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☆ Hunter Biden Calls for Criminal Probes Into Trump Allies Over Laptop
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( C. Ryan Barber | Annie Linskey | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—A lawyer for Hunter Biden urged state and federal prosecutors Wednesday to investigate prominent allies of former President Donald Trump and others who accessed and disseminated the contents of his laptop, alleging they broke the law in an effort to “weaponize” the personal data of Joe Biden‘s son during the 2020 election. The series of letters marked a pivot to a newly aggressive strategy for the younger Mr. Biden as he confronts a yearslong Justice Department investigation focused on his taxes, along with separate inquiries by House Republicans into his business dealings.

☆ Hunter Biden demands criminal probe into Trump allies with access to his laptop and retractions from Fox News: reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Lloyd Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Hunter Biden's lawyers sent letters singling out Trump allies and Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Among the recipients are the Justice Department and Deleware attorney general, WaPo reported. "This marks a new approach by Hunter Biden and his team," a person familiar with Biden's strategy told The Post. Also targeted by Biden's lawyers is Fox News and its host Tucker Carlson. The Justice Department and Delaware attorney general's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., effusively praised Twitter owner Elon Musk Wednesday for "being transparent" about the tech platform. "God bless Elon Musk," Comer said in an interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box." Comer's comments came just days after Musk visited Washington and met with House Republican leaders for over an hour, a group that included Comer. So while McCarthy and Republicans met with Musk for over an hour, Jeffries literally just "met" him. WATCH: Elon Musk polls Twitter users over whether he should remain as CEO

But Mr. Musk’s Twitter feed is often an echo chamber. 48 hours of Elon Musk’s tweets Circles representing Musk’s tweets are sized by the total retweets, likes, replies and quote tweets in response to what he posted. A chart of Mr. Musk’s original tweets, replies and quote tweets over a two-day period in November. A website tracking Mr. Musk’s private jet movement suggested that he traveled away from San Francisco around that time. Shareholders are now also seeking billions of dollars in damages in a lawsuit after Mr. Musk’s takeover proposal never materialized.

☆ U.S. House Republican to pursue safeguards on classified documents
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( David Morgan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, Jan 30 (Reuters) - The Republican head of a key U.S. House of Representatives committee said on Monday that he will pursue bipartisan legislation to better ensure the proper handling of classified documents at the White House when administrations leave office. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said it is essential to have legislation ensuring classified material is not transferred from the offices of the president and vice president to unsecured locations at the end of an administration. Classified documents have also turned up at the Indiana home of former Vice President Mike Pence. "Somebody needs to oversee all of the documents that are going into boxes to make sure they're not classified." The sessions follows a Comer demand for information from the National Archives concerning documents found in Biden's possession.

☆ Trump kicks off his 2024 campaign: 'We are at the brink of World War III'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Jonathan-Allen-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Jonathan Allen | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

"Through weakness and incompetence, Joe Biden has brought us to the brink of World War III," Trump said. "We’re at the brink of World War III, just in case anybody doesn’t know it. And they're sending, frankly, terrorists, or terrorists are coming on their own, and we can't allow this to happen," Trump said. At both stops, Trump singled out Hunter Biden, the president's son, for derision and appeared to blame the elder Biden for his adult child's problems. The campaign stops Saturday follow a lull since Trump launched his campaign at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in November.

☆ AOC could potentially become the second-highest ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee: report
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

AOC could potentially be the vice ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, per Politico. "There's been conversations, but nothing's been finalized," Ocasio-Cortez told the news outlet. If AOC were to assume the role, she'd work closely with Rep. Jamie Raskin, the ranking member. "There's been conversations, but nothing's been finalized," Ocasio-Cortez told Politico of the position. If she were to assume the role, she would help to craft messaging to counter the Republican majority on the panel.

Twitter CEO Elon Musk visited Capitol Hill on Thursday and met with House leaders from both parties, saying the discussions focused on the social media platform he purchased in October. McCarthy, who turned 58 on Thursday, earlier told reporters that Musk "came by to wish me a happy birthday." Asked later if the meeting included a discussion about Twitter, a spokesperson for McCarthy referred back to the birthday wishes. Musk's visit comes amid ongoing GOP accusations that most social media platforms are suppressing conservative voices. Since taking over Twitter, Musk has restored hundreds of accounts of right-wing activists and QAnon followers, according to data reviewed by NBC News.

☆ Elon Musk had a surprise meeting with Republican and Democratic House leaders to discuss ensuring Twitter is 'fair to both parties'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Samantha Delouya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Elon Musk said he met with House leaders of both parties to ensure fairness on Twitter. The meeting was reportedly unplanned, and was "mostly just an introduction." The meetings come just as the House is set to hold a hearing about Twitter's content moderation before the 2020 election. Musk tweeted after the meeting: "Just met with @SpeakerMcCarthy & @RepJeffries to discuss ensuring that this platform is fair to both parties." Jeffries was reportedly in a meeting in Speaker McCarthy's office when Musk came in.

