Texas Weekly Online

Texas-trans-white
Menu
Menu

Author:

Hunter Biden to testify behind closed doors as part of impeachment inquiry against his father

Hunter Biden to testify behind closed doors as part of impeachment inquiry against his father

Hunter Biden will appear for his highly-anticipated and long-awaited deposition Wednesday on Capitol Hill as part of the impeachment inquiry against his father, President Biden. The first son is expected to take questions from lawmakers and congressional investigators behind closed doors before the House Oversight and Judiciary committees. The deposition is expected to begin at 10 a.m. Hunter Biden’s expected testimony comes after his uncle, President Biden’s younger brother James Biden, testified last week as part of the impeachment inquiry. James Biden testified that President Biden “has never had any involvement or any direct or indirect financial interest” in his business ventures.  BIDEN MET WITH CHAIRMAN OF CHINESE ENERGY FIRM HUNTER DID BUSINESS WITH IN 2017, EX-ASSOCIATE TESTIFIES House Republicans have heard testimony from a number of the first son’s former business associates, like Tony Bobulinski, who testified before the committees earlier this month that Joe Biden was involved in the family’s business ventures. He also testified that he personally met with him.  House Democrats and the White House have criticized the inquiry as baseless, but Republicans insist they have just scratched the surface of the investigation into Biden family businesses. “The House Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means Committees have unearthed a record of evidence revealing Joe Biden was ‘the brand’ his family sold to enrich the Bidens,” House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky, said in statement Tuesday. “Joe Biden knew of, participated in, and benefited from these schemes. Joe Biden attended dinners, spoke on speakerphone, showed up to meetings, and had coffee with his son’s foreign business associates.  “In fact, we’ve documented how Joe Biden has met with nearly all of his son’s foreign business associates as they were collectively funneling millions to the Bidens. Our committees have the opportunity to depose Hunter Biden, a key witness in our impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden, about this record of evidence. This deposition is not the conclusion of the impeachment inquiry. There are more subpoenas and witness interviews to come.”  He added that the committee will continue to investigate to “determine whether articles of impeachment are warranted.” Days before Bobulinski’s testimony, another former business associate, Rob Walker, testified that Joe Biden met with the chairman of the Chinese energy firm CEFC that his brother and son did business with.  After Walker’s testimony, the House Oversight Committee said it was able to “now confirm Joe Biden met with nearly every foreign national who funneled money to his son.”  Also last week, congressional investigators heard testimony from a former business associate of Hunter’s — Jason Galanis, who is serving a 14-year prison sentence. Galanis testified during a rare transcribed interview from an Alabama prison that Joe Biden was allegedly considering joining the board of a joint venture created by Hunter Biden and his business associates with ties to the Chinese Communist Party after he left the vice presidency. Joe Biden’s involvement would bring “political access in the United States and around the world,” he claimed.  JOE BIDEN ‘ENABLED’ FAMILY TO SELL ACCESS TO ‘DANGEROUS ADVERSARIES,’ TONY BOBULINSKI TESTIFIES Hunter Biden was first subpoenaed to appear for a closed-door deposition in November. The deposition was slated for Dec. 13, but the first son defied the subpoena. Instead of appearing to testify, he held a press conference on Capitol Hill during which he defended himself and his father, saying the president “was not financially involved in my business.” Ahead of his subpoenaed deposition, Hunter Biden had offered to testify in a public setting. Comer and Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, rejected his request, noting that the first son would not have special treatment and pointing to the dozens of other witnesses who have appeared as compelled for their interviews and depositions. Comer and Jordan vowed to release the transcript of Hunter Biden’s deposition. But after he defied the subpoena, the committees in January passed resolutions to hold the first son in contempt of Congress for defying the congressional subpoena. Before those resolutions were able to be considered by the House Rules Committee and the full House, Hunter Biden’s attorneys offered to discuss scheduling a new deposition for the first son — something House Republicans were willing to do. HUNTER BIDEN DEPOSITION SCHEDULED FOR NEXT MONTH AFTER RISK OF BEING HELD IN CONTEMPT OF CONGRESS The president’s son’s deposition comes after years of congressional investigations into his business dealings, beginning in September 2019 in the Senate. That investigation was led by senators Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Johnson, R-Wis. Hunter Biden’s business dealings and foreign relationships came under heightened scrutiny in the fall of 2019 during the first impeachment of former President Trump. Trump was impeached after a July 2019 phone call in which he pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to launch investigations into the Biden family’s actions and business dealings in Ukraine, specifically Hunter Biden’s ventures with Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings and Joe Biden’s successful effort to have former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin ousted. FLASHBACK: GRASSLEY, JOHNSON SHARE HUNTER BIDEN’S CHINA-LINKED BANK RECORDS WITH US ATTORNEY LEADING CRIMINAL PROBE Hunter Biden was quietly under federal investigation, beginning in 2018, at the time of the call, a probe prompted by suspicious foreign transactions. Trump’s request was regarded by Democrats as a quid pro quo because millions in U.S. military aid to Ukraine had been frozen. Democrats also said Trump was meddling in the 2020 presidential election by asking a foreign leader to look into a Democratic political opponent. Republicans had been investigating Hunter Biden’s business dealings, specifically with regard to Burisma Holdings. House Republicans, who were in the minority at the time, made several requests to subpoena Hunter Biden for testimony and documents related to the impeachment of Trump and his business dealings that fell at the center of the proceedings. FLASHBACK: GOP-LED COMMITTEES RELEASE INTERIM REPORT ON HUNTER BIDEN, BURISMA PROBE Biden has acknowledged that when he was vice president he successfully pressured Ukraine to fire Shokin. At the time, Shokin was investigating Burisma Holdings, and Hunter

