Tuesday, December 5, 2023

Ammunition and Gunpowder Prices Are About to Get Even Steeper in 2024


Matt Funicello reporting for RedState 

Vista Outdoor, a parent company of over three dozen companies, including several in the firearms industry, sent a letter to its distributors and dealers that prices of ammunition and gunpowder will be rising significantly. The decision to raise prices is due, in large part, to the pressure put on the industry with domestic demand at an all-time high, along with a global shortage of gunpowder. 

Several big-name companies under the umbrella of Vista Outdoor are major players in the ammunition manufacturing industry. Federal Ammunition, Remington, Speer, Alliant Powder, and more are some of the largest and most reputable ammunition manufacturing companies in the world. Several of these companies manufacture and sell not just ammunition but gunpowder, primers for ammunition cartridges, bullets, cases, and more that are used by people who hand load their ammunition, like me. 

While costs for ammunition and reloading supplies like powder and primers, for example, have gone up over time, in the past 20-plus years, the rise of prices has exploded (figuratively speaking). 

The largest single-year increase in ammo prices since 1976 occurred in 2008, when the small arms ammunition manufacturing price index climbed by 23%. The second largest increase took place a year earlier, when the index rose by 14%. Partially as a result, between 2004 and 2015, ammunition prices more than doubled. Recent years have also seen significant price increases, with ammo production costs spiking 7% in 2022 and 8% in 2021.

In 2006-2007, when I got into competition shooting, I would buy cases of 1,000 rounds of 5.56mm ammunition in bulk for pretty cheap. The cost per round at that time was roughly between 15 and 20 cents; today, though, the prices are between 60 and 70 cents per round. The rise in costs for ammunition and reloading supplies is typically tied to supply and demand, along with rising inflation. However, statistically speaking, costs usually spike during times of panic related to the political climate and/or mass shooting incidents. Panic buying of ammunition causes huge spikes in the price of ammunition almost immediately, which causes the supply issues to grow exponentially as well.  


From 2019 to 2022, ammunition prices have climbed by an estimated 19%, outpacing inflation, which climbed 14% over the same period. 

Rising ammo prices in the pandemic era are the continuation of a trend that began long before the current inflation crisis. Small arms ammunition prices shot up 157% from 2000 to 2022, a period in which inflation climbed by a relatively modest 70%. 

...

The largest single-year increase in ammo prices since 1976 occurred in 2008, when the small arms ammunition manufacturing price index climbed by 23%. The second largest increase took place a year earlier, when the index rose by 14%. Partially as a result, between 2004 and 2015, ammunition prices more than doubled. Recent years have also seen significant price increases, with ammo production costs spiking 7% in 2022 and 8% in 2021.

Reloading materials have also seen their fair share of cost increases as well. Reloading your own ammunition has been around since the creation of cased ammunition but has steadily grown in popularity over the years. However, it wasn't until 20 to 30 years ago that reloading truly became popular. Since the early 2000s, aligning very closely with the increase in the cost of ammunition, reloading exploded in popularity mainly due to the cost savings aspect compared to buying factory ammunition. When I started reloading in 2010, the cost savings I got from it were huge. I could load one round of 5.56mm for roughly 10 cents per round, compared to buying factory ammunition of the same caliber at roughly 40 cents per round. However, due to the political climate and panic buying, reloading components have also risen in price, although the average cost to reload your own ammunition is still roughly half the cost per round of factory ammunition. 

To further exacerbate the issue, the wars in Ukraine and Israel have created a huge demand for these resources, which has resulted in a global shortage of gunpowder, which affects both factory ammunition production and powder supplies for reloaders. This also makes the panic buying worse, as consumers are highly susceptible to rumors of plants shutting down or allegedly slowing production. For example, there was a recent rumor that the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant had shut down commercial production and sales for commercial use due to the wars and or political pressure causing them to stop. The LCAAP manufactures and sells ammunition to the civilian market under the Federal Ammunition brand name and is one of the biggest manufacturers and suppliers of ammunition to that market, specifically for the ammunition used by US and NATO forces. Naturally, this caused panic buyers to make long and hard runs on 5.56mm/.223 caliber, 9mm, and .45 caliber pistol, and .12 gauge shotgun rounds.  

