EXCLUSIVE: IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley’s former superior recommended removing him from the federal investigation into Hunter Biden, a newly released transcript reveals, despite confirming key parts of Shapley’s claims that the probe was vastly limited in scope.
IRS Special Agent in Charge Darrell Waldon sat for a closed-door interview with staff from the House Ways & Means Committee on Friday. Waldon was one of several people named by Shapley as having attended an Oct. 7, 2022, meeting in which then-U.S. Attorney for Delaware David Weiss allegedly discussed limitations on the Hunter Biden investigation.
Waldon, who said he was special agent in charge between “April of 2021 through February of 2023,” said he recommended that Shapley be removed from the investigation for making “unsubstantiated” claims.
“So before I left the special agent in charge position, in February, I recommended to [IRS Director of Field Operations Michael Batdorf] that Gary Shapley be removed as the [supervisory special agent] from the Hunter Biden investigation, primarily due to what I perceived to be unsubstantiated allegations about motive, intent, bias. And, again, my goal was to protect the integrity of the investigation and figure out a way forward,” Waldon told GOP investigators.
President Biden and his son Hunter Biden. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
But Shapley was not reassigned until May, Waldon said. He also denied playing a role in Shapley’s removal from the Hunter Biden probe.
Earlier in the interview, Waldon conceded the investigation was “sensitive” in nature but said “no” when asked if he thought the case was being politicized. He also corroborated Shapley’s complaint of being limited in the scope of his investigative duties.
“Yes. Or I should say at least of the things that they can ask in interviews, is my general awareness,” Waldon answered when asked if Shapley said he and his team were “limited in who they could interview.”
Supervisory IRS Special Agent Gary Shapley, left, and IRS Criminal Investigator Joseph Ziegler testified to the House Oversight Committee hearing about the Justice Department’s investigation of Hunter Biden. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Waldon also said he recalled “a discussion” on the subject of Shapley and his team being “restricted from requesting certain interviews of relatives of Hunter Biden.” However, he denied recalling any instances where Shapley was denied specific requests.
Shapley previously claimed that Weiss told a group of law enforcement officials on Oct. 7 of last year that he was not “the deciding person” in charging Hunter Biden, despite both Weiss and the Justice Department vowing the Trump appointee had full autonomy over the investigation. Shapley had said that Weiss, now a special counsel, was denied the role at the time and was told he could not bring charges against Hunter Biden in Washington, D.C., or California.
Waldon confirmed to GOP investigators that the case was “presented” there but the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., “did not agree to take the case on.”
Waldon said that if both D.C. and the Central District of California turned down the case, “There was processes that Mr. Weiss would have to work out with the Department of Justice, and that’s my basic understanding.”
House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., left, and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith presided over a hearing into the DOJ’s investigation of Hunter Biden. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
After the Oct. 7 meeting, Weiss stopped speaking directly to Shapley altogether, Waldon said. “Mr. Weiss stated to me that he would not be communicating with Mr. Shapley anymore and he would be going directly to me,” he said, recalling a communication from later that month.
While the IRS had ultimate say in whether an agent was reassigned, Waldon said that generally, “DOJ would communicate what their preference is, and then we would deliberate on that conversation.”
President Biden’s son faces scrutiny both by the Justice Department and GOP members of Congress. A plea deal struck between Weiss’ office and Hunter Biden fell through earlier this summer.
Fox News Digital reached out to Ways & Means Committee Democrats and the IRS for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
Elizabeth Elkind is a reporter for Fox News Digital focused on Congress as well as the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and politics. Previous digital bylines seen at Daily Mail and CBS News.
Follow on Twitter at @liz_elkind and send tips to elizabeth.elkind@fox.com
From the messages embedded in our music to the desensitizing violence prevalent in our culture, and even the erosion of moral and ethical values, each contributes to the emergence of a more violent society. (Photo Illustration: sturti/Getty Images)
If you go to Google and type “heinous crimes up with young people,” you’ll see over 2 billion results. It’s a stark reminder that the alarming trend of young people committing gruesome acts isn’t a new phenomenon, but the sheer proliferation and frequency of these acts most certainly is. Our society is grappling with a disconcerting reality—a reality born out of the convergence of various factors. From the messages embedded in our music to the desensitizing violence prevalent in our culture, and even the erosion of moral and ethical values, each contributes to the emergence of a more violent society. It’s a society where individuals no longer temper their darkest impulses, and regrettably, it’s our youth who often find themselves on the front line, manifesting behaviors at an unacceptable rate.
This is a phenomenon that should deeply trouble us all and lead us to pause in concern for the direction in which our society is headed. These young individuals, driven by a cocktail of influences, often react impulsively or, in the gravest of cases, meticulously plan calculated crimes that result in the loss of innocent lives.
We’ve witnessed stories like that of Mackenzie Shirilla, a name etched into the annals of a society grappling with the aftermath of senseless violence. Shirilla was recently found guilty of the murder of her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, and her friend, Davion Flanagan. Their tragic deaths underscore the gravity of the situation we’re facing—a situation where young people are becoming entangled in webs of aggression and desperation. In Shirilla’s case, she purposely sped up her car to 100 mph and drove straight into a wall, instantly killing her boyfriend and friend.
The breakdown of morality in our society is contributing to this disturbing trend. Traditional values that once served as guiding principles seem to be waning, leaving a moral vacuum in which right and wrong are increasingly ambiguous. The erosion of moral foundations means that young people are less equipped to distinguish between ethical choices and destructive actions. The deterioration of ethics further compounds the issue. Ethical conduct is the cornerstone of a civilized society, fostering a sense of responsibility and accountability. Yet, as we witness these disturbing trends among our youth, it becomes evident that the concept of ethics is losing its grip. The pursuit of personal gain, even at the expense of others, has become alarmingly normalized.
As we reflect on these developments, the implications for our future are profoundly concerning. A society that permits the erosion of morality and ethics in its younger generation is sowing the seeds of its own demise. The actions of today’s youth foreshadow the trajectory of tomorrow’s adults. If we fail to address these concerning trends, we risk a future marked by increased violence, social fragmentation, and a dearth of empathy.
It’s time for us to confront these unsettling truths and take meaningful action. By reemphasizing morality and ethics in our families, communities, and institutions, we can recalibrate the moral compass of our youth. This requires an unwavering commitment to fostering values that prioritize human dignity, compassion, and respect for one another. Only through concerted efforts to restore these foundational principles can we hope to guide our society toward a more harmonious and promising future.
This alarming trend of young people exhibiting violence and aggression should serve as an urgent wake-up call for our educational institutions. We must prioritize emotional education alongside academic excellence. By equipping our youth with the tools to manage their emotions, resolve conflicts constructively, and communicate effectively, we can help curb the escalation of anger and violence. It’s imperative that our schools become places not only of intellectual growth but also of emotional well-being and character development.
The rising wave of heinous acts committed by young people underscores the pressing need for a comprehensive societal response. We must address the erosion of morality and ethics, and we must prioritize emotional education within our education system. This is a challenge that requires the collective effort of families, communities, educators, and cultural influencers.
By refocusing on our shared values, investing in the emotional well-being of our youth, and fostering a renewed sense of empathy, we can shape a society that rejects violence and paves the way for a brighter and more harmonious future.
Image via NJ Spotlight News / YouTube (screenshot)
A female prisoner in New Jersey said that she was sexually assaulted by a female-identifying man inside a women’s prison and that the facility has failed to protect prisoners from other transgender inmates. The accused was identified only by his initials in a lawsuit against the New Jersey Department of Corrections that claimed a female inmate was assaulted in September and October 2022, the Daily Mail reported.
The supposed all-female prison, the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women, has been rife with controversy. The latest claim is that there was a lack of “corrective action” taken by prison guards about the “sexually aggressive and harassing behavior of the transgenders.”
The unnamed alleged victim, who has been in prison since 2003, said she reported the assaults by the male inmate to staff but was handed disciplinary action herself as a result. The transgender inmate has reportedly been transferred to a male facility.
The lawsuit also claimed that the department of corrections failed to implement actions to protect inmates after “two female inmates became pregnant from sexual interactions with transgenders.” This likely referred to Demi Minor, a 27-year-old male prisoner who identifies as transgender. He was transferred to a male facility because he had impregnated two inmates at the New Jersey women’s prison.
Another claim made in the lawsuit alleged that transgender prisoners were housed alongside females in areas where there were no security cameras.
In a different lawsuit against the New Jersey Department of Corrections, yet another former inmate at the same prison claimed she was forced to have sex with a male prison guard. The guard was accused of leading the woman into a bathroom, switching off his body camera, and telling the woman he could make her time at the prison “really good” and that she did not “want to leave with missing teeth.”
Governor of New Jersey Phil Murphy publicly stated in 2021 that the prison should be closed due to the consistent abuse scandals. The state’s current budget has now allotted $90 million to close the prison. Projected costs for a new prison are approximately $300 million.
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A North Dakota man was sentenced to prison for running over and killing a teen who he deemed to be a “Republican extremist.” Shannon Brandt, of Glenfield, North Dakota, was initially charged with criminal vehicular homicide. The charge was later upgraded to murder. Brandt, 42, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in May. He was also charged with leaving the scene of the fatality, but it was dismissed in a plea deal.
Brandt was sentenced to five years in state prison for the death of an 18-year-old. A state district court judge gave Brandt credit for nearly a year already served. Following the prison sentence, Brandt will then serve three years’ supervised probation and a yearlong suspension of his driver’s license.
In September 2022, Brandt attended a street dance in McHenry, North Dakota. There was an alleged argument that escalated, according to a police report. Brandt called 911 and informed the emergency dispatcher that he had used his SUV to mow down 18-year-old Cayler Ellingson, according to the affidavit. Brandt allegedly told the dispatcher that he ran over Ellingson because he believed him to be a “Republican extremist,” who purportedly felt was threatening him. Police said there is no evidence that Ellingson was a conservative.
Brandt had reportedly left the crime scene in his vehicle before contacting authorities.
Brandt allegedly told the 911 dispatcher, “I hit him and I didn’t mean to, and he’s subdued, I was scared to death, but he’s subdued, he can’t do anything to me now.”
Brandt purportedly continued, “I almost, oh god, I almost just run away but I thought jeez obviously if it was a total accident I wouldn’t be scared but I know it was more than that.”
Brandt reportedly told the 911 dispatcher that Ellingson “wouldn’t let him leave” and the teen called someone and said “something to the effect of you’re going to have to come here and handle him.”
Ellingson’s final call with his mother was at 2:42 a.m., when he said “something to the effect of they are after me or he is after me,” and the phone call dropped, according to the affidavit.
Prosecutor Kara Brinster said Brandt’s vehicle ran over his torso and legs. An autopsy determined Ellingson was on the ground when he was fatally injured, according to court documents.
Brandt was arrested at his home in Glenfield, and officers found him “visibly intoxicated,” according to the affidavit. Brandt admitted to drinking before the deadly incident, according to police.
Brandt’s lawyer, Mark Friese, told Valley News Live after the sentencing, “Shannon is pleased that the matter is concluded and hopes those affected can begin to heal.”
Ellingson’s mother, Sheri Ellingson, said during the trial, “Shannon, you took a piece of our family that’s not replaceable. When you chose to take Cayler’s life and happiness you took ours too. You have caused our family endless pain, heartache, sleepless nights. Our days, months, and years will never be the same because of your selfishness.”
Brandt told the courtroom before his sentencing, “I’m here to take responsibility for the role I played in this tragedy. I’m very sorry to the Ellingson family, my family, and anybody else that has been affected by my actions. I have always enjoyed seeing the Ellingsons and would never have intentionally caused harm to any of them. I am truly devastated by the impact this has had on the entire community.”
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FIRST ON FOX: House Republican Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., is blasting a “damning photo” showing then-Vice President Joe Biden with his Hunter Biden-linked current adviser aboard an Air Force Two flight during his infamous 2015 trip to Ukraine.
Amos Hochstein, President Biden’s current special presidential coordinator, was apparently in communication with Hunter and Hunter’s associates at Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings when the first son was serving on the firm’s board, according to emails previously reported by Fox News Digital.
A photo taken by White House photographer David Lienemann shows Biden being briefed by Hochstein aboard Air Force Two on his way to meet Ukrainian leaders in Kiev on Dec. 6, 2015, when he threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. aid if they did not fire their top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin.
“This damning picture of then Vice President Joe Biden on Air Force Two en route to Ukraine talking with Amos Hochstein is just further evidence that Biden and senior officials in the Biden Administration not only knew of Hunter Biden’s corrupt foreign business dealings, but also that Joe Biden was intimately involved while Vice President,” Stefanik told Fox News Digital in a statement.
This photo taken by White House photographer David Lienemann shows Vice President Joe Biden being briefed by Amos Hochstein, right, aboard Air Force Two on his way to Ukraine on Dec. 6, 2015. (White House photographer David Lienemann)
“At the time of this photo, Hochstein was in communication with Hunter Biden and Burisma where Hunter served on the board,” she continued. “We also know that this photo was taken on Air Force Two ahead of Joe Biden’s now infamous meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, where Biden threatened to have aid withheld if a Ukrainian prosecutor investigating Burisma was not fired.”
“All evidence points directly to Joe Biden being deeply compromised. House Republicans will leave no stone unturned in our investigations into Biden’s involvement in his family’s influence peddling scheme,” Stefanik added.
President Biden, Amos Hochstein and Hunter Biden (Getty Images)
Hochstein, who served as special envoy and coordinator for international energy affairs under the Obama-Biden administration, was tapped as Biden’s special coordinator for global infrastructure and energy security in August 2021, and he was made special presidential coordinator to Biden in February 2022.
Fox News Digital reported in June that in the summer of 2014, shortly after joining the board of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings, Hunter and his associates at Burisma and his now-defunct Rosemont Seneca Partners discussed speaking with Hochstein for contacts who could help navigate a new tax in Ukraine on private energy companies.
On July 31, 2014, top Burisma executive Vadym Pozharskyi expressed frustration in an email to the group that the Ukrainian parliament had “voted in favor of the package of laws, among which is a draft law on raising the tax for private gas producers.”
Amos Hochstein, senior energy security adviser for the U.S. Department of State, listens as President Biden speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Oct. 19, 2022. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Minutes later, Heather King, who did crisis communications for Burisma at the time and was in frequent communication with Hunter, said she was concerned by the news.
“This news is very concerning,” she wrote. “I assume you will be sending an email to the State Dept today about this? We will also get you connected with the US Embassy contact so you can hopefully meet with the guy Hochstein recommended as soon as possible.”
Nearly two months later, on Sept. 24, 2014, Pozharskyi emailed another communications consultant, Georgette Spanjich, and copied King, Burisma lobbyist David Leiter and Burisma board member Devon Archer, writing that “Ukrainian authorities are still pushing for further legislative initiatives which are going to cause even more damage to the gas industry.”
Amos Hochstein, special envoy and coordinator for international energy affairs, is interviewed in Houston on Aug. 15, 2016. (James Nielsen/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)
“I am genuinely looking forward to your ideas on how we could influence this process,” Pozharskyi wrote. “Please, note that I am going to share this information with the US embassy here in Kyiv, as well as the office of Mr Amos Hochstein in the States.”
On Nov. 13, 2014, seven weeks after Pozharskyi said he would forward Burisma’s response to the Ukrainian tax hike to Hochstein’s office, Hochstein attended a meeting at Biden’s Naval Observatory residence, according to White House visitor logs. The next day, Eric Schwerin, the then-president of Rosemont Seneca Partners, sent Hunter a link, without comment, to Hochstein’s biography on the State Department’s website.
Eric Schwerin sent Hunter Biden a link to Amos Hochstein’s biography on the State Department’s website. (Fox News)
Three days later, on Nov. 17, 2014, Hochstein met with Kathy Chung, according to the White House visitor logs. Chung was Biden’s executive assistant at the time and now serves as the Pentagon’s deputy director of protocol. A few days later, Hunter asked Schwerin to send Hochstein’s contact information to Archer, Hunter’s fellow Burisma board member and a co-founder of Rosemont Seneca Partners.
A couple of weeks later, on Dec. 11, 2014, Hochstein met with Biden and Chung in two separate meetings and later attended a holiday party at Biden’s residence that same day. Four days later, Hochstein attended a “meeting” at the vice president’s residence, according to White House visitor logs.
Four months later, on April 16, 2015, Hochstein met with Biden in the West Wing of the White House, the visitor logs show. That meeting took place the same day that Hunter introduced his father to Burisma executive Pozharskyi and other business associates from Kazakhstan and Russia during a dinner at Café Milano in Washington, D.C., Fox News Digital previously reported. It is unclear whether Burisma or Pozharskyi’s visit to Washington, D.C., was mentioned during that meeting.
Then-Vice President Joe Biden and Amos J. Hochstein, special envoy and coordinator for international energy affairs, talk during the Caribbean Energy Security Summit at the State Department in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 26, 2015. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
The day after the dinner, Hunter received an email from Pozharskyi that read, “Dear Hunter, thank you for inviting me to DC and giving an opportunity to meet your father and spent [sic] some time together.”
Two months later, on June 17, 2015, Hochstein met with Biden twice, according to the visitor logs. He met with Biden again the next month in the West Wing on July 13, 2015, and with Chung again months later on Nov. 2, 2015.
According to a Senate Republican report on Hunter’s business dealings released in December 2020, testimony and public records show that Hochstein in October 2015 raised concerns with both Biden and Hunter that Hunter’s position on Burisma’s board enabled Russian disinformation efforts and risked undermining U.S. policy in Ukraine.
Senior adviser for energy security Amos Hochstein and Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman al-Saud speak after signing bilateral agreements during an investment agreement signing ceremony in the Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah on July 15, 2022. (Amer Hilabi/AFP via Getty Images)
Victoria Nuland, who was serving as assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs in 2015, testified to Congress in 2020 that Hochstein had another conversation about Hunter’s position on Burisma’s board with Biden on the way to Ukraine in 2015, according to the Senate report, during the same plane ride shown in the photograph criticized by Stefanik.
During Hochstein’s testimony in the 2020 report, he recounted that he spoke with Biden about Burisma in the West Wing of the White House in October 2015. According to visitor logs, he visited the White House three times in October 2015, with two of the visits occurring in the West Wing and the other on the second floor of the West Wing.
“We were starting to think about a trip to Ukraine, and I wanted to make sure that he [Vice President Biden] was aware that there was an increase in chatter on media outlets close to Russians and corrupt oligarchs-owned media outlets about undermining his message — to try to undermine his [Vice President Biden’s] message and including Hunter Biden being part of the board of Burisma,” Hochstein told Congress, according to the report.
According to Hochstein, Biden told Hunter about the meeting, prompting Hunter to request a meeting with Hochstein, according to the 2020 Senate Republican report.
“You are all set to meet with Amos on Friday at 4pm for coffee,” Joan Mayer emailed Hunter on Nov. 3, 2015, referring to their Nov. 6 meeting. She later emailed Hunter to let him know the Nov. 6 meeting with Hochstein at a Starbucks in Georgetown had been moved to 3 p.m. Hochstein met with Biden in the White House Situation Room the day before on Nov. 5, 2015, the visitor logs say.
Joan Mayer emailed Hunter Biden to let him know the Nov. 6 meeting with Amos Hochstein at a Starbucks in Georgetown had been moved to 3 p.m. (Fox News)
“Well, he [Hunter] asked me for a meeting,” Hochstein said in his testimony. “I think he wanted to know my views on Burisma and [Mykola] Zlochevsky. And so I shared with him that the Russians were using his name in order to sow disinformation — attempt to sow disinformation among Ukrainians.”
The report said Hochstein “did not go so far as to recommend that Hunter leave the board,” citing an earlier article by the New Yorker.
About a week later, on Nov. 12, 2016, Mayer let Hunter know that he missed a call from Hochstein, adding, “Please call back today if possible.” Hochstein met with Vice President Biden again in the White House Situation Room less than two weeks later, on Nov. 23, 2015.
On Nov. 12, 2016, Joan Mayer let Hunter Biden know that he missed a call from Amos Hochstein, adding, “Please call back today if possible.” (Fox News)
On Dec. 11, 2015, two days after they returned from Ukraine, Hochstein met with Biden in the West Wing.
Biden visited Ukraine from Dec. 7-9, 2015. Three months after the visit, Shokin was fired, and Biden would later use it to boast about his foreign policy skills.
Shokin was investigating Mykola Zlochevsky, the founder and then-president of Burisma Holdings, where Hunter served as a board member from April 2014 to April 2019. Biden’s defenders have said that Shokin was fired not because he was pursuing corruption too aggressively, but rather because he was too lax.
On Dec. 17, 2015, less than a week after his meeting with Biden, Hochstein attended a holiday party at the vice president’s Naval Observatory residence, where Hunter was also in attendance.
Hochstein visited Biden at least another six times in 2016, including the day after Shokin was fired on March 29, 2016.
The Obama administration had pushed for Shokin’s firing, and Biden boasted on camera in 2018 that when he was vice president, he successfully pressured Ukraine to fire Shokin.
“I looked at them and said: I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,” Biden said in 2018, according to a transcript of his remarks at the Council on Foreign Relations. “Well, son of a b—-. (Laughter.) He got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time.”
The White House and the State Department did not respond to Fox News Digital requests for comment.
Jessica Chasmar is a digital writer on the politics team for Fox News and Fox Business. Story tips can be sent to Jessica.Chasmar@fox.com.
Left-wing media were shown to be wrong about “Sound of Freedom” last week when the FBI announced a major child-trafficking bust, less than a month after the film was released. Pictured: The FBI and Chattanooga, Tennessee, police work together on the effort to eradicate the scourge of child trafficking. (Photo: FBI)
While 126 more suspects in child trafficking and child sexual exploitation are eating prison food today, many legacy media outlets are eating crow.
Less than a month after liberal and left-wing media outlets slammed the child sex-trafficking docudrama “Sound of Freedom” for supposedly being a rallying point for “QAnon supporters,”conspiracy theorists, and “Dads with Brainworms,” the FBI announced the arrests of 126 suspects in a massive child-trafficking investigation.
The FBI, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and state and local law enforcement agencies collaborated in “Operation Cross Country XIII,” resulting in the rescue of “59 actively missing children,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a prepared statement on Aug. 1.
Given the increased prominence of child sex trafficking and exploitation over the past two decades in the United States, a rational individual would think that NPR (which receives government funding and passes itself off as an “independent and unbiased” news source) would mention the 22 times it had covered child sex-trafficking arrests in the past decade, but that’s not the case. Instead, NPR featured the criticism of professors who claimed that a movie drawing attention to the evils of child trafficking would make victims “more invisible and more vulnerable to exploitation.”
Is “Sound of Freedom” remotely close to a political hit piece of conspiracy and wacky nonsense that outlets like Jezebel and The Guardian built it up to be? No—not even close. “Sound of Freedom” tells the story of Tim Ballard (portrayed by actor Jim Caviezel), a man who dedicated his life to fighting child sex trafficking—by starting the organization Operation Underground Railroad.
Does NPR at least give the same treatment to other movies it considers “political advocacy” films? No, it doesn’t. NPR recently described the pro-abortion movie “Happening” as “timely and urgent,” free of the bothersome quotes of critics who might take issue with the movie’s portrayal of pro-life and pro-choice cultures.
When reporting on a subject, one might expect relevant data and statistics concerning the subject at hand to figure prominently. None of the outlets that were scathingly critical of “Sound of Freedom” cared to mention the Department of Health and Human Services’ estimates that anywhere from 240,000 to 325,000 women and children are trafficked in the U.S. annually.
While NPR endeavored to find angry professors to quote in its piece, victims of sex trafficking are noticeably absent. Perhaps a victim of the ruthless practice might have a unique perspective on Angel Studios’ portrayal of the subject.
“Fox and Friends” interviewed trafficking survivor Donna Hubbard from Woman at the Well Transition Center, who praised “Sound of Freedom” and called on lawmakers to act on the issue.
Emma Waters, a research associate with The Heritage Foundation’s DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family told The Daily Signal that she isn’t surprised by the Left’s dismissive attitude.
The attempts by mainstream media and leftist outlets to discredit … ‘Sound of Freedom’ are less surprising when you consider four of the main areas that aggravate child sexual exploitation: the porous southern border, unaccountable social media platforms, child pornography, and broken families.
What woke ideologues don’t want to admit is that when people mock the traditional family and encourage soft-on-crime policies, it’s children who suffer exploitation and abuse.
(The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.)
What should be a nonpartisan issue and an open space for praising the brave men and women who rescue children from the horrors of trafficking has become a pointlessly contentious issue because a Christian film studio produced a movie that resonates more with conservatives and independents than the latest “Indiana Jones” movie at the box office.
It took less than one month for “Sound of Freedom” to prove why it was worth making, why we need to be constantly alert, and why Americans continue to lose trust in the legacy media.
FIRST ON FOX:Devon Archer told congressional investigators that Hunter Biden used then-Vice President Joe Biden as “defensive leverage” to send “the right signals” to his foreign business partners, while selling him as “the brand” that offered “capabilities and reach,” as well as a “unique understanding of D.C.”
Archer’s comments came during a transcribed interview before the House Oversight Committee on Monday. Fox News Digital obtained the more than 140-page transcript of Archer’s interview, which took place behind closed doors.
Devon Archer, Hunter Biden’s former business partner, arrives at the O’Neill House Office Building before testifying to the House Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Monday. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Archer told investigators that Hunter Biden used his “very powerful name” to “add value” in pitching and securing foreign business ventures.
Archer said Hunter Biden “would not be so overt,” or “overtly” say “we’re going to use my dad for this,” but instead, Archer said that he would use the name to “get leverage.”
“Defensive leverage that the value is there in his work,” Archer said.
“The value that Hunter Biden brought to it was having — you know, there was — the theoretical was corporate governance, but obviously, given the brand, that was a large part of the value,” he continued. “I don’t think it was the sole value, but I do think that was a key component of the value.”
Devon Archer golfing with Joe Biden and Hunter Biden in 2014. (Fox News)
Archer told investigators that Hunter put his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, on speakerphone while meeting with business partners at least 20 times. Archer described how Joe Biden was put on the phone to sell “the brand.”
“You aren’t talking about Dr. Jill or anybody else. You’re talking about Joe Biden. Is that fair to say?” Archer was asked.
Archer replied: “Yeah, that’s fair to say… Obviously, that brought the most value to the brand… It was Hunter Biden and him,” Archer said. “We would discuss having, you know, an understanding of D.C. and that was a differentiating component of us being able to raise capital.”
Devon Archer, a former longtime business associate of Hunter Biden, is set to testify before Congress.
He added, “It wasn’t as specific as, you know… the vice president’s son, but obviously, the brand carried.”
