by less than 500 votes in one state not for election officials he is asking to do something illegal.

It is illegal to offer a government official "protection" ie legal help to persuade him to violate his oath of office

[Dill]

If I popped up in the smack forum to argue that all NFL teams were basically the same because all lose games during the season,
it would generate much curiosity and some derision, though most would probably not even deign to respond.

If Pally counter-argued that the Ravens were way better than the Panthers because they had won more games, gained more yards, had a better defense,
and I responded that she was just showing her Ravens bias and ignoring "the facts" that they have lost three games, then that discussion would be rather
like efforts in this forum to wring something meaningful from the premise that all "politicians lie!'  

Or that all news sources are "biased," the implication being they are equally so.

If people agreed that the job of the press is to keep politicians honest and to report the kind of information that enables the public to make informed decisions about politicians and their policies, those standards would give us a better sense of press "win/loss" records and yards gained, etc.

Not as easy as it looks, though, because people differ as to how and to what degree reported facts should be vetted. If your standards in this regard are high then your tv news programs, for example, won't offer platforms for people who think Italian satellites stole the election or that its ok to start an impeachment inquiry into a president with evidence. They'll be more focused on reporting facts and the context for understanding their significance.

I think the final standard for judging news organizations should be their primary audiences--do they have an accurate understanding of what's happening in the world?  "Yo Dill" you might say, "people are still going to claim Saddam had WMDs and that the election was rigged. They'll just say people who don't 'know' the election was rigged are the misinformed ones." Sure, I suppose, but they do eventually drift away from old disinformation and on to new ("Maybe it wasn't the Chinese or Venezuelans, but now we know it was HB's laptop!"). 

That will bring us back to the standards for vetting, or should. None of us disagrees that the GOP House is willing to proceed with an impeachment inquiry without evidence. None of us thinks Biden called secretaries of swing states to urge them to find votes for him. Our differences over the meaning of these "facts" is only to be explained by selective rigor in vetting. It would make sense to discuss why the difference in rigor.

[Arturo Bandini]

So Hunter Biden finally showed up at the capitol and they don't want to hear him ...

It didn't take long before it became a total shitshow, thanks for the composure of a congresswoman who suddenly changed into a banshee yelling, slurring and feeling like possessed.

This one day after the astounding mediocrity of the Trump defense team in court is completely appalling.

[*pally*]

(01-10-2024, 12:50 PM)Arturo Bandini Wrote: So Hunter Biden finally showed up at the capitol and they don't want to hear him ...

It didn't take long before it became a total shitshow, thanks for the composure of a congresswoman who suddenly changed into a banshee yelling, slurring and feeling like possessed.

This one day after the astounding mediocrity of the Trump defense team in court is completely appalling.

those Congressional Republicans sure are in a tizzy right now.  It is rather amusing to watch them all try to out-outrage each other

[GMDino]

Every accusation is a confession on the right.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/oversight-chairman-james-comers-legitimate-shell-company-was-shut-downtwice

Quote:Oversight Chairman James Comer’s ‘Legitimate’ Shell Company Was Shut Down—Twice

WORKING THE LAND
Oversight Chairman James Comer has attacked Hunter Biden’s business dealings for their opacity. But Comer’s own shell company is far from transparent.

[/url]Roger Sollenberger
Senior Political Reporter


Published Jan. 09, 2024 4:46AM EST 

[url=https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedailybeast.com%2Foversight-chairman-james-comers-legitimate-shell-company-was-shut-downtwice%3Fsource%3Dtwitter%26via%3Ddesktop&via=thedailybeast&text=Oversight%20Chairman%20James%20Comer%E2%80%99s%20%E2%80%98Legitimate%E2%80%99%20Shell%20Company%20Was%20Shut%20Down%E2%80%94Twice&counturl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedailybeast.com%2Foversight-chairman-james-comers-legitimate-shell-company-was-shut-downtwice]

[/url]

EXCLUSIVE
[img=1041x587]https://img.thedailybeast.com/image/upload/c_crop,d_placeholder_euli9k,h_675,w_1200,x_0,y_0/dpr_1.5/c_limit,w_1044/fl_lossy,q_auto/v1704773057/010324-jamescomer-hero_xuesdb[/img]

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty



As Rep. [url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/keyword/james-comer]James Comer (R-KY) plows ahead with his sensationalized impeachment inquiry premised on Hunter Biden’s business dealings, the Oversight Chairman has alleged that Biden’s opaque financial operations merit investigation, and that people who own corporations have a “responsibility” to maintain proper “books and records.”

