WHO IS GAL LUFT??

Republicans claimed Gal Luft, their missing whistleblower, would prove that President Joe Biden and his son Hunter received money from a Chinese energy company with ties to the Chinese government. But The House Republican source that was going to bring down Biden is an alleged Chinese spy. Luft has been indicted on eight counts in the U.S. Southern District of New York for charges he was made aware of last year.

But first…

Gal Luft was indicted by the government on November 1, 2022 for acting as an unregistered foreign agent on behalf of China and for arms dealing and for violating U.S. sanctions against Iran. He was already on the lam over these charges when the extradition order was issued for him the same day.

Back in February, Luft was arrested in Cyprus on extradition terms because he’d been indicted in the U.S. At the time he was detained, he tweeted that he was being politically persecuted by the Bidens. He posted bail in Cyprus and then disappeared. He is currently still “on the lam.”

Whistleblowers are supposed to come forward before they go on the lam and run away from the law. The point of whistleblowing is to counter wrongdoing. Coming up with “accusations” after being accused of multiple serious crimes is less credible and is certainly not the proper use of the word “whistleblower.” Unless you’re an inbred Southern moron like James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee.

When they heard of this, the House Republican circus caucus came running. There’s nothing like a person who works against the interests of the United States and is an alleged criminal to get the Republican House hot and bothered. They know a solid ‘America First’ whistleblower when they see one.

Josh Marshall put it well this morning at TPM:

“This is part of a pattern: government workers or others facing workplace or criminal investigations trying to get a get-out-of-jail-free card or at least allies in a tough situation by showing up at the doorstep of Jim Jordan or James Comer basically willing to say quite literally anything. It’s true of course that chancers in a jam often do know things and are willing to talk for protection. But that’s why such claims require real scrutiny, something Republican investigators simply never do. In Luft’s case it’s not at all clear why he would be privy to anything about the President or his son in the first place. Indeed, the pattern is so persistent that it’s pretty clear Republican investigators are, if not explicitly in on the ruse themselves, totally indifferent to the truth of any of their claims.”

Comer is now claiming Luft’s indictments are retaliation for his “whistleblower” coming forward.

The Charges:

“Gal Luft, a Dual U.S.-Israeli Citizen, Allegedly Evaded FARA Registration While Working to Advance the Interests of China in the United States and Sought to Broker the Illicit Sales of Chinese-Manufactured Weapons and Iranian Oil to China.”

FBI Acting Assistant Director in Charge Christie M. Curtis said: “As alleged, the defendant engaged in multiple schemes to evade sanctions and laws intended to protect our national security. The FBI is determined to defend our nation by enforcing laws designed to promote transparency of foreign influence within the United States.”

It gets worse. Luft is accused of “multiple, serious criminal schemes” to “promote Chinese policies” “broker in deals for dangerous weapons and Iranian oil…”

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “As alleged, Gal Luft, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen and co-head of a Maryland think tank, engaged in multiple, serious criminal schemes. He subverted foreign agent registration laws in the United States to seek to promote Chinese policies by acting through a former high-ranking U.S. Government official; he acted as a broker in deals for dangerous weapons and Iranian oil; and he told multiple lies about his crimes to law enforcement. As the charges unsealed today reflect, our Office will continue to work vigorously with our law enforcement partners to detect and hold accountable those who surreptitiously attempt to perpetrate malign foreign influence campaigns here in the United States.”

The FBI and national security experts worked together to charge Luft for alleged crimes relating to the Arms Export Control Act of conspiring to sell Chinese products to the United Arab Emirates, Kenya and Libya, as well as a violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, and more. The indictment charges that Luft “conspired with others in an effort to act within the United States to advance the interests of the People’s Republic of China (“China”) as agents of China-based principals, without registering as foreign agents as required under U.S. law.

These alleged crimes go way back, before Joe Biden was president, and have ties to Donald Trump’s inner circle as president-elect. This fact alone puts to rest the unproven claim that the charges are politically motivated, but also, the DOJ under President Biden has consistently operated independently of the President, as it is supposed to do.