When asked if Archer and Hunter Biden would tell business partners they had “unique access” because of Vice President Biden, Archer said: “Yes, we would say we had unique understanding of D.C. and how it operates and how that, you know, could positively reflect on the terms of our business.”
Archer served on the board of Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings alongside Hunter Biden beginning in 2014 and received $83,000 a month for his work.
Referring to Burisma, Archer told investigators that Hunter Biden used the “brand” of Joe Biden for having “doors opened,” which “sent the right signals” for Burisma to “carry on its business and be successful.”
“My only thought is that I think Burisma would have gone out of business if it didn’t have the brand attached to it,” Archer said.
When pressed, Archer clarified that he believed Burisma was “able to survive” for as long as it did “just because of the brand.”
“Because people would be intimidated to mess with them,” Archer explained.
“In what way?” Archer was asked.
“Legally.”
From left: President Biden, Hunter Biden and Devon Archer. (Fox News)
President Biden and the White House have repeatedly denied ever being in business with his son, and have repeatedly said Joe Biden never discussed the businesses and never had any knowledge about his son’s business dealings.
But Archer testified that then-Vice President Biden attended dinners with Hunter’s foreign business associates — including with an executive of Burisma Holdings.
One dinner, Archer recalled, took place in the spring of 2014 at Cafe Milano in Washington, D.C.’s Georgetown neighborhood. Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, Archer, Eric Schwerin, the mayor of Moscow’s wife Yelena Baturina and other business partners attended.
That dinner took place just weeks after Baturina wired $3.5 million to Rosemont Seneca Thornton, an LLC linked to Hunter Biden and his associates.
Archer also recalled a dinner in the spring of 2015, again at Cafe Milano. This time, Archer said Vadym Pozharskyi — an executive at Burisma — attended the dinner.
Meanwhile, as for Burisma, Archer testified that he and Hunter Biden attended a board of directors meeting in Dubai on Dec. 4, 2015.
On the sidelines of that meeting, Archer testified that Burisma CEO Mykola Zlochevsky and Vadym Pozharskyi asked Hunter to make a phone call to “D.C” to address “pressure” the company was facing.”
Archer said Burisma had “several pressure issues,” saying that was “kind of a theme” of the company, noting the issues involved 23 million pounds of “capital tied up in London,” U.S. visa issues and the Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who was investigating the firm.
“They requested Hunter, you know, help them with some of that pressure,” Archer said. “You know, government pressure from Ukrainian government investigations into Mykola, et cetera.”
Hunter Biden, left, and Mykola Zlochevsky. (Getty Images)
Fox News Digital previously reported that on Nov. 2, 2015, just weeks before the board meeting in Dubai, Pozharskyi emailed Hunter Biden, emphasizing that the “ultimate purpose” of the agreement to have Hunter on the board was to shut down “any cases/pursuits against Nikolay in Ukraine,” referring to Zlochevsky, who also went by Nikolay.
“The request is like, can D.C. help?” Archer said, adding, however, that the request was not specific to “can the big guy help.”
“It was always this amorphous, can we get help in D.C.?”
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, pressed Archer, saying: “The request was help from the United States Government to deal with the pressure they were under from their prosecutor, and that entailed the freezing of assets at the London bank and other things that were going on in Ukraine?”
“Correct,” Archer said.
When asked why Burisma would ask Hunter for help, Archer said he was “a lobbyist and an expert and obviously he carried, you know, a very powerful name.”
After the Burisma executives asked for help, Hunter “called his dad,” Archer said, adding that he “did not hear this phone call.”
When asked if Hunter Biden calling the vice president of the United States to “do something” about the pressure Burisma was facing would “cause off some serious alarm bells for influence peddling, conflicts of interest,” Archer testified: “Right.”
Archer testified that he was “left out” of “black box D.C. types of conversations.”
But just five days after Hunter Biden called then-Vice President Joe Biden from Dubai, Joe Biden took a trip to Ukraine.
House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
During that trip, the former vice president made a statement: “It’s not enough to set up a new anti-corruption bureau and establish a special prosecutor fighting corruption. The Office of the General Prosecutor desperately needs reform.”
Archer testified on other details related to joint ventures with Hunter Biden.
Meanwhile, Archer was pressed on an FBI FD-1023 form, which contained allegations that Joe Biden and Hunter Biden “coerced” Zlochevsky to pay them millions of dollars in exchange for their help in getting Shokin fired.
Biden has acknowledged that when he was vice president, he successfully pressured Ukraine to fire prosecutor Shokin. At the time, Shokin was investigating Burisma Holdings, and at the time, Hunter had a highly lucrative role on the board receiving thousands of dollars per month.
The then-vice president threatened to withhold $1 billion of critical U.S. aid if Shokin was not fired.
Biden allies maintain the then-vice president pushed for Shokin’s firing due to concerns the Ukrainian prosecutor went easy on corruption and say that his firing was the policy position of the U.S. and international community.
The FBI form said Pozharskyi said the reason Hunter Biden was hired was “to protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems.”
Archer was not familiar with that arrangement and suggested Zlochevsky could have been referring to payments he made to Archer and Hunter Biden.
President Biden and his son, Hunter. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Archer said he was not aware of a $5 million payment to Joe Biden from Zlochevsky and said the Burisma CEO could have been boasting or exaggerating to give “the impression of access.”
Archer’s testimony comes as part of the House Oversight Committee’s months-long investigation, which Republicans say has yielded evidence related to the Biden family’s alleged foreign business schemes — including that the Biden family and its business associates created more than 20 companies and received more than $10 million from foreign nationals while Joe Biden served as vice president.
Meanwhile, the White House released a statement following Archer’s testimony Monday:
“It appears that the House Republicans’ own much-hyped witness today testified that he never heard of President Biden discussing business with his son or his son’s associates, or doing anything wrong,” White House spokesperson Ian Sams told Fox News Digital. “House Republicans keep promising bombshell evidence to support their ridiculous attacks against the President, but time after time, they keep failing to produce any.”
In February 2022, Archer was sentenced to a year and a day in prison for defrauding a Native American tribal entity and various investment advisory clients of tens of millions of dollars in connection with the issuance of bonds by the tribal entity and the subsequent sale of those bonds through “fraudulent and deceptive means,” according to the Department of Justice.
The Justice Department, over the weekend, sought to set a date for Archer’s sentence to begin.
Brooke Singman is a Fox News Digital politics reporter. You can reach her at Brooke.Singman@Fox.com or @BrookeSingman on Twitter.
An international law enforcement investigation has led to the arrest of over 60 people involved in an intercontinental criminal network that, in some cases, transferred female Cuban migrants to criminal groups for sexual exploitation.
According to Europol, the law enforcement agency of the European Union, the criminal network smuggled over 5,000 Cuban nationals into the EU, earning a profit of the equivalent of nearly $50 million. The migrant smuggling network advertised its services to Cubans via a messaging application, organizing their journey to Europe and giving them false documentation. The smugglers flew the migrants from Cuba to Serbia and then Greece before flying them to Spain or Italy.
The network focused on Cubans in “vulnerable situations,” charging them the equivalent of nearly $10,000 for its services. By working with authorities in Germany, Greece, North Macedonia, Spain and Serbia, Europol’s investigation led to the arrest of 62 smugglers, 25 of which were Cuban nationals.
In its statement published Monday, Europol outlined its role in organizing operational meetings and deploying its analysts and a specialist to Spain, Greece and Serbia to offer support on the ground. Europol also provided guidance to the deployed personnel on the day of action in June. The investigation uncovered a “complex criminal infrastructure” set up in major cities across Spain, Greece and Serbia.
“On the action day in June 2023, police officers from all three countries seized a variety of criminal assets including hundreds of forged documents and forgery equipment,” Europol’s statement reads. “In total, 18 pieces of real estate, 33 vehicles and 144 bank accounts, alongside vast sums of cash in various currencies, were seized.”
The investigation began in October 2021 after authorities from Serbia, Greece, North Macedonia and Finland noticed an increase in the number of Cuban migrants seeking to enter Europe with false documentation, according to Europol. In January 2023, Europol, the European Union Agency for Asylum and Frontex issued a joint intelligence notification, which had a subject reading “Cuban nationals smuggled into the EU: shifting routes and modi operandi in a changed geo-political landscape.”
The report noted that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022, has impacted Cuban smuggling routes. While Cuban nationals were previously flown to Russia, they are now flown to Serbia through an airport in Germany, where smugglers arrange for them to enter North Macedonia and Greece.
“Using a variety of routes, the smugglers would direct large groups of migrants and make them walk in the dark without supplies for hours,” Europol explained. “In addition to these arduous conditions, the criminals would take advantage of the most vulnerable migrants, including minors, and subject them to scams, robberies, and extortion. In some cases, women were transferred to other criminal groups for sexual exploitation.”
Migrants would apply for asylum in Greece, or the smugglers would arrange their travel to other EU counties by providing them with forged documents, according to the agency. Sometimes, members of the criminal network used the “lookalike” method to make it possible for migrants to travel in the EU. The method involves stealing documents and giving them to a migrant who resembles the victim of the theft.
Investigations into the smuggling of human beings have become increasingly relevant following the summer release of the film “The Sound of Freedom.” The movie, which has surpassed $100 million at the box office at the time of reporting, depicts a real-life operation to rescue children from sex traffickers in Colombia. The film follows Tim Ballard, a former government agent who left his job and successfully helped facilitate the rescue of 123 individuals, including 55 children.
Hunter Biden’s plea deal fell apart during his first court appearance Wednesday morning as he pleaded “not guilty” and federal prosecutors confirmed the president’s son is still under federal investigation. The president’s son was expected to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax counts of willful failure to pay federal income tax, as part of plea deal to avoid jail time on a felony gun charge.
Hunter Biden arrives to a Federal Courthouse at the Caleb Boggs Federal Building in Wilmington, Delaware, Wednesday, July 26, 2023. President Joe Biden’s son is reportedly expected to plead guilty during the hearing to two federal crimes for not paying taxes on time. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
But Judge Maryellen Noreika did not accept the plea agreement, questioning the constitutionality–specifically the diversion clause and the immunity Hunter Biden would receive. Hunter Biden had been expected to enter into a pretrial diversion agreement regarding a separate felony charge of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.
The judge pressed federal prosecutors on the investigation and questioned whether there was the possibility for future charges, and asked prosecutors if Hunter Biden was currently under active investigation. Prosecutors said he was but would not answer specifically what the president’s son is under investigation for.
Prosecutors on Wednesday, though, said Hunter Biden pleading guilty to the two misdemeanor tax offenses would not immunize him from future charges. At one point, Noreika asked Justice Department prosecutor Leo Wise whether there is an “ongoing investigation here.”
“There is,” Wise said, adding that he could not tell the judge what the investigation was.
Noreika asked if the government could potentially bring a charge related to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), to which Wise replied: “Yes.”
At that point, the original plea deal broke down. Defense attorney Chris Clark said he did not agree with that.
“Then there’s no deal,” Wise said.
Clark countered, “As far as I’m concerned the plea deal is null and void.”
After that, both sides asked the judge for time to negotiate. Noreika left the courtroom for 20 minutes or so and allowed both sides to continue negotiations. Ultimately, Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty because Noreika could not accept the plea deal as it was constructed. She repeatedly expressed her concerns about the constitutionality of the diversion deal related to the felony gun charge, specifying that the main issue with the agreement was that if Hunter breached the deal, the judge would need to make a finding of fact on the matter before the government could bring charges.
Judge Noreika said she saw that as being “outside of my lane,” noting that if the diversion agreement might be unconstitutional, then the entire plea deal would be unconstitutional, meaning that Hunter Biden would not be getting the immunity he thought.
The judge apologized to Hunter Biden near the end of the hearing.
“Mr. Biden, I know you want to get this over with, and I’m sorry,” Noreika said. “But I need to get more information to do Justice as I’m required to do.”
The judge asked for briefings from both sides, but did not set a firm date.
Noreika questioned Hunter Biden on his sobriety and on his business dealings–specifically money that he received from foreign business partners, like Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings and his joint-venture with Chinese energy firm CEFC.
As Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre delivered a statement at the beginning of the daily briefing.
“Hunter Biden is a private citizen, and this was a personal matter for him. As we have said, the president, the first lady, they love their son and they support him as he continues to rebuild his life,” Jean-Pierre said. “This case was handled independently, as all of you know, by the Justice Department under the leadership of a prosecutor appointed by the former president, President Trump.”
She added: “So for anything further, as you know, and we’ve been very consistent from here, I’d refer you to the Department of Justice and to Hunter’s representatives who is his legal team, obviously, who can address any of your questions.”
The developments in the case Wednesday come after IRS whistleblower testimony revealed allegations of DOJ misconduct throughout the years-long investigation into the president’s son. IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler said politics influenced prosecutorial decisions throughout the investigation.
House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith filed an amicus brief to the court, requesting that testimony be considered ahead of accepting the planned plea deal, saying Hunter Biden “appears to have benefited from political interference which calls into question the propriety of the investigation of the U.S. Attorney’s Office.”
“In the interest of full transparency and fairness for all citizens, it is critical for the Court to have this relevant information when evaluating the Plea Agreement,” Smith wrote in the brief.
Meanwhile, on the eve of the court appearance, the judge threatened to sanction Hunter Biden’s legal team after one of his attorneys allegedly lied about who she was while asking to remove IRS whistleblower testimony from the court docket.
The defense, though, denied the allegations and called the incident “an unfortunate and unintentional miscommunication.”
Fox News’ Griff Jenkins and Alexandra Rego contributed to this report.
Brooke Singman is a Fox News Digital politics reporter. You can reach her at Brooke.Singman@Fox.com or @BrookeSingman on Twitter.
In May, TheBlaze reported on a vicious attack outside a Baltimore Planned Parenthood that resulted in an elderly pro-life advocate being severely beaten.
🚨Two proaborts decided to assault me and another pro-life defender outside Planned Parenthood in Washington DC this morning simply for standing on the sidewalk offering resources to families in crisis
Over the weekend, yet another physical attack against pro-life activists outside a Planned Parenthood took place — this time in Washington, D.C. It was caught on video.
According to the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, two D.C.-area pro-life activists — Terrisa Bukovinac, founder and executive director of PAAU, and Michael Gribbin — were assaulted Saturday morning outside the D.C. Planned Parenthood. Bukovinac said the incident began when a woman approached her and threw coffee in her face and hair, adding that when Gribbin tried to grab the woman’s coffee cup, the woman’s male partner assaulted him.
Video shows the man throwing Gribbin to the street surface and repeatedly punching him as well as the woman slapping Bukovinac in the face.
Image source: Twitter video screenshot via @Terrisalin
Image source: Twitter video screenshot via @Terrisalin
Here’s the clip. Content warning: Language:
🚨Two proaborts decided to assault me and another pro-life defender outside Planned Parenthood in Washington DC this morning simply for standing on the sidewalk offering resources to families in crisis
The PAAU said that despite video of the assault, D.C. police have refused to press charges.
“Even as a progressive anti-abortion atheist, I understand that the abortion industrial complex is responsible for a mass genocide which will require immense bravery to dismantle,” Bukovinac said. “Pro-lifers must be committed to total non-violence to effectively challenge the institution of legal child killing around the globe.”
The PAAU said Michael New — a Catholic University of America professor who helps coordinate pro-life efforts outside the D.C. Planned Parenthood — issued a statement that said, in part: “It is sad but unsurprising that the D.C. police have refused to press charges on two individuals who assaulted two pro-life sidewalk counselors outside the DC Planned Parenthood. Pro-lifers have First Amendment rights, and no one should have to fear for their safety while sidewalk counseling. … If Terrisa and Michael wish to file civil charges against their assailants, they would have my enthusiastic support.”
The Daily Caller News Foundation, as part of its report, said D.C. police didn’t immediately respond to its request for comment on the matter.
In regard to the Baltimore attack, police have released surveillance images of a man believed to be in his twenties still wanted for brutally punching and kicking the face of the elderly pro-lifer outside that city’s Planned Parenthood.
Police released surveillance photos of a man wanted for attacking a pair of pro-life protesters outside a North Baltimore Planned Parenthood.
A $2000 reward is being offered for information leading to his arrest. https://t.co/aBZERNOhPK
Devon Archer, a former best friend and business associate of Hunter Biden in Ukraine, is expected to testify under oath to Congress this week that President Biden met with dozens of Hunter’s business associates while he was serving as vice president between 2009 and 2017.
Fox News Digital has confirmed that Archer has been subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee and could testify as early as Thursday, July 27. The expected testimony could cast further doubt on President Biden’s repeated claims that he had no knowledge of his son’s foreign business dealings or of having any influence on them.
Miranda Devine, a New York Post columnist and Fox News contributor, reported Monday that Archer, 48, is expected to tell the House Oversight Committee about meetings he witnessed attended by both Bidens — Hunter and Joe — either in person or via telephone. During the meetings, Hunter would specifically introduce his father to foreign business partners or prospective investors, Archer is expected to testify.
The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Archer to speak as House Republicans continue to investigate whether the Bidens used the influence then-Vice President Biden had in the White House to elicit these deals and other alleged Biden family corruption. The committee told Fox News it believes the president communicated in some form with Hunter Biden’s business associates.
President Biden has snapped at reporters who have asked him about alleged corruption involving him and his son, Hunter Biden. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
“We are looking forward very much to hearing from Devon Archer about all the times he has witnessed Joe Biden meeting with Hunter Biden’s overseas business partners when he was vice president, including on speakerphone,” the committee said in a statement.
The committee invited Archer to testify as he was sentenced last year to one year in prison for his role in a $60 million bond fraud involving various clients. At least three previously planned dispositions were canceled by Archer for personal reasons.
“Joe Biden lied to the American people when he said he knew nothing about his son’s business dealings,” committee chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said in a statement on Monday. “Evidence continues to be revealed that Joe Biden was very much involved in his family’s corrupt influence peddling schemes and he likely benefited financially. This includes deals with a corrupt Ukrainian oligarch and a CCP-linked energy company that generated millions for the Bidens and undermined American interests.”
Comer added, “It certainly appears that Joe Biden and his family put themselves first and Americans last, but corporate media and the Justice Department continue to cover up for the Bidens. The Oversight Committee will continue to follow the facts to provide the transparency and accountability that the American people demand and deserve. We look forward to speaking soon with Devon Archer about Joe Biden’s involvement in his family’s business affairs.”
Devine, also the author of “Laptop from Hell,” reported Archer is expected to testify on specific examples of the elder Biden getting involved in his son’s business deals, including an evening meeting in Dubai on Friday, Dec. 4, 2015, which ultimately saw Hunter Biden meeting with Ukrainian energy company Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky and calling his dad during their conversation. At the time, Burisma was paying Hunter $83,000 a month to serve as a director, Devine reported.
According to Devine, Archer, who was also a director, is expected to testify that the call between Joe, Hunter and Hunter’s business partners came after he and Hunter had dinner with the Burisma board at the Burj Al Arab Hotel. Archer and Hunter reportedly left the meeting and traveled to the Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach when Vadym Pozharskyi, a senior Burisma executive, called them and said Zlochevsky needed to urgently speak with Hunter. The two Ukrainians then reportedly joined Hunter and Archer at the Four Seasons, where Pozharskyi specifically asked Hunter, “Can you ring your dad?”
According to Devine, Archer is expected to testify that Hunter called his father, who was in Washington, D.C., at the time, and introduced the Ukrainians by their first names. Then the younger Biden emphasized that the Burisma executives “need our support.” Then-Vice President Biden acknowledged the Ukrainians, as he did in other calls with Hunter’s business partners, but kept the conversation brief, Archer is expected to testify.
President Biden gives remarks on AI in the Roosevelt Room at the White House on July 21, 2023 in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Devine reported that committee members are likely to ask Archer about the context surrounding that meeting as three days after that conversation, on Dec. 9, 2015, then-Vice President Biden, who was former President Obama’s point man for Ukrainian issues, flew to Kyiv to address the Ukrainian parliament. At the time, Zlochevsky was being investigated by Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin for corruption and, just two months later, Shokin seized four of Zlochevsky’s houses in Kyiv, two plots of land and a Rolls-Royce, Devine reported.
A month after the seizure, then-Vice President Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. aid to Ukraine unless Shokin was fired. Then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko promptly fired Shokin.
Biden later bragged to the Council on Foreign Relations during an event in January 2018, saying, “I looked at them and said, ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money.’ Well, he got fired.”
Members of the House Oversight Committee are expected to ask Archer about the timing of the firing as Shokin was also investigating Burisma at the time.
The New York Post previously reported an email sent on Nov. 2, 2015 that shows Pozharskyi was ratcheting up pressure on Hunter and Archer to use their influence to “close down” Shokin’s investigation into Burisma.
President Biden has repeatedly defended the firing as pointing back to Poroshenko, who said Shokin was corrupt and was slow walking efforts to clear corruption in the prosecutor’s office. Biden and the U.S. were also not the only entities advocating for Shokin to be removed. According to a Congressional Research Service report published in Jan. 2017, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde threatened to withhold $40 billion unless Ukraine undertook “a substantial new effort” to clear corruption in the government. The CRS report said Shokin submitted his resignation in February 2016 and was subsequently removed.
Ukrainian prosecutor general Viktor Shokin was investigating Burisma before he resigned in Feb. 2016. (GENYA SAVILOV/AFP via Getty Images)
However, Just last week, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, released an FBI document describing an allegation that Zlochevsky told an FBI informant he paid a $10 million bribe to Joe and Hunter Biden in 2016 “to ensure Ukraine Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin was fired.” The FBI document, known as an FD-1023, shows Zlochevsky calling Joe Biden “the big guy.” Archer is expected to testify the “big guy” was a title other people in Biden’s circle used to refer to the elder Biden.
According to Devine, Hunter Biden’s former business partner in Los Angeles, Tony Bobulinski, also met with Hunter and Joe. In an email sent to Hunter, Bobulinski refers to then-Vice President Biden as “the big guy.”
Archer also is expected to tell the committee about other instances — as many as two dozen times in Archer’s presence — where Hunter called his father and put him on speaker to impress prospective investors, Devine reported.
His testimony is expected to include information about dinners Hunter organized, so his father could meet his foreign business partners, Devine wrote. A Fox News Digital review found that Biden personally met with several of Hunter’s business associates from the U.S., Mexico, Ukraine, China and Kazakhstan over the course of his vice presidency. Joe Biden met with two of Hunter’s since-dissolved investment fund partners, former Colombia President Andrés Pastrana Arango and Eric Schwerin, at the Naval Observatory — the official residence of the vice president — on March 2, 2012, the New York Post reported.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, right, hosted then-Vice President Joe Biden for official talks in Kyiv, Ukraine, Jan. 16, 2017. (Vitaliy Holovin/Corbis via Getty images)
According to emails reviewed by Fox News Digital, the elder Biden also met with two of Hunter’s Mexican business associates, Miguel Aleman Velasco and Miguel Aleman Magnani, when they visited the West Wing on Feb. 26, 2014. Joe and Hunter Biden also gave Velasco and Magnani a tour of the White House Brady Press Briefing room.
Emails reviewed by Fox News Digital, also showed Hunter arranged a video conference with his father and Carlos Slim, a Mexican billionaire with whom Hunter was seeking to do business with at the time, on Oct. 30, 2015.
Joe, Hunter, and Hunter’s business partner Jeff Cooper hosted another meeting at the Naval Observatory, located at Number One Observatory Circle in Washington D.C., for Slim, Velasco and Magnani on Nov. 19, 2015. At the time, Hunter and Cooper were interested in investing in a Mexican energy company with the business executives, the Daily Mail reported.
In February 2016, Hunter and Cooper flew on Air Force 2 to Mexico City, where Hunter wrote an email to Magnani that he would be personally attending a meeting between Joe and then-Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. In the same email, Hunter said Magnani had not spoken to him “for months” despite Hunter delivering “on every single thing you’ve ever asked,” which included bringing guests to meet his father.
“I have brought every single person you have ever asked me to bring to the F’ing White House and the Vice President’s house and the inauguration and then you go completely silent,” Hunter wrote in the email. “I don’t know what it is that I did but I’d like to know why I’ve delivered on every single thing you’ve ever asked – and you make me feel like I’ve done something to offend you.”
Hunter Biden’s business associates thanked him for introducing them to his father Vice President Joe Biden in emails found on the younger Biden’s laptop. (Kris Connor/WireImage)
Joe Biden also attended a dinner with Hunter’s business associates from Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Russia at the Georgetown restaurant Café Milano in Washington, D.C., on April 16, 2015, emails from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop show. One such email from Hunter to Archer shared a guest list for the dinner, which included Burisma’s Pozharskyi, late Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov and his wife, Russian billionaire Yelena Baturina, who was in business with Hunter’s Rosemont firm. It is not clear if these individuals ultimately attended the dinner.
The day after the 2015 meeting, Pozharskyi emailed Hunter thanking him for introducing him to his father.
Devine reported that Archer is expected to answer questions from the committee about these Café Milano meetings.
A close associate of Archer’s said he believes it is his “civic duty” to testify before the committee, Devine reported.
According to Devine, the associate said Archer has “nothing to hide, no revenge to enact nor anyone to protect other than his family and he feels he has been handcuffed by the absurdly bogus [fraud] case into remaining silent. In a forum where he has immunity he can at least start to speak truth.”
Fox News’ Gillian Turner, Chad Pergram and Jessica Chasmar contributed to this report.
Image Source: KCAL-TV YouTube video screenshot composite
A shocking report linked the brutal beating of a 14-year-old female student at a California middle school with the defunding of police. The KCAL-TV report featured an interview with the mother of the victim from Sun Valley Middle School in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
“It’s very heartbreaking, and it makes me upset every time I watch it,” said the unnamed mother to KCAL.
The video was posted to social media and shows two female students beating and kicking the victim numerous times. A teacher at first tried to separate them but eventually he gave up and watched on as the beating continued. The report said she received as many as 35 blows.
“I’m at a loss of words, this is disgusting,” said the mother.
KCAL reporter Ross Palombo confronted the teacher, Evan Diamond, but he did not want to speak to them about the incident. When asked if he had seen the video that was posted all over social media, he said he didn’t want to see it.
“I don’t want to see it, it was a terrible experience,” said Diamond.
The victim’s mother told KCAL that the teacher had spoken to her and admitted that he didn’t know what to do when the girls became violent.
“He said ‘I tried to do what I could, I cannot touch the students, and I would like more training on how to restrain a child, or what can I do in this situation?'” the mother said.
The report went on to document how the police force had been defunded over the last two years.