Troy Nehls, a vocal critic of U.S. military aid to Ukraine, said Thursday that President Joe Biden should call in his predecessor to end the conflict with Russia. "Joe Biden, you need to call Donald Trump. Donald Trump will call Vladimir Putin and end this war," the Texas Republican said on Fox News. "We must stop this war, and Donald Trump can do it." Nehls said he thought the Russian president would respond to Trump because “he never went into Ukraine” when Trump was president.

☆ Trump suggests providing tanks to Ukraine will lead to 'nukes' and says ending the war with Russia would be 'easy'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( John Haltiwanger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Donald Trump appeared to criticize a decision by the US and Germany to provide tanks to Ukraine. Trump also suggested ending the war in Ukraine would be "easy," without elaborating. Trump suggested offering tanks to Ukraine would lead to the use of nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, Trump said it would be "easy" to end the war, without providing any suggestions on how this would be accomplished. The US has provided more security aid to Ukraine than any other country — over $27 billion since Russia invaded.

☆ Jan. 6 Committee failed to hold social media companies to account for their role in the Capitol attack, staffers and witnesses say
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Donie O'Sullivan Audrey Ash Zachary Cohen | Donie O'Sullivan | Audrey Ash | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

But now these witnesses, along with some committee staff, are frustrated, saying the committee failed to adequately hold major social media companies to account for the role they played in the worst attack on the Capitol in 200 years. They also said the final report outlines structural issues across social media and society that need to be studied further. Jeremy Moorhead/CNNDisagreement about social media companies’ role in the Jan. 6 attack comes as 2023 looks to be a pivotal year for Silicon Valley firms in Washington, DC. “Indeed, the lack of an official Committee report chapter or appendix dedicated exclusively to these matters does not mean our investigation exonerated social media companies for their failure to confront violent rhetoric,” they wrote. “History has taught us what happens when political speech on social media companies is allowed to fester unchecked.”

☆ House Republicans Press for Details of Hunter Biden’s Art Sales
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Natalie Andrews | C. Ryan Barber | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The prices for Hunter Biden’s latest art collection range from $55,000 to $225,000, according to the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. WASHINGTON—House Republicans on Wednesday pushed for details about sales of Hunter Biden ‘s artwork, an early step as they step up an investigation into the business dealings of President Biden’s son. In a letter, the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability renewed a request that Republican lawmakers had previously made while in the minority to the younger Mr. Biden’s art dealer, Georges Bergès. House Republicans said Mr. Bergès hadn’t responded to previous requests, but now that they have the majority, their latest demand could carry more weight and presage a congressional subpoena that would ratchet up the pressure on the New York City gallery owner to cooperate with the inquiry.

☆ Classified-Documents Controversy Brings Spotlight to Penn Biden Center
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( Annie Linskey | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—The discovery of classified documents in an office used by President Biden after he left the vice presidency has brought attention, and House Republican scrutiny, to a little-known Washington think tank where Mr. Biden had set up operations in between his posts in the White House. The Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, located in a building with a commanding view of the U.S. Capitol, was a key element of Mr. Biden’s initial plans for his post-government career, sketched out in part by his son, Hunter Biden . The elder Mr. Biden and university leaders envisioned it as a place to convene foreign-policy thinkers, spur debates on global affairs, develop leaders and plan speeches and events, according to their public remarks.

“Around the country, MAGA extremists are lining up to take on those bedrock freedoms,” Mr. Biden said, using Mr. Trump’s Make America Great Again slogan to describe the former president’s allies. While he had repeatedly and consistently said he intended to run, Mr. Biden stoked renewed speculation by delaying his kickoff for months. Mr. Biden tapped Julie Chávez Rodríguez, a senior White House adviser and granddaughter of the iconic labor leader Cesar Chávez, as his campaign manager. But the operation is expected to be overseen from the White House by top presidential aides. While polls show that most Democrats have favorable opinions about Mr. Biden, a majority of them would still rather he not run again.

☆ Hunter Biden had access to dad's Corvette that was stored in garage where classified docs were found, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Mia Jankowicz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Pictures of Hunter Biden in his dad's Corvette raise questions about his access to classified documents. They are dated to 2017, when classified documents may have been in the Biden garage, it said. The four images, whose metadata the outlet said it examined, appear to show Hunter Biden in the driver's seat of his father's Corvette in July 2017. Revelations about classified documents pose a political headache for the Biden White House. The Republican Party has long targeted Hunter Biden for some of his past business dealings, and allegations of influence peddling.

☆ FEC dismisses RNC complaint that Google’s spam filters were biased against conservatives
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Washington CNN —The Federal Election Commission has tossed out claims by the Republican National Committee that Google’s spam filters in Gmail are illegally biased against conservatives, according to an agency letter obtained by CNN. In its letter, the FEC cited Google’s public statements claiming that its reasons for spam filtering include blocking malware, phishing attacks and scams. The study by North Carolina State University researchers had involved an experiment testing the spam filters of Gmail, Microsoft Outlook and Yahoo! Meanwhile, a separate RNC lawsuit against Google over the same Gmail filtering issue is still ongoing. And Google has continued with an FEC-approved pilot project that allows political campaigns to bypass Gmail’s spam filters.