But a review of dozens of tax, real estate, and business filings in Kentucky and Tennessee indicate that Comer’s own personal “books and records” are opaque at best—and improper at worst.

Those records include the dealings of Comer’s shell company, Farm Team Properties LLC, which the state of Kentucky has dissolved twice for failure to file annual reports—first in 2020, then again in 2022.

Kentucky law states that an administratively dissolved business “continues its existence but shall not carry on any business except that necessary to wind up and liquidate its business and affairs.” An official with the Kentucky Department of Revenue told The Daily Beast that a company in administrative dissolution may not legally conduct business in the state—such as executing deals and leases, securing loans, or collecting rent as an LLC.

But in response to questions about the shell company last month, Comer told Fox Business that Farm Team Properties not only holds properties, it also “manages” them, “leases hunting on my 1,600 acres of farmland,” and generates “lots of revenue, legitimate revenue.” (The previous month, he denied having an LLC during a committee hearing.)

While Comer and his wife rectified the first dissolution within a few weeks, they allowed the October 2022 dissolution to languish for more than a year, only reinstating the entity last month, after The Daily Beast first reported on the company and flagged the dissolution on social media. It’s not clear from Comer’s filings whether Farm Team Properties ceased business activity for those 14 months.

The “books and records” questions also run to Comer’s real estate holdings, which directly contradict his recent public statements about his LLC. For one, Comer reports rental income from all of his farmland holdings, but it’s not clear whether that income derives from Farm Team’s alleged hunting leases. If so, experts told The Daily Beast, his records should reflect that, and they do not.

The opacity of Comer’s disclosures—along with his contradictory defenses of the shell company—mean the public still doesn’t have a clear picture of his finances. And Comer’s broadsides targeting Hunter Biden’s cloudy corporate entities would seem to invite parallel scrutiny into the similar haze that has settled over his own business dealings.

A Comer spokesperson did not reply to The Daily Beast’s detailed comment request.

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY YOU DO HERE?
On personal financial disclosures starting from 2017—the year Comer’s wife created Farm Team Properties—and continuing through his most recent statement covering 2022, Comer has listed the income from the company as “none.” But after recent reports from The Daily Beast and the Associated Press raised questions about the shell company, Comer has called into question whether he’s really making no money from the entity.

House ethics rules state that members who “own an interest in a partnership or limited liability company established for the purpose of holding real estate,” must describe “each individual property held by the company.” Members also “must disclose each asset held by the company in which your interest (or that of your spouse or dependent child) had a period-end value of more than $1,000” or had recorded “more than $200 in income during the reporting period.”

House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) participates in a media availability following a successful vote to formalize an impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden.


Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters

Brendan Fischer, an ethics expert and deputy director of watchdog Documented, told The Daily Beast that it seems as if Comer should disclose more information.

“For a company created to hold investment properties—which sounds like Farm Team Properties, LLC—a Congressperson not only must disclose the company, they must also provide details about the properties it owns, and the amount of any income (such as rental income) from those properties,” Fischer said, noting that the rules apply “regardless of whether the entity is taxed as a partnership or corporation.”

Comer’s disclosures list his FTP ownership as a business interest, not as investment or real estate, despite the fact that it owns properties and is engaged in “real estate speculation.” This was true in 2017, when Farm Team Properties was created to hold property and obscure Comer’s co-ownership with a campaign donor, the Associated Press reported last month.

Additionally, the Comers describe the company as a “financial, insurance, or real estate” business in Kentucky filings, though the last time they did so was in 2019—those details were not included in their most recent annual report, in 2021.

TWO PLUS TWO EQUALS FIVE
Comer has also apparently publicly overstated how many properties the company holds.