Texas gun store owner says Supreme Court should limit government ‘power’ in ‘bump stock’ ban case

Texas gun store owner says Supreme Court should limit government ‘power’ in ‘bump stock’ ban case

The Supreme Court on Wednesday will hear a challenge to a federal ban on gun “bump stocks” in a case that could affect thousands of gun-owning Americans. The case, Garland v. Cargill, presents the question whether a “bump stock” device is a “machine gun” as defined by federal law because it is designed and intended for use in converting a rifle into a weapon that fires “automatically more than one shot … by a single function of the trigger.”  After a 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas that left 60 people dead and 500 more wounded, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) issued an interpretive rule concluding that “bump stocks” are machine guns. A “bump stock” is an attachment that allows a semi-automatic rifle to mimic a fully automatic weapon’s “cyclic firing rate to mimic nearly continuous automatic fire,” according to the ATF. CONSTITUTIONAL CARRY: 2023 SAW NEW MILESTONE FOR GUN RIGHTS Semi-automatic rifles with “bump stocks” could fire hundreds of rounds per minute, according to experts. They were originally created to make it easier for people with disabilities to fire a gun. The device essentially replaces the gun’s stock and pistol grip and causes the weapon to buck back and forth, repeatedly “bumping” the trigger against the shooter’s finger. Michael Cargill, owner of Central Texas Gun Works, sued the government after he was forced to surrender several “bump stocks” under the ATF’s rule.  GUN OWNERS DUNK ON SHAQ FOR SPONSORING FIREARM BUYBACK EVENT IN RED STATE: ‘ABSOLUTELY NOT’ “It really goes back to … freedom. And it goes back to just the basics of something that my customers and myself legally purchase. The government should not have that power, that authority in an administrative agency … to come back and ban that. You know, something that Congress has not banned. That’s going to be a job that’s reserved for Congress,” Cargill said in an interview with Fox News Digital.  “And I don’t think, you know, that the Supreme Court intended for an agency to actually do something to this extent.” FORMER NRA CEO WAYNE LAPIERRE FOUND LIABLE FOR CORRUPTION, COST GUN RIGHTS GROUP MORE THAN $5 MILLION: JURY Cargill said he opened his business because he wanted to teach people how to properly handle and shoot guns. “I wanted them to know what the laws were. I wanted them to follow the law. And, so, that’s why I focus my business model on training and classes. Because we want to make sure that we’re doing everything right,” Cargill said.  When the ATF rule was changed, Cargill realized that it caused a problem for him and his customers because it made illegal what had previously been legal by reinterpreting the machine gun ban to cover “bump stocks.” “It posed a problem, and we wanted to fix that problem,” Cargill said.  Cargill said many of his customers who purchased “bump stocks” were military veterans with disabilities.  “Just recently, I had the opportunity to teach a young man how to shoot again who has no arms and hands. And, so, I taught him how to shoot with his feet. So, we have people that come to us for, you know, different disabilities, and we try to find a way to help them,” Cargill explained.   Three appeals courts agreed with the ATF’s pre-2018 position that non-mechanical “bump stocks” are not “machine gun[s],” while two other appeals courts agreed with ATF’s present-day interpretation. The New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) is arguing the case on behalf of Cargill. Mark Chenoweth, NCLA president and general counsel, said, “This is not a case about gun rights. It is a case about administrative power.” “Congress never gave ATF the power to rewrite federal criminal statutes pertaining to machine guns, nor could it. Writing federal criminal laws is the sole preserve of Congress, and the Trump and Biden administrations committed grievous constitutional error by trying to ban ‘bump stocks’ without involving Congress. We are confident the U.S. Supreme Court will right this wrong for Michael Cargill and all Americans.” The Supreme Court will hear arguments at 10 a.m. Wednesday. 

