Hunter Biden’s pardon sets troubling precedent, risks politicizing Justice Department, critics say
President Biden faced mounting criticism Monday for the “sweeping” pardon of his son, Hunter Biden, with critics citing fears that it could be used by Trump to further his views of a “politicized” Justice Department and erode the role of the judiciary as an important check on executive power. In a statement announcing the pardon, Biden took aim at what he described as a politically motivated investigation. “No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son — and that is wrong,” the president wrote. That Biden used his final weeks as a lame duck president to protect his only living son from prosecution was met with less shock among legal analysts than was the sheer breadth of the pardon itself, which spans a nearly 11-year period beginning in January 2014, the year Hunter was appointed to the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma, and ending on Sunday, the day that the White House announced the pardon. While that time frame includes both the federal firearm and tax evasion convictions that Hunter was convicted of this year, experts say the scope of the pardon could go much further by extending to any actions committed for more than a decade, virtually ensuring the president’s son cannot be held accountable for any activity conducted during that period. In terms of both length and scope, the Hunter Biden pardon “could really could not be more sweeping, to be honest with you,” Trey Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor and member of Congress, told Fox News Digital in an interview. The time frame included in the pardon covers “almost all federal statutes of limitations,” Gowdy said. “For the vast majority of federal crimes, this covers this time period and means that charges cannot be brought.” SPECIAL COUNSEL, IRS WHISTLEBLOWERS SAY DON’T BUY BIDEN ‘SPIN’ ABOUT HUNTER BIDEN LEGAL SAGA Critics note that Biden broke his own repeated declarations that he would not pardon Hunter earlier this year. First, after he was found guilty in June on three felony firearm charges, and then in September after he pleaded guilty to separate federal charges of tax evasion. “I am not going to do anything,” Biden said this summer. “I will abide by the jury’s decision.” This week, Biden did the opposite. White House officials insist that Biden still backs his contention this summer that “no one is above the law.” “As he said in his statement, he has deep respect for our justice system,” a spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “And as a wide range of legal experts have pointed out, this pardon is indisputably within his authority and warranted by the facts of the case.” “The pardon power was written in absolute terms, and a president can even, in my view, pardon himself,” George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley wrote in an op-ed for Fox News Digital. “However, what is constitutional is not necessarily ethical or right,” Turley said, adding that in his view, Biden’s decision to pardon Hunter is “one of the most disgraceful pardons even in the checkered history of presidential pardons.” “His portrayal of his son as a victim stands in sharp contrast to the sense of immunity and power conveyed by Hunter in his dealings,” Turley said. BIDEN PARDONS SON HUNTER BIDEN AHEAD OF EXIT FROM OVAL OFFICE Some lawmakers and legal analysts separately cited fears that the pardon could further erode public trust in the Justice Department, giving more credence to Trump’s frequent complaints that the Department of Justice is a political apparatus capable of being “weaponized” rather than a department that strives to act independently and largely without political influence. In granting the pardon, Biden is “essentially endorsing Trump’s long-held opinion that the Department of Justice is politicized and isn’t acting impartially,” longtime GOP strategist and communicator Ryan Williams told Fox News in an interview. Gowdy said Biden’s pardon reflects his longtime view that the Justice Department has been too politicized in recent years and needs to be reformed, citing a swirl of investigations during recent administrations, including probes that were led by House committees, and which looked into the actions of both Biden and Trump family members. “When I was a prosecutor, politics had nothing to do with the job,” Gowdy said. “I didn’t know the politics of a single one of my co-workers.” The focus, he said, should be shifted back not to “targeting people, but targeting fact patterns.” “Prosecuting your political enemies, involving family members, all of this stuff is new, and all of it’s really dangerous.” Special Counsel David Weiss, who brought both cases against Hunter Biden, has defended his actions against claims that the prosecutions were politically motivated, noting in a court filing Monday that Hunter Biden’s team had filed “eight motions to dismiss the indictment, making every conceivable argument for why it should be dismissed, all of which were determined to be meritless.” Weiss added, “There was none and never has been any evidence of vindictive or selective prosecution in this case.” PRESIDENT BIDEN’S PARDON OF SON HUNTER A POLITICAL GIFT FOR TRUMP GOING FORWARD Still, some have objected to the intense investigation surrounding Hunter Biden, noting that if not for his father’s presidency, he likely would not have faced charges in the gun case. Gowdy, a former Republican House member, said he ultimately agreed with that contention. “I prosecuted gun cases for six years,” Gowdy told Fox News Digital. “I would not have taken this case.” “There’s a lot of really serious federal violent crime out there, and I would not have wasted the resources on the gun part of this,” Gowdy explained. But the former South Carolina lawmaker also said that doesn’t mean he would have let Biden’s son off the hook. “I definitely would have gone forward on the taxes and allegations of corruption,” Gowdy said of the other allegations against Biden. Ultimately, the Justice Department and FBI need to be “significantly reformed,” Gowdy said. “They
Sambhal violence: LoP Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav and others stage walkout in Lok Sabha
Some of the Congress members also rose to their feet and the Leader of the Opposition in the House Rahul Gandhi came to the isle in support of the protest. While the protest was on, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju reached out to Yadav to discuss the issue.
