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A lawyer for the chief witness against Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, said on Friday that the witness was cooperating with a House Ethics Committee investigation into whether Mr. Gaetz had sex with an underage girl while he was serving in Congress. Fritz Scheller, a lawyer for Mr. Gaetz’s former friend and political ally Joel Greenberg, said he provided documents to the committee that he said backed up his client’s claims that he witnessed Mr. Gaetz having sex with a 17-year-old girl. Greenberg has and will cooperate with any congressional request,” Mr. Scheller said in an email on Friday. Mr. Greenberg, who pleaded guilty in May 2021 to charges including sex trafficking, is serving an 11-year prison sentence. He had previously cooperated with a Justice Department investigation into whether Mr. Gaetz had engaged in sex trafficking of a minor, a federal offense that carries a minimum of 10 years in prison.

Persons: Matt Gaetz, Gaetz, Fritz Scheller, Gaetz’s, Joel Greenberg, “ Mr, Greenberg, ” Mr, Scheller, Mr Organizations: Republican, Justice Department Locations: Florida

Prosecutors felt they needed an industry insider to flip on others in the business, explain the intricacies of lending agreements and serve as a narrator on the witness stand. In Mr. Braun, who had made clear he was desperate to get out of prison, they thought they had an ideal candidate. They were still going back and forth with his lawyer about a deal that would have freed him from prison when Mr. Trump commuted his sentence. Prosecutors instantly lost their leverage over Mr. Braun. The investigation into the industry, and Mr. Braun’s conduct, remains open but is hampered by the lack of help from an insider.

Persons: Braun, Trump, Prosecutors, Braun’s, — Organizations: Department, U.S, Prosecutors, Justice, Trump Locations: Manhattan

Even amid the uproar over President Donald J. Trump’s freewheeling use of his pardon powers at the end of his term, one commutation stood out. Jonathan Braun of New York had served just two and a half years of a decade-long sentence for running a massive marijuana ring, when Mr. Trump, at 12:51 a.m. on his last day in office, announced he would be freed. Mr. Braun was, to say the least, an unusual candidate for clemency. A Staten Islander with a history of violent threats, Mr. Braun had told a rabbi who owed him money: “I am going to make you bleed.” Mr. Braun’s family had told confidants they were willing to spend millions of dollars to get him out of prison. At the time, Mr. Trump’s own Justice Department and federal regulators, as well as New York state authorities, were still after him for his role in an entirely separate matter: his work as a predatory lender, making what judges later found were fraudulent and usurious loans to cash-strapped small businesses.

Persons: Donald J, Jonathan Braun, Trump, Braun, “, Mr, Braun’s, confidants, Trump’s Organizations: New, Justice Department Locations: New York, Staten

☆ Hunter Biden Sues I.R.S., Saying Disclosures by Agents Violated His Privacy
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-18 | by ( Michael S. Schmidt | More About Michael S. Schmidt | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Hunter Biden sued the Internal Revenue Service on Monday, saying that investigators for the agency violated his privacy rights by disclosing details to Congress and the public about his taxes and the investigation into his conduct. Mr. Biden, the president’s son, filed the suit days after the Justice Department indicted him on separate charges relating to his purchase of a handgun in 2018. investigators violated the agency’s rules on taxpayer privacy and “targeted and sought to embarrass Mr. Biden via public statements to the media in which they and their representatives disclosed confidential information about a private citizen’s tax matters.”It points to the public testimony and statements by two I.R.S. investigators, Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, who have been providing information to House committees seeking evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden and his family. Mr. Shapley and Mr. Ziegler have told House Republicans that they believe the Justice Department inquiry into Hunter Biden’s taxes was influenced by politics.

Persons: Hunter Biden, Biden, Mr, Gary Shapley, Joseph Ziegler, Shapley, Ziegler, Hunter Organizations: Internal Revenue Service, Justice Department, Department, Court, Republicans Locations: Washington

