Happy Thursday!

If today’s Brew smells like rotting fish, don’t blame me.

IRS Whistleblowers: DOJ Told Us to Back Off Hunter’s ‘Sugar Brother’ After CIA Briefing

One of the great mysteries surrounding the Hunter Biden saga is why Hollywood lawyer and producer Kevin Morris would suddenly befriend the First Son and loan him millions to clear up back taxes and shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars for a couple of Hunter’s paintings.

We may be a little closer to an answer. In a new sworn affidavit released Wednesday, IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley, who had been investigating Hunter Biden before getting suspended for ratting out the DOJ’s stonewalling of the case, made a shocking revelation: His efforts to question Morris were completely shut down after Assistant U.S. Attorney Leslie Wolf was summoned to CIA headquarters to discuss Hunter’s so-called “sugar brother.”

Says Shapley: “AUSA Wolf stated that they were provided a classified briefing in relation to Mr. Morris and as a result we could no longer pursue him as a witness.” Shapley goes on to say Wolfe then ignored repeated attempts to meet to discuss why Morris was suddenly untouchable.

Why does the CIA care about some rich Hollywood hotshot giving Hunter millions of bucks? Why don’t they want the IRS to even ask Morris about the payments? Who is Morris to the CIA? And the bigger question, why were the DOJ, FBI, Shapley’s IRS superiors, and now the CIA working so hard to keep anyone from looking at Hunter’s money flow?

Are they really protecting the crack-addicted son of Joe Biden? Protecting the feeble Joe Biden? Or was “the smartest man” Joe Biden knows up to something even less savory than drugs, prostitutes, strippers, and sexual relationships with multiple members of his own extended family?

When’s the Trial? Fauci’s Right-Hand Man Admits Helping Make Gain-of-Function Emails “Disappear”

Oh, how they made Tony Fauci a hero. His bobblehead doll was sold in stores, his personal 3D COVID model is on display in the Smithsonian, and signs professing love for Fauci were planted on liberal lawns from D.C. to L.A.

But what a tangled web we weave when we endeavor to deceive. Newly released emails show Fauci, assisted by his senior scientific advisor/right-hand guy, went out of his way to intentionally dodge FOIA requests connected to gain-of-fuction research. Fauci and advisor Dr. David Morens also had a “secret back channel” for discussions. One email is particularly nauseating.

“PS, i forgot to say there is no worry about FOIAs,” Morens wrote EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak. “I can either send stuff to Tony on his private gmail, or hand it to him at work or at his house. He is too smart to let colleagues send him stuff that could get him in trouble.”

And what was this email about? According to the subject line: “CoV research in China, GoF, etc.” In other words, COVID gain-of-function research in China, which the National Institutes of Health now admits Fauci was funding via EcoHealth.

Morens admits to destroying damaging emails he didn’t want to see in The New York Times. “I learned from our FOIA lady here how to make emails disappear after I am FOIA’d, but before the search starts,” he said. “So I think we are all safe. Plus I deleted most of those earlier emails after sending them to Gmail.”

Fauci was involved in hushing things up. A scientist wrote to Daszak that “Tony has told him (Morens) not to be in touch with you and EHA for the time being.” As Just the News reports:

Morens also told Daszak that Fauci and then-NIH Director Francis Collins are “trying to protect you, which also protects their own reputations,” apparently meaning against allegations that U.S. tax dollars passed through EcoHealth-funded research that may have led to SARS-CoV-2’s emergence.

Sen. Rand Paul, who famously wrestled with the smug Fauci in Senate hearings where Fauci denied spending a dime on gain-of-function research in China, called on the DOJ Wednesday to investigate Fauci to determine if he improperly concealed, and perhaps erased, emails pertaining to the origins of the COVID pandemic.

Tidbits from the Campaign Trail

OHIO: Joe Biden’s name may not be on the ballot in the swing state of Ohio. The Buckeye State requires a party to “certify” its presidential and vice presidential candidates at least 90 days before the general election. Problem is, the Democratic National Convention doesn’t takes place until August 19-22, which is only 74 to 77 days before the election. Right now there are two options, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose wrote in a letter to the Ohio Democratic Party: call a special session of the Ohio legislature to create an exception — which the Speaker of the Ohio House says isn’t happening — or make the DNC hold its nominating convention sooner. (Which isn’t too far out of the realm of possibility given how much trouble they’re expecting in Chicago and the fact that more of the convention is going virtual anyway.)

If Democrats don’t come up with something, says LaRose, “I am duty-bound to instruct boards of elections to begin preparing ballots that do not include the Democratic Party nominees.”

That’s a bit of poetic justice after all the Democrats’ efforts to keep former President Donald Trump off the ballot: their own scheduling mistake could keep Biden off the ballot in a key state. Not to mention the fact that their own lawfare is behind the Ohio Legislature’s disinterest in granting Biden an exception.

NEW YORK: Looks like the White House’s effort to keep Donald Trump pinned down in New York at his “hush money” trial is backfiring. A new Siena College poll shows Trump is now within single digits of Biden in deep blue New York, 47% to 38%.

Trump wants New York, and is convinced he can win there. To that end, he is holding a rally in the South Bronx today. The Bronx is described as the “most demographically diverse area in the country and the poorest in the city.” If he can make it there, he can make it anywhere.

See you later today. We’re saving a spot for you at Al’s Afternoon Tea.

Along The Stream

Brandon Aldinger offers up the intriguing “The Hobbit vs. Hitler.”

Yesterday’s still-fresh Al’s Afternoon Tea covers the “Deadly Force Raid on Mar-a-Lago ‘Stupid, Unnecessary, Not Normal’.”

And coming up at 7 a.m. Eastern, our Aliya Kuykendall posts “New Devotional Book Highlights What We Can and Need to Learn From Persecuted Christians.”

 

Al Perrotta is The Stream’s Washington bureau chief, coauthor with John Zmirak of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration, and coauthor of the counterterrorism memoir Hostile Intent: Protecting Yourself Against Terrorism.