Biden, Trump both rip DOJ after president pardons Hunter
There is no other way to put it: Joe Biden lied. Over and over. After repeatedly promising, pledging, vowing not to pardon his son Hunter, the President of the United States did exactly that. The move amounted to a devastating vote of no confidence in his own Justice Department, matching Donald Trump’s own denunciations of that very department. PRESIDENT BIDEN PARDONS SON HUNTER, SPARING HIM POSSIBLE PRISON SENTENCE Trump, who also pardoned several political allies during his first term, was quick to react on Truth Social: “Does the pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years? Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!” And prominent Republicans are calling Biden a liar, with ample justification. I think most people assumed that a father wouldn’t let his son go to jail. And if the president had explained it in those terms, he might have garnered some public sympathy. But he did not. You know how the president often talks about “my word as a Biden”? I mistakenly assumed that he wouldn’t promise again and again not to pardon his son or commute his sentence if he had thought there was any possibility he would get Hunter off the legal hook. But what is anyone going to do? He leaves office next month, his political career is over and the story will quickly fade. MEDIA ADMITS THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IS TOO ‘WOKE’ AFTER KAMALA HARRIS’ 2024 LOSS Biden sounded very much like Trump as he accused the DOJ, which he had long defended, of treating his son unfairly – swinging the political door wide open for the president-elect to retaliate against Justice, in part by naming longtime confidant Kash Patel to run the FBI. Biden said his son had been “selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,” and he blamed political pressure on the special counsel named in the case. “No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son — and that is wrong. There has been an effort to break Hunter — who has been 5-1/2 years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me — and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.” But that bolsters the Trump argument that he too was singled out for selective prosecution by the DOJ – and will be in a position to do something about it. Hunter put out his own statement after the Sunday pardon: “I have admitted and taken responsibility for my mistakes during the darkest days of my addiction — mistakes that have been exploited to publicly humiliate and shame me and my family for political sport.” The feeble attempts by some in the media and in Democratic politics to defend Biden are just sad, because they only tell half the story. Let’s say Hunter Biden was in fact singled out for prosecution, that the case would have been routinely disposed of if his last name was Jones. (Hunter had already been convicted in one case and pleaded guilty in another to tax and gun-related charges.) But as Hunter admitted in one email, it was his last name, when his father was vice president, that enabled him to land all those buckraking contracts from around the world. It’s why the Ukrainian energy giant Burisma hired him, why he was able to get money from China. TRUMP HIT FOR HIRING LOYALISTS LIKE PAM BONDI: DOESN’T EVERY PRESIDENT DO THAT? Hunter had no expertise in any of these areas. What he had was a connection to a powerful father. The pardon is so sweeping that it covers everything Hunter may have done from Jan. 1, 2004 through Sunday – which could be a way of his father protecting himself as well. Karine Jean-Pierre also told reporters on several occasions that Biden would not pardon Hunter. Hunter Biden on Sunday night released a statement noting his recovery from addiction and his sobriety: “I have admitted and taken responsibility for my mistakes during the darkest days of my addiction — mistakes that have been exploited to publicly humiliate and shame me and my family for political sport.” Mark Halperin argues that Biden put his son in jeopardy by running for president, knowing the full range of Hunter’s addiction problems – and lied about Hunter not getting money from China and not helping his business clients (even if he just made small talk at a couple of group meetings). TRUMP NOMINATES KASH PATEL TO SERVE AS FBI DIRECTOR: ‘ADVOCATE FOR TRUTH’ Meanwhile, Trump’s choice of Kash Patel for the FBI (who would replace his own appointee, Chris Wray, who replaced the fired Jim Comey) has sparked a media backlash. One thing no one can argue is that Patel lacks experience. He has been chief of staff at the Pentagon and a deputy assistant to the president. In fact, he was a national security prosecutor in the Obama Justice Department, before Trump got into politics. But on Steve Bannon’s podcast last year, Patel said: “Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. We’re going to come after you, whether it’s criminally or civilly.” Patel has also said that on day one he’d shut down the FBI headquarters in Washington – ironically named for J. Edgar Hoover – and turn it into a museum on the “deep state.” Its 7,000 employees would be dispersed around the country. One thing Biden never did was put any family members on the government payroll, as Trump did in naming Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, to top White House positions in the first term. Now Trump is continuing that tradition by naming Charles Kushner, Jared’s father, as ambassador to France. SUBSCRIBE TO HOWIE’S MEDIA BUZZMETER PODCAST, A RIFF ON THE DAY’S HOTTEST STORIES
SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal to wash utensils, clean shoes, bathrooms at Golden Temple, know why
Former SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal on Tuesday morning arrived at the Golden Temple in Amritsar on his first day of penance. He was seen wearing a plaque around his neck while sitting in a wheelchair because of a fractured leg. This comes after he was declared a ‘tankhaiya’ by Akal Takht.