There were signs, subtle but unmistakable, that Hunter Biden’s high-stakes plea agreement with federal prosecutors might be on shaky ground hours before it went public in June, according to emails sent by his legal team to the U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware. When one of Mr. Biden’s lawyers sent over the draft of the statement they intended to share with the news media, a top deputy to David C. Weiss, who had overseen the inquiry since 2018, asked to remove two words describing the status of the investigation, according to interviews and internal correspondence on the deal obtained by The New York Times. “Concluded” and “conclusion” should be replaced with the weaker “resolved,” the deputy said. Six weeks later, the federal judge presiding over a hearing on the agreement would expose even deeper divisions and the deal imploded, prompting Mr. Weiss to seek appointment as special counsel with the freedom to expand the inquiry and bring new charges. The deal’s collapse — chronicled in over 200 pages of confidential correspondence between Mr. Weiss’s office and Mr. Biden’s legal team, and interviews with those close to Mr. Biden, lawyers involved in the case and Justice Department officials — came after intense negotiations that started with the prospect that Mr. Biden would not be charged at all and now could end in his possible indictment and trial.

Persons: Hunter, David C, Weiss, “, —, Biden, Mr Organizations: The New York Times, Justice Department Locations: Delaware

The lawyer who represented Hunter Biden in plea negotiations to end a five-year Justice Department investigation into tax and gun offenses stepped down early Tuesday, saying that he intends to testify as a witness on behalf of the president’s son. The decision by the lawyer, Christopher J. Clark, is the latest development in the long-running negotiation — which has now devolved into a fight — between the Justice Department and Mr. Biden. The department has said that a substantial part of the plea agreement no longer stands and suggested in court documents that it could indict Mr. Biden. Mr. Clark is now contending that Mr. Biden will need him as a witness to prove that the department is seeking to back out of a legally binding deal intended to definitively end the federal investigation. “Based on recent developments, it appears that the negotiation and drafting of the plea agreement and diversion agreement will be contested, and Mr. Clark is a percipient witness to those issues,” a new lawyer for Mr. Biden said in a motion filed in federal court in Delaware on Tuesday.

Persons: Hunter Biden, Christopher J, Clark, Biden, Mr Organizations: Justice Department, Mr Locations: Delaware

☆ Hunter Biden Says Prosecutors Reneged on Major Part of Plea Deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-14 | by ( Michael S. Schmidt | More About Michael S. Schmidt | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Hunter Biden told a federal judge late Sunday that the Justice Department was trying to renege on a major part of his deal with the government — his agreement to enroll in a diversion program for gun offenders — that he signed and granted him broad immunity from future federal prosecutions. The move, included in a court filing by Mr. Biden’s lawyer, Christopher Clark, is the latest salvo in the back and forth between Mr. Biden and David C. Weiss, a Trump appointee who is leading the long-running investigation into the president’s son’s conduct. Shortly after Attorney General Merrick B. Garland elevated Mr. Weiss to special counsel, government lawyers said in court papers on Friday that they and Mr. Biden were at an impasse over plea negotiations and that no agreement had been reached. Under the deal, Mr. Biden would plead guilty to two tax misdemeanors and enroll in the diversion program, which would have allowed him to avert prosecution on a gun charge. But in the filing late Sunday, Mr. Biden rebutted prosecutors’ claim, saying that he had signed the agreement in court last month and that he planned to abide by it.

Persons: Hunter Biden, Biden’s, Christopher Clark, Biden, David C, Weiss, General Merrick B, Garland Organizations: Justice Department, Trump

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland on Friday elevated the federal prosecutor investigating President Biden’s son Hunter to the status of special counsel after negotiations to revive a plea agreement on tax and gun charges foundered. The move raised the possibility that Mr. Biden could be tried in the politically charged case, which seemed resolved until a few weeks ago. The prosecutor, David C. Weiss, has since 2018 investigated a wide array of accusations involving Mr. Biden’s business and personal life, including his foreign dealings, drug use and finances. But as special counsel, Mr. Weiss, who is also the U.S. attorney in Delaware, can pursue charges in any jurisdiction he chooses without seeking the cooperation of local federal prosecutors. Mr. Weiss, who has been roundly criticized by Republicans over the terms of the deal, asked Mr. Garland on Tuesday to be named special counsel.

