This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

A member of Congress is demanding answers from Joe Biden's attorney general – and the district attorney in New York – about the handling of their portion of Democrats' lawfare against President Trump, requiring them to answer a list of questions about the hiring of a Biden-linked lawyer to prosecute Trump for a list of ancient misdemeanors.

The letter to Merrick Garland and Alvin Bragg is from U.S. Rep. Lance Gooden, R- Texas, and demands they turn over evidence about Bragg's hiring of Matthew Colangelo, who is an ex-Biden pick for the Department of Justice.

The congressman warns there needs to be transparency because of the "disturbing revelations about the politically motivated prosecution" of Trump.

The congressman notes Colangelo "abruptly" left a top position at the DOJ to take a city job in New York, and work on the case, now at trial, that was "crafted to target President Trump."

The case, alleging Trump violated business reporting requirements in an alleged "hush money" payoff to a former stripper, is at trial right now. It already has been described by experts as nothing more than a political attack on Trump, as the alleged offenses were misdemeanors for which the statute of limitations has expired. The incidents that Bragg claims were intended to interfere with the 2016 election happened in 2017, after the election.

Gooden is demanding to know whether Colangelo was asked to leave the DOJ, "instructed" to leave," and if so, "what was he promised in return for accepting such a substantial demotion."

Gooden wrote, "The politicized persecution of former President Trump and the collusion between the Biden administration's Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Manhattan District Attorney (DA) General's Office have raised several concerns among the public. Particularly, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg brought charges against President Trump to trial in the middle of an election year, eight years after the alleged incident, which indicates a coordinated effort to target his campaign."

Then on top of that was the hiring of Colangelo, whose links to Biden include his appointment by Biden to a senior position at DOJ.

The congressman pointed out "These serious underlying issues substantially overshadow the integrity and fairness of the trial."

Further, the judge issued a radical gag order against Trump, preventing him from raising concerns about "prosecutors" and others.

Gooden wants access to "all records and communications in relation" to the process through which Colangelo moved from the DOJ to Bragg's office.

"The Department of Justice under President Biden has proven to be a cesspool of partisanship, further evident by the hyper-politicized courts that have taken up President Trump's criminal trials," he said, charging the hiring of Colangelo 'is yet another example of the unconstitutional approach" to Trump.

A report at The Gateway Pundit described Garland as "crooked" and charged that Bragg is "Soros-funded."

"Goodman calls the hiring of Colangelo 'a declaration of war against the American judicial system,'" the report said.

The House Judiciary Committee earlier demanded some of the information about Bragg's hiring of Colangelo.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

JERUSALEM – Israel is becoming increasingly concerned that the International Criminal Court in The Hague is preparing international arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as other senior political figures and high-ranking Israel Defense Forces officials.

Most see it as a continuation of the lawfare that reached a previous peak when South Africa brought its case against Israel on charges of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip to the International Court of Justice – also based in the Hague – at the end of 2023.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry has confirmed that a high-level meeting took place last night – at which Israel's current Strategic Affairs Minister and former Israel Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, and Foreign Minister Israel Katz were all present. The purpose: Shape a plan to prevent any potential arrest warrants, a prospect that, according to local TV reports, has rocked the Israeli political establishment.

According to a Jerusalem Post report, the claims of imminent arrest warrants seem puzzling, "given that the ICC [International Criminal Court] has not decided all the relevant jurisdictional questions it is supposed to decide before reaching an arrest warrants stage." It is thought that Netanyahu discussed the matter with both David Cameron, the UK's current foreign secretary, and former prime minister, as well as German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, when they met this week.

It isn't yet clear on which of the many claims against Israel the International Criminal Court would be acting. In 2021, the ICC sent a letter to Israel, effectively accusing it of dragging its feet regarding investigations over the IDF’s conduct during the 2014 Operation Protective Edge, although there were tens of probes and hundreds of preliminary ones. Usually, it can take months to complete a single probe.

The charges, however, might relate to the current conflict with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan accused Israel in the fall of 2023 of failing to provide humanitarian aid quickly enough, although 100-200 trucks were making it through daily. This has increased to some 500 per day now.

In 2020, during the first cabinet meeting after Israel’s 35th government had been sworn in at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, Israel’s newly reelected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made an astonishing – and if current reports are to be believed, prescient – claim. Netanyahu laid out a series of strategic challenges facing Israel, which included the International Criminal Court's threat to launch an investigation into alleged war crimes carried out in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. Judging by the scrambling during the meeting last night, it appears that The Hague is preparing to make good on its threat.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

“There is nothing the political establishment will not do, and no lie they will not tell to hold on to their prestige and power at your expense. The Washington establishment, and the financial and media corporations that fund it, exists for only one reason: to protect and enrich itself.”

That was Donald J. Trump speaking the most forbidden truth of all, just days before the historic November 2016 election that, to the dismay of the “Washington establishment,” made the brash billionaire outsider America’s 45th president.

Today, as the nation approaches a truly life-or-death election, it is coming to light that an extraordinary revolution has been secretly taking place in the United States of America under everyone’s noses – a revolution that could largely determine the outcome of November's election.