… from 2020 to 2022, the L.A. Unified School Board defunded its police force, dramatically cutting its budget from $73 million ($72,533,821) down to $59 million ($59,149,486) — nearly 20 percent (18.45%). The number of sworn officers was also cut by 33 percent. The entire police department was cut from 468 to 321 employees.
The family of the victim said that they intended to sue the district over staff negligence that allegedly led to their daughter being harmed.
Here’s the video report from KCAL-TV:
KCAL Investigates: 14-year-old brutally attacked in front of teacher at Sun Valley school www.youtube.com
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Moms for Liberty cofounders Tiffany Justice, left, and Tina Descovich, right, blamed the Southern Poverty Law Center for some of the death threats they have received after the SPLC put their organization on a “hate map” alongside KKK chapters. Pictured: Justice and Descovich speaking at the inaugural Moms For Liberty Summit on July 15, 2022 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo: Octavio Jones/Getty Images)
Images in this article contain swear words.
FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Moms for Liberty has received countless death threats, but the messages spiked after the Southern Poverty Law Center put the parental rights group on its “hate map,” its cofounders say.
“It gave people permission to treat us as subhuman,” Tiffany Justice, one of the group’s cofounders, told The Daily Signal. She accused Moms for Liberty’s critics of trying “to whip people up into such a frenzy that they end up sending death threats to me and to the members and our children.”
“Designating us as a hate group gives people permission to dehumanize us, and the SPLC knows it,” Justice added.
The SPLC brands mainstream conservative and Christian organizations “hate groups,” placing them on a map with chapters of the Ku Klux Klan. In June, it added a slew of parental rights organizations to that “hate map” for 2022 and labeled them “antigovernment groups,” part of an “anti-student inclusion movement.”
As I wrote in my book “Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center,” the SPLC has faced multiple scandals and defamation lawsuits. In 2019, after the SPLC fired its cofounder amid a racial discrimination and sexual harassment scandal, a former employee called the hate accusations a “highly profitable scam.” In 2012, a now-convicted terrorist targeted the Family Research Council for a mass shooting, using the “hate map” to identify his target. The SPLC condemned the attack but kept the council on the map ever since.
Protesters mobbed the Moms for Liberty summit in Philadelphia, held June 29-July 2, citing the SPLC accusation. They also cited a Moms for Liberty chapter which apologized after quoting Adolf Hitler to illustrate that the Nazis tried to brainwash and recruit children.
Tina Descovich, the other cofounder, exclusively shared many of the death threats her organization received after the SPLC’s accusation.
“I will personally eradicate you from Massachusetts,” one person wrote to the organization’s “Contact Us” page. He condemned Moms for Liberty as “nasty sows.”
One person, who gave the name “Execute All-Nazis,” wrote, “Piece of s— fascists like you deserve to be dragged against a wall and force-fed hot lead. Eat s— and die.”
“You women have no soul, no morals, for quoting Adolf Hitler in your newsletter,” another threat-sender wrote. “The state should remove your kids and/or grand kids from your homes. Evil, evil, evil people you are!”
Another threat appeared to reference the SPLC. “You are NOTHING But a bunch of F—ING C—S who should be F—ING DESTROYED AS AN EXTREMEST [sic] GROUP YOU F—NG BIGGOTED [sic] C—S,” the person wrote.
A person who gave the name “Satan Anti-Christ” wrote that Moms for Liberty “will answer for the crimes YOU committed against our LGBTQ children (legally of course).”
“We are Legion.”
Another person merely wrote, “Eat s— and die.”
Descovich shared other voicemails, emails, and “Contact Us” responses that included vile threats against the family members of Moms for Liberty, and she said the group has received many, many more.
“I send them to law enforcement,” Descovich said.
“The SPLC is purposely putting a target on all moms’ backs—all moms that are standing up for their children,” she added.
She mentioned the FRC shooting as evidence of how the SPLC’s demonization inspires hate and could spark violence.
“I don’t think you have to look any further than at the Family Research Council and how they were threatened by a shooter because of the designation as a ‘hate group,’” Descovich argued.
Despite the threats, Descovich said Moms for Liberty will stand firm.
“We ask ourselves all the time, ‘If not us, then who?’” she said. “The future of our children and our country is too important to stay silent. Generations of Americans have sacrificed their own lives to protect our liberty and freedom and we will not back down.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the threats or the accusation that its attack gave “permission” for them.
Nearly a dozen current and former officials serving in the White House and Biden administration, including the president’s national security adviser and the secretary of state, have extensive ties to Hunter Biden, who is accused by Republicans of selling access to his father, dating back over a decade.
A Fox News Digital analysis reveals the extent of Hunter’s potential reach in the White House, while the embattled first son is expected to make his first court appearance on July 26 for two alleged misdemeanor tax violations and a felony gun charge.
The Justice Department announced last month that Hunter had entered a plea agreement in the case that will likely keep him out of jail. U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware David Weiss, who led the investigation, is facing demands from Republicans probing alleged improper retaliation against whistleblowers who claimed the probe was “influenced by politics” and that Weiss was “hamstrung” when making prosecutorial decisions.
The analysis includes two members of Biden’s Cabinet and one former Cabinet member, a top aide to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, a national security adviser, five top Biden White House aides, and a top Biden campaign aide who is currently on leave from her role as a communications director for first lady Jill Biden.
Jake Sullivan
Hunter Biden and President Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, served together on the board of the Truman National Security Project, a liberal foreign policy think tank, for roughly two years before Sullivan joined the president’s campaign in 2020.
President Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, left, Hunter Biden, President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken (Getty Image)
Hunter, who started serving on the board in 2012, and Sullivan both served on the Washington-based nonprofit’s board between 2017 and early 2019, according to internet archives captured by the Wayback Machine.
During that time, Hunter was also serving on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings and the Chinese private equity fund BHR Partners. The federal investigation into Hunter’s foreign business dealings, which is still ongoing, also launched during the same time frame in 2018.
Sullivan was recently accused by former White House official Mike McCormick of being a “conspirator” in the Biden family’s “kickback scheme” in Ukraine when Biden was vice president.
Sullivan denied the allegations, telling reporters that he had nothing to do with such an operation.
Jake Sullivan, left, and Hunter Biden (Getty Images)
Antony Blinken
Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a meeting with Hunter Biden at the State Department in July 2015 when he was serving as the deputy secretary of state in the Obama-Biden administration and Hunter was on Burisma’s board, according to emails previously reviewed and verified by Fox News Digital.
The meeting was two months in the making after Hunter emailed Blinken in late May 2015, asking, “Have a few minutes next week to grab a cup of coffee? I know you are impossibly busy, but would like to get your advice on a couple of things.”
Blinken said “absolutely” and Hunter forwarded Blinken’s full email response to Devon Archer, who was also serving on the Burisma board with him. However, the initial meeting appeared to have been canceled due to the admission of Hunter’s older brother, Beau Biden, to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland because of a recurrence of brain cancer. Beau passed away on May 30, 2015.
Antony Blinken emails with Hunter Biden on May 22, 2015. (Fox News)
Less than two months later, Blinken and Hunter met, prompting Blinken to send a follow-up email saying it was “great to see” Hunter and “catch up.”
“You will love this,” Antony Blinken wrote to Hunter Biden on July 22, 2015, “after you left, Marjorie, the wonderful african american woman who sits in my outer office (and used to be Colin Powell’s assistant) said to me: ‘He sure is pleasant on the eyes.’ Tell you wife. Tony.” (Fox News)
In April of this year, former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell testified to the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees that Blinken, as President Biden’s then-campaign senior adviser, “played a role in the inception” of the public statement signed by intelligence officials claiming Hunter’s abandoned laptop was part of a Russian disinformation campaign just weeks before the 2020 presidential election.
Blinken denied having any role in getting the letter signed by members of the intelligence community and claimed, “One of the great benefits of this job is that I don’t do politics and don’t engage in it. But with regard to that letter, I didn’t – it wasn’t my idea, didn’t ask for it, didn’t solicit it.”
Emails from Hunter’s infamous laptop that Blinken allegedly sought to discredit show that Hunter has ties to Blinken and his wife, Evan Ryan, dating back over a decade. Those emails also show that Hunter scheduled meetings with Blinken while he was on the board of Burisma and Blinken was deputy secretary of state.
Multiple profiles pieces over the years said Blinken has advised Biden on more than just foreign policy in his decades-long friendship with the president and serving as a confidant. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., President Biden’s re-election campaign co-chair, told CNN in 2021, “President Biden is personally close to both Tony Blinken and Evan Ryan and Tony has been an incredibly loyal, capable and effective adviser, staffer and personal friend of the sort that is rare in Washington.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Hunter Biden (Getty Images)
Evan Ryan
Evan Ryan, Blinken’s wife who is currently serving as White House cabinet secretary, communicated frequently with Hunter and his longtime business partner, Eric Schwerin, when she was working at the White House during the Obama-Biden administration.
Hunter tried to connect with Blinken on June 16, 2010, when he asked Ryan for his non-government email address, according to emails. Ryan, who also worked on Biden’s unsuccessful 2008 presidential campaign, then provided Blinken’s personal email address to Hunter.
It appears that Hunter Biden tried to connect with Antony Blinken on June 16, 2010, when he asked Blinken’s wife, Evan Ryan, for his non-government email address. (Fox News)
White House visitor logs also show that Schwerin, who was the president of Hunter Biden’s investment firm Rosemont Seneca Partners for several years, met with Ryan at the White House’s Old Executive Office Building (OEOB) in October 2010.
She was also in communication with Hunter and Schwerin about a couple of White House events that year, including the Mexico State Dinner and the annual “Easter Egg Roll.”
“OVP has 250 tix to the Easter Egg Roll and your Mom has an additional 200. Family, etc is coming out of your Mom’s allotment,” Schwerin said in the email to Hunter, referring to Blinken’s wife. “Evan is handling your Dad’s and we can pass on names to her for outreach purposes. Let’s discuss. I don’t think we have 50 spots, but if we had 20 or so names we’d probably be fine.”
Eric Schwerin sent Hunter Biden an email about two upcoming White House events and mentioned that he talked with Evan Ryan, Blinken’s wife, about tickets to the events. (Fox News)
“More importantly, OVP has 12 spots to fill for the Mexico State Dinner in May and needs to send in their names by Monday,” he continued. “Evan is looking for any suggestions. Hispanic Americans or just any outreach related suggestions. Obviously they won’t have trouble filling this number but is still looking for suggestions.”
A couple of months later, Hunter and Ryan exchanged emails about the Mexico State dinner guest list, and she sent him the seating chart for his table.
(Fox News)
Evan Ryan and Antony Blinken have ties to Hunter Biden dating back over a decade. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Fox News Digital previously reported several other ties between Hunter and Ryan.
Jeff Zients
White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, who led the federal COVID-19 pandemic response between early 2021 and April 2022, met Hunter multiple times in 2016, according to emails and White House visitor logs.
Zients met with Hunter Biden twice in February 2016 and on another occasion in May 2016, just months before Biden, the vice president at the time, was set to leave the White House.
Former Joe Biden aide Anne Marie Muldoon invites Hunter Biden to a meeting with Zients and his father in July 2016. (Fox News)
Hunter Biden’s former business partner Joan Mayer sends him his schedule on Feb. 12. It includes a meeting with his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, Jeff Zients and David Rubenstein. (Fox News)
Biden attended the first two meetings, which both took place at the U.S. Naval Observatory, where the vice presidential residence is located.
Hunter Biden’s business partner Joan Meyer sends him his schedule on Feb. 23. (Fox News)
Additionally, Anne Marie Muldoon, who was an assistant for then-Vice President Biden between 2014-2017, sent Hunter Biden an invitation to attend a potential fourth meeting with his father, Zients, David Bradley, a Washington, D.C.-based political consultant and chairman of media group Atlantic Media, and Eric Lander at the Naval Observatory on July 12, 2016. While it is unclear whether Hunter Biden joined the meeting, Muldoon sent him a copy of the meeting agenda after it took place.
Kathy Chung
Kathy Chung, who is currently serving as the Pentagon’s deputy director of protocol, communicated frequently with Hunter when she was serving as Biden’s executive assistant during the Obama administration.
Throughout much of her five-year tenure working for Biden, Chung regularly shared information with Hunter about his father’s schedule and passed messages directly from the then-vice president, according to emails.
Chung’s relationship with Hunter also appears to date back to before she worked for his father. The emails showed that Hunter recommended Chung for the executive assistant role when the previous holder of the job, Michele Smith, departed the White House in the spring of 2012.
A month after Chung thanked Hunter for “thinking” of her and getting her to apply for a job in the vice president’s office, Chung emailed Hunter Biden informing him that she had been offered the job.
Kathy Chung informs Hunter Biden that Vice President Biden had selected her to be his executive assistant. (Fox News)
“I cannot thank you enough for thinking about me and walking me thru this,” she said. “What an incredible opportunity! Thanks, Hunter!!”
In another email exchange shortly after the Obama-Biden administration concluded, Hunter suggested that Chung come work at his company. It does not appear that she ever joined Hunter’s company.
Hunter Biden tells Kathy Chung she should work for him in February 2017, adding that he can “make everyone money.” (Fox News)
Chung made headlines in January after she was reportedly questioned by federal investigators as part of the probe into the president’s handling of classified documents.
Ron Klain
Biden’s former White House chief of staff, Ron Klain, who stepped down in February, previously served as the chief of staff for Vice President Biden until the end of January 2011. In September 2012, Klain reached out to Hunter for help in raising $20,000 for the Vice President’s Residence Foundation (VPRF), telling him to “keep this low low key” to prevent “bad PR,” according to emails Fox News Digital previously reported on.
“The tax lawyers for the VP Residence Foundation have concluded that since the Cheney folks last raised money in 2007 and not 2008, we actually have to have some incoming funds before the end of this fiscal year (i.e., before 9/30/12 – next week) to remain eligible to be a ‘public charity,'” Klain, who had left his chief of staff position in Vice President Biden’s office a year earlier but was the foundation’s chairman at the time, said in an email to Hunter.
“It’s not much – we need to raise a total of $20,000 – so I’m hitting up a few very close friends on a very confidential basis to write checks of $2,000 each,” Klain continued. “We need to keep this low low key, because raising money for the Residence now is bad PR – but it has to be done, so I’m trying to just collect the 10 checks of $2,000, get it done in a week, and then, we can do an event for the Residence Foundation after the election.”
Hunter then forwarded the email to Schwerin, who helped manage a majority of Hunter’s finances, and the two discussed donating to the foundation, though it’s not clear what was ultimately decided.
Klain’s career with Biden dates back to his failed presidential campaign in 1988 and serving as counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Former White House chief of staff Ron Klain (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Elizabeth Alexander
Elizabeth Alexander, the communications director for first lady Jill Biden who went on temporary leave in May to help lead the messaging arm of Biden’s re-election campaign, also has ties to Hunter.
In 2014, Alexander, who served as Biden’s spokesperson when he was a senator and the vice president, reached out to praise Hunter for his statement after he was kicked out of Navy Reserve for testing positive for cocaine.
“Hey Hunter – just wanted to write you a quick note to say David and I are thinking of you,” she wrote in an email. “Your statement was perfect and gracious. Sending you a virtual hug from both of us and hoping you can get some peace this weekend.”
Alexander is married to David Wade, a former State Department staffer who helped advise Hunter with rapid response as he was receiving increased public scrutiny regarding his lucrative position with Burisma.
Emails uncovered by Fox News Digital last month showed Hunter’s firm, Rosemont Seneca Partners, was paying Wade for communications consulting, and he strategized with Hunter and his partners on how to respond to inquiries by the Wall Street Journal and New York Times.
Wade has visited the White House at least five times during Biden’s presidency, according to visitor logs.
Annie Tomasini
Annie Tomasini, an assistant to the president and the current director of Oval Office operations, was in frequent communication with Hunter, referred to him as her “brother” and often ended her emails with “LY” for “love you,” according to emails dating from 2010 to 2016.
Biden publicly announced on Dec. 20, 2010, that Tomasini was stepping down to take a position with Harvard University, and Tomasini kept Hunter clued in on the details of that position before she took it, according to emails. The month prior, on Nov. 19, 2010, she forwarded information to Hunter about Harvard’s employee benefits and added, “Thanks.”
Annie Tomasini, director of Oval Office operations, left, follows President Biden on the South Lawn of the White House before boarding Marine One on May 17, 2023. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Hey – I looked at benefits And they look pretty amazing. Any word on comp?” Hunter responded on Nov. 23, 2010.
“I’ll keep you posted. Thanks for looking at all the background Hunt,” Tomasini replied.
Tomasini was offered the job on Nov. 30, 2010, writing to Hunter, “Director of intergovernmental relations. > 120k ish – may be a little higher.”
She later thanked him and said she was going to tell his father the news. Months later, Hunter gave a speech at Harvard, but not before running the draft by Tomasini first.
Tomasini has accompanied Biden and Hunter to Camp David twice in the past few weeks.
Michael Donilon, a current senior adviser to Biden who served as his chief campaign strategist in 2020, was on dozens of emails with Hunter and other members of Biden’s inner circle coordinating strategy meetings throughout the 2012 campaign, mulling over a 2016 presidential bid, and later plotting Biden’s endeavors post-vice presidency.
In August 2015, Schwerin shared a Politico article with Hunter that says Donilon and a few other advisers from Biden’s inner circle, including Hunter, are the only ones “involved in the real decision-making.”
An email from February 2016 showed that Hunter, Donilon and a few others were also involved in the planning stages for the Biden Foundation. And shortly after Biden left office in 2017, Hunter, Donilon and others in his inner circle were invited to a meeting at Biden’s residence in McLean, Virginia, according to emails.
Days later Hunter, Donilon and several others were invited to a meeting at Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, home where classified documents were recently discovered. The meeting took place on Feb. 7, 2017, the same day it was announced that the former vice president would be leading the Penn Biden Center at the University of Pennsylvania, where classified documents were also found, and the Biden Institute at the University of Delaware.
Donilon accompanied Biden a few months ago on the trip to Ireland, which included Hunter and Biden’s sister, Valerie Biden Owens.
Steve Ricchetti
Steve Ricchetti, who currently serves as Biden’s White House counselor, was also on dozens of emails with Hunter dealing with strategy meetings and helping Biden with post-VP life.
Fox News Digital reported last year that Schwerin visited the White House at least eight times in 2016, meeting with Ricchetti at least twice when he was serving as Biden’s chief of staff.
Morell, the former CIA deputy director who testified in April, said he received a call in October 2020 from Ricchetti, who was serving as the chairman of Biden’s campaign at the time, following the final debate against then-President Donald Trump, when Biden said the Hunter laptop was a “Russian plant” and a “bunch of garbage.”
Morell said the call from Ricchetti was to thank him for spearheading the letter signed by intelligence officials that tried to debunk the laptop.
Steve Ricchetti, counselor to the president, gestures after playing a round of golf with President Biden at Wilmington Country Club in Delaware on April 17, 2021. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
Louisa Terrell
Louisa Terrell, who is serving as assistant to the president and the director of the Office of Legislative Affairs, communicated with Hunter dozens of times during the Obama-Biden administration, with some of the correspondence including Schwerin on the emails.
In February 2014, Terrell emailed Hunter and Schwerin, saying, “So nice to catch up over lunch – thank you. Enjoy the snow day and talk soon.”
Louisa Terrell, White House legislative affairs director, walks with Steve Ricchetti to a House Democrat caucus meeting at the U.S. Capitol on May 31, 2023. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Another email chain from late 2014 through early 2015 shows that she reached out to Hunter for help in getting her daughter into Sidwell Friends School, one of the most expensive and elite PK-12 schools in the country, which includes both of former President Obama’s daughters and some of Biden’s grandchildren as alumni.
“Thank you for agreeing to speak with Sidwell about Olivia’s application to next year’s 7th grade class. I recognize how busy you are and appreciate you making the time to chime in with Bryan,” Terrell said in February 2015. “Below is some logistical information and some background on why Olivia is a good fit for Sidwell. Let me know if this is helpful and/or you need some additional information.”
“[Bryan] was very cordial/ nice – sent me two emails – one saying he received my message and email and a second that was more personal acknowledging that he also spoke to Chris and others who had weighed in on behalf of Olivia and he hopes it all works out etc…” Hunter said. “Very nice – looking forward to having dinner sometime soon – but didn’t give any thing up in the way of real information.”
Less than two weeks later, Terrell emailed Hunter saying her daughter got into Sidwell and added, “Thank you so so much for your help. I hope you know how much I appreciate it. Thank you, thank you!”
Terrell has worked for Biden going back as early as 2001 and served a two-year stint as executive director at the Biden Foundation, according to her LinkedIn profile.
The White House, Biden’s campaign and Hunter Biden’s lawyer did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
Fox News’ Joe Schoffstall and Thomas Catenacci contributed to this report.
Jessica Chasmar is a digital writer on the politics team for Fox News and Fox Business. Story tips can be sent to Jessica.Chasmar@fox.com.
“Sound of Freedom” follows the true story of Special Agent Tim Ballard who specialized in catching
sex criminals, particularly in regard to the exploitation of children on the internet. But Tim is challenged early in the film by the seeming futility of catching criminals when real children’s lives are at stake. Years of looking at the darkest side of humanity has broken his heart to pieces, and the only way he can see to rebuild his humanity is by liberating the lost and forgotten victims of the sex trafficking network. He goes on a quest to South America to do just that.
Jim Caviezel plays Ballard. His classic no-frills acting approach is perfect for this role. Caviezel is best known for playing Jesus in Mel Gibson’s controversial “The Passion of the Christ.” He brings the same level of intensity and compassion from this role to Ballard’s story. In fact, Ballard’s mission to seek and save lost children is a distinctly Christian value based on the theological principle that each child is uniquely beloved by God.
When Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me,” he was making a revolutionary claim. Children, the most vulnerable and dependent members of society, had a special place in his kingdom. They mattered to him in a way that no other religious founder has ever envisioned. The faith of a child was the type of faith Jesus wanted from his followers — one free from the pollution and cynicism of adulthood, one of total dependence on their Heavenly Father.
These values aren’t universally understood and accepted. Ballard’s story is proof of that. According to the movie, the child sex industry brings in $150 billion dollars every year. This industry is powerful and is not nearly as niche as we would like to think it is. While its visible activists are milquetoast perverts we can easily jail, the invisible perpetrators are the ones who do the real damage — the cartels, drug lords, and even our own politicians enable the child sexual slavery that is more prominent now than ever before.
At the end of the film, Caviezel addresses the viewers and makes the point that this story isn’t about a movie production or even about Ballard. It’s about the children — lost, invisible children who suffer in the depths of hell every single day. While the rich and powerful try to indoctrinate us with critical race theory and other ideological moralisms, true victims suffer in literal cages and chains.
The children are by far the best and worst part of this film. The two lead child actors are heart-wrenchingly perfect — a brother and sister who have been ripped apart by this evil industry. I’ve never seen such realistic and effective acting from children. Thankfully, the film only ever implies the atrocious things that are done to them, but in some ways that makes it even more disturbing. Our imaginations torture us, and they should torture us on this issue — more than visual depictions could.
And that is what makes the child acting simultaneously the worst thing about this film. All the children seem like genuine children. None of them look like actors — they are presented to us with complete realism. If you have anything even resembling a conscience, watching these children is an utter tragedy. It is painful to see their pain on full display.
This film might not depict anything visually distasteful, but it is not for the weak-hearted and is difficult to watch. It is honest about what this world is and does. I heard crying throughout the entire theater audience — it is beyond moving. At the end of the film, I wanted to clap, but it felt inappropriate. It was similar to watching “Schindler’s List.” What exactly are we celebrating by clapping for films like this? The heroism I suppose, but it doesn’t feel right. Silent repose seemed to be the most appropriate response.
The film itself is magnificently produced. The direction by Mexican filmmaker Alejandro Monteverde is fantastic and is tonally similar to the brilliant “Sicario.” However, the best part of the production is the score. It is full of the voices of children, which gives voice both to the lament of evil and the hope in the midst of it. And despite the pain, there is much hope in this film.
Children have been freed from chains due to the efforts of people like Ballard. That hope should inspire us all to action. We cannot act out of guilt or shame that we have not done more already. Instead, we must move forward in the hope that justice will be brought to this evil. It is possible to seek and save those who are lost.
During his message in the credits, Caviezel explains that “Sound of Freedom” is supposed to call a sleeping nation to seek justice for the oppressed. The United States is actually one of the largest consumers of child sex trafficking — a large part of the responsibility is in our own backyard.
So what can we do about it? First and foremost make sure people see this film. Angel Productions has even provided free tickets online. This story can change people’s hearts and inspire them to do something about child slavery. It is a call to action.
Early on in the film, Caviezel looks at a pedophile he’s using to try to find some of the lost children, and he quotes Jesus: “If anyone causes these little ones to stumble, it would be better for them if a millstone were hung around their neck.”
The current culture war is all about children. Children are the most important thing in the world. We cannot allow our world to be dominated by child sexual abuse. We must help. To quote the film, “God’s children are not for sale.”
A.C. Gleason is a proud alumnus of Biola University and Talbot Seminary. He teaches philosophy full-time. His writing has appeared in numerous outlets including Hollywood in Toto, The Daily Wire, and The Imaginative Conservative.
The suspect accused of gunning down five people in a mass killing on Monday is reportedly a Black Lives Matter activist and cross-dresser.
Shortly before 8:30 p.m. on Monday, the killer opened fire on a street in a southwest Philadelphia neighborhood, killing five people and injuring two others. The killer allegedly used an AR-15-style weapon and a handgun, wore body armor and a ski mask, and targeted victims randomly. Police officers chased and cornered the suspect, taking the individual into custody without issue.
The suspect, a 40-year-old male, posted pictures of himself to social media wearing women’s clothing just three months ago, according to the New York Post. The individual also repeatedly posted in support of Black Lives Matter. It’s not exactly clear how the suspect “identifies,” but law enforcement is using “they/them” pronouns to refer to the suspect. CNN reported:
The Philadelphia district attorney’s office is using they/them pronouns to refer to the suspect based on “information we have at this time,” a spokesperson for the office told CNN. Philadelphia officials previously used he/him pronouns for the suspect during a Tuesday news conference.
The suspect faces more than 30 criminal charges, including five counts of murder, five counts of attempted murder, 10 counts of assault, 10 counts of recklessly endangering another person, and four counts of weapons charges.
City officials, including Mayor Jim Kenney (D) and District Attorney Larry Krasner (D), decried supposedly lax gun laws the day after the mass killing. Krasner, moreover, specifically attacked Republicans, claiming they are “against” the “safety” of citizens because they support Second Amendment rights. It’s not clear what laws would have prevented Monday’s atrocity. Neither Krasner nor Kenney offered suggestions, though Krasner suggested that Pennsylvania should adopt strict gun control laws similar to those in neighboring New Jersey.