With the latest news from Vista Outdoor, we can see another sharp increase in prices across the board, and they won't be coming down anytime soon. And the vicious cycle will start anew, with a fresh round of panic buying to ensure people have ammunition before the supplies run out. Firearms enthusiasts seem to shoot themselves in the foot (again, figuratively speaking) when the prices go up because of the panic buying. 



X22, On the Fringe, and more- December 5

 




Encouraging the Youth Revolt Against the Global Left

The liberty movement today should pour support on talented and spirited youth


The planetary dominance of Leftist thought is the greatest threat to human liberty in our time. Virtually all Western governments, institutions, and cultures are in the grip of totalizing liberalism. The near universal implementation of lockdowns and vaccine mandates in response to the COVID “crisis” across the globe indicates the degree of ideological and political conformity to liberal demands.  

Understood as a spiritual phenomenon, Leftism means the elevation of the weak, sick, and dying at the expense of what is strong, life-giving, and noble. The collapse of the USSR did not mean the permanent defeat of Bolshevism. To the contrary, Leftist ideology has become all the more entrenched and powerful in the West since the 1990s. The new “woke” dedication to anti-racism, decolonization, and the extirpation of “whiteness” are merely a rearticulation of the older Marxist-Leninist dialectic. Ethnic and sexual minorities are the new proletariat, straight white men the new bourgeois oppressors.  

Leftism means the ripping down of tradition, order, and hierarchy in the name of equality and “human dignity” detached from any kind of nobility. Liberalism is an embrace of mediocrity and, ultimately, death.  

The growth of the biomedical security state, state surveillance programs, deindustrialization, and mass immigration reveal that the modern American regime has turned on its traditional population. The near universal commitment to “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” among institutions of higher learning, the military, the media, and businesses reveals the extent to which this spiritual civil war has turned into a civilization engulfing conflagration.  

The West is in deep crisis. The spread of homelessness, drug addiction, suicide, and family collapse indicate that we have lost confidence in ourselves and the competency to maintain functioning social order.  

And yet, against this planetary tidal wave of repression and civilizational decay there is still hope. Communism and liberalism are not all-powerful ideologies capable of overwhelming all possibilities. Human nature is real.  

The flame of the West—the union of aspiration and knowledge with morality—still burns brightly in the hearts of spirited young men. Those youths contain within themselves the possibility to slow our civilizational decline and perhaps even reverse it. The Leftist obsession with what is weak and degraded inflicts significant handicaps on their own power.  

Battalions of woke BIPOC gender-queer commissars have serious deficiencies as a means of enforcing the will of the Left. Contra Alex Jones and company, our rulers are not Machiavellian geniuses carrying out millennia long conspiracies to destroy humanity. They are, rather, petty bureaucrats with souls oriented towards the longings of the stomach and the genitals. Our ruling class cannot produce great art, science, literature, or martial greatness. 

This deficiency points to the supremacy of nature and the possibility of a rebirth in our time. The liberty movement today should, therefore, pour money and resources into talented and spirited youth who feel revulsion at the sweeping tide of liberalism. In this rebellion of the youth lies the greatest hope for liberty today.     



'Globalism' Went From a Conspiracy Theorist Word to a Frightening Reality


Before I dove into politics, I'd hear the term "globalism" and derisively blow air out of my nose. The only time I'd ever heard the word spoken was by Alex Jones types and conspiracy theorists. Of course, over years with my nose deep in socio-political and cultural events, you get pretty red-pilled. It became clear as day that a "globalist" wasn't a boogieman in the closet but was a very real kind of person. 