The White House and U.S. Secret Service said Monday they do not maintain visitor logs for President Joe Biden’s personal home in Wilmington, Del., a day after a top House Republican called for their release. “Like every President across decades of modern history, his personal residence is personal,” White House counsel’s office spokesman Ian Sams said in a statement. The White House acknowledged on Saturday that more pages with classified markings were discovered at Biden's Delaware home than had been previously disclosed. On Saturday, the White House said additional pages marked classified from the Obama administration were found at Biden’s Wilmington residence, in addition to the two batches that were previously disclosed earlier in the week. In a Sunday interview with CNN”s “State of the Union,” Comer was pressed why his committee was focused on Biden’s documents but not Trump’s.

☆ NBC News host scoffs at Sen. Ron Johnson after he said the media was biased during a charged interview: 'You can go back on your partisan cable cocoon'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( Taiyler Simone Mitchell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Sen. Ron Johnson appeared on NBC News' "Meet the Press" on Sunday. Johnson and NBC News Host Chuck Todd repeatedly cut each other off throughout the interview. Johnson repeatedly claimed that the media was biased whenever Todd called him out. They make these things up," Johnson told Todd, later refuting the idea that the recent insurrection in Brazil looked similar to the January 6, 2021 insurrection. "Senator Ron Johnson, I look forward to our face-to-face at some point.

☆ House Oversight chair calls for release of visitor logs from Biden’s Delaware home
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Julie-Tsirkin-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Julie Tsirkin | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

WASHINGTON — House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., on Sunday asked for the release of visitors logs from President Joe Biden’s home in Delaware in a letter to White House chief of staff Ron Klain. “Given the serious national security implications, the White House must provide the Wilmington residence’s visitor log,” Comer wrote in the letter to Klain. The former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida was searched by the FBI last year after multiple attempts to obtain classified documents. The president is cooperating with the Justice Department and National Archives amid the discovery of the classified documents, she said. "He showed no interest in investigating the far more serious situation with about 100 classified documents at Mar-a-Lago with evidence in the public domain of obstruction.

☆ Hunter Biden asks judge to stop his 4-year-old daughter, who he had with a stripper, from taking his surname, say reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Hunter Biden has requested a judge stop his 4-year-old daughter from taking his surname. Biden said the name would rob the child of a "peaceful existence," the New York Post reported. Biden, in September, asked to have child support payments reduced because his financial circumstances had undergone a "substantial, material change," according to Dailymail.com. Roberts filed a petition for paternity and child support, and a DNA test later proved he was the father. The child was conceived while Biden was in a relationship with Hallie Biden, his brother Beau's widow.

Aides previously found another batch of classified documents at his residence, and at a Washington think tank he was associated with. Earlier on Friday, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer wrote to the White House asking whether Hunter Biden had access to classified documents found at the president's private residence. In addition to examining Biden's handling of classified documents, Republicans are preparing to probe Hunter Biden's past business dealings in Ukraine. Republicans have sought to compare the investigation of Biden's handling of classified documents to the ongoing probe into how Trump handled classified documents after his presidency. The White House said Biden's attorneys found a small number of classified documents and turned them over after discovery.

Aides had previously found another batch of classified documents at his residence, as well as at a Washington think tank he was associated with. The Justice Department on Thursday announced it was appointing a special prosecutor to oversee the Biden documents inquiry. In addition to examining Biden's handling of classified documents, Republicans are preparing to probe Hunter Biden's past business dealings in Ukraine. Republicans have sought to compare the investigation of Biden's handling of classified documents to the ongoing probe into how Trump handled classified documents after his presidency. The White House said Biden's attorneys found a small number of classified documents and turned them over after discovery.

☆ Hunter Biden and News Suppression
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Holman W. Jenkins | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Holman W. Jenkins Jr. is a member of the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Jenkins joined the Journal in May 1992 as a writer for the editorial page in New York. In February 1994, he moved to Hong Kong as editor of The Asian Wall Street Journal's editorial page. Mr. Jenkins won a 1997 Gerald Loeb Award for distinguished business and financial coverage. Born in Philadelphia, Mr. Jenkins received a bachelor's degree from Hobart and William Smith Colleges and a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University.

☆ Biden's classified records bumbling is a gift for Trump, and some high-profile figures say it closes the door on an indictment for the former president
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Kimberly Leonard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Biden aides have discovered two batches of classified documents from when he was vice president. "When is the FBI going to raid the many homes of Joe Biden, perhaps even the White House? Over in the US House Republicans have already launched an investigation. Trump is the only person to have announced a 2024 campaign for the White House, but his campaign has been off to a slow start. Some commentators even predicted that the perception of a double standard around the Biden documents investigation would derail a potential Trump indictment.

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