“As part of this scheme, while serving as the co-director of a Maryland-based non-profit think tank, LUFT agreed to covertly recruit and pay, on behalf of principals based in China, a former high-ranking U.S. Government official (“Individual-1”), including in 2016 while the former official was an adviser to the then-President-elect, to publicly support certain policies with respect to China without LUFT or Individual-1 filing a registration statement as an agent of a foreign principal with the Attorney General of the United States, in violation of FARA. Among other things, in the weeks before the 2016 U.S. presidential election, LUFT and a co-conspirator (“CC-1”), who is a Chinese national and worked for a Chinese nongovernmental organization affiliated with a Chinese energy company, created a written “dialogue” between CC-1 and Individual-1, in which LUFT wrote Individual-1’s responses and included information that was favorable to China. The dialogue was then published in a Chinese newspaper online and sent to, among others, individuals in the United States, including a journalist and professors at multiple U.S. universities. When LUFT was writing the dialogue, CC-1 told LUFT that “[i]n these articles, we do not want to spill all the beans yet, just enough to let ‘people’ know he [i.e., Individual-1] is in the corridor of power to be. Just broad stroke policy consideration that leaves plenty of room for interpretation and imagination to be filled in later.”

Shortly after the 2016 election, LUFT and CC-1 also discussed possible roles Individual-1 might have in the incoming U.S. administration and discussed Individual-1 taking a “silent trip” to China. LUFT responded that “[w]e are debating about his role in the new admin. There are all kinds of considerations . . .We should talk ftf [i.e., face-to-face] as there can be a supremely unique opportunity for china

Then there are the troubling arms deals he allegedly attempted to broker without a license to do so:

“Second, LUFT conspired with others and attempted to broker illicit arms transactions with, among others, certain Chinese individuals and entities. In his role as a broker or middleman, LUFT worked to find both buyers and sellers of certain weapons and other materials, without a license to do so as required under U.S. law, in violation of the Arms Export Control Act. Among other things, LUFT worked to broker a deal for Chinese companies to sell certain weapons to Libya, including anti-tank launchers, grenade launchers, and mortar rounds (which LUFT and his associates referred to in coded language as “toys”). LUFT also worked to broker deals for certain weapons to be sold to the United Arab Emirates, including aerial bombs and rockets.”

The unsealed indictment includes a passage alleging that Luft worked the arms deals on a commission basis and that he was also brokering oil deals in which Iranian oil was sold as “Brazilian” oil in order to evade U.S. sanctions on Iran.

So, the Republicans’ key whistleblower claiming the Biden family had nefarious dealings with China has been indicted for multiple serious crimes including working to advance the interests of China.

According to Luft, this is what really happened: He was engaged in perfectly appropriate and upright dealings with CEFC China Energy. During the course of these dealings, a Chinese official gave him evidence about Hunter Biden’s dealings with CEFC China, which were absolutely not appropriate and upright. This source told Luft that the Biden family had a mole inside the FBI code-named “One Eye.”

Luft “blew the whistle” to the U.S. government about this in March 2019, while Donald Trump was president, but Trump did nothing with this information. (This would be the same President Trump who was constantly seeking to use the power of the federal government to punish his enemies, according to sworn testimony by his former chief-of-staff John Kelly.)

After Trump left office, the Deep State or the Biden Crime Family created an elaborate frame-up to sideline Luft, who was doing perfectly legitimate business with the same corrupt Chinese officials who were trying to exploit Hunter Biden.

As for proof, you’ll have to take the word of the fugitive who skipped bail and is still in hiding.

The only “there” there is that Republicans have once again aligned with someone who was endangering our national security. Their accusations against Biden have zero credibility at this point and if they were serious about doing the job, they wouldn’t be trying to manufacture accusations against President Biden and his family.

The accusations Republicans are leveling at Biden mirror the accusations leveled at Trump. That’s not a coincidence. Projection is the sincerest form of Trumpism. They are ALWAYS doing whatever it is they accuse anyone else of doing.

The difference is that there was unavoidable, undeniable evidence all around Trump - and prosecutions to match - that he was dealing with foreign entities.

There hasn’t been a whiff of a suggestion that Joe Biden has ever done what they accuse him of; his son Hunter does not work in the White House and never has.

Gal Luft is a perfect witness for Republicans. Nothing he claims has any connection to provable reality.

It’s as if they attract this certain kind of person, having become the Trump Party.

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