Michigan inches Biden and Trump closer to 2020 rematch as Super Tuesday approaches

Michigan inches Biden and Trump closer to 2020 rematch as Super Tuesday approaches

Voters in Michigan handed decisive victories to President Biden and former President Trump Tuesday, increasing the odds of a 2020 rematch as the candidates look to solidify their frontrunner positions on Super Tuesday. The Associated Press called Michigan for Biden and Trump shortly after polls closed Tuesday, leaving both candidates undefeated in their bid to once again represent their respective parties in 2024’s presidential election. Biden’s victory in the state came despite a late push among Arab Americans to “abandon” their support for the president over his continued support of Israel in the War in Gaza. A growing movement called on voters to cast an “uncommitted” ballot instead of continuing what has typically been overwhelming support for the president. LONGTIME MICHIGAN DEMOCRAT WON’T SUPPORT BIDEN IN 2024 OVER ISRAEL STANCE: ‘CANNOT KILL MY PEOPLE’ The movement picked up the support of Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., who announced her public opposition to supporting the president ahead of her home state’s primary. “I was proud today to walk in and pull a Democratic ballot and vote uncommitted. We must protect our democracy. We must make sure that our government is about us, about the people,” Tlaib said in a video shared by Listen To Michigan, a group supportive of the uprising against Biden.  “When 74% of Democrats in Michigan support a cease-fire, yet President Biden is not hearing us, this is the way we can use our democracy to say listen.” Biden coasted to another victory in the state nevertheless, marking his fourth primary victory in four tries. Trump also remained undefeated during the primary season by winning Michigan, besting former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, the only other GOP candidate left in the race. The results in the state further solidified both candidates’ positions as frontrunners in their respective parties, a status that will face its largest test yet in the coming week. YOUNG PEOPLE TURN ON ‘GENOCIDE JOE’ OVER HIS CEASE-FIRE STANCE: BIDEN ‘ABSOLUTELY SUCKS’ For Democrats, voters in 14 states and American Samoa will head to the polls to choose their candidate on Super Tuesday. Those states include Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia. Republicans in Washington, D.C., will cast their ballots over three days at the end of this week before caucuses take place in Idaho and Missouri on Saturday. Voters in North Dakota will caucus on Monday. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The Haley campaign has seemingly made Super Tuesday the candidate’s last stand against Trump. The campaign announced last week it made a seven-figure ad buy across Super Tuesday states.

Federal judge rules $1.7 trillion spending bill passed by Congress in 2022 is unconstitutional

Federal judge rules .7 trillion spending bill passed by Congress in 2022 is unconstitutional

A Lubbock, Texas, federal judge ruled Tuesday that lawmakers unconstitutionally passed the $1.7 trillion government funding bill in 2022 when they did so under a pandemic-era rule allowing members of the U.S. House of Representatives to vote on the matter by proxy instead of in person. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, requested the courts block a provision of the funding bill that gave pregnant workers stronger legal protections. U.S. District Judge Wesley Hendrix reviewed the request and issued a “limited” ruling on one of two provisions Paxton sought to have blocked. Hendrix, appointed by former President Trump, ruled the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act was wrongfully passed, blocking the law from being enforced against the state as an employer. TEXAS AG KEN PAXTON SAYS STATE WON’T COMPLY WITH BIDEN ADMINISTRATION ORDER TO REOPEN PARK TO FEDERAL AGENTS The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, enacted in December 2022, requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations for pregnant workers. In his ruling, Hendrix noted that his injunction is only applicable to state government employees. Paxton filed a lawsuit last year, arguing the federal spending package was unconstitutionally passed because over half of the House of Representatives were not physically present to provide a quorum, yet they still voted by proxy. EAGLE PASS MAYOR SAYS SHOWDOWN BETWEEN TEXAS, FEDS OVER BORDER CONTROL IS ‘FRUSTRATING,’ A ‘CONSTANT STRUGGLE’ In May 2020, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, helped get a rule in place allowing lawmakers to vote by proxy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. When Republicans took control of the House in 2022, they ditched the proxy rule after challenging it in court unsuccessfully. Hendrix said in a 120-page ruling that for over 200 years leading up to the voting proxy rule’s adoption, Congress understood that the majority of members of the House or Senate were required to be physically present to have a quorum to pass legislation, as stipulated under the Constitution’s quorum clause. TEXAS AG PAXTON SUES NGO AIDING MIGRANTS, ACCUSES IT OF ENCOURAGING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION “Supreme Court precedent has long held that the Quorum Clause requires presence, and the Clause’s text distinguishes those absent members from the quorum and provides a mechanism for obtaining a physical quorum by compelling absent members to attend,” he wrote. Paxton said Congress acted “egregiously” when it passed the $1.7 trillion funding bill. “Congress acted egregiously by passing the largest spending bill in U.S. history with fewer than half the members of the House bothering to do their jobs, show up and vote in person,” Paxton said. “Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi abused proxy voting under the pretext of COVID-19 to pass this law, then Biden signed it, knowing they violated the Constitution. This was a stunning violation of the rule of law. I am relieved the court upheld the Constitution.” The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment. Reuters reported that Texas Public Policy Foundation lawyer Matthew Miller said the ruling “correctly” concluded a physical quorum was required to vote. Hendrix also found in his ruling that Texas did not have standing to challenge $20 million appropriated in the bill to fund a pilot program providing case management and other services to noncitizens during immigration removal proceedings. Reuters contributed to this report.