“This LLC that I have has five different properties,” Comer told Fox Business last month. He then repeated that claim, adding, “This is a land speculation LLC and it has five different assets and lots of revenue, legitimate revenue.”

But Farm Team Properties is only listed as an owner on two properties in Monroe County records. The Daily Beast’s review of records in other jurisdictions where Comer owns land—Franklin County, Kentucky, and Macon and Clay counties in Tennessee—also did not turn up any Farm Team holdings.

Comer has never listed the company’s holdings or revenue on his disclosures, which ethics experts have said should be reported and poses a “real problem” for transparency.

House Oversight Chairman James Comer is seen in the Rayburn House office building on Capitol Hill.


Photo by Craig Hudson for The Washington Post via Getty Images

For instance, in February 2022—before the company dissolved—Farm Team Properties sold an acre of land that it co-owned with longtime Comer donor Darren Cleary, with the deed showing a price of $50,000. Comer’s disclosures don’t appear to have ever listed that property—which he acquired in 2017—and he did not report the income.

Since first running for Congress in 2016, Comer has reported earning a combined personal outside income of between $524,000 and $1.9 million, on top of his $174,000 official salary, while increasing the value of his personal assets by more than $2 million. His total assets as of his 2022 disclosure are worth between $4.9 million and $10.5 million.

But while Comer came into office boasting assets worth as much as $8 million, his two most valuable properties had been essentially gifted to him by his father in 2012—for $10 a pop through quitclaim deeds. Those parcels are now valued at a combined $1.5 million. He reports those assets as generating thousands of dollars in rental income.

Fischer said the comparatively small amount of rental income raises questions about the accuracy of Comer’s disclosures.

“He’s reporting between $5,000 and $15,000 in annual rental income for each of his sizable farm properties, which are worth as much as $1 million,” Fischer said. “He is supposed to be disclosing gross rental income, not net, and I’d be surprised if he were charging less than $15,000 per year in rent.”

Fischer also noted that if the rent income came from the shell company’s leasing activity, it should be attributed to the company.

THE MONROE DOCTRINE
After The Daily Beast first reported on the shell company in November, Comer attacked the reporting on the committee room floor as “bullshit” and the kind of thing that “only dumb, financially illiterate people pick up on.”

He has insisted that, despite expert claims to the contrary, Farm Team Properties is not a shell company, reasoning that the entity has a purpose—it holds property, “manages” it, and leases it. Any doubters, he said, can “come to Monroe County and look at all the land that is titled in that LLC.”

But you don’t have to travel to Monroe County to verify that claim. Tax and real estate records show that Farm Team Properties only appears to own two properties there. One is the commercial parcel the Associated Press investigated last month. The second is a home that The Daily Beast previously reported, which Comer and his brother inherited from their father in 2019. That July, Comer sold his half to his brother for $100,000, then bought back the full property for $218,000 in December that same year; Farm Team Properties LLC was a partner in the buyout. (Comer listed this home, held by his father, as his own address in 2015 in Kentucky candidate records.)

However, Farm Team Properties is also listed as a “borrower” on a $215,000 mortgage that Comer and his wife took out on a different Monroe County property the same month they bought back the house, according to county records. Comer and his wife, however, are the only guarantors and agents on the document.

That mortgage appears to have been taken out on the same property that Comer used to secure a separate $350,000 mortgage in September 2014, for a property acquired from his brother in 1998. The Comers extended that 2014 mortgage twice before satisfying it in 2019, county records show, before taking out the separate, new mortgage in December. Comer’s disclosures do not appear to reflect these mortgages, though he did report taking out a $750,000 line of credit on this same property in June 2022, extending it last year.

But unlike FTP, Comer and his wife are personally listed on numerous other real estate documents in Monroe County.

That includes an oil and gas lease from 2015, in which Comer leased drilling rights on 300 acres of farmland to an entity called Bertram XP, for the term of two years. Bertram XP is owned by John Bertram, who—according to Kentucky campaign finance records—donated to Comer’s state campaign the year before the $1 lease was signed. The deal, for $1, gave Comer 15 percent royalties from the drilling over the course of the two-year deal, according to the lease.