To this day, many people unacquainted with politics would still think that complaining about the globalists means you belong to a crowd who thinks chemicals in the water are turning "the friggin' frogs gay," but there's been a strong wakeup call happening to bring awareness to the fact that globalists are a thing...or rather a number of things. 

In fact, they're happening all over the globe, and people are becoming painfully aware of the existence of a small group of very powerful people who think you should be living by a set of rules that will bring about some kind of Utopia and that they don't have to live by at all. All the while, they garner more wealth. 

The first big wake-up call was, in my honest opinion, the pandemic. It was a global phenomenon that saw the entire world lockdown and adopt authoritarian rules that, as we now know, weren't at all necessary. Yet, even though it was increasingly clear that the lockdowns and masks weren't doing much to stop the spread, and both countries and states were proving to be just fine without all the nonsensical rules, you still had organizations like the World Health Organization and deep-blue states, including our federal government, advising everyone stay locked down. Then the vaccine mandates rolled around and it became pretty obvious that this wasn't about health and safety; someone was making money off of this. 

One thing is for sure. It wasn't you. 

Outside of the medical industry, there's mass agreement among world leaders that all countries must adhere to some sort of standard when it comes to fighting "climate change." World leaders like to get together every once in a while by flying their private jets to a singular location and talking about how we, the people, need to be forced into fighting climate change through more regulations. Then they pledge to donate our taxpayer dollars to...something to show our commitment, and then they fly their polluting jets back home and wag their fingers at us and our cows for being a danger to the environment. 

It's funny how the solution to climate change in every country is always the one-size-fits-all solution of "more government," and that's become something increasingly hard to miss. Every time a government figure says "We commit to X," what they're actually saying is "We will make our citizens commit to X," and you can bet the price tag of any given thing you use will go up. 

One clear example of globalism can be seen in Europe where unfettered immigration has become something that makes European leaders beam with delight while European citizens are complaining louder and louder every day or, in some cases, violently revolting. 

You can see that happening right now in Ireland, where things have gotten so bad that riots have begun popping up in response to the crime and violence that came with illegal migrants being shipped into the country. After the stabbing of three children by an Algerian migrant, a riot formed that was blamed on "far-right groups" by Ireland's leftist government. 

But it wasn't just the riot either. Any naysaying about migration was blamed on "far-right groups," a fact that the Irish people have obviously had enough of and something that MMA fighter Conor McGregor seems to be building his political aspirations on top of. 

But it's not just the Irish having this problem. This is happening all over Europe. 

These are just a few examples. You can probably name a few right off the top of your head both large and small. 

A conspiracy theory is only a conspiracy theory when the person lacks the proper evidence to put the whole story together about an event, but globalism isn't a conspiracy theory. These people admit what they want in terms of how we can become a stronger "global community." All you have to do is listen. 

Listen to them when they say they're trying to "master the future." 

Listen to them when they say they propose a "recalibration" of free speech.

They say this kind of stuff openly at summits like the World Economic Forum. 

(READ: Elon Blasts WEF Effort to Run World, Tucker Finishes Them Off)

If you don't listen to them when they speak, then you'll definitely get a pretty solid idea of what their goals are when you experience them yourself. 



Washington Post: Killing Foreigners Is Good For American Business



“The war in Ukraine might be deadly but at least it’s good for Boeing!” That’s the latest message coming from advocates for unending foreign aid to Ukraine as the war with Russia drags on into its third year.

The horrifying conflict, with too many scenes like the one below, could have ended more than a year and a half ago. Instead, Western leaders prolonged the conflict over stubborn demands to keep Ukrainian membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on the table, and, apparently, justify spending billions in taxpayer dollars to enrich the military-industrial complex.



On Friday, the Washington Post awarded Republican columnist Marc Thiessen a full page to expand upon the war’s explosive profits for the defense industry. Now we know under what circumstances the Washington Post is willing to award an entire page to a Republican.