The suspect has a criminal history that includes a 2003 arrest for possession of a weapon without a license, carrying a firearm in public, and drug possession, the Post reported. The individual later pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm without a license, receiving three years’ probation, while the other charges were dropped.
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The first trans-identified legislator elected in the United States was charged with distributing images of child sex abuse in connection with another case involving a woman accused of taking sexually explicit photos of preschool-age children.
On Monday, Sgt. John Cinelli, the public information officer for the Nashua Police Department in New Hampshire, provided The Christian Post with a statement detailing the arrest of 39-year-old former Democratic state Rep. Stacie Laughton. Laughton previously served in the New Hampshire House of Representatives from 2020 to 2022.
Police arrested Laughton Thursday on a felony arrest warrant, charging him with the distribution of child sex abuse images. The former representative was also charged with three additional counts of distribution of child sex abuse images.
Police arrested Laughton after responding to a “local facility for a juvenile matter” on Tuesday, where they spoke with reporting parties who accused Laughton of distributing images of child sex abuse. Laughton was held on preventative detention. Cinelli told CP that the former lawmaker was held at the Hillsborough County Jail in Manchester. He couldn’t confirm whether Laughton was still there because the case was no longer within the department’s jurisdiction.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts confirmed to CP Monday that an investigation is ongoing. The spokesperson did not provide further details about the connection between Laughton and Lindsay Groves of Hudson, who allegedly took sexually explicit photos of children at the Creative Minds Early Learning Center in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts, where she worked.
According to the U.S. Justice Department’s Thursday statement, Groves was charged with one count of sexual exploitation of children and one count of distribution of child pornography. Between May 2022 and June 2023, Groves allegedly took nude photos of the children at the facility during bathroom breaks and diaper changes. At least four of the photos contain images of children believed to be around 3 to five 5 old.
The suspect reportedly sent the photos to her partner, but sources have yet to confirm whether Laughton is the partner who received the images. Groves is believed to have sent over 2,500 text messages to her partner discussing the photos and their transfer.
“The charge of sexual exploitation of children provides for a sentence of at least 15 years and up to 30 years in prison, at least five years and up to a lifetime of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000,” the DOJ statement reads. “The charge of distribution of child pornography provides for a mandatory minimum sentence of five years and up to 20 years in prison, a mandatory minimum of five years and up to a lifetime of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.”
“Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case,” the statement continued.
WMUR9 reported Friday that Laughton waived his arraignment and was ordered to be held due to concern that he is a threat to himself and the public. The Creative Minds Early Learning Center is cooperating with investigators and parents are demanding answers.
“I want to know how entangled my daughter is with all of this,” one parent, Rosemary Denommee, told the outlet. “I don’t know if I’ll get those answers.”
The child sex abuse charges are not the first time that Laughton has faced legal troubles. While he has been elected to the State House three times, he has been forced to resign twice. In 2012, Laughton became the first trans individual to win a New Hampshire State House election, but he could not take office due to a 2008 credit card fraud conviction, according to WMUR9. Laughton was also accused in 2015 of calling in a fake bomb threat. In 2022, he was accused of misusing the state’s emergency texting system by texting 911 during non-emergencies. In 2022, Laughton was accused of stalking Groves, who he identified to police as his wife. Groves is facing federal charges in Massachusetts and is set to appear for an arraignment on Wednesday.
Image source: Twitter video screenshot via @StopXXErasure
Cellphone video captured the rather scary moment when a lone woman holding a sign defending female rights found herself surrounded by a pro-LBGTQ mob that ganged up against and got physical with her over the weekend. The clip was posted to Twitter by K. Yang, who said she’s a “former trans rights activist & LGBT non-profit whistleblower.” Yang said the incident occurred Sunday in Washington Square Park during a New York City Pride event.
“I was just kicked, hit, pushed, mobbed by dozens of people,” Yang wrote, adding that men who identify as women “called me ‘bitch’ and assaulted me.”
Image source: Twitter video screenshot via @StopXXErasure
Indeed, the clip shows Yang encircled by a large crowd of smiling pro-LBGTQ individuals who seemed empowered by their shared ideology and started taunting and yelling at Yang — and there was the obligatory middle finger close to her face. But when that failed to convince her to cave, put her sign down, and walk away, a few of the mob members came in physical contact with Yang — from behind, of course — as they reached for her sign.
Image source: Twitter video screenshot via @StopXXErasure
Image source: Twitter video screenshot via @StopXXErasure
Yang hollered for the mob to stop touching her. Still, one mob member rammed a cup of liquid against Yang’s head:
Image source: Twitter video screenshot via @StopXXErasure
The same woman with the cup also made attempts to get at Yang’s sign:
Image source: Twitter video screenshot via @StopXXErasure
Finally, an individual sporting a clown-red shock of hair somehow found the courage to bat down Yang’s sign (again, from behind), which really got the crowd going:
Image source: Twitter video screenshot via @StopXXErasure
This tolerant trio appeared decidedly pleased:
Image source: Twitter video screenshot via @StopXXErasure
Here’s the video. Content warning: Language:
NYC Pride – 6/25/2023 My name is K. Yang, I'm a former trans rights activist & LGBT non-profit whistleblower. I was just kicked, hit, pushed, mobbed by dozens of people in Washington Square Park. ♂️ who identify as ♀️ called me "bitch" & assaulted me. @KnownHeretic@bjportraitspic.twitter.com/4J9AaFXSEf
— Stop Female Erasure / K Yang (@StopXXErasure) June 25, 2023
Hundreds of suspicious packages containing white powder and threatening notes have been sent to GOP lawmakers in three states where Republicans have recently passed legislation unpopular with fringe LGBT activists, such as laws protecting children from sex-change mutilations and puberty blockers. The latest was addressed to Montana House Speaker Matt Regier, bearing exterior post markings that “follow the pattern of the other letters.”
It appears that not only has the same stamp been used in a number of instances, but the names of slain or prominent transvestites have been repeatedly inscribed on the letters, reported the Wichita Eagle.
Kansas
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation noted that as of June 18, around 100 letters containing suspicious white powder had been received by Republican lawmakers and other public officials across the state.
“Preliminary tests have returned from this lab indicating the substance is presumptively negative for common biological agents of concern. Further and more complete testing will be conducted on this sample, as well as on additional letters that have been collected, in an effort to determine the components of the substance,” said the KBI in a statement.
“Our focus remains on ensuring the safety of Kansans, and holding those responsible for these crimes accountable,” said KBI Director Tony Mattivi. “The KBI is so appreciative of the incredible coordination and outstanding response by countless federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, as well as by fire departments, and hazmat teams to this unprecedented event.”
17 hazmat teams and 12 bomb squads initially responded upon the receipt of the threatening letters. Over 60 special agents, forensic scientists and other specialists have been tasked with collecting or screening evidence.
While the KBI has not publicly identified a motive, State Rep. Tory Marie Blew, among those targeted, told CNN that Kansas Republicans’ successful overrides of Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s vetoes on bills — including a bill banning transvestites from women’s sports teams from kindergarten through college and another bill that defined an individual’s sex as that comporting with biological reality — may have drawn the ire of those behind the letters.
Kansas Rep. Stephen Owens agreed that Republican lawmakers may have been targeted as a result of their legislative successes on the transgender and abortion fronts.
“It’s really terrifying to think that because of someone’s political beliefs that they can be a target,” said Owens. “Violence and acts of violence and threats do absolutely nothing, nothing to change one’s perspective. As a matter of fact, that strengthens the resolve of myself and my colleagues and of our party to continue the work that we’re doing.”
The names of dead transvestites were reportedly written on the back of the letters sent to both Owens and Blew.
This intimidation campaign was not limited to Kansas.
Tennessee
On June 22, threatening letters containing white powder sent to Republican lawmakers in Tennessee prompted a temporary lockdown of the sixth floor of the Cordell Hull Building, a legislative office building connected to the state Capitol in Nashville, reported the Associated Press. Firefighters with the Nashville Fire Department were among those who responded to test the substance.
Our personnel responded to a suspicious letter call at the Cordell Hull Building. They donned protective suits and air tanks to test the substance. @THPNashville@FBI@DHSgov have personnel on the scene investigating. We have made no transports and have no reports of injuries. pic.twitter.com/D2WCEDcTig
House Republican Caucus spokeswoman Jennifer Easton said the letters “contained obvious threats made by a liberal activist specifically targeting Republicans.”
The FBI indicated it is looking into the Tennessee incident, reported KECI.
Montana
Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte (R) noted Friday that “Montana legislators are receiving anonymous, threatening letters containing white powder.”
I've received disturbing reports that Montana legislators are receiving anonymous, threatening letters containing white powder. The state will bring to bear whatever resources are needed to support law enforcement officers as they investigate.
— Governor Greg Gianforte (@GovGianforte) June 24, 2023
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen revealed Friday that his mother, state Rep. Rhonda Knudsen, had opened one such letter addressed to her at her home address, which contained a white powder substance.
Rep. Knudsen said, “I will not be intimidated by these kinds of tactics.”
House Majority Leader Sue Vinton and Rep. Neil Duram were also among the Montana Republicans targeted.
The letter addressed to state Rep. Neil Duram (R), an image of which was obtained by KECI, appears to be written in various fonts.
“Salutations, to honor your recent accomplishments I send to you a gift from the exclusive astruc Baruch collection,” says the letter. “It is important not to choke on your ambition.”
The letter is signed, “your secret despiser.”
SUSPICIOUS LETTERS: State Rep. Rhonda Knudsen (R-Culbertson) and State Rep. Neil Duram (R-Eureka) reportedly received anonymous, threatening letters today that contained a white powder. Full story: https://t.co/8LVc6TGLeJpic.twitter.com/rVqStY4UUR
The Montana Senate GOP indicated Sunday that another suspicious letter had been identified, this time addressed to House Speaker Matt Regier.
A third suspicious letter has been identified. This one was addressed to House Speaker Matt Regier and exterior post markings follow the pattern of the other letters. Speaker Regier's letter is now in the possession of law enforcement. #mtleg#mtpol
— Montana Senate Republicans (@MTSenateGOP) June 25, 2023
Further afield, cybercriminals attacked the Texas city of Fort Worth’s computer systems over the weekend, citing the state’s restrictions on child sex-change mutilations as cause.
TheBlaze previously reported that the alleged hackers stated in a recent Telegram post concerning the Fort Worth attack, “We have decided to make a message toward the U.S. government. It just happens to be one of the largest states banning gender affirming care, and for that we have made Texas our target.”
Lawmakers in 3 states receive letters with suspicious powder | WNT youtu.be
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Everyone was assured by Democrats and our always helpful media that the sticky sweet plea deal for Joe Biden’s lowlife son Hunter was proof positive that “NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW!!!1!1!”
ABC “The View’s” Sunny Hostin: “It shows no one is above the law, which is important, not even the president’s son.”
Obama 2012 deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter: “[I]t shows that no one is above the law and what taking responsibility looks like.”
Washington Post: “The sitting president’s son being held accountable for underpaying his taxes illustrates that no one is above the law in the U.S. system.”
And now look: overwhelming evidence that actually, no, Hunter Biden apparently is above the law. And that’s not just when he’s high on crack.
The House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday released the transcript of an interview with high-level IRS investigating agent Gary Shapley who testified that the Justice Department, under both presidents Trump and Biden, “provided preferential treatment, slow-walked the investigation, did nothing to avoid obvious conflicts of interest in this investigation” into Hunter’s shady, questionable as hell business dealings. Included in Shapley’s exhaustively detailed testimony was a 2017 text message uncovered in the years-long investigation from Hunter to a member of the Chinese Communist Party.
“I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled,”Hunter wrote. It’s not clear what transaction he was referring to, but like the nasty little weenie that he is, he used his daddy’s status as a high-profile political figure to threaten the communist. “[I]f I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.”
Hunter mentions “my father” more frequently than David French gets off to Ukraine.
Throughout Shapley’s testimony, he names lawyers and officials within the IRS and FBI who admitted there was enough evidence to trigger more intensive investigations into Hunter (search warrants), which would, in turn, likely lead to criminal prosecutions (tax fraud), but that time and time again, they declined to pursue the matter.
“[W]hatever the motivations, at every stage decisions were made that had the effect of benefiting the subject of the investigation,” Shapley said, referring to Hunter. “These decisions included slow-walking investigative steps, not allowing enforcement actions to be executed, limiting investigators’ line of questioning for witnesses, misleading investigators on charging authority, delaying any and all actions months before [the 2020 election] to ensure the investigation did not go overt well before policy memorandum mandated the pause.”
He said his supervisors repeatedly deferred to the Justice Department regarding the investigation’s progress and that the DOJ consistently denied advancements and even tipped off Hunter’s lawyers as to what information the government knew, giving him a chance to conceal more incriminating material or concoct some feasible defense.
The New York Times reacted to this explosive testimony by noting that“Taken at face value, the message would undercut President Biden’s longstanding claims that he had nothing to do with his son’s international business deals.”
But that’s only if you take it at “face value,” folks!
The president knew what his son was doing. He was complicit and probably profited from it. The only reason we don’t know for sure is because, according to Shapley’s testimony, FBI agents deliberately avoided asking witnesses about it. On the one occasion that an agent did ask Hunter associate Rob Walker about Joe Biden, Walker said he believed Hunter had orchestrated a business meeting wherein his dad made a quick appearance for the purposes of bolstering the chances of “making a deal work out.”
“And, inexplicably,” Shapley said, after Walker confirmed this, “the FBI agent changed the subject.”
“The law” isn’t applied by artificial intelligence. It’s applied by people. And those people make decisions based on their predispositions. If those predispositions are to protect the ones who in turn protect the people applying the law, then it’s not equal justice. This is otherwise known as “The Way Washington Works.” If you’re in, you’re in. If you’re not, expect the FBI, the IRS, and every other federal agency to bear down until your last breath.
Hunter Biden’s attorney is responding to testimony from an IRS whistleblower who claims that the agency obtained a WhatsApp message in which the president’s son invoked his father’s name.
IRS Criminal Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley Jr., who oversaw the agency’s investigation into Hunter Biden, claims the agency obtained a message from WhatsApp dated July 30, 2017, from Hunter Biden to Henry Zhao, CEO of Harvest Fund Management, where the president’s son claimed that he was with his father in an attempt to pressure Zhao to fulfill a commitment.
“I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight,” Hunter Biden allegedly wrote.
Christopher Clark, an attorney for Hunter Biden, said in a statement to Fox News Digital that the claims are very misleading.
President Biden has snapped at reporters who have asked him about alleged corruption involving him and his son, Hunter Biden. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
“Biased and politically-motivated, selective leaks have plagued this matter for years. They are not only irresponsible, they are illegal. A close examination of the document released publicly yesterday by a very biased individual raises serious questions over whether it is what he claims it to be. It is dangerously misleading to make any conclusions or inferences based on this document,” Clark said. “The DOJ investigation covered a period which was a time of turmoil and addiction for my client.”
Clark also said that “[a]ny verifiable words or actions of my client in the midst of a horrible addiction are solely his own and have no connection to anyone in his family.”
Hunter Biden appears at a state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted by President Biden and first lady Jill Biden at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“An extensive, five-year long investigation conducted by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) concluded this week, which resulted in my client taking responsibility for two instances of misdemeanor failure to file tax payments, as well as a firearm charge, which will be subject to a pretrial diversion agreement. As his attorney through this entire matter, I can say that any suggestion the investigation was not thorough, or cut corners, or cut my client any slack, is preposterous and deeply irresponsible,” he added.
“And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction,” the alleged WhatsApp message from Hunter Biden said.
“I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father,” he said.
Hunter Biden appears at a state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted by President Biden and first lady Jill Biden at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Mark Lytle, an attorney for Shapley, told Fox News on Friday that his client “wanted to just bring this out to the public as a whistleblower in a protective fashion so that everybody could judge it.” Lytle also noted that according to Shapley, the WhatsApp messages were obtained through a search warrant.
“It’s important to note that this WhatsApp message did not come from the laptop or any nefarious source. Gary Shapley testified that they did a search warrant. They got a hold of Hunter Biden’s iCloud account and they did a search warrant to Apple, to the Apple Cloud, where they accessed Hunter Biden’s WhatsApp messages, Imessages and other information. And so this is credible. This comes from a credible source, and it’s information that’s very relevant to the dealings with the Chinese energy company and the income that Hunter Biden received,” Lytle said.
In response to the whistleblower allegations, Ian Sams, a spokesperson for the White House Counsel’s Office, told Fox News that the president wasn’t involved with his son in business.
World Food Program USA Board Chairman Hunter Biden, left, and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden attend the World Food Program USA’s Annual McGovern-Dole Leadership Award Ceremony at Organization of American States in Washington, D.C., on April 12, 2016. (Teresa Kroeger/Getty Images for World Food Program USA)
“As we have said many times before, the President was not in business with his son. As we have also said many times before, the Justice Department makes decisions in its criminal investigations independently, and in this case, the White House has not been involved. As the President has said, he loves his son and is proud of him accepting responsibility for his actions and is proud of what he is doing to rebuild his life,” Sams said.
Fox News’ Brianna Herlihy and Jon Street contributed to this report.
Adam Sabes is a writer for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to Adam.Sabes@fox.com and on Twitter @asabes10.
First responders found four children secreted behind a transvestite party in South Boston over the weekend, featuring a corpse, drugs, and sex toys, according to city officials. A fire department report obtained by the Boston Herald and confirmed by police indicated that firefighters were dispatched Saturday morning to the city-run Mary Ellen McCormack Housing complex after being told a man had gone into cardiac arrest and desperately needed medical attention.
The Herald reported that the Boston Fire Department crews performed CPR on the man, but were unable to revive him. City Councilor at-large Michael Flaherty, public safety chairman on the council, indicated the man had succumbed to “an apparent overdose.”
A BPD spokesman told the Herald, “At about 11:11 AM, on Saturday, June 17th, officers responded to the area of 381 Old Colony Avenue for a death investigation. District Detectives handling, not suspicious, no further information.”
While the nature of the man’s passing was not suspicious, his environment certainly was. According to the incident report, “The apartment was in extremely unsanitary conditions. Approximately 6 adults, who appeared to be males, were seen in the apartment.” WCVB-TV notedthe men were dressed up in women’s clothing.
City Councilor Erin Murphy told WFXT-TV that there was “a lot of drug paraphernalia and sex toys all around and then one of the firefighters said that they heard a cry for help.”
The men, at least one of whom was “wearing a wig,” were reportedly uncooperative and denied that there were children inside the apartment. Despite their alleged protestation, firefighters found “four children in the back bedroom being hidden by an adult male from first responders.” The children were ages 5 to 10. First responders reportedly indicated that the children were likely being abused and neglected.
Nick Collins, the Democratic state senator who represents the area, stated in a Facebook post, “No child should be exposed to what these children are alleged to have been exposed to.”
The Department of Children and Families informed WFXT that the children who live in the home were taken into DCF custody. Fire crews had prompted this secondary rescue by filing a 51A “Report of Child(ren) Alleged to be Suffering from Abuse or Neglect.”
Boston City Council president Ed Flynn said of the first responders’ findings, “This horrific and inhuman incident demands accountability! It also underscores the need for a complete review of @BHA_Boston inspections and eviction practices, security efforts in developments and protocols to ensure children are safe in every BHA apartment.”
Councilor Murphy noted on Twitter that a hearing had been scheduled for later in the month to review Boston Housing Authority safety protocols regarding the properties under their management.
The safety of children in our @BHA_Boston is a responsibility I take as seriously as the safety of my own children. I look forward to the Hearing Order we filed regarding safety protocols & procedures in BHA Housing to ensure the safety & wellbeing of our truly most vulnerable.… pic.twitter.com/1qiERBvrJb
The BHA told WCVB that it had received no prior complaints about the unit where this all reportedly took place.
Democratic Gov. Maura Healey, presently working to update Massachusetts’ grade-school curriculum to more broadly incorporate gender ideology, said this is “just heartbreaking — a terrible situation.”
4 young kids found in ‘extreme unsanitary conditions’ at Boston apartment youtu.be
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A 12-year-old girl alleged that she was raped in a middle school bathroom in October 2021, but the incident was not brought to light until the girl’s mother discovered her diary entry about the attack, according to the Post Millennial.
In Rio Rancho, New Mexico, the young girl was washing her hands in what was described as a girls’ restroom at the ASK Academy middle school. At that point a male came into the bathroom and allegedly walked over to the girl, pinned her against the counter, and wrestled her onto the floor. After allegedly hitting her head, he also reportedly held the girl down and raped her.
“I was raped. I was raped. I was raped. F***ing kill me,” the girl, who is being referred to as Ray, reportedly wrote in her diary. The discovery of the passage by her mother, being referred to as Maggie, explained the shift in mood and mental health that her daughter had inexplicably been going through.
The daughter had been exhibiting signs of grief, anxiety, and depression. She was also put in therapy, as the mother insisted that the girl must have been bullied at school.
Months after the alleged incident, parents pressed the girl about the diary entry, and the young girl admitted that the attack took place. The family took the girl in for a physical exam and began questioning the school. The mother reportedly concluded that the alleged horrific act was only made possible because the school embraced gender ideology.
“We learned that kids were pledging allegiance to the Pride flag instead of the American flag,” Maggie said. “We learned that some teachers were discussing daily the normalcy of transgender people and gender dysphoria and that this school had a higher population than anyone would expect for such a small school of kids saying they were trans and parents not knowing.”
The young girl also reportedly said the school pushed a far-left culture that pressured her to accept men in women’s spaces. The students were allegedly taught to avoid improperly “judging” transgender people.
The Independent Women’s Forum asked ASK Academy CEO Edward Garcia for comment and clarity on the bathroom policies. Garcia reportedly responded that the school is an “inclusive learning environment for all students” and added the school does “not discriminate against any student.”
Garcia denied claims that sexual harassment and assault were commonly trending at ASK Academy. Garcia allegedly did not respond when asked if girls’ facilities are open to biological boys.
The now 13-year-old girl doesn’t hold sympathy for similar transgender-inclusive situations and said, “By them saying the only thing that matters is how they feel and not how I feel is very selfish of them.”
“If they want their own bathroom, then gladly get your own bathroom. If you want your own sports, get your own sports. If you want to be included, be included in your own way that doesn’t cause danger to everyone else,” she added.
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Sen. Ron Johnson to Newsmax: Hunter Plea Deal Attempt to Keep Truth From Public
By Brian Freeman | Tuesday, 20 June 2023 02:46 PM EDT
The Hunter Biden plea deal for failing to pay federal income tax and illegally possessing a weapon is highly suspicious and appears to be an attempt to keep the truth from the American public, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told Newsmax on Tuesday.
“The timing is more than interesting — just as we find out about a credible source claiming a $5 million to $10 million bribery scheme and [Hunter’s business associate] Devon Archer poised to testify before the House committee,” Johnson told “National Report.”
“Is this the Justice Department’s attempt to try and seal this all up and keep the truth from the American public? This is what I fear.”……………..
To hear President Joe Biden’s supporters tell it, Hunter Biden was finally held accountable Tuesday, and the long national nightmare of him facing any scrutiny at all can finally end.
This accountability for the president’s son, however, was little more than a chiding for offenses that have virtually nothing to do with the serious allegations the Department of Justice should actually be pursuing — like giving a speeding ticket to “the getaway driver after a bank robbery,” George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley remarked.
Over the past two weeks alone, congressional Republicans have revealed a paid, “highly credible” FBI informant’s report that $10 million was paid in bribes to Hunter and his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, by Ukrainian oligarch and Burisma founder Mykola Zlochevsky.
Zlochevsky called the then-vice president “the big guy,” a nickname also used in the Biden family’s allegedly corrupt China dealings. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, revealed the existence of two audio recordings Zlochevsky reportedly made of Joe Biden (and another 15 he made of Hunter) discussing their dealings, which Zlochevsky reportedly kept as a sort of “insurance policy” that he’d get what he was paying for.
What was he paying for? Emails from the chairman of Burisma (revealed three years ago) show “the ultimate purpose” of “the deliverables” was “to close down for any cases/pursuits against [Burisma’s president] in Ukraine.” That case was indeed closed down, when Vice President Biden pressured Ukraine to fire the prosecutor pursuing Burisma.
Congressional investigators also revealed that Hunter helped Burisma executives open an account for their transactions at Satabank,……….
President Joe Biden’s corrupt Department of Justice is so desperate to distract from Republicans’ exposé of the Biden family bribery scandal that it finally brought a handful of weak charges against Hunter Biden for his tax and gun crimes.
Under the guise of serving equal justice, the DOJ announced on Tuesday that it would charge the president’s youngest son with two federal misdemeanor counts for failing to pay his taxes and one federal felony charge for possessing a gun while being an illegal drug user and addict.
Hunter’s lawyers are scrambling to declare “the five-year investigation” into their client as “resolved.” Corporate media like NBC News, similarly, claimed the DOJ’s “resolution suggests that prosecutors did not find cause to file charges related to Hunter Biden’s dealings with foreign entities or other wrongdoing.”
Nothing could be further from the truth. Just like when it strategically timed its political arrest of a Republican congressman to coincide with a GOP press conference detailing evidence of Biden corruption, the DOJ is working overtime to ensure that Hunter serves as a distraction from the bigger Biden problem.
Since at least 2021 when Politico exposed records and receipts, the public has known that Hunter, who has an extensive and public history of illicit drug use, appeared to lie about this drug use on the Firearms Transaction Record he filled out during a revolver purchase in 2018.
Government officials such as local police, the Secret Service, FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, likely knew about the lie earlier than 2021 since the .38 revolver soon became the center of a missing gun investigation, in which the Secret Service reportedly tried to interfere on behalf of the Biden family.
Similarly, most of the preliminary federal investigation into Hunter’s 2017 and 2018 financial wrongdoings was completed by 2020.
Yet, U.S. Attorney David Weiss delayed bringing charges against Hunter because, as Politico described, “the investigation would become a months-long campaign issue” that would hurt Biden’s presidential chances. It wasn’t until Republicans’ increasingly evidenced probe into the Biden bribery scheme, which the Biden administration continues to hamper, that Weiss finally decided to target the president’s son.
What a breathtaking and damaging act of misdirection. After five years of investigation into a host of criminal acts by Hunter Biden, the Department of Justice (DOJ) finally brought charges against the president’s wayward son. But while the DOJ hopes the public focuses on words like “charges” and “guilty” to form an image of accountability for all, it’s letting Hunter walk away with the kind of slap on the wrist most defendants can only dream about from inside a prison cell.