Persons: Merrick B, Garland, Biden’s, Hunter, Biden, David C, Weiss Locations: Delaware

Running through the indictment charging former President Donald J. Trump with conspiring to overturn the 2020 election was a consistent theme: He is an inveterate and knowing liar. The indictment laid out how, in the two months after Election Day, Mr. Trump “spread lies” about widespread election fraud even though he “knew that they were false.”Mr. Trump “deliberately disregarded the truth” and relentlessly disseminated them anyway at a “prolific” pace, the indictment continued, “to make his knowingly false claims appear legitimate, create an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger, and erode public faith in the administration of the election.”Of course, Mr. Trump has never been known for fealty to truth. Throughout his careers in business and politics, he has sought to bend reality to his own needs, with lies ranging from relatively small ones, like claiming he was of Swedish and not German descent when trying to rent to Jewish tenants in New York City, to proclaiming that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, “, Mr, Trump “, Barack Obama Locations: New York City, United States

Mr. Trump and congressional Republicans have accused Mr. Smith, without evidence, of pursuing a politically motivated investigation intended to destroy Mr. Trump’s chances of retaking the White House, including by leaking details of the case. The former president has taken to calling Mr. Smith “deranged,” and some of his supporters have threatened the special counsel, his family and his team — prompting the U.S. Mr. Smith was flanked by a three-person security detail inside his own building when he delivered remarks to reporters on Tuesday. Mr. Mueller was an established and trusted national figure when he was appointed special counsel, unlike Mr. Smith, who was virtually unknown outside the department and drew a mixed record during his tenure. Mr. Mueller had already solidified a reputation as the most important F.B.I.

Persons: Mueller, ”, Goodman, Trump, Smith, Trump’s, Smith “, Edgar Hoover Organizations: Just Security, Trump, U.S

“Demanding that evidence be destroyed is the most basic form of obstruction and is easy for a jury to understand,” said Mr. Goldstein, who is now a white-collar defense lawyer at the firm Cooley. “It is more straightforwardly criminal than the obstructive acts we detailed in the Mueller report,” he said. “And if proven, it makes it easier to show that Trump had criminal intent for the rest of the conduct described in the indictment.”The accusation about Mr. Trump’s desire to have evidence destroyed adds another chapter to what observers of his career say is a long pattern of gamesmanship on his part with prosecutors, regulators and others who have the ability to impose penalties on his conduct. And it demonstrates how Mr. Trump viewed the conclusion of the Mueller investigation as a vindication of his behavior, which became increasingly emboldened — particularly in regards to the Justice Department — throughout the rest of his presidency, a pattern that appears to have continued despite having lost the protections of the office when he was defeated in the election. In his memoir of his years in the White House, John R. Bolton, who served as Mr. Trump’s third national security adviser, described Mr. Trump’s approach as “obstruction as a way of life.”

Persons: ”, Goldstein, Cooley, Mueller, Trump, —, John R, Bolton, Trump’s Organizations: Justice Department —

President Biden publicly acknowledged his 4-year-old granddaughter, Navy Joan Roberts, for the first time on Friday, saying in a statement that he and the first lady, Jill Biden, “only want what is best for all of our grandchildren, including Navy.”The statement came weeks after a lengthy child support case was settled between the president’s son, Hunter Biden, and the child’s mother, Lunden Roberts, who told The New York Times earlier this month that she and Hunter “want what is best for our daughter, and that is our only focus.”President Biden had been under increasing pressure from critics who said that failing to acknowledge Navy publicly went against the image of a loving patriarch that he has nurtured since the beginning of his political career. In recent weeks, the president told his son that he wants to meet Navy when the time is right, according to a person familiar with those discussions who was not authorized to speak publicly. Hunter Biden, who is recovering from a crack cocaine addiction, has said in the past that he fathered Navy at a low point in his life and that he did not have a relationship with her.

Persons: Biden, Joan Roberts, Jill Biden, “, Hunter Biden, Lunden Roberts, Hunter “, ” Organizations: Navy, New York Times

A federal judge on Wednesday put on hold a proposed plea deal between Hunter Biden and the Justice Department that would have settled tax and gun charges against the president’s son, stunning the courtroom and raising legal and constitutional questions about the agreement. After moments of high drama in which the deal appeared headed toward collapse, the judge, Maryellen Noreika of the Federal District Court in Wilmington, Del., sent the two sides back to try to work out modifications that would address her concerns and salvage the basic contours of the agreement. Under the proposed deal, Mr. Biden would have pleaded guilty to two tax misdemeanors and averted prosecution on a gun charge by enrolling in a two-year diversion program for nonviolent offenders. Prosecutors and Mr. Biden’s team had both started the day confident that the proceeding would go smoothly and the judge would sign off on the deal immediately. As he entered the courtroom, Mr. Biden drew a deep breath and plunged forward to greet the prosecutors who investigated him for five years with handshakes and a smile.