Comer never itemized any royalty income from that deal on his 2016 or 2017 disclosures, and it’s unclear whether Bertram ever drilled there.

The Comers also took out a new commercial real estate mortgage for a $750,000 promissory note, on March 12, 2021, secured by a 350-acre parcel acquired in 2003, according to Monroe County records. But Comer’s disclosures don’t seem to account for that mortgage, either. His disclosure covering the 2021 calendar year only shows one liability—a farm—which Comer has disclosed on all his federal forms dating back to 2016 as a liability first incurred in 1996.

The 2021 loan is not recorded as an extension of that mortgage in Monroe County, and it is not connected to any other mortgage in county records.

House Ethics guidelines stipulate that all members must disclose their liabilities, including mortgages and home equity loans on personal residences, promissory notes with the name of the debtor, loans and debts on which they are co-signers, and liabilities of a business if the member is personally liable for the debt.

SHELLACKED
Farm Team’s one commercial property is co-owned with Comer campaign donor Devin Cleary, as the Associated Press previously reported. Cleary has given about $70,000 to Comer’s political efforts, per the report.

Comer attacked the AP’s report in his Fox Business interview last month. However, one week before that interview, FTP was not even an active entity in Kentucky, and hadn’t been for more than a year. Comer’s wife only reinstated it on Dec. 7.

That fact didn’t stop Farm Team Properties from endeavoring into new deals. The commercial parcel was listed for sale while the company was dissolved. An archived web page shows that the September listing, hosted by Proffitt Real Estate, was for $625,000, the same asking price currently on the site. Comer purchased his half of the parcel in 2015 for $128,000, AP reported.





The report also indicated that Comer had created the company in order to mask his co-ownership with a campaign donor, and that it functioned as a shell company. Business law experts also told The Daily Beast that Farm Team Properties matches that description.


While “shell company” is not a legal term, it is one that Comer has thrown around in the Hunter Biden allegations as suggestive of a nefarious intent. That prompted The Washington Post to issue a fact-check in August pointing out that the committee’s staff memo “never says that Hunter Biden used ‘shell’ companies,” only listing “real companies, with active websites and real business functions.”

Ben Edwards, a specialist in business law at the University of Las Vegas Nevada’s William S. Boyd School of Law, told The Daily Beast that the term fits Farm Team Properties. (The company does not have any presence online or elsewhere, aside from its land and business filings.)

“When you use a term like ‘shell company,’ that’s not a legal term of art, but a term we use to describe a business entity or series of business entities that helps to obscure the ownership of underlying assets,” Edwards said. “Knowing that someone has an interest within a company doesn’t necessarily tell you what that interest is worth, or what it entitles them to.”

Edwards noted that LLCs have different tax options, either as personal income, a partnership, or a corporation. “If this entity has land, and the land is secured by a mortgage, and he’s getting income from things like rent, that doesn’t mean he’s getting taxable income,” Edwards said. “He could be using those funds to pay down indebtedness or offsetting costs.”
The problem, Edwards said, is that the public is in the dark.

“It’s natural for the public to be concerned about elected officials receiving payments for entities they own—who’s paying them, and how much. Particularly so if entities are businesses they’re supposed to be overseeing as regulators,” Edwards said.

As The Daily Beast previously reported, Comer held government positions with direct oversight over the agricultural industry for nearly two decades straight—including on the House Agriculture Committee, which he only left in 2020 after he shifted his business from farming land to leasing it. And Comer has claimed that his LLC’s revenue is “all money from basically farming and selling land in Monroe County.”

Comer’s disclosures state that FTP has increased in value, from between $250,000 and $500,000 in 2017 to between $500,000 and $1 million in 2022. However, its two properties are not assessed that high in tax records. And its alleged “farming” revenue is invisible. (Notably, Comer claimed an agricultural tax break on a parcel in Tennessee last year, assessing property taxes at “use value” instead of fair market value if the property generates a certain amount of agricultural income, as The Daily Beast previously reported.)

According to Comer’s financial statements, his FTP income would be paid in the form of “dividends”—portions that the company would periodically distribute to him and his wife as its members. It’s possible that Comer has not taken any of those dividends, but that does not in itself appear to negate disclosure requirements of the company’s holdings, according to House guidelines.

