Fox News Politics: Hunter caught again
Welcome to Fox News’ Politics newsletter with the latest political news from Washington D.C. and updates from the 2024 campaign trail. Subscribe now to get Fox News Politics newsletter in your inbox. Happening soon: – Hunter Biden has been subpoenaed for a deposition in the House next week… – Trump to testify in the New York civil fraud trial on Monday… Hunter Biden was indicted on new federal criminal charges Thursday, the latest legal trouble for the president’s son. In some ways, the charges are far from a surprise. IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler said the new charges against Hunter Biden are a “complete vindication” of their years-long investigation into the president’s son. Hunter is facing nine charges alleging a “four-year scheme” when he did not pay his federal income taxes from January 2017 to October 2020 while also filing false tax reports. If convicted, the president’s son could face up to 17 years in prison. WHERE’S DADDY? President Biden walked away from questions about his son’s latest criminal charges. BUT… White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre answered a question about whether the president would pardon his son …Read more MEANWHILE: Hunter recorded a podcast with vegan musician Moby, released Friday, where he said Republicans were ‘trying to kill’ him to take down the president …Read more WHO IS HUNTER’S JUDGE?: Who is Mark C. Scarsi, the Trump-appointed judge assigned to Hunter Biden’s case? …Read more SEX CLUBS, STRIPPERS: From sex clubs to strippers: Here are the 5 most salacious details from the Hunter Biden indictment …Read more WHAT ABOUT BOB?: Santos set new precedent for expulsion. But indicted Sen. Menendez is hanging on …Read more ‘WOEFULLY INADEQUATE’: Rep. Jordan subpoenas Mayorkas for case files of illegal immigrants with murder, terror charge …Read more ON THE WIRE: Judiciary Committee pushes DHS on docs related to cutting of border razor wire …Read more RED TAPE: Top GOP lawmaker moves to reinstate Trump-era rule shredding government red tape …Read more SHOUTING MATCH: Jamaal Bowman, GOP lawmaker clash over border crisis on CNN …Read more ‘DECEPTIVE SALES PRACTICES’: Biden admin facing congressional probe for sending billions to solar company accused of scamming elderly …Read more BLAME GAME: Hunter Biden’s attorney claims indictments would not have been brought if he was not related to the president …Read more ‘UNREALISTIC GREEN AGENDA’: Republicans unleash effort forcing Biden admin to hold oil and gas lease sales …Read more REAL WINNER: 2024 Showdown: Is the real winner of the four GOP presidential primary debates the guy who didn’t show up? …Read more ‘SPECTACULAR VICTORY’: Indiana county judge strikes down ‘unconstitutional’ voting law in favor of GOP Senate hopeful …Read more NO GOOD OPTIONS: Charles Barkley insults Trump supporters as ‘nutty’ on CNN, also says Biden is ‘too old’ …Read more CONFRONTING ‘RUNAWAY ANTISEMITISM’: Jewish student group flies ‘Harvard Hates Jews’ airplane banner around Ivy League campus …Read more RECORD-BREAKING SURGE: Migrant crisis smashing new records amid fresh border surge …Read more ‘RADICAL GREEN AGENDA’: UN climate summit serving gourmet burgers, BBQ as it calls for Americans to stop eating meat …Read more ‘SEVERE REVENUE DECLINE’: California faces ‘severe revenue decline,’ record $68 billion budget deficit as mass exodus continues …Read more ‘IGNORING JEWISH SUFFERING IS EVIL’: Rabbi resigns from Harvard’s antisemitism board following school president’s ‘painfully inadequate testimony’ …Read more Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more on FoxNews.com.