“Here is the best-kept secret about U.S. military aid to Ukraine: Most of the money is being spent here in the United States,” Thiessen wrote. “That’s right: Funds that lawmakers approve to arm Ukraine are not going directly to Ukraine but are being used stateside to build new weapons or to replace weapons sent to Kyiv from U.S. stockpiles.”

Thiessen goes on to admonish conservative lawmakers who’ve led the resistance against rubber-stamping unlimited aid to Ukraine.

“At a time when both major parties are competing to win working-class votes and strengthen the U.S. manufacturing base, our military aid to Ukraine does exactly that — it is providing a major cash infusion into factories across the country that directly benefits American workers,” wrote Thiessen. “In other words, as happens with foreign military aid, our aid to Ukraine is not only creating American jobs but also reinvigorating our dangerously atrophied defense industrial base.”

It’s a full-page ad for a memo broadcast by Ukraine’s top ally in the upper chamber two months ago.

“If you look at the Ukraine assistance,” GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told CBS, “a significant portion of what’s being spent in the United States and 38 different states, replacing the weapons that we send to Ukraine with more modern weapons, so we’re rebuilding our industrial base.”

A closer look at the numbers, however, reveals an overwhelming majority of Ukraine aid is going, and remaining, overseas. Just a fraction of the $113 billion already spent has gone to “rebuilding our industrial base.”

According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, about $67 billion of the $113 billion in Ukrainian aid went to defense. Of that $67 billion, about $27 billion went to “drawdown replenishment,” and $15 billion went to the U.S. military. Another $18 billion went to the “Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative,” nearly $5 billion went to the foreign military financing program, and $2 billion went to “other defense.”

Richard Stern, the director of the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget at the Heritage Foundation, broke down what these numbers mean in an interview with The Federalist.

“All of the money that’s not military support,” Stern said, “is just aid we gave them. A lot of that is just cash, and so none of that directly comes back to the U.S. in any kind of real life.”

Of the military spending, Stern added, “None of it is money. All of its equipment. A lot of it is equipment that had already been produced, so that’s not supporting U.S. defense industries.”

So, who, exactly, is the war supporting in terms of its economic impact? It’s certainly not the average taxpayer. An analysis from the Heritage Foundation in August found the total aid to Ukraine cost taxpayers $900 per household. The major defense firms that make up the military-industrial complex, on the other hand, are polishing off their blood diamonds. America’s Big Five weapons manufacturers — Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX, Boeing, and General Dynamics — raked in more than $196 billion last year, according to the independent think tank Responsible Statecraft, with profits driven by Kyiv.

Ukraine, meanwhile, isn’t winning. In fact, the war-torn nation is now digging in for a turbulent winter and a long, drawn-out conflict.

“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ordered the construction of an extensive network of fortifications aimed at holding back Russian forces, signaling a switch to the defensive posture after a monthslong Ukrainian counteroffensive yielded only small gains,” the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

More will die, but at least Lockheed Martin is making some money.



Biden Admin Sounds Alarm Bells Regarding Funding for Ukraine Running Out


Matt Funicello reporting for RedState 

On Monday, the White House issued warnings that the funding levels for military aid packages for Ukraine are running critically low and asked for a new aid package — not just for Ukraine — before the year is out. The Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Shalanda Young, stated in a message to Congress that the government is both out of time and money if the US wants to continue to give aid before the year's end. 

To reinforce her point, President Joe Biden's administration is begging Congress to act on an aid package to Ukraine that the administration sent to them in October, warning that our national security will be affected by the decision. In her letter to Congress, addressed to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky), Young stressed the urgency of the situation. 

“I want to be clear: without congressional action, by the end of the year we will run out of resources to procure more weapons and equipment for Ukraine and to provide equipment from U.S. military stocks. There is no magical pot of funding available to meet this moment. We are out of money—and nearly out of time,” Young wrote.