In the same breath in which DOJ announced it was filing charges against Hunter Biden, it also stated that the case had already been resolved. Hunter will plead guilty to and serve probation for two tax fraud misdemeanors while a felony firearm possession charge will disappear after he completes pretrial diversion. It’s a resolution that if the defendant’s last name weren’t Biden would sound almost too good to be true.
The feds are notoriously tough on firearms. Nationally, for example, 94.2 percent of federal firearms convictions in 2022 involved some prison time, and the median sentence was 39 months.
Of course, Hunter won’t even have to end up with a conviction. This is an even rarer event. In 2021, fewer than 1 percent of cases filed by U.S. attorneys in federal court resulted in the kind of pretrial diversion offered to Hunter.
It’s that disparity between Hunter’s case and everybody else’s that’s the true problem, not necessarily the sentence itself. After all, the law in question, which prohibits individuals suffering from an illegal drug addiction from possessing a firearm, likely violates the Second Amendment. Plus, diversion programs across the country have improved public safety at lower cost to taxpayers than prison alternatives.
But that’s clearly not how things are shaking out in practice at DOJ, and President Biden has expressed an ongoing willingness to harshly punish firearms offenses. His DOJ is defending this law in court, and he signed a law in 2021 to increase maximum penalties from 10 years to 15 years in prison. Apparently, President Biden does not believe offenders should be treated with kid gloves — at least when it’s not his kid.
The Bidens allegedly “coerced” a foreign national to pay them $10 million in bribes, according to individuals familiar with the investigation into the FBI’s handling of the FD-1023 confidential human source report. What, if anything, agents did to investigate these explosive claims remains unknown, however, with sources telling The Federalist the FBI continues to stonewall.
On Monday, Sen. Chuck Grassley revealed a foreign national — identified by individuals with knowledge of the matter as Burisma founder Mykola Zlochevsky — allegedly possessed 17 recordings implicating the Bidens in a pay-to-play scandal. While 15 of the audio recordings consisted of phone calls between Zlochevsky and Hunter Biden, two were of calls the Ukrainian had with then-Vice President Joe Biden, according to the FD-1023.
The Federalist has now learned the FD-1023 reported the CHS saying the Bidens “coerced” Zlochevsky to pay the bribes. Sources familiar with the investigation also explained the context of Zlochevsky’s statements, and that context further bolsters the CHS’s reporting.
In the FD-1023 from June 30, 2020, the confidential human source summarized earlier meetings he had with Zlochevsky. According to the CHS, in the 2015-2016 timeframe, the CHS, who was providing advice to Zlochevsky, told the Burisma owner to stay away from the Bidens. Then, after Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential contest, the CHS asked Zlochevsky if he was upset Trump won.
Zlochevsky allegedly told the CHS he was dismayed by Trump’s victory, fearing an investigation would reveal his payments to the Biden family, which included a $5 million payment to Hunter Biden and a $5 million payment to Joe Biden. According to the CHS, the Burisma executive bemoaned the situation, claiming the Bidens had “coerced” him into paying the bribes.
The CHS responded that he hoped Zlochevsky had taken precautions to protect himself. Zlochevsky then allegedly detailed the steps he had taken to avoid detection, stressing he had never paid the “Big Guy” directly and that it would take some 10 years to unravel the various money trails. It was only then that Zlochevsky mentioned the audio recordings he had made of the conversations he had with Hunter and Joe Biden, according to the CHS.
The broader context of this conversation adds to the plausibility of Zlochevsky’s claims that he possessed recordings implicating the Bidens. And we already know from Grassley and House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer that the FBI considered the CHS, who relayed Zlochevsky’s claims to the FBI, a “highly credible” source.
Further, according to individuals familiar with the investigation, the FBI admitted the CHS’s intel was unrelated to the information Rudy Giuliani had provided the Western District of Pennsylvania’s U.S. attorney’s office — the office then-Attorney General William Barr had tasked with reviewing any new information related to Ukraine.
Sources told The Federalist that investigators out of the Pittsburgh office, in addition to reviewing Giuliani’s information, searched internal FBI databases and came across an earlier FD-1023 related to the CHS. That earlier FD-1023 then led to agents questioning the CHS on June 30, 2020, uncovering the details concerning Burisma’s alleged bribery of the Bidens.
What the FBI did to investigate the allegations is unknown, with sources telling The Federalist the bureau refused to either confirm or deny that the DOJ under Barr sent the FD-1023 to Delaware for further investigation. On the contrary, the FBI allowed Rep. Jamie Raskin, ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, to falsely represent to Americans that Barr and Pittsburgh U.S. Attorney Scott Brady had closed the investigation. Raskin’s deceit, tolerated by the FBI, forced Barr to publicly correct the record.
The FBI is also refusing to provide any information on what, if any, steps it took to investigate the detailed claims contained in the FD-1023. But sources familiar with investigative procedures maintain there was insufficient time between the June 30, 2020, interview of the CHS and the FBI headquarters’ closing of an assessment related to the FD-1023 in August 2020 to properly probe the matter. “They couldn’t have done much,” one source said.
There is also no independent confirmation from Delaware indicating any investigative steps were taken regarding the FD-1023. Agents in Delaware “could have sat on it,” according to one individual familiar with the investigation.
While the FBI’s efforts to unwind the pay-to-play scheme seem to have been nonexistent, banking records released in May by the House Oversight Committee show congressional investigators are unraveling the complex web behind the Biden family business. Those records provide concrete evidence of a pattern of public corruption involving foreign nationals, with Joe Biden at the helm. There are still more banking records to review, along with the many details recently discovered when the whistleblower came forward with the FD-1023.
Apparently, Zlochevsky wasn’t far from the mark when he said it would take 10 years to unravel the complex payment path that led to Joe Biden.
Margot Cleveland is The Federalist’s senior legal correspondent. She is also a contributor to National Review Online, the Washington Examiner, Aleteia, and Townhall.com, and has been published in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prize—the law school’s highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Cleveland is a former full-time university faculty member and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time. As a stay-at-home homeschooling mom of a young son with cystic fibrosis, Cleveland frequently writes on cultural issues related to parenting and special-needs children. Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity.
Photo by Teresa Kroeger/Getty Images for World Food Program USA
Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa said that a Ukrainian energy company executive involved in the alleged Biden bribery scheme had secret audio recordings of Hunter Biden and Joe Biden. Grassley, who is the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Monday that the Burisma executive had a total of 17 secret recordings, and two of them are with Joe Biden, who was vice president under former President Barack Obama at the time. The other 15 recordings were of conversations with Hunter Biden.
Grassley made the claims in a speech on the floor of the Senate.
Republicans have been trying to build a case to prove that the Biden family has sold political favors as part of a criminal corruption scheme. He also said that the Burisma executive made the recordings as a kind of “insurance policy” in case the official got into a “tight spot.”
Grassley highlighted the apparent double standard between treatment of the Biden family by the Justice Department and that of former President Donald Trump.
“Based on the facts known to the Congress and the public, it’s clear that the Justice Department, the FBI, haven’t nearly had the same laser-focus on the Biden family,” said Grassley on the Senate floor.
“Special counsel Jack Smith has used a recording against former President Trump,” he added. “Well, what is U.S. Attorney Weiss doing with respect to these alleged Joe and Hunter Biden recordings that are apparently relevant to the high stakes bribery scheme?”
Trump has been indicted for charges related to his withholding of documents at Mar-a-Lago from his time as president.
Here’s more on the Biden corruption allegations:
James Comer: The Biden family had 20 shell companies www.youtube.com
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This story may contain details that are disturbing.If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.
A 10-year-old New York school student was reportedly so scared of his bully that he pleaded with his family to let him stay home before he killed himself.
Gianlukas “Lukas” Illescas, a student at the Hillcrest Elementary School in Peekskill, New York, was allegedly bullied for months while district officials “didn’t have time” to address the issue, his dad, Christian Illescas, claimed during an emotional school boarding meeting on Tuesday.
Illescas said he asked district administrators and social workers for help multiple times because his son was scared to go to school for the last six months, according to a report by News12 Westchester.
“Look! Look!” Illescas yelled at the board members while holding a picture of his son on his phone. “You didn’t have time? Five minutes. I don’t know how you can sleep. I don’t know how.”
Gianlukas “Lukas” Illescas, a 10-year-old boy, killed himself after allegedly being “relentlessly bullied,” his father said. (GoFundMe)
Illescas said in a GoFundMe post that his son was “robbed of his future” because of the district’s neglect.
“Bullying is responsible for the death of a 10-year-old child!” Illescas wrote. “He will never get to graduate with his friends, make memories alongside his family, and have a life full of choices and adventure! His family and friends are heartbroken and beyond devastated.”
Lukas was “relentlessly bullied by one child,” his dad told ABC News. Before that, he said his son loved to swim and was a “happy, engaging, energetic boy” who loved his family and life at home.
Tragically, Lukas reportedly took his life about two weeks ago.
A 10-year-old boy reportedly died by suicide after being bullied in Hillcrest Elementary School in Peekskill, New York, a suburb of New York City. (Google Street View)
“I have nothing to lose,” Illescas told ABC News. “My son is gone, so all I want right now is justice for other kids.”
The school district and city of Peekskill, which is a suburb about 45 minutes north of Manhattan, released identical statements Tuesday afternoon that said the police are investigating.
“On behalf of the City of Peekskill, I want to express our condolences on the recent passing of a Hillcrest Elementary School student. Our hearts and prayers are with the family,” the district said. “Let us all unite as a community like we always do and support this family in its time of need.”
However, the reactionary approach is too little, too late for many supporters, who protested and packed Tuesday’s meeting.
WATCH MOM OF BULLIED VIRGINIA STUDENT TALK ABOUT THE ISSUE
“All these parents are here. There are witnesses,” one parent yelled at the board, according to a report by The New York Post. “And we are not taking that anymore. A 10-year-old child had to suffer because of negligence? Because you didn’t take time?”
About one in five high school students reported being bullied on school property, and more than one in six high school students reported being bullied online in the last year, according to the CDC. Nearly 14% of public schools report that bullying is a discipline problem occurring daily or at least once a week, the CDC says.
The federal government provided resources for parents, victims and school districts on stopbullying.gov, which is managed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
“When adults respond quickly and consistently to bullying behavior they send the message that it is not acceptable,” the website states. “Research shows this can stop bullying behavior over time.
“Parents, school staff, and other adults in the community can help kids prevent bullying by talking about it, building a safe school environment, and creating a community-wide bullying prevention strategy.”
Chris Eberhart is a crime and US news journalist for Fox News Digital. Email tips to chris.eberhart@fox.com or on twitter @ChrisEberhart48
Michael Jameson, who changed his name to Lauren Jeska, attempted to murder Ralph Knibbs at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium in March 2016.
According to the Guardian, at the time of the attack, Jeska’s status as a female athlete was under review, as there were concerns he had a significant advantage over the real women with whom he was competing. The murderous transvestite had, after all, bested women in the 2010, 2011, and 2012 English Fell Running Champion and as well as in the British Championship in 2012.
Jeska, who did not “transition” or have his testicles removed until he was 26 years old, reportedly refused to provide relevant samples of his testosterone levels and other documentation to the governing body, prompting officials to void his race results in September 2015.
After questions were raised about his eligibility, Jeska packed up two large kitchen knives and traveled nearly two hours from his house in Wales to the offices of UK Athletics in Birmingham. In Birmingham, he savagely stabbed Knibbs in the head and neck, leaving a hole about an inch wide. A witness said it looked as though the transvestic eunuch was “trying to skewer meat.”
The premeditated murder attempt, which the judge presiding over Jeska’s case indicated was executed with “chilling precision,” left Knibbs with limited vision in both eyes. The BBC reported that in the “cool, calculated attack,” Jeska also grievously injured two other UK Athletics employees, Kevan Taylor and Tim Begley, who had tried to intervene during the attack.
Police indicated that “Jeska carried out a violent and unprovoked attack on a man whose sole objective was to enable [him] to compete. [He] will now have plenty of time behind bars to contemplate the devastating consequences of [his] actions.”
Jeska was ultimately given an 18-year sentence.
Mara Yamauchi, former Olympian and British elite marathon runner, was among the first to highlight the abuse of the Parkrun’s gender self-identification policy by opportunistic men, reported the Daily Mail. Yamauchi indicated earlier this week that a Parkrun female group course record had been “smashed to smithereens by a trans-identifying male” and possible put “out of female hands forever.”
The Olympian and other feminists noted that Jeska still holds the top two women’s records for the Aberystwyth Parkrun, a weekly competition held in Wales. According to the Parkrun’s official records, Jeska has a time of 17:38 in the Aberystwyth run and is also ranked first in the Bryn Bach Parkrun and third in the Heaton Parkrun, both in the women’s category.
Heather Binning, founder of the Women’s Rights Network, told the Telegraph, “I am lost for words that a male is stealing what should be women’s records first of all, and setting these records that will not be broken — these records are frozen, women won’t beat them.”
Binning added that it was “gobsmacking,” not just that the violent eunuch in jail for stabbing innocents over the question of his eligibility would still hold the title, but that he was “in a women’s prison despite politicians’ mealy-mouthed words that violent male offenders should not be in the female estate.”
“Politicians are turning their backs and sports associations are frightened and are being hung out to dry,” continued Binning. “More people take part in Parkrun than the Olympics — it does matter. The grassroots is where the elite athletes come from — girls and women will not in these circumstances want to participate.”
It appears that the actual top female in the Aberystwyth parkrun is Charlotte Morgan, who had a time of 17:55 on June 24, 2017. Jeska is eligible for parole in 2029. It is unclear whether Parkrun will permit him to resume competing against women.
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President Joe Biden and his family are at the center of an influence-peddling scheme in which they traded the patriarch’s decades of time in political offices to line their own pockets and then tried to cover up their profiteering with a myriad of complicated transactions and accounts, the House Oversight Committee confirmed during a press conference on Wednesday.
With the help of whistleblowers and congressional subpoenas, Republicans are confidently reporting that the Bidens received at least $10 million worth of diluted payments from foreign companies during and after the president’s time in the Obama White House.
These payments were diced up and transferred to a spread of Biden bank accounts within weeks of significant political action by the then-vice president in the country of the transactions’ origins.
“These complicated and seemingly unnecessary financial transactions appear to be a concerted effort to conceal the source and total amount received from the foreign companies,” the Oversight Committee’s latest memo warns.
At least nine Biden family members including the president’s son Hunter Biden, his brother James Biden, James’s wife, Hunter’s ex-girlfriend who is also his brother Beau Biden’s widow, Hunter’s ex-wife, Hunter’s current wife, and at least one grandchild and a couple of nieces and/or nephews profited from the funneling of funds.
“That’s odd,” Oversight Committee Chair James Comer said. “Most people with grandchildren, who work hard everyday, doesn’t get a wire from a foreign national or anything like that.”
The latest round of records, obtained by the Oversight Committee from four of the Bidens’ 12 apparent banks, detail yet another round of these payments — this time from China and Romania to the Bidens.
One $3 million payment came from the company of Gabriel Popoviciu, who is the subject of a criminal corruption probe in Romania, to the accounts of Biden family associate Rob Walker mere weeks after Biden, then-vice president, welcomed Romanian leaders to the White House to discuss “anti-corruption efforts” and just more than a year after Biden lectured in Romania about the threat corruption poses to national security. Those transactions were quickly funneled to Owasco (one of Hunter’s 15 companies), a Biden associate’s company, one of Hunter’s personal bank accounts, Hallie Biden, and “an unknown Biden bank account.”
The Romanian payments, the Oversight Committee alleges, further prove that the Bidens’ influence peddling operation was in full swing while Biden facilitated foreign policy discussions, especially in Eastern Europe, during the Obama administration.
The newest Romanian payment dilution strongly resembles how the Bidens appeared to use their more than a dozen companies to coordinate with Chinese nationals suspected of close ties to the Chinese Communist Party and “engage in financial deception.”
“The purpose of all these companies being created is to conceal money that the Biden family has been gaining because Joe Biden has been sitting at the upper echelon of our politics for almost five decades. That is the entire purpose here,” Rep. Byron Donalds explained on Wednesday.
These companies receiving funds from foreign nationals, the Republican asserted, serve no legitimate purpose other than enriching the president, his family, and his business associates.
“Joe Biden has no business, except his position in politics,” Donalds concluded.
“If it looks complicated and sounds complicated, it was intentionally made to be complicated so you could not follow the money,” Republican Rep. Nancy Mace added during her talking time. “What we’re trying to do today is show you how to follow the money.”
During a presidential debate in October 2020, Biden told the nation that neither he nor any of his family members profited from overseas business deals with companies connected to communist China.
“My son has not made money in terms of this thing about, what are you talking about, China. I have not had—The only guy who made money from China is this guy [Donald Trump]. He’s the only one. Nobody else has made money from China,” Biden said.
COMER: “President Biden has claimed since the 2020 election that his family has not received money from China. That was a lie in 2020 — and he continues to lie to the American people now.”
Despite the fact that the Oversight Committee has repeatedly proven Biden’s denials wrong with bank records detailing millions of dollars worth of transactions from foreign shell companies to the president’s family, the White House refuses to do anything but double down on the lie.
“House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer is loudly and proudly broadcasting a press conference today to continue his long pattern of making absurd claims that President Biden has made governing decisions not in the interest of America, but of the Chinese Communist Party, using baseless claims, personal attacks, and innuendo to try to score political points,” White House spokesman Ian Sams told Fox News, after smearing the committee’s latest memo as an “absurd innuendo [that] ignores reality.”
The Oversight Committee once again rejected these claims on Wednesday and refuted them with hard evidence that several Biden family members, including Hunter, James, Hallie, an unknown “Biden,” and companies linked to the family “collectively received $1.3 million in payments” from Walker, whose company was paid millions by Chinese firm State Energy HK Limited, implicating the family in selling political favors to China.
The Biden family received the money via several bank transfers within six months of the vice president departing the Obama White House. Comer said in April that his committee still did not know who the unnamed Biden was in the China transaction because the Biden family holds so many bank accounts and LLCs.
“The Biden family needs to answer for this and the DOJ needs to get off its ass and investigate. We’ve done the work for them so that they can’t screw it up. Now, if these allegations, any of these allegations are proven true then someone with the last name Biden needs to be charged, prosecuted, and maybe spend a little time in prison,” Mace said at the conclusion of her remarks.
Last week, Republicans Sen. Chuck Grassley and Comer subpoenaed the FBI over a document they say alleges a criminal scheme between now-President Joe Biden and a “foreign national” during his years in the Obama White House.
The Oversight Committee led by Comer, who previously warned it “doesn’t look good for POTUS,” promised to continue investigating whether Biden sold out the American people to the nation’s foreign enemies to line family’s pockets.
Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordanboydtx.
A 46-year-old man was fatally shot by a fellow campaign staffer while handing out flyers for a progressive political group in Philadelphia ahead of the city’s upcoming mayoral race.
The death on the campaign trail occurred late Monday afternoon in East Germantown in the 2000 block of Church Lane when two staffers reportedly ran into one another on the street around 4 p.m. Both staffers, who remain unidentified by police, were carrying guns when they crossed paths. According to police, the two got into an argument on the street that quickly turned deadly when the 22-year-old drew his gun and shot the 46-year-old canvasser. The unnamed 46-year-old victim was not pronounced dead until 4:24 p.m., when he reached Albert Einstein Medical Center to be treated for a gunshot wound in the left armpit, according to police.
Police investigate the scene of Monday’s fatal shooting. (Fox Philadelphia)
Philadelphia Police Staff Inspector Ernest Ransom, recently appointed head of the Homicide Unit, suggested this was not the staffers’ first meeting, telling the Philadelphia Inquirer they “had always had a beef.” Police are investigating the shooting and whether self-defense was involved. The alleged shooter, who at the time was legally carrying a firearm, was immediately taken in for questioning and has reportedly been fully cooperative with police.
One PA, a progressive political group in Pennsylvania, confirmed the victim was one of its staffers.
The unnamed victim was reportedly handing out campaign flyers for a progressive political group at the time of the shooting. (Fox News)
“Today, a One PA team member tragically lost their life,” OnePA Executive Director Steve Paul said in a statement released after the incident. “We are mourning this senseless loss and continuing to gather the facts and investigate what happened.”
The fatal shooting occurred just days before the city’s May 16 Democratic mayoral primary election with issues of public safety are top of mind among candidates vying for the nomination.
I was devastated to hear about the tragic death of a canvasser today. My thoughts are with the family of the victim, the One PA community, and everyone impacted by this irrevocable loss. Though the canvasser was not part of our campaign, this loss is deeply felt by all of us.
“I was devastated to hear about the tragic death of a canvasser today. My thoughts are with the family of the victim, the One PA community, and everyone impacted by this irrevocable loss,” Gym wrote. “Though the canvasser was not part of our campaign, this loss is deeply felt by all of us.”
Aubrie Spady is a Freelance Production Assistant for Fox News Digital.
If the veteran who restrained the homeless man is prosecuted, it will establish a right to terrorize subway passengers and help revive the ‘anti-racist’ assault on justice.
Daniel Penny is not going quietly to the slaughter. The 24-year-old Marine Corps veteran who took action when fellow subway passengers were being threatened by a maniacal homeless person has lawyered up and will need all the legal help he can get if he hopes to avoid spending decades in prison.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has assigned Joshua Steinglass, a veteran prosecutor who led the trial team in the case that prosecuted former President Donald Trump’s family business, to conduct the probe that will determine whether Penny will be put on trial for killing Jordan Neely. But the decision won’t be made in a vacuum. The liberal commentariat is already damning Penny as the civilian version of Derek Chauvin. Leftist politicians such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., are accusing him of having committed a “murder” and Democrat and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is saying Penny’s actions were unjustified and demanding that “justice” be given Neely’s family.
Neely, the 30-year-old homeless person who died during an incident on a New York City subway train on May 1, had a record of mental illness. He had been arrested 44 times for criminal conduct and had an outstanding warrant for felony assault. On an F train stopped at the Broadway-Lafayette Street subway station in Manhattan, he allegedly began acting in a threatening manner to other passengers. It was at that point that Penny restrained him and put him in what appears on a cell phone video of part of the incident to be a chokehold.
In doing so, it could well be argued that he prevented Neely from committing another crime against a fellow passenger. Video released Sunday also seems to show Penny put Neely in a recovery position after Neely was subdued and appeared to be OK.
But the reason this case is already a cause Celebre, leading to leftist demonstrations in the subways and an endless stream of articles in corporate media, is that Neely’s fate is blamed on the supposed indifference of the public to the lives of the homeless.
Broader Racial Ramifications
Penny’s fate will, as Peachy Keenan wrote in The Federalist, be a test of whether young American men should dare to act courageously when others are in peril. But there’s even more at stake in this case. With Neely being anointed as the new George Floyd, the questions of whether Penny was right to restrain Neely or if he used inappropriate force to do so are merely sidebars to a broader narrative about American racism.
Floyd’s death became a metaphor for a myth about systemic police racism. Floyd’s actions the night of his death, his criminal record, and the fact that his body was full of what might have been a lethal dose of fentanyl were dismissed as irrelevant. The only thing that mattered was that he was a black man and that the cop who had, in an act of undoubted callous brutality, snuffed out his life was white. In the name of a belief, however mistaken, that Floyd’s death was just one of countless incidents in which blacks were being slaughtered with impunity, millions took to the streets in “mostly peaceful” riots that shook the nation.
More than that, it set off a moral panic in virtually every sector of American life that elevated the woke catechism of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) to a new secular religion — since accepted by the Biden administration as mandatory for every government agency and department — that treats color-blind policies and even the goal of equal opportunity as forms of racism that must be eradicated.
Parallels to 1984 Case
Penny’s actions might, for those with a long memory of controversial New York subway criminal controversies, have more in common with those of Bernhard Goetz than of Chauvin. In 1984, Goetz opened fire on four black teenagers he said were trying to mug him on a No. 2 train. In an era of rampant crime, Goetz was largely supported by public opinion and acquitted of attempted murder, though he was fined and sentenced to six months in prison for illegal weapons possession. One of the people he shot, who was paralyzed in the incident, later won a $43 million civil judgment against Goetz that, as late as 2017, still hadn’t been paid.
As racially charged as that incident was, nearly 40 years later, we are living in a very different post-Black Lives Matter world. Any New Yorker who rides the subways knows how dangerous they have been made by authorities’ willingness to tolerate the presence of threatening people. But someone who isn’t a “person of color” is always going to be assumed to be in the wrong in any violent confrontation today, when the claim that America is an irredeemably racist nation is treated as inarguable by the chattering classes.
The prosecutor in the Kyle Rittenhouse case told him that “everybody takes a beating sometimes” and that he had no right to defend himself against lethal threats from armed BLM rioters in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Penny’s chances of winning a trial in a New York City courtroom in 2023 are immeasurably lower than were Goetz’s.
Leftist Campaign Against Justice
As such, and regardless of the facts of the case, the campaign against Penny must be viewed as merely the next stage in a long-running leftist campaign against the justice system in which pro-criminal prosecutors like Bragg, elected with the help of leftist billionaire George Soros, are in the forefront. The sympathy for Neely, which is framed as compassion for the homeless, is akin to the so-called decarceration movement that takes it as a given that too many nonwhite people are being jailed for crimes and calls to defund the police.
The prosecution of the ex-Marine will not just establish a precedent that there is a “right” of a deranged, drug-addicted person to terrorize others with impunity. It will also, like Floyd’s death or that of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, or a dozen other equally dubious cases, be routinely cited from now on as proof of American racism and a reason for doubling down on woke policies that will further divide and racialize the nation.
Talk about our indifference to the lives of the homeless is gaslighting, since it is the policies of the political left that have allowed such persons to camp out on streets or in subway cars rather than be taken by police to shelters and hospitals. The freedom for the homeless that has been established in New York — where the “broken windows” policing of the administrations of Mayors Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg has been abandoned — means the rights of other citizens to a livable city are abrogated. When people like Neely can harass people into buying their safety with donations in honor of performances like his Michael Jackson imitations or violent rants, then the rule of law is dead.
Leftists believe that, like Floyd, Neely died for our sins as a racist nation. That is why he is now being elevated to the status of secular saint regardless of or perhaps even because of his dysfunction and willingness to threaten others. The Floyd case led to de-policing throughout the country as cops, the only defense minority communities have against the black-on-black crime that afflicts their neighborhoods, have backed down in the face of prosecutions and demonization.
Penny’s prosecution will now pump new life into the BLM movement and ensure that public discourse about race and crime will continue to ignore the facts in favor of ideological myths that will send America’s cities into even greater squalor, violence, and racial conflict.
Jonathan S. Tobin is a senior contributor to The Federalist, editor in chief of JNS.org, and a columnist for Newsweek. Follow him on Twitter at @jonathans_tobin.