User’s manual to fight over renewing special foreign surveillance powers to prevent a terrorist attack
There is a power play going on as Congress rushes to approve the renewal of a controversial foreign surveillance program (Known as FISA Section 702) before it expires at the end of the year. FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before a Senate panel earlier this week that he had “never seen a time where all the threats or so many of the threats are all elevated, all at exactly the same time.” The intelligence community is very wary of FISA Section 702 going dark at the end of the year unless Congress renews it amid the current, volatile threat matrix. However, conservatives have crowed for years that they will not reauthorize FISA without significant reforms. They are apoplectic about misuse of FISA during the 2016 campaign involving former President Trump. There is concern that the program currently sweeps up the communication of everyday Americans – thus violating their Fourth Amendment rights. DEFENSE BILL SCORES BIG WINS FOR GOP ON DRAG SHOWS, DEI AND COVID VACCINES, INTERNAL HOUSE MEMO SAYS Congressional leaders tucked into the annual defense policy bill a five-month renewal of FISA. The plan drew a rare, full-throated endorsement via a joint statement from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). However, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) got an earful from conservatives about including the interim renewal in the defense bill. The Senate is currently considering the defense bill. Fox is told that the defense bill probably can’t make it out of the House Rules Committee because of concerns about FISA from arch conservatives. That means the House would probably need to approve the defense bill as a “suspension.” That’s where the House bypasses the Rules Committee and directly puts the measure on the floor. However, the tradeoff for bypassing the Rules Committee is that passage of the bill requires a two-thirds vote. It is believed that there is a wide, bipartisan swath of members who would vote to pass the defense bill. So, that means FISA remains switched on after the new year – but without reforms conservatives demand. MAJORITY OF AMERICANS SAY CHINA IS GREATEST NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT, UP 30 POINTS IN FIVE YEARS However, the House Rules Committee plans to consider two competing proposals to reform FISA on Monday.. One is from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH). The other is from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH). The Jordan plan enjoys broad, bipartisan support. The intelligence community prefers the Turner option – as does the Senate. House Republicans will huddle in a special meeting Monday night to discuss both plans. The House will then put both the Turner and Jordan bills on the floor, via a “king of the hill” system. Thus, the bill with the most votes wins and is sent to the Senate. However, there is not enough time for the Senate to get its own bill done before the end of the year. The House and Senate would have to go to a conference committee and sort out the differences. Again, something akin to what Turner drafted is believed to be the preference of the Senate. So, there is time to hash this out between now and spring. And the FISA Section 702 program remains switched on into 2024 – so long as both bodies of Congress approve the annual defense bill. However, the undercurrent is that conservatives keep demanding FISA reforms and may not be able to get them. And for now, they are taking this all out on the new Speaker of the House.
Pregnant woman sues to invalidate Kentucky’s abortion bans
A pregnant woman and Planned Parenthood sued Kentucky on Friday, seeking to invalidate its near-total ban on abortion, saying the law violates rights to privacy and self-determination in the state constitution.
Ken Paxton asks Texas Supreme Court to stop Dallas woman from getting an abortion
The state attorney general’s petition comes after a Travis County district judge cleared the way for Kate Cox, 31, to terminate her pregnancy.
UPenn board members tell president to ‘resign’ if she can’t perform role effectively: report
Members of the University of Pennsylvania Board of Trustees have reportedly asked President Liz Magill to resign if she cannot effectively function in her role following backlash over her comments on antisemitism during Tuesday’s congressional hearing. A source at Thursday’s emergency board of trustees meeting told the Daily Pennsylvanian that somewhere between six and eight members on the board told Magill that she should think “long and hard” over whether she can effectively function as president of the university. However, the source said that the board of trustees didn’t explicitly call for Magill to resign, according to the report. “If the answer is you can’t [function], we need to know that, and you ought to resign,” the trustees told Magill, according to the outlet’s source. UPENN BOARD OF TRUSTEES HOLDS EMERGENCY MEETING AMID CALLS FOR PRESIDENT TO RESIGN OVER ANTISEMITISM HEARING The outlet reported that a board of trustees meeting is scheduled for Sunday. Board of Trustees Chair Scott Bok also extended the length of a previously scheduled meeting on Dec. 14 from one to two hours. Fox News Digital reached out to the University of Pennsylvania for comment. Magill’s comments during a Tuesday congressional hearing on antisemitism sparked fierce backlash after she gave a non-answer to New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik’s question asking if “calling for the genocide of Jews violate[s] Penn’s rules or code of conduct? Yes or no?” “If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment. Yes,” Magill responded, later adding, “It is a context-dependent decision.” “This is unacceptable. Ms. Magill, I’m gonna give you one more opportunity for the world to see your answer. Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Penn’s code of conduct when it comes to bullying and harassment? Yes or no?” Stefanik then asked. UPENN PRESIDENT ATTEMPTS TO WALK BACK CONGRESSIONAL HEARING TESTIMONY RHETORIC: ‘PATHETIC PR CLEAN UP’ “It can be harassment,” the University of Pennsylvania president responded. Magill would later walk back her comments in a video posted to X on Wednesday evening. “There was a moment during yesterday’s congressional hearing on antisemitism when I was asked if a call for the genocide of Jewish people on our campus would violate our policies. In that moment, I was focused on our university’s long-standing policies aligned with the U.S. Constitution, which says that speech alone is not punishable,” Magill said. “I was not focused on, but I should have been, on the irrefutable fact that a call for genocide of Jewish people is a call for some of the most terrible violence human beings can perpetrate.” Her initial remarks were criticized by Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who told Jewish Insider that Magill’s comments were “unacceptable,” adding the comments show that the university is under “failed leadership.” Fox News Digital’s Hannah Grossman, Danielle Wallace and Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.