“We are out of money to support Ukraine in this fight. This isn’t a next year problem,” she added. “The time to help a democratic Ukraine fight against Russian aggression is right now. It is time for Congress to act.”

In her warning, Young went on to elaborate that the almost $111 billion set aside for Ukraine's military aid has been exhausted, along with the Pentagon using 97 percent of the $62 billion they received just last month, in addition to the State Department's $4.7 billion in aid to the country. Young went on to drive her point home by saying that inaction would "kneecap" Ukraine's efforts on the battlefield and increase chances for a Russian victory. If the request is approved by Congress, Young said that $50 billion would go to domestic national defense restocking efforts, on top of the existing request the White House sent to Congress in October, which earmarked approximately $30 billion to restock our inventory after sending most to Ukraine. 

In what one expert is calling a transition to "positional warfare" from "maneuver warfare," the lines between the two forces are becoming more and more static. 

 “We are in what’s called positional warfare, as opposed to maneuver warfare,” said Frank Ledwidge, a former British military intelligence officer and senior lecturer in war studies at England’s University of Portsmouth. “Basically, we are in the First World War situation, where you have two entrenched armies, neither of which is going to be able to break the other.”

Fighting is likely to grind to an even more definitive halt as bitter weather sets in, with a deadly winter storm wreaking havoc in the region last week...

...“A Ukraine success could alter what’s now widely seen as a stalemate,” said Rajan Menon, an analyst with Defense Priorities, a Washington-based think tank.

The war has reached a deadlock for several reasons, Menon said, including ambivalence and a lack of urgency from Kyiv’s allies, which meant some crucial supplies arrived too late for the counteroffensive to be effective.

With the war in Israel approaching its third month, the war in Ukraine has taken somewhat of a backseat. This would explain the fresh urgency from the Biden White House in their urgent request for Congress to take up the spending package they sent over in October. 

In an apparent effort to signal that Ukraine was still a priority for Washinton, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made a surprise visit to Kyiv last month, saying Ukraine’s fight is “a marathon — not a sprint” and announcing $100 million in new military aid...“Tactically, the shift in attention from Ukraine to Israel made our situation somewhat more difficult, since our war ceased to be the single hottest point on the planet,” Yehor Chernev, a member of Ukraine’s Parliament and deputy chairman of its national security, defense and intelligence committee, told NBC News.

The hiccup lies with Speaker Johnson, who stated that he is sure that aid packages to both Ukraine and Israel will pass. However, he would like the aid split into two packages, with one for each nation along with money for domestic border security in the Ukraine bill. It is unclear as to when the White House can expect to see a bill, or a set of bills, drafted, let alone passed by the House and Senate. 



Biden Admin Withholds Election Integrity Documents Key To Jeff Clark’s DC Bar Defense

The decision to withhold documents also suggests an unwillingness by the federal government to publicize its findings on 2020 election problems.



Both the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Justice refuse to hand over several key election integrity documents that would aid Trump-era DOJ official Jeffrey Clark’s defense against the D.C. Bar, which seeks to discipline him for noting inconsistencies in the 2020 election.

Clark, who was also named as one of the 19 “co-conspirator” targets in Democrats’ wide-ranging election indictment in Fulton County, Georgia, is scheduled to appear at an evidentiary hearing on Jan. 9, 2024 after the legal licensing association claims he violated their rules by drafting a letter to Peach State officials noting the DOJ “identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the [2020] election in multiple States, including the State of Georgia.”

Clark chose not to send the letter after his DOJ superiors objected to signing it and then-President Trump opted against having it sent. The D.C. Bar, however, proceeded to charge Clark with “attempted dishonesty” and “attempted serious interference with the administration of justice.” Both of those charges, Clark’s lawyers assert, are “legally and factually ridiculous for a compelling set of reasons.”