Parents in a Texas school district are demanding answers from school officials after first-graders allegedly forced their 6-year-old classmate to perform a sex act while they filmed it despite a teacher being in the classroom.
Parents and community members angered by the situation at Plainview South Elementary School in Plainview gathered outside the administrative office of the Plainview Independent School District (ISD) on Monday, according to the Plainview Herald, which noted the protest swelled to as many as 30 people throughout the day.
Family members of the girl involved are planning another protest at 6 p.m. Friday at local Broadway Park, local NBC affiliate KCBD reported.
“A 6-year-old was exposed to things that even adults would have a hard time overcoming,” a protesting parent of another student at the elementary school told the Herald. “This is trauma at its worst, and it is a trickle-down effect because it affects everyone around them.”
Parents and community members angered by the situation at Plainview South Elementary School in in Plainview, Texas, are demanding answers from school officials. (Google Maps)
Parents who were protesting Monday reportedly learned about the alleged April 19 incident after the school district called the parent of the first-grade girl. After receiving the call from the district, the child reportedly told her family that another student had pressured her to perform a sex act.
Heather Gonzales, an older cousin of the 6-year-old girl, told KCBD that the girl’s family noticed a sudden change in her behavior amid indications of distress and complaints of a stomach ache.
The girl reportedly revealed that a boy had exposed himself to her in the school lunch line and that she had also been pulled under a desk and pressured to perform a sex act while another student recorded with a district-issued iPad.
“She said she was hitting him with the poetry book,” said Gonzales, noting that the video showed her cousin did her best to fight back. The girl reportedly claimed the incident did not stop “until they let me go.”
Students play outside Plainview South Elementary School in Plainview, Texas. (Plainview South Elementary School/Facebook)
Gonzales claimed the school district has not provided adequate answers.
“Everything was ‘no comment, I cannot tell you, no comment,’” Gonzales said. “So, you mean to tell me abuse has been happening for a week and a half and these kids are still at the same desk? My cousin is still at a desk with all boys, having to see her abusers every day?”
The students have reportedly since been moved to separate classrooms.
Plainview ISD Superintendent H.T. Sanchez told KCBD that the school made a report and contacted Texas Child Protective Services (CPS) when school officials discovered video of the incident a day after it happened. He said a state investigator came to Plainview the next week and has been working with local law enforcement.
“He had asked that we hold confidentiality because he wanted to be sure that he was able to get the full story from each of the students, the minors, that were involved,” Sanchez said. “All of the steps that we’re required to take, we took.”
The district also released an extensive statement explaining that because minors are involved, “the school system must be very careful in the information it provides,” according to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.
The statement assured that Sanchez, assistant superintendent Yesinia Pardo and South Elementary principal Jennifer Hughey “have visited with the parents/guardians of families involved in a recent incident at South Elementary that is under Child Protective Services and law enforcement investigation.”
The statement also noted that the alleged incident “occurred away from the full vision of the teacher” while she was working with other students.
When the teacher collected the students’ iPads the next day, she noticed one of them had been locked with a password and took the device to the campus administrator. “Inappropriate content was discovered” on the iPad after a tech from the technology department unlocked it, according to the district.
The teacher involved has since been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, the district said.
“My daughter comes home with bruises and rashes if she doesn’t participate in these little boys’ sick games.”— Plainview South Elementary School parent
Parents who spoke to the Herald during the Monday protest outside the school district’s administrative office claimed the incident with the 6-year-old is not an isolated one.
“There have been multiple moms coming out about stuff that has been happening all year and nothing is being done about it,” one parent said. “It’s hit its peak and that’s why we’re here today, to get answers.”
“My daughter comes home with bruises and rashes if she doesn’t participate in these little boys’ sick games,” another parent at the protest said. “They will punch her, give her Indian burns, they’ll call her names and cuss at her.”
Other parents at Plainview South Elementary claimed the alleged incident with the 6-year-old girl is not an isolated one. (iStock)
“You can’t have your kids in a classroom like that,” one parent said. “You’re worried about the education they are receiving and what they are being exposed to. A lot of parents have parental controls on what their kid is able to watch and see at this age, and we do all of that just for them to go to school and be exposed to stuff they should’ve never seen.”
A spokesperson for Plainview ISD told Fox News Digital that “CPS is continuing its investigation, and we continue to cooperate with CPS and law enforcement, by their request we are not able to comment any further than we have shared.”
Jon Brown is a writer for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to jon.brown@fox.com.
New York Daily News / Contributor, Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images
Jordan Neely’s dad abandoned him in childhood. Neely’s stepfather strangled and disposed of his mother when Neely was just 14 years old. According to people who knew Neely, the murder of his mother and the abandonment by his father caused Jordan Neely to fall into depression and mental illness. With his family support erased, in recent years Neely became a schizophrenic, homeless nuisance terrorizing the streets and subways of New York.
Neely’s life ended in inevitable tragedy Monday afternoon. He menaced the wrong group of New York subway riders. A former Marine wrestled Neely to the ground from behind and applied a choke hold to restrain him, and at least one other passenger helped subdue Neely. The 30-year-old vagrant lost consciousness and died.
On Wednesday, the medical examiner’s office ruled Neely’s death a homicide, stating neck compression as the cause of death.
Political opportunists and corporate and social media appear ready to turn Neely into the next George Floyd, a heroic martyr and symbol of American unfairness, an excuse to riot and loot.
Say his name! Jordan Neely.
According to social media pundits, the Marine and the black man who helped subdue Neely maimed and lynched innocent Jordan Neely, a Michael Jackson impersonator, a young man with a bright future, had white supremacy not reared its ugly head.
After hours of careful Twitter deliberation, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez posted her verdict. “Jordan Neely was murdered,” she wrote. “But [because] Jordan was houseless and crying for food in a time when the city is raising rents and stripping services to militarize itself while many in power demonize the poor, the murderer gets protected [with] passive headlines + no charges. It’s disgusting.”
AOC is a lawmaker, sworn to uphold the constitution and our agreed-upon laws. She does not believe in our “innocent until proven guilty” standard of law. What she sees on Twitter is more than enough to prove murder.
For the record, homicide and murder are two different things. There is justifiable and legal homicide. Murder can’t be justified. Murder is always a crime. Homicide is not.
We’ve murdered truth and nuance.
Jordan Neely is not the second coming of Emmett Till. He’s a victim of the widespread destruction of family. Not just his family, but the destruction of the American family.
New York is a lawless hellhole captured by the demons created by the breakdown of family and attack on authority. Unparented children and adults control the Big Apple’s streets and subways. Neely’s untreated mental illness made him a ticking time bomb in a city where law enforcement has retreated and chaos and disorder have escalated.
Vigilante justice is a natural outgrowth when law enforcement retreats to safety. Untrained, frustrated citizens will make mistakes. Opportunists will capitalize on those mistakes.
More than likely, the white Marine will be sacrificed so that politicians, corporate media, activists, clergy, and Neely’s own family do not have to deal with their role in his tragic life and death. We all played a role in cultivating the toxic, anti-family culture that killed Jordan Neely. The people most passionately seeking to punish the Marine are the most guilty.
AOC participated in the defund-the-police insanity. She helped loose the criminal lunacy torturing NYC. Black Lives Matter conspired with New York’s Democratic politicians and prosecutors to prioritize the welfare of criminals above law-abiding citizens. The black church centered racial justice and government assistance over preservation and promotion of the family. Corporate media rewards and revels in racial controversy.
Jordan Neely’s father unleashed the first deadly strike to Jordan’s soul when he abandoned his son. Neely’s stepfather fired the fatal shot when he killed Neely’s mother. Jordan Neely’s been in a coma for 16 years. The white Marine pulled the plug.
Had the former Marine been black, all the people feigning outrage would treat Jordan’s death as a merciful abortion. No one would care. And I mean no one.
Black gang members will kill men no different from Jordan Neely across America today. None of it will make national news. There will be no protests. No calls for justice. Most of the murders will go unsolved. No-snitch culture will protect the killers.
No one has truly cared about Jordan Neely since his mother died 16 years ago. No one cares today. People care about the color of the former Marine who choked Jordan Neely.
Black life does not matter. White perpetrators of black death are what really matter. They’re scarce and valuable. Political opportunists and social media clout chasers pounce on these situations regardless of circumstance. It’s political gold.
Lawyers chase ambulances. Liberals chase coroners, hoping to find a dead black body killed by whites. They bribe the coroner investigating the death and hire a media mortician who can make the body look as angelic as possible. Al Sharpton performs the eulogy, and Ben Crump passes the collection plate.
The opportunists have no interest in a solution. Solutions would undermine their ability to profit from the deaths of black men killed by white men.
Charging the white Marine with murder won’t solve or improve anything. It will make the wannabe hero just another victim of America’s broken family structure. Restoring the family is the only hope for America.
Following revelations that he allegedly lied under oath to Congress, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is facing calls from Senate Republicans to turn over communication records related to Hunter Biden and his shady business engagements.
On Monday, Republican Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Chuck Grassley of Iowa sent a letter to Blinken demanding that he turn over any and all records “referring or relating to Hunter Biden, his business dealings, or his family’s business dealings” by May 15. The request comes as part of Senate Republicans’ investigation into the Biden family’s foreign business ventures.
In the letter, Johnson and Grassley document a series of emails revealing how Blinken seemingly lied under oath about his prior communications with Hunter. While testifying before Congress on Dec. 22, 2020, Blinken was asked if he had any means of correspondence —including phone calls, emails, or texts — with Hunter Biden during his time as President Barack Obama’s deputy secretary of state, to which Blinken replied, “No.”
Emails from Hunter’s laptop, however, appear to contradict Blinken’s December 2020 testimony. As documented in the Johnson-Grassley letter, Hunter emailed Blinken at his personal email address on May 22, 2015, asking if the then-deputy secretary of state was available to meet.
“I know you are impossibly busy but would like to get your advice on a couple of things,” Hunter wrote, to which Blinken replied, “Absolutely.”
Blinken sent another email to Hunter a few months later on July 22, indicating the two met in person.
“Great to… see you and catch up,” Blinken wrote. “You will love this: after you left, Marjorie, the wonderful african american woman who sits in my outer office (and used to be Colin Powell’s assistant) said to me :’He sure is pleasant on the eyes.’ Tell you wife.”
The Johnson-Grassley letter also raises questions regarding Blinken’s knowledge of Hunter’s role as a Burisma Holdings board member. Burisma Holdings is a Ukrainian gas company that paid Hunter $50,000 a month despite the president’s son having no prior energy experience. Joe Biden has claimed that while vice president, he threatened to withdraw U.S. aid if then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko “didn’t fire state prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who was investigating Burisma at the time.”
Despite Blinken claiming to have no knowledge of Hunter’s Burisma ties during his December 2020 testimony, emails from Hunter’s laptop reveal that Blinken’s wife, Evan Ryan, “corresponded directly with Hunter Biden (from her personal email address) in an apparent attempt to connect [Blinken] with representatives of Burisma’s U.S. lobbying firm, Blue Star Strategies.”
In what appears to be an email chain dated July 14, 2016, Hunter informed Ryan that “S” and “K” — who appear to be Sally Painter and Karen Tramontano, Blue Star Strategies’ Chief Operating Officer and Chief Executive Officer — told him “they called the State Department and left a message.” In her email to Hunter, Ryan appeared to reference Blinken, writing “He didn’t get the msg” and “He said if we can get him their numbers he can call them late afternoon DC time tmrw.”
While this specific email exchange doesn’t name Blinken, Johnson and Grassley noted that State Department documents obtained during their inquiry “make it clear that [Blinken was] concurrently trying to connect with representatives from Blue Star Strategies.”
“It seems highly unlikely that you had no idea of Hunter Biden’s association with Burisma while your wife was apparently coordinating with Hunter Biden to potentially connect you with Burisma’s U.S. representatives,” Johnson and Grassley wrote. “Because your testimony is inaccurate, Congress and the public must rely on your records as the source for information about your dealings with Hunter Biden.”
These revelations follow testimony from an ex-CIA official, who claimed that Blinken, during his time as a Biden campaign adviser, was the catalyst for the creation of a debunked letter from former intelligence officials that falsely claimed the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation.
Shawn Fleetwood is a Staff Writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He also serves as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
FIRST ON FOX:President Biden and his deputy chief of staff held a meeting with three of Hunter Biden’s business associates, at least one of whom was a foreign national, at the White House in the summer of 2011 when he was vice president, according to emails and White House visitor logs reviewed by Fox News Digital.
At the time of the meeting, Hunter was trying to secure a deal with those associates in bonds worth billions of dollars.
In June 2011, Hunter Biden and his business partner, Rosemont Seneca Partners (RSP) co-founder Devon Archer, were in talks with Sean Conlon, the future CNBC “The Deed” co-host and founder of Conlon & Co., about a potentially lucrative business opportunity if Hunter would be able to secure a meeting between his father and two of Conlon’s associates, Andre Lasserre and “Wang,” who is identified as Xi Wang in the visitor logs.
Earlier, energy executive David Gamperl had emailed Conlon a contract that was sent to him by Nagi Ghawi, chairman/president of since-dissolved Mercantile Investment Group in the West Indies, which Gamperl said had “a real business model here” and would help them make a “substantial profit.”
“Here is the current contract,” Gamperl told Conlon on June 22, 2011. “Proof of funds are in place and we may close this week. It has been a challenge in the management of procedures but I think we have it now. We will make substantial profit on this deal but market is between $230 to $380 million. I’m trying to close this bond immediately, as it opens up the flood gates on 29 other bonds that have less hair and much more value. I will also forward you copy of bond and verification from the perito (who is a government official who inspects the authenticity of the bond). Good stuff and I think we have a real business model here.”
On June 22, 2011, energy executive David Gamperl emailed Conlon a contract that was sent to him by Nagi Ghawi, president of since-dissolved Mercantile Investment Group, which Gamperl said would help them make a “substantial profit.” (Fox News Digital)
On June 22, 2011, Sean Conlon forwarded an email to Hunter Biden and Devon Archer “affirming the validity of the bond and his original report.” David Gamperl told Conlon they are “buttoned up” with this report. (Fox News Digital)
Despite forwarding this email to Hunter Biden and Devon Archer, Conlon said, “I know Absolutely nothing about that” in a Monday email to Fox News Digital. He did not respond to any of Fox News Digital’s other questions.
Conlon then forwarded Gamperl’s email to Hunter and Archer, writing, “This is why I am putting up with this carnival! We need to put our heads together on this.”
Later that morning, Ghawi emailed Conlon an “RSP – Mercantile Oil & Gas Corporation Proposal,” and appeared to suggest that a meeting with the vice president or his chief of staff would have to occur “ASAP” in order to access additional bonds worth billions of dollars through their “Andre Lasserre connection.”
Nagi Ghawi emailed Sean Conlon an “RSP – Mercantile Oil & Gas Corporation Proposal,” and he said a meeting with Vice President Joe Biden or his chief of staff would have to occur “ASAP” in order to access additional bonds worth billions of dollars.” (Fox News Digital)
“I would like to confirm that I accept this letter of engagement based on 7% fees + 3% fees as a bonus if the first structured instrument (LTN) is executed within 60 days,” Ghawi wrote to Conlon. “This fee should cover all intermediaries’ fee and any additional fee should come out from this one. We have access through Andre Lasserre connection to at least 10 LTN’s but if we do not perform on the said meeting ASAP, we may not be in a position to have those LTN’s at our disposal.”
The next day, on June 23, 2011, Conlon forwarded Ghawi’s email to Hunter and wrote, “Ok see below. Need to discuss.”
“Ok- what do we need to do moving forward?” Hunter asked.
“I will discuss,” Conlon replied. “I got letter. I need email about event and a promise about meeting next week.”
Minutes later, Conlon told Hunter that they had an engagement letter from Mercantile Investment, and that the company was stipulating that then-Vice President Biden had to “formally meet” with “these guys,” presumably Lasserre and Wang, in order for “more bonds to move.”
Sean Conlon of CNBC’s New Primetime Original Series “The Deed: Chicago” visits at NASDAQ on March 29, 2017, in New York City. (Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images)
Sean Conlon of CNBC’s New Primetime Original Series “The Deed: Chicago” visits at NASDAQ on March 29, 2017, in New York City. (Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images)
In a Tuesday email to Fox News Digital, Ghawi said he “asked Mr. Sean Conlon and Mr. David Gamperl as I knew them from Chicago, to organize a meeting with the VP Biden or President Obama,” claiming it was “in their role as representative of the United States of America and not in their personal capacity.”
“Mr. Sean Conlon and Mr. David Gamperl have good relation [sic] with Hunter Biden so it was easier for them to organize a meeting with the VP Biden,” he added.
“So, we have engagement letter if they get other 10 bonds they have a face value of 10b,” Conlon wrote in the June 2011 email. “While it is far fetched Devon said he talked to his professor and these get traded. We get 10% in fees. We need to get these guys to an event or something where they get to just formally meet your Dad. For follow on they can talk to Chief of Staff. Let me know how soon we can do that. [Very] brief. If Nagi gets that done we get more bonds to move.”
A few hours later, Gamperl emailed Conlon, Ghawi and Conlon’s business associate, Benjie Burford, saying, “the face value is over $21 billion, as each bond is worth over $2.1 billion (this could vary as it depends on each bonds series, etc…)”
On June 23, 2011, Sean Conlon told Hunter Biden that they had an engagement letter from Mercantile Investment, and that the company was stipulating that then-Vice President Biden had to “formally meet” with “these guys” in order for “more bonds to move.” (Fox News Digital)
“We can employ a couple of different strategies in generating profits, which would yield revenue of 22% to par of the face value,” Gamperl wrote. “A joint venture with a potential buyer is one likely methodology to which we would work together with a partner in achieving the highest value over a period of time. The other concept would be to sell a couple of bonds at a high discount and then deploy political capital and invest approximately $2 million per bond to provide full value to the bond.”
Conlon then forwarded Gamperl’s email to Hunter and Archer. At first, Hunter bristled at the suggestion that he set up a meeting between the men and his father, but that demeanor quickly changed when he offered to meet with them himself.
“WTF is he talking about. Mtg with JRB chief of staff????” Hunter said, replying to just Archer.
“I guess,” Archer responded. “I don’t think he understands how this works. I will advise him to stand down.”
“Tell him I’ll do the mtg,” Hunter said.
“Roger that,” Archer replied.
At first, Hunter bristled at the suggestion that he set up a meeting with Wang, Lasserre and his father. But that demeanor quickly changed when he offered to meet with them himself in a June 23, 2011 email. (Fox News Digital)
Responding to Conlon and Hunter, Archer said, “I can’t say this isn’t interesting. Still find it difficult to imagine working out but I’m in!”
“No, I agree,” Conlon wrote to Hunter and Archer. “I ignored them first few times they were introduced to me. Then my friend was holding the first Bond at his bank and he called me to verify it is real. Now that doesn’t mean we can get them sold but its a free look. I guess all we need to figure is a 5 min introduction not a meeting in the next week otherwise the guy who flew over from Paris for event in Chicago will not provide the rest of bonds as he is sulking!”
US President Joe Biden’s sister Valerie Biden (R), and son Hunter Biden (L), board Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on April 11, 2023. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Later that morning, Ghawi sent an email to Conlon informing him that Lasserre and Wang were currently in Washington, D.C., and that it was “extremely crucial and extremely urgent” to set up a meeting with them and “the Chief of Staff or VP or Both.”
“Andre and Wang are in Washington this afternoon and tomorrow meeting the world bank representative for Latin America,” Ghawi wrote. “It is extremely crucial and extremely urgent to have meeting setup either late today or tomorrow morning with the Chief of Staff or VP or Both. This is the only possible outcome possible for all of us. Let us have a conference call to manage this.”
Conlon then forwarded Ghawi’s email, and minutes later, Hunter fired back saying there wasn’t a “chance in hell” for such a meeting on such short notice. In the email, Hunter appeared to refer to at least one of the men as being a “foreign national.”
Sean Conlon forwarded Nagi Ghawi’s email, and minutes later, Hunter Biden fired back saying there wasn’t a “chance in hell” for such a meeting on such short notice. In the email, Hunter appeared to refer to at least one of the men as being a “foreign national.” (Fox News Digital)
“Sorry buddy not a chance in hell either is happening,” Hunter wrote. “Give me more then hours notice then maybe- but they are in middle of debt ceiling negotiations (I.e. Fate of world economy), defending ‘Biden Afghanistan Policy’ and whatever else. Beyond thy anyone who enters WH for a meeting has to be vetted by Secret Service and WH legal team which typically takes about one week- longer for a foreign national. I can meet with them myself but the other is not happening.”
“Hey fair answer,” Conlon replied. “I am sitting in tuscany with Devon.! I will formally organize thru u. Enjoy your weekend.”
Robert Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Biden at Carlingford Castle, Co Louth, during his trip to the island of Ireland. on Wednesday April 12, 2023. (Photo by Brian Lawless/PA Images via Getty Images)
In the following days, Hunter and Gamperl emailed back and forth ahead of their meeting on June 26, 2011, at “Al Grocery 12 20 Long beach.” It appears they may have had a phone call the day prior to the meeting, and on June 28, Gamperl said, “please let me know if you can talk this afternoon or when? I would like to provide an update to Andre and Nagi.”
In the following days, Hunter Biden and David Gamperl emailed back and forth ahead of their meeting on June 26, 2011, at “Al Grocery 12 20 Long beach.” (Fox News Digital)
A week after Gamperl’s meeting with Hunter, Gamperl met with Alan Hoffman, who was Vice President Biden’s deputy chief of staff, on July 3, 2011, at an unknown location. Lasserre appears to have been present at the meeting also. In the days leading up to the meeting, Gamperl appeared to panic because Conlon allegedly told him he was “concerned that I may not have passed the vet test, I think he is kidding…. Might we have confirmation for Sunday’s meeting?”
Hunter replied that he was “working out the details.” The next day, Hunter told Gamperl he was “cc’d with Alan Hoffman” and to coordinate with him.
“We are set. Thank you,” Gamperl responded.
After David Gamperl’s meeting with Hunter Biden, Gamperl met with Alan Hoffman, who was Vice President Biden’s deputy chief of staff, on July 3, 2011 at an undisclosed location. In the days leading up to the meeting, Gamperl appeared to panic because Sean Conlon allegedly told him he was “concerned that I may not have passed the vet test.” (Fox News Digital)
A little over three weeks later on July 27, 2011, Hoffman met with Gamperl, Wang and Lasserre at the Old Executive Office Building (OEOB), according to White House visitor logs. The three business associates were at OEOB for about 30 minutes, arriving shortly before 5 p.m. and leaving shortly before 5:30 p.m., according to the logs, despite Conlon saying they only needed a “5 min introduction.”
Despite emphasizing the importance of the White House meeting in emails, Ghawi claimed the “discussion that occurred in the White House I was not informed nor I was briefed.” He also claimed, “No business and no transaction was done with Mr. Hunter Biden, nor the VP Biden” even though the emails talk about “substantial profit” and how a brief meeting with then-Vice President Biden and his top aide could help them move bonds.
About a year later, on July 30, 2012, Conor McKay, then-special assistant to Biden’s chief of staff, appeared to reference the meeting in an email to Hoffman and White House intern Sam Cohen saying he received a call from Ghawi seeking a follow-up.
“This guy just called back – his name is Nagi Ghawi, and he is the assistant for Mr. Andre Lasserre and a Mr. Wang,” McKay wrote. “You and the VP met with them at the White House last year? He said he has a message for you as a follow up to that meeting, and would like to talk to you about it.”
“He also said that if you have time while you are in Chicago that you could try to meet in person,” McKay added.
On July 30, 2012, Conor McKay, then-special assistant to Biden’s chief of staff, appeared to confirm the meeting with Joe Biden in an email to Alan Hoffman, who was Vice President Biden’s deputy chief of staff, and White House intern Sam Cohen saying he received a call from Nagi Ghawi seeking a follow-up. (Fox News Digital)
An intern who initially took the call said in the same email chain that Ghawi “said you’d met them at the White House last year and he wanted to send you a text with info you needed for the VP.”
Hoffman forwarded McKay’s email to Hunter, adding, “This is the guy with the magic paper that you had me meet with.” It is unclear whether he is talking about Ghawi or one of the other associates mentioned in the email who visited the White House in July 2011.
Ghawi told Fox News Digital he reached out to the White House a year after the meeting as a “follow up on the meeting on the request of the President of the KUNLUN Family Mr. Xi Wang in order to know if the representative of United States of America in this case VP Biden reached a decision.” He did not clarify what that “decision” refers to.
“Never heard back of the decision all the people involved went radio silence,” he added.
“My Role in this matter was a coordinator for the President of the KUNLUN Family Mr. Xi Wang and Mr. Andre Lasserre,” Ghawi continued, providing a website that included zero references to what was discussed in the emails. “The purpose of the meeting was a humanitarian meeting involving the KUNLUN Family with the representative of United States of America. I enclose the official website of the KUNLUN Family.”
When pressed for clarification regarding the discrepancy between his explanation and the content of the emails, Ghawi did not immediately respond.
The White House, Hunter’s lawyer, Gamperl, McKay, and Hoffman did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment. It is unclear whether Hunter Biden and now-President Biden profited off the meeting.
U.S. President Joe Biden (L) and his son Hunter Biden (2nd L) attend the annual Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House on April 10, 2023, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Paul Kamenar, counsel to the National Legal and Policy Center NLPC), told Fox News Digital that the news could mean additional alleged violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), for which Hunter is currently being investigated in relation to his business dealings in Ukraine, China and others.
“If this person or persons met with Biden at the behest of his son, Hunter, and Hunter somehow was being paid directly or indirectly to arrange that meeting, then we would argue that, yes, he would have to register as a foreign agent of that foreign entity,” Kamenar said.
He said the emails provide “additional evidence to how the most serious charges of foreign agents registration problems are looming and need to be addressed.”
“It strains credulity to think that his dad is totally clueless of what his son’s up to,” he added.
U.S. President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden (L) attend the annual Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House on April 10, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
President Biden has repeatedly insisted he had no knowledge of son Hunter’s business dealings, despite meeting with over a dozen of his son’s business associates over the course of his vice presidency.
“I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings,” Biden said to Fox News reporter Peter Doocy as he jabbed his finger in his face on the campaign trail in Iowa in 2019. “You should be looking at Trump. Trump’s doing this because he knows I’ll beat him like a drum. … Everybody’s looked at it and said there’s nothing there. Ask the right question.”
“I don’t discuss business with my son,”Biden said again a month later in October 2019.
Fox News Digital reported last month that four business partners, a vice president and two assistants at Hunter’s now-defunct investment firm Rosemont Seneca Partners visited the White House more than 80 times when his father was vice president in the Obama administration.