Hunter Biden rips ‘motherf—ers,’ casts himself as victim while claiming Republicans trying to ‘kill me’
Hunter Biden held nothing back during a recent podcast appearance, blasting his critics as “motherf—ers,” and casting himself as a victim while claiming Republicans were trying to kill him in order to destroy his dad’s presidency. The podcast episode of Moby Pod was published Friday, and was recorded in Hunter’s art studio in San Francisco. The more than an hour-long discussion eventually turned to Biden’s recovery from drug addiction and how he openly shared details of his struggles in his memoir, “Beautiful Things.” Podcast co-host Lindsay Hicks told Biden there was “real beauty” in how “vulnerable” he was in the memoir by sharing many intimate details of his addiction. She noted that others may read it and feel that they don’t have to be ashamed of their secrets. WATCH: BIDEN IGNORES REPORTERS WHEN PRESSED ON HUNTER’S NEW INDICTMENT “That’s the one thing — one of the reasons why I’m going to survive this — and I’m going to survive it clean and sober — is because I am not going to let these motherf—-ers use me as just another example of why people in recovery are never going to be okay, never to be trusted, they’re all degenerates. I’m just not going to let that happen. I’m just not going to let it happen,” Biden said. He went on to agree with the hosts’ opinion that people targeting Hunter, specifically Republicans, were addicted to inflicting their own hurt on other people. “I absolutely am positive of that. If you can’t look at some of these people like Marjorie Taylor Greene or Paul Gosar and see someone that have been bullied, that are just absolutely suffering— They’re suffering people. And that doesn’t excuse the things that they have done to others and to me, but you see people that are in anguish. They’re not healthy people,” Biden said. FROM SEX CLUBS TO STRIPPERS: HERE ARE THE 5 MOST SALACIOUS DETAILS FROM THE HUNTER BIDEN INDICTMENT He claimed that those going after him were trying to end his life with the ultimate goal of hurting his father, President Biden. “They are trying to destroy a presidency. And so, it’s not about me. In their most base way, what they’re trying to do is they’re trying to kill me, knowing that it will be a pain greater than my father could be able to handle. And so, therefore, destroying a presidency in that way,” he said. “These people are just sad, very, very sick people, that have most likely just faced traumas in their lives that they have decided they’re going to turn into an evil that they decided they’re going to inflict on the rest of the world,” he added. HUNTER’S EX-BUSINESS ASSOCIATE BLASTS BIDEN’S NEW CLAIM ABOUT SON’S BUSINESS DEALINGS: ‘COMPLETELY MALARKEY’ Biden went on to blame former President Donald Trump for the “underlying sickness” facing the country, claiming he “gave voice” to feelings of rage, and making it okay to express that. He later dismissed the idea of the “Biden Crime Family,” arguing that any claims of corruption within his family were refuted by the decades his family had been in the public light. “Think about this, okay? My dad has been a senator since I was two years old. He has released decades-worth of his tax returns. He has lived in the public light. We have lived in the public light. We have gone through four presidential campaigns. My entire life has been before the public. It took until, oh, low and behold, Donald Trump figured out that somehow this is a criminal enterprise,” he joked. Biden was indicted Thursday in California on nine federal charges related to allegedly failing to pay taxes over a period of four years.