Musk’s $101bn Tesla pay package again rejected by US judge
Judge says Tesla’s ‘unprecedented theories’ do not support argument to reverse previous ruling scrapping pay deal. A judge in the United States has upheld a decision to deny Tesla CEO Elon Musk a multibillion-dollar pay package despite shareholders voting to restore the compensation deal. The decision by a Delaware judge on Monday reaffirmed an earlier ruling to void the pay deal on the basis that Tesla’s board was too close to Musk and had not sufficiently protected shareholders’ interests. Chancellor Kathaleen St Jude McCormick of Delaware’s Court of Chancery found that there was no legal precedent to reverse her earlier ruling and that if courts condoned “the practice of allowing defeated parties to create new facts for the purpose of revising judgments, lawsuits would become interminable”. “The large and talented group of defense firms got creative with the ratification argument, but their unprecedented theories go against multiple strains of settled law,” McCormick wrote in a 103-page opinion. McCormick also found that Tesla had made “material misstatements” to shareholders about the effect of their vote to reinstate Musk’s pay deal. Advertisement Tesla shares dropped 1.4 percent in after-hours trading following the ruling. McCormick also rejected a request for $5bn in fees sought by the lawyers of plaintiff Richard Tornetta, a Tesla shareholder who brought the original lawsuit accusing Tesla’s board of not acting independently of Musk, instead granting the amount of $345m. After McCormick’s decision to block the deal earlier this year, Tesla shareholders in June overwhelmingly voted to reinstate the package. Tesla on Monday said the court’s decision was “wrong” and that it would appeal the decision. “This ruling, if not overturned, means that judges and plaintiffs’ lawyers run Delaware companies rather than their rightful owners – the shareholders,”’ the electric car company said on X. Musk on X said that “shareholders should control company votes, not judges,” and described McCormick as an “activist posing as a judge”. Under the terms of his 2018 pay deal, Musk agreed to be paid in Tesla stock options each time the company reached certain goals instead of receiving a salary. Musk hit all of the targets, which focused on metrics including market capitalisation, earnings and sales, helping make him the world’s richest man. Musk’s compensation package was initially worth $56bn but is now valued at more than $101bn after Tesla’s stock price surged more than 40 percent following Donald Trump’s US presidential election win on November 5. Adblock test (Why?)
