Anti-tobacco attorney pays James Biden $100,000. Joe Biden changes his mind and votes to force payment of billions to Dickie Scruggs and his clients

I wonder if Blackman ever sat across the aisle from Dickie.

Excerpts from

James Biden’s dealmaking caught on FBI tapes in unrelated bribery probe

by Michael Kranish, December 17, 2023
Washington Post

Richard “Dickie” Scruggs, a famed Mississippi trial attorney, was tantalizingly close to a historic deal to force tobacco companies to pay billions of dollars — but there was one last hurdle. A divided Congress had to sign off. And Scruggs had identified one of the most skeptical senators, Joe Biden, as a key to winning the vote.

Scruggs turned to Biden’s younger brother James, an old acquaintance who ran a D.C. consulting firm with his wife, Sara.

Scruggs paid the firm $100,000 in 1998 for advice on passing the bill, Scruggs said in an interview at his office here — the first time he has disclosed the amount.

“I probably wouldn’t have hired him if he wasn’t the senator’s brother,” Scruggs said.

Biden eventually backed the bill, which ultimately failed to pass Congress.

“Jim was never untoward about his influence,” Scruggs said. “He didn’t brag about it or talk about it. He didn’t have to. He was the man’s brother.”

Scruggs said he did not know whether James Biden had talked to his brother about his vote, “but I hope he did.”

....But James and Sara Biden’s ties to Scruggs also later brought them to the periphery of a sweeping federal investigation, one that eventually led to the trial lawyer’s epic downfall in 2008 over a bribery scheme.

As FBI agents circled in on Scruggs and his associates over a plan to deliver $40,000 in bribes to a local judge, they also secretly recorded conversations with James Biden — who, at the same time, was trying to create a consulting firm with the Scruggs partners. Neither James Biden nor his brother was charged or accused of wrongdoing in the case, which led to prison for Scruggs and several of his associates, including James Biden’s would-be partners.

....Scruggs sued cigarette manufacturers, alleging that they had cost states hundreds of billions of dollars through Medicaid, citing insider information showing the companies knew their product was addictive and hid that fact for decades. (The events were later dramatized in the 1999 movie “The Insider,” filmed partly at Scruggs’s Pascagoula home.) Scruggs eventually oversaw a case in which he believed that the companies would have to pay $368 billion.

But members of Congress were divided about the settlement, which required federal legislation to waive antitrust provisions, according to their statements and hearing transcripts from the time. That concerned Biden, then the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, who said in a 1997 news release that he was “not yet convinced that this settlement is a good deal” for the American people. A few days later, Biden said at a hearing that if the deal wasn’t improved, it would go “down the tubes.”

Scruggs was at risk of losing hundreds of millions of dollars in legal fees without a deal. Scruggs said Patterson urged him to talk to Joe Biden, so he went to Washington in mid-1997 and met with the senator for the first time, as well as with other lawmakers he considered to be potential roadblocks. He said he realized he needed more help winning over the senator from Delaware and other members of Congress. That is when he turned to James and his wife, Sara, a former congressional aide.

Starting on April 9, 1998, Scruggs made a series of $10,000 payments to their firm, Lion Hall, during a year-long period. Those payments totaled $100,000, according to records that Scruggs provided to The Post.

When a larger version of the tobacco settlement finally reached the Senate floor in June 1998, Biden had gone from being one of its biggest critics to becoming one of its leading defenders — a significant victory for Scruggs.

Biden’s support wasn’t enough. After the vote, Biden said Republicans, who had largely opposed the legislation, had been swayed by an intensive tobacco industry advertising blitz.

Tiny's note: The bill is never passed. But still,

....Scruggs...said he was satisfied with the work done by James and Sara Biden.

“Jim was a help, and Joe gave us some good advice,” he said.

After the tobacco legislation died in the Senate, Scruggs and other lawyers made separate deals in the states for a $248 billion settlement that Scruggs said netted his firm between $300 million and $400 million.


Scruggs’s influence had reached new heights by the time Joe Biden arrived in Oxford around 2000, joining Scruggs and Patterson on the Grove at Ole Miss before heading to a skybox to watch a football game, Scruggs said.

Months later, Scruggs picked Joe Biden up in his Falcon 10 jet in Fort Lauderdale and flew with him to Jackson, Miss., for a fundraiser. Scruggs said that when Biden saw that the pilot had blond dreadlocks, he said, “If I had hair like that, I can be president of the United States!”