Persons: Hunter Biden, Maryellen, Biden, Biden’s Organizations: Justice Department, Federal, Court, Prosecutors Locations: Wilmington, Del

Hunter Biden, President Biden’s troubled son and the target of long-running Republican efforts to cast the first family as corrupt, is expected to plead guilty on Wednesday in federal court to two misdemeanor tax charges and accept an agreement that will allow him to avoid prosecution on a gun charge. If approved by a judge, the deal, reached by lawyers for the younger Mr. Biden with the U.S. attorney in Delaware, David C. Weiss, a Trump appointee who was kept on by the Biden Justice Department to complete the investigation, would result in no prison time. Republicans have assailed the plea deal as far too lenient. Citing the congressional testimony of two I.R.S. agents who were involved in the federal investigation, House Republicans have suggested that the Justice Department meddled in the case by failing to give Mr. Weiss the full authority over the investigation that it had promised him — an assertion that Mr. Weiss and Attorney General Merrick B. Garland have rebutted.

Persons: Hunter Biden, Biden’s, Biden, David C, Weiss, Harris, —, Justice Department meddled, General Merrick B, Garland Organizations: U.S, Trump, Biden Justice Department, Court, Biden, Republicans, Justice Department Locations: Delaware, Wilmington —

On the eve of Hunter Biden’s court appearance to enter into a plea deal for misdemeanor tax crimes that would allow him to avoid prison time, House Republicans and conservative groups sought to intervene in the case, urging a judge to throw out the agreement he reached with prosecutors. The highly unusual legal maneuvering — which experts said was unlikely to succeed — illustrated the lengths that House Republicans and their allied groups have been willing to go to as they have tried to use Mr. Biden’s legal and personal troubles to inflict political damage on his father, President Biden. Representative Jason Smith of Missouri, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, filed a brief in Federal District Court in Wilmington, Del., where Hunter Biden’s plea deal is to be considered by a judge on Wednesday. The committee has heard testimony from two Internal Revenue Service investigators who claim to be whistle-blowers and have told the panel that the younger Mr. Biden received preferential treatment from the Justice Department. Mr. Smith’s brief asked the judge to consider the testimony in deciding whether to approve the agreement.

Persons: Hunter, —, Biden, Jason Smith of, Smith’s Organizations: House Republicans, Republicans, Court, Revenue Service, Justice Department, Mr Locations: Jason Smith of Missouri, Wilmington, Del

“Words are incredibly powerful in white-collar cases because in a lot of them you’re not going to hear from a defendant, as they are seldom going to take the stand,” he said. Some aides and allies who interacted with Mr. Trump in the days after the election have previously disclosed that Mr. Trump indicated that he knew he lost the election. In testimony before the House select committee, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark A. Milley, said that in an Oval Office meeting in late November or early December 2020, Mr. Trump acknowledged that he had lost the election. There wasn’t anything — the subject we were talking about was a very serious subject, but everything looked very normal to me. But I do remember him saying that.”General Milley said, though, that in subsequent meetings Mr. Trump had increasingly discussed how the election was stolen from him.

Persons: ”, ” Andrew Goldstein, Trump, Cooley, Trump’s, ” Mr, Goldstein, Mark, “, Mr, Milley, Biden Organizations: Department of Justice, Mr, Joint Chiefs of Staff Locations: Russia

☆ Trump Asked About I.R.S. Inquiry of F.B.I. Officials, Ex-Aide Says Under Oath
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( Michael S. Schmidt | More About Michael S. Schmidt | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Mr. Kelly said that his recollection of Mr. Trump’s comments to him was based on notes that he had taken at the time in 2018. Mr. Kelly provided copies of his notes to lawyers for one of the F.B.I. officials, who made the sworn statement public in a court filing. “President Trump questioned whether investigations by the Internal Revenue Service or other federal agencies should be undertaken into Mr. Strzok and/or Ms. Page,” Mr. Kelly said in the statement. It appeared, however, that he wanted to see Mr. Strzok and Ms.

Persons: John F, Kelly, Donald J, Trump’s, Trump, Strzok, ” Mr, “, Page, Mr, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page Organizations: White House, Internal Revenue Service, Mr, Justice Department Locations: Russia, ’

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