Clark requested several key pieces of evidence related to election issues from the ODNI and DOJ to prepare for his upcoming defense in the D.C. Bar case. His attempt to secure due process, however, was hampered by stonewalling from both the ODNI and DOJ.

In late October, Clark’s legal team asked the ODNI to hand over classified documents detailing evidence of foreign election interference, which Clark interacted with during his time in the Trump administration but could not take with him when he left.

The lawyers specifically requested to review both the draft and final versions of the intelligence agencies’ 2020 election issue assessment and the ombudsman letter and report intelligence agencies shared with the Senate Intelligence Committee on Jan. 6, 2021. They also asked for access to the classified version of then-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe’s dissent memo which concluded that the intelligence agencies’ evaluations of China’s role in influencing U.S. elections “fall short.”

ODNI rejected the request on Nov. 28, citing the 1951 Supreme Court case Touhy v. Ragen that ODNI says grants it the right to “determine whether to provide information.” The agency also claimed the lawyers’ solicitation of the documents did “not contain sufficient detail to permit ODNI officials to make this determination” or explain “how this testimony is relevant” to Clark’s case.

“In your request, you only briefly list broad categories of testimony topics, without any details on the specific testimony sought or how this testimony is relevant to the bar disciplinary proceedings or your client’s claims or defenses in these proceedings,” ODNI complained.

Two days after receiving the denial, Harry MacDougald, a managing partner at the firm representing Clark, sent a reply scolding the ODNI for its “arbitrary decision-making.”

“My letter identified the subject matter with reasonable specificity, particularly in light of the reference to the specific briefing and the specific documents in question, and ought to have been sufficient for your office to make the determinations contemplated by these regulations,” he wrote on Nov. 30.

MacDougald also noted that the Touhy regulations ODNI used to justify its denial “do not mention relevance as a ground of objection.”

ODNI’s demands for more details, he warned, “would likely intrude on the attorney work product and trial preparation privileges by revealing the mental impressions of counsel and trial strategies.”

Despite his insistence that ODNI should not have rejected the initial request, MacDougald submitted an affidavit outlining more proof that the documents in question are essential to Clark’s case.

Ratcliffe’s memo and other “criticisms of the work going into the [intelligence agencies’ election integrity] Assessment” in particular, MacDougald wrote, “support the reasonableness of questioning claims like those asserted by the former Director of CISA, Christopher Krebs, that the 2020 election was the most secure ever, and of questioning the purported conclusion of the Assessment that there was no meaningful foreign interference in the election.”

“In part, the charge of attempted falsity rests on the contention that there was no basis whatsoever for the proposed positions in the draft letter, or for believing there was anything irregular or worthy of further investigation in the 2020 election. Mr. Ratcliffe’s testimony and the documents that we have requested are logically relevant to rebut this contention,” MacDougald concluded, noting that based on evidence he has reviewed “even the harshest criticisms by the Ombudsman and Mr. Ratcliffe were much, much too kind.”

Clark’s lawyers told The Federalist they also asked the DOJ for the testimonies of several former U.S. attorneys and to share documents about domestic election concerns in swing states, which included potential instances of “suitcase” ballots and vote switching, twice but that the agency did not respond to their request.

The lack of documents not only hampers the former DOJ official’s defense but also suggests a staunch unwillingness by the federal government to publicize its findings and analysis of the 2020 election problems.



Dick Durbin Lets Cat Out of Bag on Bill Allowing Illegal Aliens Into Military


Nick Arama reporting for RedState 

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) turned all order on its head on Monday in his "solution" to the problem at the border.

Durbin agreed that something has to be done about the southern border, but his response about what that "something" might be was insane and incredibly dangerous for the safety of the nation. Right now, we are letting all kinds of people in without having any true vetting of them at the border. Now Durbin is suggesting that we let these folks who broke our law by entering illegally into the military. 