Go to the article to read more, including about the $20,000 in payments to a Mississippi judge that brought down Dickie Scruggs et al:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...HEADER_ARTICLE

I have, as a very young lawyer. Big guy with a big personality.

How is that not bribery?

By golly, there it is, been staring us right in the face for years, decades even - THE GROUNDS FOR IMPEACHMENT…We got him now!!!

Lmao

Definitely a lobbyist work.

*I* would say it was a bribe if joey got a kickback from it. Any proof of that?

I have, as a very young lawyer. Big guy with a big personality. Originally Posted by 1blackman1

Interesting. You hear "Dickie" and you think small. Given his stature and big personality, you'd think he'd have a nickname like Big Dick Scruggs instead.

How is that not bribery? Originally Posted by ICU 812

The $100,000 went to Joe Biden's brother and sister-in-law, not to Joe.

Comer and others can show a lot of money went to the President's brother, son, and grandkids. That's not to mention the tax deductible payments to Hunter's sugar baby, ATF hooker, drug dealer and a sex club. But how much if any went to Joe? And when? Was it between the time he left the Vice Presidency and became President?

It's easy to show Hunter and brother James were trading off the Joe Biden name and selling influence, real or imagined, over Joe. But that's not illegal. It's just business as usual in Washington D.C., although a lot more egregious than average IMHO.

Lobbying is against the law?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

The $100,000 went to Joe Biden's brother and sister-in-law, not to Joe.

Comer and others can show a lot of money went to the President's brother, son, and grandkids. That's not to mention the tax deductible payments to Hunter's sugar baby, ATF hooker, drug dealer and a sex club. But how much if any went to Joe? And when? Was it between the time he left the Vice Presidency and became President?

It's easy to show Hunter and brother James were trading off the Joe Biden name and selling influence, real or imagined, over Joe. But that's not illegal. It's just business as usual in Washington D.C., although a lot more egregious than average IMHO. Originally Posted by Tiny

... The money laundering is a CRIME.
From this accounte to that one to another - some of them
FLAGGED as "suspicious activity" by the banks.

Just sayin'

#### Salty

... The money laundering is a CRIME.
From this accounte to that one to another - some of them
FLAGGED as "suspicious activity" by the banks.

Just sayin'

#### Salty Originally Posted by Salty Again

It's certainly possible Salty. The $40,000 and $200,000 payments from the trust account at the Biden Family law firm to James Biden, and then back from James Biden to Joe Biden individually could be money laundering. Also the owner of Burisma appeared to have told an FBI informant that he channeled payments to Joe Biden through various banks. I'd personally put the probability that Joe did something illegal in either instance at less than 50%, but who knows.

The suspicious activity reports automatically are sent to the IRS when there's a transfer of over $10,000. I should have had three filed on me this week, and didn't do anything illegal or unethical. Well, actually I did tell my girlfriend I had a business dinner on Tuesday when I really was at the titty bar, but that wasn't related to the transfers.

Comer has nothing. This “but Hunter” so Joe shit is a nothingburger. People use all sorts of money transfers to lessen tax liabilities. Even I’ve done it to give my kid an allowance and not pay tax on her 6500.

This whole thing’s going nowhere.

... And others don't wanna pay their taxes.

A few people named Biden!

#### Salty

... And others don't wanna pay their taxes.

A few people named Biden!

#### Salty Originally Posted by Salty Again

Hunter's got to be one of the stupidest, most irresponsible Yale Law School graduates ever, to have pulled what he did with his tax returns. I imagine Blackman and Dickie Scruggs would run circles around him in a courtroom.

Hunter's got to be one of the stupidest, most irresponsible Yale Law School graduates ever, to have pulled what he did with his tax returns. I imagine Blackman and Dickie Scruggs would run circles around him in a courtroom. Originally Posted by Tiny

... No Doubt. ...

#### Salty

... And others don't wanna pay their taxes.

A few people named Biden!

#### Salty Originally Posted by Salty Again

Bidens returns are public record.

What irrefutable proof you have donny&co pay their fair taxes? He will not release his tax forms for public record.

Guess the court case he lost and they are determining how much in taxes he owes, you are still turning a blind eye to.

Or using his court ordered closed non-profit to pad his pockets to the point his family members were ordered to take ethic classes was lost on you.

Wish people would show on joeys taxes were he under/over reported income.