Fox News’ Haley Chi-Sing contributed to this report.
Cameron Cawthorne is a politics editor for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to Cameron.Cawthorne@Fox.com and on Twitter: @cam_cawthorne
Antony Blinken represents neither the beginning nor the end of the info ops run to convince voters the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation. Revisiting the contemporaneous coverage of the laptop story in light of last week’s revelations about Blinken reveals the scandal extends far beyond the Biden campaign and involves government agents.
Last week, news broke that a former top CIA official, Michael Morell, testified as part of a House Judiciary Committee investigation that Blinken, now-secretary of state and then-Biden campaign senior adviser, had contacted Morell to discuss the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story.
Blinken and Morell reportedly “discussed possible Russian involvement in the spreading of information related to Hunter Biden.” According to Morell, Blinken’s outreach “set in motion” what led to the public statement signed by 51 former intelligence agents that falsely framed the laptop as Russian disinformation.
This revelation is huge — but it’s only a start to understanding the scope of the plot to interfere in the 2020 election by framing the laptop exposing Biden family corruption as foreign disinformation.
The First Clue
The first hint that Blinken’s outreach to Morell was a single spoke in the wheel of the Biden campaign’s deception came from a follow-up email Blinken sent Morell on Oct. 17, 2020. In it, Blinken shared a USA Today article that reported “the FBI was examining whether the Hunter Biden laptop was part of a ‘disinformation campaign.’” The very bottom of Blinken’s email contained the signature block of Andrew Bates, then a Biden campaign spokesman and the director of his “rapid response” team, suggesting Bates had sent the article to Blinken for him to forward to Morell.
Blinken forwarding an article claiming the FBI was investigating the laptop as a potential “disinformation campaign” is hugely significant because we know the FBI was doing no such thing. The FBI knew both that the laptop was authentic and that John Paul Mac Isaac had possession of the hard drive, just as the New York Post had reported, albeit without identifying the computer-store owner by name.
The USA Today article nonetheless furthered the narrative that Morell and the other former intelligence officials would soon parrot in their “Public Statement on the Hunter Biden Emails” — that the emails have “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
For those who lived through the Russia-collusion hoax, it was the USA Today article and the presidential campaign’s use of Russia to deflect attention from the Biden scandal that bore the “classic earmarks” of an information operation — one that mimicked Hillary Clinton’s ploy four years prior. Given the similarities between the two Russia hoaxes, it seemed likely the Biden campaign worked with the press to push the Russian-disinformation narrative.
USA Today Didn’t Start the Falsehood
Sure enough, the legacy press began pushing the narrative days before Blinken emailed Morell the article on Oct. 17.
On Oct. 14, 2020, the same day the New York Post broke the first laptop story, Politico ran an article, co-authored by Russia-hoaxer extraordinaire “Fusion Natasha” Bertrand, raising questions about the authenticity of said laptop. “This is a Russian disinformation operation. I’m very comfortable saying that,” Bertrand quoted former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense and Biden adviser Michael Carpenter.
At the time, Carpenter also ran the Penn Biden Center — the same place a cache of classified documents from Biden’s time as vice president and senator were discovered in a closet.
Politico also quoted Bates, whose signature block would later appear on Blinken’s email to Morell. Bates spun the scandal as one about Rudy Giuliani, who had provided a copy of the hard drive to the Post, and Giuliani’s supposed connection “to Russian intelligence.”
Intel Community Helped Peddle Russia Hoax 2.0
As was the case with the Russia-collusion hoax, the Biden campaign received an assist from the intelligence community. On Oct. 14, 2020, The New York Times reported that U.S. intelligence analysts “had picked up Russian chatter that stolen Burisma emails” would be released as an “October surprise.”
Burisma, of course, was the Ukrainian energy company that paid Hunter Biden nearly $1 million to sit on its board during his father’s final year as vice president.
The chief concern of the intelligence analysts, the Times reported, “was that the Burisma material would be leaked alongside forged materials in an attempt to hurt Mr. Biden’s candidacy.”
Lying Leakers Advance the Narrative
The next day, another foundational Russia-collusion hoaxer, Ken Dilanian, published an “exclusive” at NBC. Citing “two people familiar with the matter,” Dilanian claimed that “federal investigators are examining whether emails allegedly describing activities by Joe Biden and his son Hunter and found on a laptop at a Delaware repair shop are linked to a foreign intelligence operation.” Dilanian also quoted Bates, who again focused on Giuliani and his alleged connection to Russia.
The Washington Post also embraced the narrative on Oct. 15, reporting, “U.S. intelligence agencies warned the White House last year that President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani was the target of an influence operation by Russian intelligence.” Based on “four former officials,” The Washington Post reported that Giuliani had interacted with people tied to Russian intel.
More Lies Leaked to USA Today
This brings us to USA Today’s Oct. 16, 2020, article, “FBI Probing Whether Emails in New York Post Story About Hunter Biden Are Tied to Russian Disinformation.”
“Federal authorities are investigating whether a Russian influence operation was behind the disclosure of emails purporting to document the Ukrainian and Chinese business dealings of Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic nominee Joe Biden,” USA Today opened its article, citing “a person briefed on the matter” and immediately bringing up Giuliani.
According to USA Today, that person “confirmed the FBI’s involvement but did not elaborate on the scope of the bureau’s review.”
The next day, Oct. 17, USA Today followed up with the article, “A Tabloid Got a Trove of Data on Hunter Biden from Rudy Giuliani. Now, the FBI is Probing a Possible Disinformation Campaign.”
It began by saying the New York Post portrayed the laptop contents as a “smoking gun.” “Enter the FBI,” USA Today interjected, reporting that “federal authorities” are investigating whether the laptop is “disinformation pushed by Russia” and claiming there are many questions about the laptop data’s authenticity.
“Experts say the story has many hallmarks of a disinformation campaign,” it continued, using language strikingly similar to what the former intel officials would use days later.
Blinken Uses Reporting to Prod Morell
It is unclear which of the two USA Today pieces Blinken forwarded to Morell because both articles included the FBI investigation claims. It seems likely, however, that Blinken sent Morrel the second article because USA Today’s Oct. 17 coverage included a quote from supposed “experts” who said the New York Post “story has many hallmarks of a disinformation campaign.”
That language tracked near-perfectly the wording used by the 51 former intelligence officials in their infamous Oct. 19 statement, which claimed the laptop “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
That’s Not All
Morell’s contact with Blinken reportedly went beyond the phone call and email. According to CNN, following his conversation with Blinken, “Morell had conversations with other former intelligence community officials, which is what led to the letter,” and then Morell “circled back to the Biden campaign to let them know that the letter efforts were underway.”
In testimony to House oversight investigators, Morell told how Biden’s campaign helped strategize releasing the statement, according to a letter Reps. Jim Jordan and Michael Turner sent to Blinken last week. Specifically, “Morell testified that he sent an email telling Nick Shapiro, former Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to the Director of the CIA John Brennan, that the Biden campaign wanted the statement to go to a particular reporter at the Washington Post first and that he should send the statement to the campaign when he sent the letter to the reporter.” Shapiro was another signatory of the statement.
Politico, however, eventually first broke the story and published the statement, under the headline “Hunter Biden Story is Russian Disinfo, Dozens of Former Intel Officials Say.”
Mission Accomplished
In his testimony to House investigators, Morell “explained that one of his two goals in releasing the statement was to help then-Vice President Biden in the debate and to assist him in winning the election,” Jordan and Turner wrote. In fact, according to attorney Mark Zaid, who represents several of the signatories, “when the draft [statement] was sent out to people to sign, the cover email made clear that it was an effort to help the Biden campaign.”
Both parts of the ploy worked. When the final presidential debate arrived on Oct. 22, 2020, and then-President Trump confronted Biden with the details revealed in Hunter’s “laptop from hell,” Biden responded by telling the American public:
There are 50 former national intelligence folks who said that what he’s accusing me of is a Russian plant. They have said that this has all the … five former heads of the CIA, both parties, say what he’s saying is a bunch of garbage. Nobody believes it except him and his good friend, Rudy Giuliani.
Biden Campaign Thanks Morell for the Assist
Morell testified that after the debate he received a call from Jeremy Bash, who was one of the 51 signatories of the statement. Bash asked Morell if he had a minute to talk to Steve Ricchetti, head of the Biden campaign. Bash testified that he said “yes,” Bash got Ricchetti on the line, and the Biden campaign representative thanked Morell “for putting the statement out.”
More Than Dirty Politics
Morell’s testimony revealed Blinken and the Biden campaign’s role in prompting the bunk statement from the former intel officials. But the contemporaneous media reporting exposes a larger scandal: Representatives of our government helped promote that narrative by falsely telling media outlets the FBI was investigating whether the Hunter Biden laptop was part of a Russian-disinformation campaign.
The FBI’s role in assisting the Biden campaign’s plot transforms this case from one about dirty politics to a scandal involving government interference in the 2020 election. Accordingly, the House oversight committees need to determine which members of the FBI or intelligence agencies were responsible for the false media leak and whether anyone working on behalf of the Biden campaign collaborated with those government actors.
The committees thus need to gather evidence and question not merely Blinken, but every signatory of the statement, especially Bash; members of the Biden campaign, such as Bates and Ricchetti; and Biden advisers, including Carpenter.
While Blinken provides an entry point to unraveling the Russian-disinformation hoax, there is much more to learn.
Margot Cleveland is The Federalist’s senior legal correspondent. She is also a contributor to National Review Online, the Washington Examiner, Aleteia, and Townhall.com, and has been published in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prize—the law school’s highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Cleveland is a former full-time university faculty member and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time. As a stay-at-home homeschooling mom of a young son with cystic fibrosis, Cleveland frequently writes on cultural issues related to parenting and special-needs children. Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, revealed in a floor speech on Tuesday that material reviewed by his investigative staff supported whistleblower allegations that the FBI falsely labeled evidence of potential criminal conduct by members of the Biden family “Russian disinformation.” While Grassley had previously discussed the whistleblower allegations, he now confirmed for the first time that an independent review of the pertinent records supported the accusations.
In response to last week’s announcement by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that he planned to offer a resolution denouncing former President Donald Trump’s call to defund the FBI, Grassley excoriated Democrats for remaining silent while the country faced an uptick in violence against law enforcement officers and the radical left pushed to defund the police. The Iowa senator then chastised Democrats for offering a political resolution that ignored the weaponization of the FBI, proceeding then to catalog the DOJ and FBI’s many abuses.
Here, Grassley stressed that protected whistleblower disclosures made“clear that the FBI has within its possession very significant, very impactful, and very voluminous evidence with respect to potential criminal conduct by members of the Biden family.”
“I know the FBI falsely labeled that evidence as Russian disinformation to bury it,” Grassley continued, revealing that his staff had “independently reviewed records” that support the whistleblower allegations.
Tuesday’s comments came some six months after Grassley revealed that the FBI had possession of “a series of documents relating to information on Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner of Burisma, and his business and financial associations with Hunter Biden.” According to an October 2022 news release and an accompanying letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, Grassley said:
The documents in the FBI’s possession include specific details with respect to conversations by non-government individuals relevant to potential criminal conduct by Hunter Biden. These documents also indicate that Joe Biden was aware of Hunter Biden’s business arrangements and may have been involved in some of them.
At the time, Grassley noted it was “unclear whether the FBI followed normal investigative procedure to determine the truth and accuracy of the information or shut down investigative activity based on improper disinformation claims in advance of the 2020 election…” The senator also expressed concern over whether Weiss had independently evaluated the evidence.
Grassley concluded his October 2022 letter by requesting from the DOJ and FBI all records from Jan. 1, 2014, forward “that reference Mykola Zlochevsky, Hunter Biden, James Biden and Joe Biden.” While his letter sought “all records,” Grassley explicitly highlighted several forms including, among others, FD-209a, which is used to record an “asset contract”; FD-794b, which is used to request a payment; FD-1023, which is used for a source report; and FD-1040a, which is used to close a source.
The specific documents requested suggest the whistleblower had claimed the FBI had a source that provided information on the Burisma owner and the Biden family.
While it is unclear whether the DOJ and FBI provided the documents, Grassley’s floor statement on Tuesday shows his office had access to records corroborating the whistleblower claims that the FBI buried evidence derogatory to the Biden family by framing it as Russian disinformation.
This latest revelation follows last week’s news that an Internal Revenue Service whistleblower claimed FBI headquarters interfered in the investigation into Hunter Biden and that two Biden-appointed U.S. attorneys declined to file tax charges against the president’s son, against the recommendation of career prosecutors.
Yet Garland and Wray remain silent. If it weren’t for Grassley’s various letters and floor statements, Americans would know little about the FBI’s political favoritism and the “get out of jail free card” they seem to be handing out to Hunter Biden at every opportunity.
But now that we know that evidence, likely including a confidential human source, was buried under the guise that it was Russian disinformation, will anything change?
Sadly, for all of Grassley’s efforts to expose the scandal, the last seven years suggest not.
Margot Cleveland is The Federalist’s senior legal correspondent. She is also a contributor to National Review Online, the Washington Examiner, Aleteia, and Townhall.com, and has been published in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prize—the law school’s highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Cleveland is a former full-time university faculty member and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time. As a stay-at-home homeschooling mom of a young son with cystic fibrosis, Cleveland frequently writes on cultural issues related to parenting and special-needs children. Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity.
An Internal Revenue Service (IRS) whistleblower hinted to congressional leaders last week that the FBI improperly blocked aspects of the Hunter Biden investigation and that Biden-appointed U.S. attorneys blocked an indictment against the president’s son on tax charges. The carefully worded letter also indicated Attorney General Merrick Garland had testified inaccurately when he told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the Trump-appointed Delaware U.S. attorney had the authority to file charges against Hunter Biden in other jurisdictions.
Here are six reasons this whistleblower should terrify those behind the DOJ’s Biden family protection racket.
1. Whistleblower Has Corroborating Evidence
While Wednesday’s letter from the whistleblower’s attorney to the congressional oversight chairs spoke only in cryptic terms, as I detailed on Friday, individuals claiming to be “directly familiar with the case” revealed the whistleblower had accused two Biden-appointed U.S. attorneys of refusing “to seek a tax indictment against Hunter Biden despite career investigators’ recommendations to do so.”
The sources also claimed the whistleblower’s disclosures establish that Garland refused Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss’s request for special counsel protection and that Garland testified inaccurately when he represented to the Senate Judiciary Committee that Weiss had full authority “to bring cases in other jurisdictions if he feels it is necessary.”
It isn’t merely the seriousness of the whistleblower’s accusations that should shake those sheltering Hunter Biden, however, but the promise of corroborating evidence.
The whistleblower’s attorney, Mark Lytle, reportedly maintains his client can “identify contemporaneous witnesses to corroborate his claims of political interference.” The whistleblower will “be able to talk about these meetings that he attended, that were with both agents and prosecutors … and how he summarized those meetings and put it in writing and distributed those to folks within the IRS and sometimes other agents,” Lytle claims, adding that those contemporaneous memoranda and emails will “end up corroborating his credibility.”
Sources also maintain DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz has already begun reviewing documents that purportedly corroborate the whistleblower’s claims. They say he has sought out both IRS and FBI witnesses, indicating several paths exist to confirm the accusations of political bias.
2. IRS Agent Is Nonpartisan and Credentialed
The whistleblower’s apparent nonpartisan pedigree is another reason for participants in the Biden protection racket to be afraid. The whistleblower is “not a political person” and does not have a “political agenda,” Lytle told Fox News last week. He “is a career law enforcement official who hasn’t made any political donations and doesn’t even use social media,” the IRS agent’s attorney told Just the News.
“He is just a guy who likes his job as a law enforcement officer, as an investigator, and he takes it seriously, and he’s dedicated,” Lytle explained, adding, “And when he sees something that is not routine and doesn’t follow the rules, or … something maybe is affected by politics — that’s what made him come forward.”
“My client wrestled with whether or not to come forward,” the whistleblower’s attorney told Fox News. He had “sleepless nights. He decided he could not live with himself if he stayed quiet and said nothing.”
Also strengthening the whistleblower’s claims of a nonpartisan motivation is his insistence that “when he comes forward, this is not to talk to just one party or the other party.” Lytle stressed his client wants both sides of the political aisle to “ask him questions and cross-examine him.”
That Lytle is one of the whistleblower’s attorneys will also negate concerns of partisanship, given the attorney previously represented Yoel Roth, Twitter’s former head of trust and safety, during the heated Republican-controlled weaponization hearings. Lytle is also “currently defending a former FBI supervisor named Timothy Thibault who has been accused of pro-Biden political bias.” Before retaining Lytle, the whistleblower hired “prominent Democrat lawyer Mark Zaid, who previously represented clients whose allegations about a call with the Ukrainian president led to Donald Trump’s first impeachment in 2019.”
His dedicated service at the IRS will likewise bolster the whistleblower’s credibility. As an IRS special agent for more than 10 years, the whistleblower reportedly has been “trusted with international investigations,” received several commendations, and taught “other agents how to properly do investigations.” His lengthy experience will strengthen his claims that “protocols that would normally be followed by career law enforcement professionals in similar circumstances” were not followed in the case of the politically connected Hunter Biden.
3. Dual Authorization Was Required
The IRS whistleblower’s claims that two Biden-appointed U.S. attorneys inappropriately, and for political reasons, “declined to seek a tax indictment against Hunter Biden” carry more weight given the dual-authorization procedures required by the DOJ for criminal tax cases.
The Department of Justice Manual provides that the tax division oversees federal criminal tax enforcement. Thus, while a grand jury is empowered to investigate tax crimes, “the Tax Division must first approve and authorize the United States Attorney’s Office’s use of a grand jury to investigate criminal tax violations.” Accordingly, in tax cases, prosecutions generally require two independent assessments that criminal prosecution is appropriate.
In the case of Hunter Biden, both career investigators and career prosecutors in the DOJ tax division signed off on the recommended charges, the whistleblower maintains. That dual approval suggests the evidence underlying the proposed charges was strong. It also pits the two Biden-appointed U.S. attorneys, who allegedly declined to seek charges against the president’s son, against the recommendations of two distinct sets of career employees.
4. Criminal Violations Seem Obvious
“Of course, Biden officials are interfering in his son’s case — why else has Hunter skated for five years?”
That title from former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy’s Friday New York Post article capsulizes perfectly another reason those running the Biden family protection racket should be shaking: The political favoritism shown Hunter Biden is obvious.
Who else could lie on a federal firearm form to purchase a handgun — only to lose physical possession of the gun and have it turn up across the street from a school — without getting charged with a federal crime?
As McCarthy wrote, “The gun offenses are so straightforward that they’d take a competent investigator five days, not five years, to wrap into a prosecutable case.” Likewise, “[s]ome of the tax offenses, which stretch back seven years or more, are so undeniable that liens were placed on Hunter’s properties…”
A public that for years has witnessed the president’s son escape any consequence for his clearly criminal conduct will easily nod along to the whistleblower’s claims of political favoritism: The IRS agent’s accusations aren’t just believable — they are self-evident.
5. The Timing Is Suspect
The timing also renders the whistleblower’s claims believable. Recall that in March of 2022, The New York Times began prepping the country for an indictment of Hunter Biden by soft-peddling his criminal conduct. The Times even previewed several potential defenses the president’s son could assert to counter the series of predicted criminal charges.
The Times article was a transparent attempt to get ahead of an anticipated story, namely that a grand jury had indicted Hunter Biden. But a grand jury indictment never dropped. Instead, about six months later, the whistleblower reportedly filed complaints related to the investigation with the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration and the DOJ’s Office of Inspector General. The whistleblower’s complaints indicated charges had been recommended and approved by the tax division but never materialized because the Biden-appointed U.S. attorneys did not seek grand jury indictments as recommended.
The New York Times’ efforts to groom Americans to discount the seriousness of the expected criminal charges wasn’t needed because the DOJ and FBI already had the president’s son covered.
6. The Scandal Reaches the FBI and POTUS
The Biden-appointed U.S. attorneys who allegedly declined to seek grand jury indictments against the president’s son are not the only ones implicated, however. The whistleblower’s allegations reportedly also reach FBI headquarters, although that does not necessarily mean Director Christopher Wray.
The unnamed sources further maintain the whistleblower’s disclosures claim that “specific DOJ employees placed strictures on questions, witnesses and tactics investigators may be allowed to pursue that could impact President Biden.” This accusation suggests political corruption beyond the refusal of the DOJ to charge Hunter Biden with tax crimes.
Whether the “specific DOJ employees” refers to individuals working at FBI headquarters or elsewhere with the DOJ is unclear. Either way, the whistleblower’s claim conflicts with Garland’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee that he had left the matter of Hunter Biden to the Delaware “U.S. Attorney’s office and the FBI squad working with him.”
Garland’s testimony suggests that whoever instituted those “strictures” acted without the authority to do so. That is bad enough, but the implication is worse: namely that either FBI headquarters or other DOJ employees have kept the president from being incriminated during the multi-year unraveling of Hunter Biden’s complicated “business” ventures.
Margot Cleveland is The Federalist’s senior legal correspondent. She is also a contributor to National Review Online, the Washington Examiner, Aleteia, and Townhall.com, and has been published in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prize—the law school’s highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Cleveland is a former full-time university faculty member and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time. As a stay-at-home homeschooling mom of a young son with cystic fibrosis, Cleveland frequently writes on cultural issues related to parenting and special-needs children. Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity.
Screenshot taken from video on the Matt Walsh YouTube channel
The Twitter account of conservative commentator Matt Walsh of the Daily Wire was apparently hacked. The hack was quite obvious because wildly inappropriate content was reportedly posted to the account. According to screenshots shared by journalist Andy Ngô, one of the tweets posted to Walsh’s account referred to Shapiro as “A Closeted Homosexual” who hides “Behind Being Jewish.”
Another post read, “My Pronouns Are That/N****.”
“My Twitter Isn’t Hacked, This Is Just The Real Me Coming Out,” another tweet claimed.
While the tweets have apparently been removed from the account, there is still a link on Walsh’s profile that directs to a song on Spotify called “Sassy Shooters,” and it appears that the banner photo on Walsh’s account has been changed.
Walsh is a prominent and outspoken opponent of radical leftist gender ideology. His Daily Wire documentary “What Is a Woman?” delves into the issue, and he has also authored a children’s book meant to push back against the woke ideology.
“Over the past few months, my friend @mattwalshblog has been threatened to the extent that he’s had to have full-time security at his home to protect his family. Now he’s been hacked. The tolerant and diverse and kind crowd are celebrating, of course,” Shapiro tweeted. “They tell you who they are. Believe them,” he added.
Shapiro screenshotted a few tweets, including one in which Alejandra Caraballo wrote, “Matt Walsh’s account has been hacked. Couldn’t have happened to a more miserable piece of s***.”
“RT IF YOU THINK THAT THE HACK COULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED TO A ‘NICER’ GUY!” the Occupy Democrats Twitter account tweeted.
Over the past few months, my friend @mattwalshblog has been threatened to the extent that he's had to have full-time security at his home to protect his family. Now he's been hacked. The tolerant and diverse and kind crowd are celebrating, of course. pic.twitter.com/JvIrsJyvW4
New video has emerged of the “Teen Takeover” of downtown Chicago showing a panicked woman terrorized by a mob of young people who brutally attacked, beat and robbed her.
The video, which was widely circulated on social media as part of a larger “mix tape” of the downtown riot over the weekend, shows a woman appearing to attempt to enter the doorway of 129 Wabash Avenue in Chicago, an apartment building near the city’s Millennium Park.
However, before she gets inside, the woman is surrounded by a large group of people who block the doorway. Some then pounce on her, the video shows.
The woman, identified as 18 to 24-years old, was with a 22-year-old male victim during the attack, Chicago police said.
The mob surrounded the victims and multiple people “struck the victims several times before taking their personal property and fleeing in an unknown direction,” the police report said. No arrests have been made in the incident, while the victims were transported to the University of Illinois Hospital with what were classified as “minor injuries.”
Screenshots of a woman attacked during Chicago’s “Teen Takeover.” (Fox News)
In a statement Monday, the Chicago Police Department said that “the safety and wellbeing of our residents and visitors, including our city’s youth” is the department’s “top priority.”
Investigators are using social media posts to piece together clues on any crimes committed during the downtown chaos over the weekend, the statement added.
(Screenshot of a woman attacked during Chicago’s “Teen Takeover.”)
The department also outlined steps to improve safety, including the “monitoring all activity and police cameras” in an attempt to streamline the “reallocation of resources when necessary.”
“Additional security measures such as bag checks at beach entry points and the curfew for minors at Millennium Park will also be in place. CPD is also working closely with youth and outreach workers for when these gatherings occur,” the department said.
Car window smashed as teens caused chaos in downtown Chicago Saturday. (Fox 32)
Saturday’s “Teen Takeover” saw hundreds of teens and young people descend on downtown Chicago. Video from the chaos showed many of the teens spilling into traffic and vandalizing vehicles, while there were multiple reports of assaults and shots fired in the area.
A large police presence was needed downtown in an attempt to restore order, with the police department vowing that those responsible for crimes during the chaos will be punished.
Teens spilled into downtown Chicago, smashing car windows and attacking tourists. (WFLD)
“The reckless, disruptive and violent behavior that was seen downtown this past weekend will not be tolerated,” the department’s statement said. “We encourage our young people to be safe and responsible as they enjoy their weekends, but anyone engaged in criminal activity will be arrested and held accountable.”
Michael Lee is a writer at Fox News. Follow him on Twitter @UAMichaelLee
Hundreds of teenagers flooded into the streets of Chicago on Saturday night. In response to the chaos, hundreds of police officers were dispatched to the downtown area after there several cars were damaged by the teenagers. Around 8 p.m., the mob of teens attempted to storm into Millennium Park. However, people under 21 are not allowed access to the park without being accompanied by an adult.
The horde of teens forced police to escort tourists and locals back to their cars at the Millennium Park garage. Teens also reportedly attempted to force their way inside the Art Institute of Chicago in an attempted “teen takeover.”
Officers from the Chicago Police Department, Chicago Fire Department, EMS, and SWAT teams were dispatched to the area. Rowdy teens smashed the windows of several cars by jumping on the vehicles – including a police cruiser. Video shows a vehicle being set on fire.
A man sitting in the driver’s seat of his car was injured and taken to the Northwestern Memorial Hospital after a group of teens beat him as they smashed his vehicle.
Video shows teens standing and dancing on the roof of a Chicago Transit Authority bus. There were reports of bottles being thrown at CTA buses. The CTA said some public transportation was disrupted on Saturday night because of police activity.