Durbin talks about a bill that would allow "undocumented" people who can pass a physical and a background check into the military. Does anyone think that the Biden team would do any kind of a credible background check to prevent people who wish us ill from joining if this is allowed? Given how they've messed up virtually everything else, I wouldn't bet on that for a second. 

"If you do it honorably, we will make you citizens of the United States," he says. Oh, so of course, then they can vote. What a quick way to facilitate that! I'm sure that isn't what this is about. 

Durbin claims we need that because the recruiting numbers in the military are so horrible, "They can't reach their quotas each month. They can't find enough people to join our military forces."

Maybe you should ask yourself, why this is? Maybe people don't want to be a the mercy of the new woke army. Maybe rectify that by going back to having a military focused on actually being a military and defending this nation. 

But how concerning and dangerous is this kind of a move? And Durbin doesn't seem at all concerned about what he's suggesting, just like he doesn't seem truly concerned about all the problems that may be flooding across the border. Let's just meld the two problems. Let's solve the military problem by putting the illegal aliens there. 

Does he want to start with these guys who already look like maybe they could be in the military -- the Chinese military? Some of them are even standing at attention. This buttresses the reports we've seen before of the increasing number of groups of single Chinese men of military age flooding across the border. Some of these guys even have the haircut. As we reported, China expert Gordon Chang believes they could be military. But I'm sure there's no reason to worry here. Dick Durbin would probably be cool with letting these guys join our forces. This is crazy. 


Bank Records Reveal Hunter Biden’s Company Authorized Monthly Payments To Joe



The House Oversight Committee has obtained financial documents outlining monthly transfers from Hunter Biden to his father, President Joe Biden.

On Monday, GOP House Oversight Chairman James Comer of Kentucky announced the discovery of subpoenaed bank records revealing monthly payments of $1,380 directly to Joe Biden from Owasco PC, a corporate enterprise owned by Hunter Biden. Owasco has been documented receiving payments from Biden business associate Rob Walker’s company as well as a deposit from Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC.

Payments from Owasco to Joe began on Sept. 15, 2018, according to a copy of the monthly transfer authorization agreement reviewed by The Federalist. While the form does not list an end date, the Daily Mail has reported that additional transfers occurred in October and November 2018.

The documents offer House investigators the latest evidence of direct money transfers to the president from his son, who capitalized on the family name in a global influence-peddling operation. They also contradict a memo from Hunter Biden’s legal team last month featured in The Washington Post.

“There is not a single financial transaction between President Biden and his son related to or involving any of Hunter Biden’s business ventures or prior private commercial dealings,” the first son’s lawyers wrote.

Financial records reviewed by the House Oversight Committee to date show the Biden family directed money through more than 20 shell companies, most of which were established while Joe Biden was vice president. The Biden family was found to have raked in upwards of $20 million from foreign oligarchs in China, Russia, and Kazakhstan.

Although President Biden repeatedly denied ever speaking business with his son during the run-up to the 2020 election, the president appears to have met or spoken with family clients numerous times.

House Republicans launched an official impeachment inquiry in September into the Biden family’s influence-peddling schemes. In November, they issued formal subpoenas directly to several members of the Biden family, including Hunter Biden and Joe Biden’s brother James. House Republicans also extended requests for transcribed interviews from individuals involved in Hunter Biden’s dealings, including his newfound career selling high-end art.

[James Biden’s Role In The Biden Access-For-Hire Operation]

Hunter Biden’s attorneys insisted last week that their client would be available to testify before House lawmakers, but only in a public forum. Comer responded to the demand with Republican House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan on Friday.

“Mr. Biden’s attempt to avoid sitting for a deposition pursuant to the terms of subpoenas — by offering instead to testify at a public hearing — amounts to a demand that he receive special treatment from the Committees,” they wrote. “Mr. Biden will not succeed in attempting to dictate to the Committees how they conduct their investigation.”

The subpoena demanded that Hunter Biden appear on Capitol Hill for a sit-down deposition on Dec. 13.