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,013
These were the key developments on the 1,013th day of the Russia-Ukraine war. Here is the situation on Tuesday, December 3: Fighting Ukraine’s Air Force said that Russia launched 110 drones to attack the country overnight. Of 110 drones, the Air Force shot down 52, while at least 50 were “lost”, it said. Russia’s air defence systems destroyed 15 Ukrainian drones over several Russian regions overnight, state news reported, citing the country’s Ministry of Defence. A Russian contract soldier undergoes training in a T-72 tank during military drills held at a firing range in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region on December 2 [Sergey Pivovarov/Reuters] Military aid and diplomacy Ukraine needs more air defence systems to protect its important facilities from Russian missile attacks, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. Ukraine will need tens of thousands of uncrewed robotic ground vehicles next year to shuttle ammunition and supplies to infantry in the trenches and evacuate wounded soldiers, Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov told the Reuters news agency. Norway’s Ministry of Defence said it would deploy F-35 fighter jets and NASAMS (short to medium-range) air defence systems to a logistics hub in Poland that coordinates military aid for Ukraine. From early December, Norway will safeguard the airspace above the Rzeszow airport and will send approximately 100 soldiers in addition to the air defence systems and fighter jets. German military aid to be delivered to Ukraine in December includes IRIS-T air defence systems, Leopard 1 tanks and armed drones, a Defence Ministry spokesperson said, just hours after Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced the deliveries during Monday’s surprise visit to Kyiv. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a wave of pro-European Union protests in Georgia resembled an attempted Ukraine-style Orange Revolution – mass protests in 2004 that removed a pro-Russian government in Kyiv – and local authorities were trying to stabilise the situation, but Russia would not interfere. Advertisement NATO is highly unlikely to heed Ukraine’s call for a membership invitation at a meeting of the bloc set to be held on Tuesday, Reuters reported, citing senior NATO diplomats. In a letter to his NATO counterparts ahead of the meeting, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said an invitation would remove one of Russia’s main arguments for waging its war – preventing Ukraine from joining the alliance. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Rustem Umerov, held a meeting in which they discussed Russia’s use of new ballistic missiles, preparations for the next meeting of arms donors and plans for Washington’s military aid next year. The United States will send Ukraine $725m of missiles, ammunition, antipersonnel mines and other weapons, Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed, as President Joe Biden’s outgoing administration seeks to bolster Kyiv before leaving office in January. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that stepping up support for Ukraine is essential to put Kyiv in a strong position for peace talks with Russia, as he conceded there could be a negotiated end to the war. A group of Bulgarian nationals accused of spying for Russia targeted an investigative journalist with the Bellingcat news outlet and tried to lure him into a “honey trap” via Facebook, prosecutors have told a London court. Katrin Ivanova, Vanya Gaberova and Tihomir Ivanchev, along with Orlin Roussev and Bizer Dzhambazov, also carried out surveillance on a US military base in Germany where Ukrainian forces were being trained. President Judge of the International Criminal Court Tomoko Akane said threats facing the institution, including possible US sanctions and Russian warrants for staff members, “jeopardise its very existence“. Russia issued an arrest warrant for the ICC’s Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan two months after the court in The Hague issued a warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin is dragging Asia into the war in Ukraine with the use of Chinese-made drones and North Korean troops, German Minister for Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock said during a visit to Beijing. Advertisement Adblock test (Why?)
Trump to attend Notre Dame reopening in first overseas trip since election
US president-elect says he will visit Paris for ‘very special day’ celebrating restoration of fire-damaged cathedral. Donald Trump has announced he will attend the reopening of Notre-Dame, the Paris landmark gutted by fire five years ago, in his first overseas trip since winning the United States presidential election. The 12th-century Gothic masterpiece, which was badly damaged by fire in 2019, is set to reopen its doors to visitors and the Catholic faithful on Saturday and Sunday. Dozens of world leaders are expected to attend the unveiling of the restoration, which French President Emmanuel Macron has likened to the healing of a “national wound”. “It is an honor to announce that I will be traveling to Paris, France, on Saturday to attend the re-opening of the magnificent and historic Notre Dame Cathedral, which has been fully restored after a devastating fire five years ago,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform on Monday. “President Emmanuel Macron has done a wonderful job ensuring that Notre Dame has been restored to its full level of glory, and even more so. It will be a very special day for all!” Advertisement During his first term in office, Trump weighed in on the fire at Notre Dame as pictures of the blaze were broadcast live worldwide, suggesting that “flying water tankers” could be deployed to put out the flames. “Must act quickly!” Trump said on Twitter, the former name for X. French authorities dismissed the suggestion, saying that using water-bombing aircraft could result in the collapse of the “entire structure of the cathedral”. Trump and Macron have had a complicated relationship. Macron was among the first world leaders to congratulate Trump on his re-election and was the guest of honour at the former president’s first state dinner. But the two leaders also clashed over Trump’s scepticism of NATO and France’s moves to hike taxes on US tech giants. Notre-Dame’s restoration was made possible with 846 million euros ($887.4m) in donations provided by some 340,000 donors from 150 countries. The five-year effort, involving some 250 companies and hundreds of experts, had an estimated cost of nearly 700 million euros ($734.3m). Restoration chief Philippe Jost last month told a news conference that surplus donations of about 140 million euros ($147m) would be used for future preservation efforts. Adblock test (Why?)
Shillong Teer Results TODAY December 3, 2024 Live Updates: Check lucky winning numbers, prize money
Tickets for the Shillong Teer lottery are available at prices ranging from Rs 1 to Rs 50 at authorised vendors. Sales typically begin at 10 AM and continue until 3:30 PM on days when the lottery is held.