Police noted that there were social media posts encouraging teens to fight in the Loop.
🚨#BREAKING: Chaotic Scene Unfolds in Downtown Chicago as Teenagers Vandalize Cars and Gunfire Erupts
📌#Chicago | #Illinois ⁰ There is currently a significant police response taking place in downtown Chicago due to a large group of teenagers causing chaos. They have been… pic.twitter.com/n7xhBpsTKs
WFLD reported that gunfire erupted near the crowds at the corner of Madison and Michigan. Two teenagers were shot. The teens, ages 16 and 17, were shot and rushed to the Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Both boys are said to be in fair condition with gunshot wounds.
A witness told WMAQ-TV, “It’s heartbreaking, kids fighting, chasing each other, some of them got guns. It’s really heartbreaking when one of them actually gets hurt, and that’s unfortunate, happened last night.”
CBS News reported that “multiple teens” were arrested – all were under the age of 18.
The Chicago Police Department said in a statement, “Last night, CPD monitored activity happening across the city and officers were in place to quickly respond to active incidents and large gatherings. We will continue to have sufficient resources in place as we work to strengthen safety in every neighborhood.”
This was the second night of a crowd of teens taking over Chicago. On Friday night, a mob of teenagers gathered at the 31st Street Beach on Friday night. A 14-year-old boy was shot near the crowds.
WLS-TV reported that at least 29 people had been shot, six fatally, in weekend violence in Chicago.
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Hundreds of teenagers flood into downtown Chicago, smashing car windows, prompting police response www.youtube.com
The mother of a New York City murder victim shouted down Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., during a House Judiciary Committee field hearing on Monday, warning the lawmaker not to “insult my intelligence.”
The mother, Madeline Brame, was one of many witnesses to testify before the committee during Monday’s hearing highlighting the crime problem in Manhattan. Goldman attempted to use the time granted to him to question Brame to instead criticize the hearing itself, arguing it was a “coverup” for Republicans attempting to defend former President Donald Trump.
Goldman, who served as impeachment counsel during Trump’s first impeachment, sought to explain his view of the situation to Brame after other Democrats had stated that Republicans were using the witnesses as “props” to defend Trump.
“We’re not insulting you. Your experiences are devastating, but the problem is, is that this is a charade to cover up for an abuse of power. [Republicans] are going around incessantly, outside of this hearing, about Donald Trump, and the purpose of this hearing is to cover up for what they know to be an inappropriate investigation [into District Attorney Alvin Bragg],” Goldman said.
Madeline Brame shouted down Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman during a House Judiciary field hearing in Manhattan on Monday.
Rep. Dan Goldman got more than he bargained for when questioning witness Madeline Brame during Monday’s congressional field hearing in Manhattan.
“Can I respond to you, please?” Brame asked as Goldman attempted to move on.
“Not right now, because I only have 20 seconds, I’m sorry. But I, I do–” Goldman said.
“Don’t insult my intelligence,” Brame interjected as Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, attempted to maintain order. “You’re trying to insult me like I’m not aware of what’s going on here. I’m fully aware of what’s going on here, OK? That’s why I walked away from the plantation of the Democratic Party.”
Brame had testified earlier about Bragg’s mishandling of her son’s murder case. Her son, Army Sgt. Hason Correa, was beaten and stabbed nine times by multiple people in 2018. The prosecution for the cases dragged on for more than four years, and Bragg ultimately removed the indictments against two of the suspects in favor of lesser charges. Two others ended up receiving life sentences.
Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg has sued House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan for opening an investigation into his office. Jordan held a hearing highlighting New York City’s crime problem on Monday. (Associated Press)
Brame argued that Bragg’s office has only served to escalate the city’s crime problem, showing no “measurable results” in lowering the city’s violent crime rate.
Anders Hagstrom is a reporter with Fox News Digital covering national politics and major breaking news events. Send tips to Anders.Hagstrom@Fox.com, or on Twitter: @Hagstrom_Anders.
A shocking video captured a mob of California youth breaking into a gas station convenience store and then stealing what police say was thousands of dollars of products.
The incident happened early Sunday morning in Compton, California, after a large group of people blocked an intersection as part of a street takeover, with video footage capturing cars drifting in circles and screeching around 2:30 a.m., according to KLTA.
“It’s unbelievable. Unreal. I’ve never seen anything like that happen here,” Greg Johnson, a Compton resident and customer of the Arco Station that was looted, told ABC7 in reaction to the ransacking.
Staff at the Arco said that a clerk there hid in its bathroom while the looting was ongoing.
Unidentified people are seen early Sunday, April 16 breaking into an Arco gas station convenience store in Compton, California. (AIO FILMZ)
Video taken of the incident shows unidentified individuals first crowding around the entrance of the convenience store at the Arco Gas Station and kicking down its glass door to gain entry.
Once inside, people could be seen swiping items from the stores’ shelves, with one smiling individual taking packages of condoms and cigarettes.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said thousands of dollars of products ultimately were stolen and that the store suffered serious damage, ABC7 reported
Deputies at its Compton station were responding to incidents throughout the night, but police said since they are “currently limited with their staffed personnel,” they “couldn’t intervene with the giant takeover groups for safety concerns” and being “outnumbered,” according to the station.
No arrests have been made yet in connection to the incident.
A man is seen taking packages of condoms inside the Arco store in Compton, California, early Sunday. (AIO FILMZ)
Sgt. Clarence Williams of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department told the Los Angeles Times that the street takeover near the Arco Gas Station was one of three in the area that night – but that he had never seen a flash mob bust into a store “to that level.”
By the time police arrived, the crowd had scattered, he reportedly added.
Around 100 people were involved, and the area was left covered in trash and tire marks afterward, KTLA reports.
The Arco Gas Station in Compton, California, that was targeted by the mob of youth. (Google Maps)
“It makes me angry,” Norrice Heron, whom KTLA says witnessed the events, said to the station. “It makes me angry when they do that to the streets and put everybody in danger.
An investigation into the footage showing the looting is reportedly ongoing.
Three years ago, my office, the Mississippi Office of the State Auditor, learned through a whistleblower tip that Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds may have been misspent by the Mississippi agency handling that money. Several months later and after an investigation by my team, we revealed the startling truth: Tens of millions of welfare dollars had been embezzled.
TANF funds were used in Mississippi to pay for drug treatment at a luxury Malibu resort for the friend of the head of the agency dispersing the funds. It paid for an investment in an experimental concussion drug company. It financed religious concerts with no proof they were attended by the needy, nice cars for the heads of an influential local nonprofit — along with paying off a speeding ticket for one of them — and excessive rent for property owned by the people handing out the money.
And of course, national outlets from ESPN to the late-night comics picked up on our discovery that Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre was paid $1.1 million on a contract requiring him to give speeches he never gave. He also successfully lobbied for $5 million in welfare funds to be spent on a volleyball court at his alma mater where his daughter played.
All told, this was the largest public fraud in state history. Local and federal prosecutors took our findings and indicted six of the culprits. We arrested them, and five have pleaded guilty. The FBI continues to investigate the case, working with our entire case file and my team to get to the bottom of everything.
Nationwide Problem
Sadly, large fraud schemes in poverty alleviation programs have streamed across the headlines of newspapers around the country lately. In the last couple of months, federal prosecutors indicted two nonprofit executives in Minnesota for stealing $250 million from a program to feed hungry kids. In June of 2022, the New York Post reported the head of a New York nonprofit was paid millions in taxpayer funds to house the poor while living in an expensive high-rise and funneling taxpayer money to his for-profit businesses. The list goes on.
Now that Republicans have taken the majority in the U.S. House, they have a fresh opportunity to explore why the billions taxpayers spend on the poor are so prone to this sort of abuse. In November, House Republicans sent a letter to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra arguing, “The Mississippi case is emblematic of a systemic problem: TANF lacks necessary guardrails making it susceptible to fraud.” They asked HHS to describe what they were doing to prevent the problem in the future.
This was a great start, and Republicans should double down on efforts to extirpate fraud from these kinds of programs. Connected powerbrokers who happen to run a nonprofit should not be the primary beneficiaries of our government’s spending for the poor. The House Ways and Means Committee should hold hearings to identify the best policy changes for these programs.
Proposals for Improvement
Here are a few ideas to get them started: Federal monitors should ensure state agencies are policing the nonprofits that take funds, tighter restrictions should be placed on how TANF can be spent (poverty programs should be focused on getting people into the workforce — period), and state agency heads should sign documents under penalty of perjury attesting to the number of poor people who were helped by their spending.
Finally, HHS should regularly report improper TANF spending to Congress. As House Republicans have noted, “Nearly every government assistance program is required to report improper payments on an annual basis, TANF is not.”
Voters expect government to act quickly to stop fraud in these programs. The belief that influence peddlers have rigged government spending for their benefit is bipartisan. Putting a stop to these sorts of schemes in poverty programs would appeal to a broad cross-section of Americans. Billions of dollars are spent across hundreds of these programs, so the savings could be massive if Congress gets this right. And most importantly, hard-earned taxpayer dollars might actually benefit the poor in our country.
Shad White is the 42nd State Auditor of Mississippi.
FBI agents arrested Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Douglas Teixeira at a home in North Dighton, Massachusetts, on Thursday in connection with a trove of classified documents that have been leaked online in recent months. Attorney General Merrick Garland said that Teixeira, 21, is being investigated for the “alleged unauthorized removal, retention, and transmission of classified national defense information.”
Teixeira, who joined the Air National Guard in September 2019, held the highest-level security clearance granted by the federal government for top secret information, according to an internal Department of Defense email reviewed by Fox News. His security clearance and access to classified government systems have since been revoked, according to another internal government document.
Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman seen here in a photo posted on social media, was arrested Thursday in connection with an investigation into the leak of classified documents. (Facebook)
Teixeira was most recently stationed at Otis Air National Guard Base as a member of the of 102nd Intelligence Wing. He was promoted to Airman 1st Class last July, according to the unit. The National Guard said in a statement it is aware of the “alleged role a Massachusetts Air National Guardsman may have played in the recent leak of highly-classified documents” from the Pentagon.
“The National Guard takes this issue very seriously and will support investigators,” the National Guard said in a statement. “National security is our foremost priority and any attempt to undermine it compromises our values and degrades trust among our members, the public, allies and partners.”
Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder called the leaks a “a deliberate criminal act,” saying that distribution lists for classified information are being reviewed.
“We entrust our members with a lot of responsibility at a very early age,” Ryder said at a press conference on Thursday.
“You’ve received training and you will receive an understanding of the rules and requirements that come along with those responsibilities, and you’re expected to abide by those rules, regulations and responsibility. It’s called military discipline. And in certain cases, especially when it comes to sensitive information, it also is about the law.”
nextImage 1 of 3Aerial photo of the arrest of Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira by FBI agents for allegedly leaking classified materials. (Fox News)
The New York Times originally identified Teixeira as the suspected leaker on Wednesday evening, reporting that he was the leader of a Discord group called “Thug Shaker Central” that consisted of roughly 20 to 30 young men. Teixeira allegedly starting sharing classified documents with the private group in recent months, but the leaks gained wider attention after another member shared them in a public forum, according to the report.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks warned Pentagon employees against sharing classified information in a memo on Tuesday. (Fox News )
Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks sent a memo to Pentagon officials on Tuesday, warning employees against leaking classified information or downloading classified documents from unclassified sources.
“Do not access or download documents with classified markings from unclassified websites – either from home or work – as the data ma y be classified, it may be associated with hostile foreign elements, or it may contain malicious code or embedded capability that could introduce cyber threats into our information system,” Hicks wrote in the memo, which was obtained by Fox News.
President Biden said earlier Thursday that the U.S. was “getting close” to finding the person responsible for leaking Pentagon documents that the Department of Defense has described as containing “sensitive and highly-classified material.”
“I can’t right now [give an update]. There is a full-blown investigation going on with the intelligence community and Justice Department and they are getting close,” Biden told reporters during his trip to Ireland. “I don’t have an answer for you.”
The president also said, “I’m concerned that it happened, but there is nothing contemporaneous that I’m aware of that is of great consequence.”
US President Joe Biden addresses the Houses of the Oireachtas at Leinster House in Dublin, Ireland, on April 13, 2023. (KENNY HOLSTON/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
The leaked documents mainly concern Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but also include intelligence on China, the Middle East, Israel’s spy agency Mossad, and world leaders. U.S. defense officials previously told Fox News that this leak could be “bigger than Snowden” in terms of damage to intelligence and allied relationships.
Teixeira is expected to make his first court appearance some time on Friday between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m., a source with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts said.
Fox News’ Sarah Tobianski and Lorraine Taylor contributed to this report.
Four people were shot, including one fatally, outside a Washington, D.C., funeral home Tuesday, police said, as the unidentified gunman remains at large. Officers responded to the scene where multiple people were shot outside Stewart Funeral Home in the 4000 block of Benning Road NE, a Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) spokesperson initially confirmed.
Greeting reporters at the scene, MPD Police Chief Robert Contee said investigators believe the people were targeted but don’t yet know why. The shooting unfolded while a funeral for a homicide victim killed at the end of March was letting out. Around 12:17 p.m., an officer already in the area in his car by a bus stop called out for the sounds of gunshots.
“Our member went to the aid of several people,” Contee said. Of the four victims struck by gunfire, all were adults. One of them, a man, was deceased, while the other three were taken to area hospitals with serious but not life-threatening injuries, the chief added.
“At this point, the Metropolitan Police Department is asking for the community’s help. We’re asking for anyone who has information to please call us anonymously at 202-727-9099, or you may text us anonymously at 50411,” Contee said. “At this point, it appears that several people who were in the block were specifically targeted. We’re unsure why that is. We’re unsure why these people were targeted, more or less why they were targeted at a funeral. We don’t understand that. We’re looking for the community’s help.”
A shooting unfolded outside Stewart Funeral Home in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. (Googe Maps)
“We have not identified a gunman. But it appears that the individuals who were standing in the block were targeted for some reason. And that reason we’re not sure,” the chief said.
Contee said it is not clear at this time whether the incident was a drive-by shooting.
MPD Chief Robert Contee delivers an update on the shooting near a funeral home. (Fox News)
“It does not appear that it was an exchange of gunfire. It appears that these four people were near the sidewalk here [and] were struck by gunfire coming from a suspect or suspects,” he said.
“Again, the funeral ended. People were milling about when this shooting happened. And we’re trying to find out who fired the shots at the end of the funeral.”
Police units block the street near Stewart Funeral Home after a mass shooting in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. (Fox News)
Contee did not name the March homicide victim remembered at the funeral.
This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.
San Francisco State University endorsed the erasure of women this week when its top student affairs administrator released a statement reaffirming the transgender activists who attacked women’s rights speaker Riley Gaines.
Gaines, who rose to fame after speaking up about the unfairness of men masquerading as women to gain an advantage in women’s sports, was assaulted last week after she attempted to address a crowd at a Turning Point USA event about the necessity of female spaces, especially in athletic settings. The chaos ensued mere hours after White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre encouraged radical gender ideologues to “fight back” against people who called for sex-specific spaces.
Footage of the attack on SFSU’s campus shows the former NCAA swimmer being chased by a crowd yelling “trans rights are human rights” and calling the swimmer a “transphobic b-itch.”
Gaines reported that, during the chaos, she was assaulted by at least one man and trapped in a room for three hours. The mob also attempted to extort money from her in exchange for her freedom before she was finally able to escape. Gaines said neither campus police nor attending school administrators took steps to stop the violence.
“This is proof that women need sex-protected spaces,” Gaines tweeted.
Instead of punishing the hysterical students who “ambushed” Gaines, the school and alumni cheered on the angry mob.
Shortly after Gaines was attacked, SFSU’s Vice President for Student Affairs & Enrollment Management Jamillah Moore released an official statement encouraging the students who harassed the speaker.
“Today, San Francisco State finds itself again at the center of a national discussion regarding freedom of speech and expression. Let me begin by saying clearly: the trans community is welcome and belongs at San Francisco State University,” she wrote.
Moore also claimed that the students that are seen on footage roughhousing Gaines chose to “protest peacefully.”
“Thank you to our students who participated peacefully in Thursday evening’s event. It took tremendous bravery to stand in a challenging space. I am proud of the moments when we listened and asked insightful questions. I am also proud of the moments when our students demonstrated the value of free speech and the right to protest peacefully,” Moore said.
Gaines quickly condemned Moore’s statement and confirmed that she plans to sue the school for failing to protect her from violence.
“I’m sorry did this just say PEACEFUL….,” Gaines replied. “I was assaulted. I was extorted and held for ran[s]om. The protestors demanded I pay them if I wanted to make it home safely. I missed my flight home because I was barricaded in a classroom… We must have different definitions of peaceful.”
Just last month, an angry mob of Stanford law students shut down a talk led by Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Kyle Duncan with profane insults and threats of violence and death. Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Stanford Law School Dean Jenny Martinez eventually apologized but the students and administrators who participated in the chaos were left largely unpunished.
Stanford Law School’s Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Tirien Steinbach, who confronted Duncan about the “harm” she claimed he caused to students, doubled down on their defiant challenge and refused to apologize even after she was put on administrative leave.
Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordanboydtx.
The Virginia mom of a 6-year-old charged with shooting his first-grade teacher earlier this year has been indicted by a grand jury in connection with the shooting, the Newport News Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office announced Monday. Deja Nicole Taylor, 25, is charged with felony child neglect, and a misdemeanor count of recklessly leaving a firearm so as to endanger a child.
FILE: Students return to Richneck Elementary in Newport News, Va., Jan. 30, 2023. (Billy Schuerman/The Virginian-Pilot via AP)
The charges were brought about after an investigation by the Newport News Police Department and the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office.
“Every criminal case is unique in its facts, and these facts support these charges, but our investigation into the shooting continues,” Commonwealth’s Attorney Howard Gwynn said in a statement.
The Commonwealth’s Attorney has also asked a Circuit Court judge to impanel a “Special Grand Jury” to continue investigating security issues that may have enabled the January shooting. The probe could potentially lead to more people being criminally charged in connection with the shooting.
Abby Zwerner, a 25-year-old first-grade teacher at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, was shot in the hand and chest Jan. 6, as she sat at a reading table in her classroom. She spent nearly two weeks in the hospital and required four surgeries.
Richneck Elementary School teacher Abigail Zwerner sat down with NBC for an interview a couple months after being shot by her 6-year-old student in the classroom. (Screenshot/NBC)
Monday’s indictment announcement comes a week after Zwerner filed a lawsuit seeking $40 million in damages from school officials, accusing them of gross negligence and ignoring multiple warnings the day of the shooting the boy was armed and in a “violent mood.”
The lawsuit names as defendants the Newport News School Board, former Superintendent George Parker III, former Richneck Principal Briana Foster-Newton and former Richneck Assistant Principal Ebony Parker.
In the lawsuit, Zwerner’s attorneys say all the defendants knew the boy “had a history of random violence” at school and at home, including an episode the year before when he “strangled and choked” his kindergarten teacher.
Messages of support for teacher Abby Zwerner, who was shot by a 6-year-old student, grace the front door of Richneck Elementary School Newport News, Va., Jan. 6, 2023. (Family of Abigail Zwerner via AP, File/ AP Photo/John C. Clark, File)
Last month, Newport News prosecutor Howard Gwynn said his office would not criminally charge the boy because he is too young to understand the legal system. Gwynn has yet to decide if any other adults will be charged.
The boy used his mother’s gun, which police said was purchased legally. James Ellenson, the attorney for the boy’s family, has said previously that the firearm was secured on a high closet shelf with a lock.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Ellenson for further comment.
Louisville police have identified Connor Sturgeon as the man who opened fire at the Old National Bank on East Main Street Monday morning. The 23-year-old worked at the bank, Louisville Interim Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said at a 3 p.m. news briefing. He was livestreaming during the attack, she added.
The first reports of shots fired came in at 8:38 a.m., she said. Sturgeon shot at responding officers.
“We then returned fire and stopped that threat,” she said. “The suspect is deceased. This is the only time that I will mention the suspect name in this case: Connor Sturgeon, white male, 23 years of age, who was employed at Old National Bank.”
“It is clear from the officers’ response that they absolutely saved people’s lives,” Deputy Chief Paul Humphrey said at an earlier press conference.
Louisville police have identified 23-year-old Connor Sturgeon as the gunman in Monday morning’s attack on an Old National Bank in the city’s downtown neighborhood. (Connor Sturgeon/LinkedIn)
According to his LinkedIn profile, Sturgeon worked at the bank for about two years as a “syndications associate and portfolio banker” and had three prior summer internships there.
Police deploy at the scene of a mass shooting near Slugger Field baseball stadium in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. April, 10, 2023. ( Michael Clevenger/USA Today Network via REUTERS)
Sturgeon’s dad was a college and high school basketball coach in Indiana who led his most recent team to two sectional titles with a record of 142-45 before retiring last year, the Louisville-based WLKY-TV reported in April 2022. The school in Floyd Knobs, Indiana, is just 10 miles away from downtown Louisville.
Before coaching there, he had left his job as the successful head coach at the University of Indianapolis in 2007 to spend more time with his family, according to a report on the website of his alma mater, DePauw University. His two sons were 9 and 6 at the time.
LMPD officers search for evidence after five people were killed and six injured, including a LMPD officer, in a deadly Monday morning shooting at Old National Bank in downtown Louisville. April 9, 2023 (Matt Stone/Louisville Courier Journal – USA Today Network)
At least one officer was critically injured in the attack Monday, police said, Nickolas Wilt, who was recently sworn in. A second responding officer suffered minor injuries. In all, four people were killed, not including the gunman, and nine injured, authorities said.
Gov. Andy Beshear, speaking at a news briefing alongside city leaders, said Monday that he had a personal connection to the attack.
Andy Beshear, Governor of Kentucky, speaks during a news conference after a gunman opened fire at the Old National Bank building on April 10, 2023 in Louisville, Kentucky. According to reports, there are multiple fatalities and injuries but the shooter died at the scene. (Luke Sharrett/Getty Images)
“This is awful,” he said. “I have a very close friend that didn’t make it today. And I have another close friend who didn’t either. And one who’s at the hospital that I hope is going to make it through.”
Law enforcement officers respond to an active shooter at the Old National Bank building on April 10, 2023 in Louisville, Kentucky. According to reports, there are multiple fatalities and casualties. The shooter died at the scene. ( Luke Sharrett/Getty Images)
Police are asking anyone with information on the attack to call their tip line at 502-574-LMPD.
Fox News’ Haley Chi-Sing contributed to this report.
Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods on Friday slammed “society,” “school districts” and gun law rhetoric after announcing the arrests of two juveniles — one of which is just 12 years old — in connection with the recent killings of three teenagers in Florida.
A third juvenile suspect remains at large, and the attorney general’s office is weighing whether to charge all three suspects as adults, Woods said during a press conference.
“The fact is: society fails them. We do not hold our juveniles accountable. We minimize their actions,” Woods said Friday.
The suspects are accused of fatally shooting 16-year-old Layla Silvernail, 16-year-old Camille Quarles, and an unnamed 17-year-old male on or around March 30 in rural Marion County.
Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods blames society and school district failures for three juvenile suspects accused of killing three teenagers around March 30. (Fox News)
Woods told reporters he had to “look into the eyes” of the suspects’ mothers and inform them of their son’s crimes.
“Really, [the suspects’ parents] don’t have a whole lot to say. If you’re a parent, put yourself in their shoes. Holy hell. Panic. I’m scared to death as a parent. Embarrassed. Ashamed. What do you think they’re gonna say?” the sheriff said.
“I am a father, and I cannot fathom what they were going through. These mothers and the mothers across this nation need all of your help because here’s what infuriates me,” he added.
“I am a father, and I cannot fathom what they were going through. These mothers and the mothers across this nation need all of your help because here’s what infuriates me,” Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods said. (Marion County Sheriff’s Office/Facebook)
The sheriff also criticized media and others who put the blame on guns after a shooting.
“There are individuals out there viewing … who want to blame the one thing that has no ability or the capacity to commit the crime itself, and that’s the gun,” Woods said. “These individuals committed the crime.”
He added that he does not know what the solution is, but “[t]he bad guy’s going to get a gun no matter what laws you put in place.” Woods went on to blame society and schools for not holding juveniles accountable for their crimes.
Layla Silvernail, left, and Camille Quarles, along with an unidentified 17-year-old male, were shot and left for dead in Marion County, Florida, between March 30 and April 1. (Facebook/Layla Silvernail/Camille Quarles)
“I am a father,” he said. “But here’s the one thing my boys know: growing up, the freaking barber had my permission to whip their a–es.”
The suspects in the triple homicide were involved in a burglary and robbery ring and stole their firearms from cars, Woods said.
“A simple burglary, as some people would say — but I don’t consider anything ‘simple’ when it comes to a burglary — if the law allows me, I’ll plaster their face up … on my page, on media, I will hand it out if the law allows me because parents have the right to know who their kids are hanging out with and preventing this,” Woods said.
He continued, “Our school districts, not just here, across this state and across this nation need to stop minimizing the actions of their students. Hold them accountable. That’s where the failure is.”
Police first found Silvernail with a gunshot wound, lying on the side of the road in the area of Forest Lakes Park on SE 183rd Avenue Road. Authorities transported the teenager to a hospital in critical condition, and she lost brain function until she was pronounced dead.
Three teenage shooting victims were found left for dead miles apart in Marion County, Florida, between March 30 and April 1. (America’s Newsroom)
A day after finding Silvernail, Marion County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) deputies responded to SE 94th Street and SE 188th Court and located a deceased 17-year-old male with a gunshot wound.
The next morning, on April 1, the MCSO Major Crimes Unit, Forensic Unit and Underwater Recovery Team responded to a tip and searched the area of Malauka Loop and Malauka Loop Trace and found Silvernail’s vehicle partially submerged in a body of water. The car was about 9 miles from where Silvernail was found.
The suspects were in Silvernail’s vehicle with the victims prior to their deaths, according to the sheriff. Authorities believe all three victims were shot at the same time.
“She was there of her own free will,” Woods said of Silvernail.
Layla Silvernail’s family is planning to donate the 16-year-old’s organs, according to a GoFundMe. (Facebook/Layla Silvernail)
After obtaining a search warrant and searching her vehicle, authorities found 16-year-old Quarles dead from a gunshot wound in Silvernail’s car. The arrested suspects confessed to shooting Quarles in the vehicle, Woods said.
Woods previously told Fox News Digital that he believed the suspects were part of a “wannabe” or “neighborhood” gang, and the victims likely knew them for a short time.
Police have not released the name of the male victim who was killed.
Audrey Conklin is a digital reporter for Fox News Digital and FOX Business. Email tips to audrey.conklin@fox.com or on Twitter at @audpants.
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