WATCH: Biden ignores reporters when pressed on Hunter’s new indictment
President Biden ignored reporters Friday while being pressed for the first time on his son Hunter’s new indictment on federal tax charges. The indictment, which was handed down Thursday by DOJ Special Counsel David Weiss in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, includes nine charges alleging a “four-year scheme” when he did not pay his federal income taxes from January 2017 to October 2020 while also filing false tax reports. “Have you spoken to your son? Have you spoken to Hunter? Any comment on the new charges against your son, Mr. President?” reporters shouted as Biden walked across the White House’s South Lawn to Marine One for a trip to Las Vegas, Nevada. FROM SEX CLUBS TO STRIPPERS: HERE ARE THE 5 MOST SALACIOUS DETAILS FROM THE HUNTER BIDEN INDICTMENT Biden only waved and continued walking. Hunter was also peppered with questions Friday while leaving his home in California, including whether he expected to be pardoned by his father. He also ignored them before getting into a car and leaving. The charges facing Hunter break down to three felonies and six misdemeanors centered around $1.4 million in owed taxes that were since paid. Special Counsel David Weiss alleged Hunter “engaged in a four-year scheme to not pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019, from in or about January 2017 through in or about October 15, 2020, and to evade the assessment of taxes for tax year 2018 when he filed false returns in or about February 2020.” HUNTER INDICTMENT A ‘NUCLEAR BOMB FOR THE BIDENS,’ AS JOE SOUNDS LIKE CLINTON DURING LEWINSKY SCANDAL: EXPERTS Weiss said that, in “furtherance of that scheme,” the younger Biden “subverted the payroll and tax withholding process of his own company, Owasco, PC by withdrawing millions” from the company “outside of the payroll and tax withholding process that it was designed to perform.” The special counsel alleged that Hunter “spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills,” and that in 2018, he “stopped paying his outstanding and overdue taxes for tax year 2015.” Weiss alleged that Hunter “willfully failed to pay his 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 taxes on time, despite having access to funds to pay some or all of these taxes,” and that he “willfully failed to file his 2017 and 2018 tax returns on time.” NEW HUNTER BIDEN CHARGES REVEAL WHAT CAN HAPPEN WHEN LAWYERS GET TOO GREEDY “[W]hen he did finally file his 2018 returns, included false business deductions in order to evade assessment of taxes to reduce the substantial tax liabilities he faced as of February 2020,” Weiss alleged. Thursday’s development comes ahead of an expected vote from House Republican leaders next week on a measure that would formally initiate an impeachment inquiry into President Biden over possible ties to his son’s business dealings. Fox News’ Houston Keene contributed to this report.
Hunter Biden says US Republican critics are ‘trying to destroy a presidency’
U.S. President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden said critics of his father are “trying to destroy a presidency” through relentless attacks on him and “trying to kill me,” in a podcast interview released on Friday.
President Biden will not pardon Hunter in scandal: ‘That’s still the case’
When questioned by the press on Friday if President Biden would pardon his son Hunter, who is facing nine criminal charges in a federal tax evasion case, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that Biden will not pardon Hunter’s charges. “Nothing has changed. That is still the case,” Jean-Pierre said when asked if Biden will pardon Hunter. “I mean, the president has said this before and he will continue to say, which is that he loves his son and supports him as he continues to rebuild his life. And I’m going to be really careful to not comment on this and refer to Department of Justice or my colleagues at the White House counsel. But that’s what I’m going to I’m not going to go beyond telling you all what the president has said over and over again. He’s Proud of his son and he is building his life back,” Jean-Pierre said. On Thursday, Hunter Biden was indicted on nine charges in California as a special counsel investigation into the business dealings of President Joe Biden’s son intensifies against the backdrop of the 2024 election. HUNTER BIDEN FACES NEW INDICTMENT IN CALIFORNIA The new charges filed include three felonies and six misdemeanors, and are in addition to federal firearms charges in Delaware alleging Hunter Biden broke laws against drug users having guns in 2018. FROM SEX CLUBS TO STRIPPERS: HERE ARE THE 5 MOST SALACIOUS DETAILS FROM THE HUNTER BIDEN INDICTMENT If convicted, Hunter Biden, 53, could receive a maximum of 17 years in prison.
Key aspects of Trump gag order upheld by federal appeals court
A federal appeals court has upheld key parts of a federal judge’s gag order limiting what Donald Trump can say about his ongoing prosecution by the Special Counsel for alleged Jan. 6 election interference. In response, former President Donald Trump’s legal team issued the following statement. “We agree with the district court that some aspects of Mr. Trump’s public statements pose a significant and imminent threat to the fair and orderly adjudication of the ongoing criminal proceeding, warranting a speech-constraining protective order. The district court’s order, however, sweeps in more protected speech than is necessary. For that reason, we affirm the district court’s order in part and vacate it in part. Specifically, the Order is affirmed to the extent it prohibits all parties and their counsel from making or directing others to make public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses concerning their potential participation in the investigation or in this criminal proceeding,” Trump’s team stated. This is a developing story. Check back for updates.