DOJ special counsel says Hunter Biden’s indictment should not be dismissed
Attorneys for first son Hunter Biden filed a motion with the court arguing that the grand jury indictment against President Biden’s son be dismissed completely, though the special counsel assigned to the case says the dismissal should be denied. President Biden pardoned his son Hunter late Sunday evening, sparing him from being sentenced in a pair of separate court cases in which he was found guilty of illegally purchasing a gun and failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes — convictions the president claimed were politically motivated and a “miscarriage of justice.” On Monday, Special Counsel David Weiss of the U.S. Department of Justice filed a request to the judge who presided over the gun case, Judge Maryellen Noreika, seeking to deny the motion to dismiss Hunter’s indictment. “The Government does not challenge that the defendant has been the recipient of an act of mercy,” Weiss said in the filing. “That does not mean the grand jury’s decision to charge him, based on a finding of probable cause, should be wiped away because the defendant falsely claimed that the charges were the result of some improper motive or selective prosecution. SPECIAL COUNSEL, IRS WHISTLEBLOWERS SAY DON’T BUY BIDEN ‘SPIN’ ABOUT HUNTER BIDEN LEGAL SAGA “No court has agreed with the defendant on these baseless claims, and his request to dismiss the indictment finds no support in the law,” the special counsel added before requesting the dismissal of the indictment be denied. In response to the request, Hunter’s attorney, Abbe Lowell of the Washington, D.C.-based law firm, Winston & Strawn LLP, argued that the majority of courts support a dismissal. “The Special Counsel paradoxically claims that Mr. Biden’s notice is ‘without any legal support’ in suggesting that his pardon means that the Court should dismiss the indictment, at the same time, the Special Counsel acknowledges that ‘the majority of courts, when faced with such a decision, have chosen to dismiss an indictment,’” the defense team wrote. “The Special Counsel’s admission that this is the practice of the ‘majority of courts’ certainly provides legal support to Mr. Biden’s claim that dismissal is warranted.” JOE BIDEN MET WITH AT LEAST 14 OF HUNTER’S BUSINESS ASSOCIATES WHILE VICE PRESIDENT Hunter Biden was found guilty in the gun case in June, with a jury of his peers determining he made a false statement in the purchase of a gun, made a false statement related to information required to be kept by a federally licensed gun dealer, and possession of a gun by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance. He has a well-documented history of drug abuse, which was most notably documented in his 2021 memoir, “Beautiful Things,” which walked readers through his previous need to smoke crack cocaine every 20 minutes, how his addiction was so prolific that he referred to himself as a “crack daddy” to drug dealers, and anecdotes revolving around drug deals, such as a Washington, D.C., crack dealer Hunter Biden nicknamed “Bicycles.” In the tax case, Hunter faced another trial regarding three felony tax offenses and six misdemeanor tax offenses regarding the failure to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes. As jury selection was about to kick off in Los Angeles federal court in September, Hunter entered a surprise guilty plea. Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.
Trump to attend Notre Dame Cathedral reopening in Paris five years after devastating fire
President-elect Trump will travel to Paris this weekend to attend the re-opening of the Notre Dame Cathedral, five years after a devastating fire damaged the 12th-century structure. Trump announced the Dec. 7 visit on social media. “It is an honor to announce that I will be traveling to Paris, France, on Saturday to attend the re-opening of the Magnificent and Historic Notre Dame Cathedral, which has been fully restored after a devastating fire five years ago,” he wrote on Truth Social. “President Emmanuel Macron has done a wonderful job ensuring that Notre Dame has been restored to its full level of glory, and even more so.” NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL TO REOPEN, BRACES FOR INFLUX OF TOURISTS AFTER DEVASTATING FIRE “It will be a very special day for all!” he added. The invite-only ceremonies on Saturday and Sunday are expected to attract about 50 heads of state and governments. Aides to Trump were in talks with French President Macron’s office regarding the visit, sources confirmed to Fox News. Nearly $1 billion was raised to rebuild the iconic site after a catastrophic fire swept across the landmark in April 2019. Around $148 million of that sum remains. The blaze caused the collapse of the cathedral’s roof and part of its exterior while destroying the interior. HUMAN REMAINS AT NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL MAY HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED AFTER MORE THAN 450 YEARS At the time of the blaze, Trump encouraged France to use “flying water tankers” to put out a raging fire. “So horrible to watch the massive fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris,” he wrote. “Perhaps flying water tankers could be used to put it out. Must act quickly!” The cathedral was visited by more than 12 million people every year before the fire, according to the Friends of Notre-Dame de Paris’ site. French President Emmanuel Macron toured the site ahead of its reopening to the public on Dec. 8, describing the experience as “overwhelming,” An estimated 15 million annual visitors are expected to book time-allocated slots upon the reopening, according to the cathedral’s website.