MOM & POP OPERATION
The dividends issue leads to another question—about Comer’s wife, T.J. Comer, who created the entity.

Alan Dubin, a veteran real estate lawyer with Arent Fox, called the LLC management arrangement “odd,” saying that he couldn’t quite figure out what Comer was trying to achieve by creating the company. But one likely reason, he said, would be to steer money to his wife.


“Even if the dividend income from Farm Team Properties was only going to Comer’s wife, he’d still be required to disclose that income on his financial disclosure report.”
— Brendan Fischer, deputy director of Documented

“A two-member LLC like this is by default treated as a partnership; treating it as a corporation would be unusual, but possible,” Dubin told The Daily Beast. “And one reason to form a partnership is to split income.” If Comer uses the LLC to manage his real estate, he said, “it’s likely because he’s trying to shift some income to his wife.”

Dubin observed that Comer could have just paid an unrelated management company, “but the effect here could be that he’s instead paying those fees to this partnership, so that the other partners are sharing in some of the rental income—diverting income away from him to his wife,” Dubin said. “But it’s hard for me to know what the hell he’s doing or why. I just can’t understand what his objective could be.”

Fischer noted that House rules only require disclosure of the source of a spouse’s earned income—such as the name of their employer—but not the amount. But assets and unearned income are treated differently, and members “must report the full value as if it were their own.”

“Even if the dividend income from Farm Team Properties was only going to Comer’s wife, he’d still be required to disclose that income on his financial disclosure report,” Fischer said.

Comer personally appears to own far more property than FTP does—in both Kentucky and Tennessee—and while Comer reports earning rent from all of his farmland, it’s unclear how many of those holdings the company “manages.”

Recently—in January 2021—Comer purchased a 98.3-acre farm in Tompkinsville for $236,000, about $60,000 below the appraised value, tax records show. Back in 2003, he snatched hundreds of Monroe County acres in apparently adjoined parcels. Two of them cost $301,281, and another set him back about $100,000. Another property, “Richardson Farm,” was inherited from his father in 2019, and appraised that year at $246,000, according to tax records. One year later, that appraisal had more than tripled, to $852,000.

Comer also bought a new personal home in 2022 for $642,500 from 2014 state campaign donor Kevin Wall. The property had been appraised at $474,000. Comer sold his old home that December for $725,000, when it was appraised at $445,000.

Comer also holds more than a million dollars of land just south of the Kentucky border, most of it in Red Boiling Springs, Tennessee. He acquired that acreage from his father in 2012 for a mere $20, via quitclaim deeds. One parcel is currently assessed at $545,000, with the two other tracts pegged at just over $1 million combined.

But Comer has also offloaded some of his Tennessee land. In 2015, he sold a Macon County parcel for $618,000, land records show.

The buyer was Corby Brown, yet another campaign donor.

[Arturo Bandini]

[masonbengals fan]

Ran away like the privileged little ***** he is. Much to the delight of the Left apparently.

[*Nately120*]

(01-10-2024, 03:15 PM)masonbengals fan Wrote: Ran away like the privileged little ***** he is. Much to the delight of the Left apparently.

Prioritizing the butthurtedness of the other side above all else is the way now.

[Arturo Bandini]

Why would he stay, they said they didn't want to hear him ?

[NATI BENGALS]

(01-10-2024, 03:15 PM)masonbengals fan Wrote: Ran away like the privileged little ***** he is. Much to the delight of the Left apparently.

I’d probably run away if I saw Marjorie in person as well.

And I definitely wouldn’t sit there and listen to those clowns slander me if I didn’t have to.

What is privileged? Not wanting to testify behind closed doors in front of a group of people who have raging hate boners for you? Who you know damn well will go on Fox News and twist whatever you told them to make you look bad as soon as it’s over?

[Belsnickel]

(01-10-2024, 03:15 PM)masonbengals fan Wrote: Ran away like the privileged little ***** he is. Much to the delight of the Left apparently.

I mean, Hunter Biden is a piece of shit, but this is a bad take. They said they didn't want to talk to him so he left. What else do you expect?