Consider the undeniable truth that not only Donald Trump but also the tens of millions of decent, law-abiding, America-loving citizens who intend to vote for him this November, somehow inspire unending fear and loathing throughout the Washington, D.C. ruling class. That would include not only the ever-more-deranged Democratic Party and the entire “mainstream media” (today a virtual clone of the former Soviet Union’s fake news organs Pravda and Izvestia, which published only official government propaganda), but also the “Deep State,” the permanent federal government bureaucracy that remains – and grows ever larger, like “The Blob” in the classic horror film – regardless of which party is currently “in power.”

One key part of this gargantuan permanent bureaucracy, which operates largely in darkness, has recently been dragged into the light, exposing its hidden but central role in the censorship and silencing of all who oppose the Deep State and its increasingly totalitarian agenda. That highly influential entity, about which most people know very little, is the federal defense/foreign-policy establishment widely referred to within the Capital Beltway simply as … “The Blob.”

Recently, former Trump State Department official Mike Benz, who currently serves as executive director of the Foundation for Freedom Online, turned whistleblower and dramatically went public with exactly how the Western defense and foreign policy establishment has been turned against America, the Bill of Rights, and democracy itself.

This massive bureaucracy headed up by the Central Intelligence Agency, explains Benz, literally funded and developed the technology years ago that enabled internet free speech – and then encouraged dissident groups worldwide to use that new free-speech capability to organize and network with other patriots and help them overthrow oppressive regimes.

Yet incredibly, says Benz, the CIA has in more recent times turned against the concept of free speech – at least, when it comes to what it considers dangerous and subversive groups within America! Some of the most “dangerous” groups include conservatives, Republicans, constitutionalists, “MAGA” Trump supporters, and politically active Christians.

One of the chief pretexts for this suppression of domestic speech has been the claim that supposedly subversive domestic groups and individuals were spreading “Russian disinformation,” which of course was a key focal point for the years-long near-destruction of Trump’s presidency. As it turned out, of course, the claim that Trump “colluded with the Russians” was not only definitively proven to be entirely false; it was created (and the damning “Trump dossier” actually paid for) by the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, who did collude big-time with the Russians.

Nevertheless, the claim that Donald Trump somehow had been ushered into the presidency by Russia – and the corollary accusation that virtually anyone defending Trump was a “Putin ally” – defamed and marginalized good people for years.

Not just ‘Putin allies,’ but ‘domestic terrorists’ too

Normal Americans have long wondered how and why law-abiding citizens – including, for example, parents who would stand up and speak their minds at school board meetings to complain about teachers brainwashing their children with Marxist propaganda – could be maligned by the Biden administration as “violent extremists” and possible “domestic terrorists.” (Yes, that happened.)

A previously hidden dimension to this surreal spectacle of branding regular Americans as “terrorists” has now emerged, and it has to do with “The Blob.”

The vast foreign-policy establishment (Pentagon, CIA, State Department, etc.) seemingly was on the right track when promoting internet free speech to democratic resistance movements in other countries – perhaps the most memorable example being the “Arab Spring” in 2010-2012. Dissident groups were aided in throwing off tyrannical regimes by being enabled to communicate, strategize, and organize via social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Internet free speech was helping freedom-loving peoples around the world throw off oppressive ruling regimes.

Sounds good, but even that didn’t always work out so well. William J. Burns, the current CIA director since 2021, took the time in 2020, when he was out of government, to write an article for The Atlantic, headlined “The Blob Meets the Heartland,” in which he expressed some doubts and misgivings about what the agency had been doing:

For most of my three and a half decades as an American diplomat, the foreign-policy establishment (known unaffectionately in some quarters as “the blob”) took for granted that expansive U.S. leadership abroad would deliver peace and prosperity at home. That assumption was lazy, and often flawed.

Riding the waves of globalization and American geopolitical dominance, we overreached. We deluded ourselves with magical thinking about our capacity to remake other societies, while neglecting the urgent need to remake our own. Unsurprisingly, the disconnect widened between the Washington policy establishment and the citizens it is meant to serve.

Ironically, in light of Burns’ comment about “the citizens” whom the Washington policy establishment “is meant to serve,” it turns out that permanent Washington’s stateside activities took a dark turn shortly before Donald Trump became president.

“The Blob,” which up until 2014 or 2015 had been targeting ISIS and other actual terror groups in foreign nations by facilitating the free speech and activism of freedom-loving dissident groups, somehow determined that within America itself, certain groups of people and certain ideas and speech – including being considered a conduit for “Russian disinformation” – were dangerous and needed to be suppressed, censored and thereby defeated.

So when leftist elites today malign and degrade conservatives, Christians, Republicans, pro-lifers, and MAGA folks as “violent extremists,” “domestic terrorists” or – as Biden called Trump and his supporters in a major speech, “semi-fascists” – this is not simply hyper-partisan election-year name-calling. Somehow, thoroughly decent and law-abiding American citizens, if they oppose the narratives and agendas of the Deep State, are now apparently regarded as the newest ISIS-type threat needing to be suppressed.

How can that possibly be? How can good people ridiculously be likened to “domestic terrorists”? What’s really behind the official government obsession with targeting for censorship large swaths of political and cultural views they label “misinformation,” “disinformation,” and an Orwellian term that never before existed – “misinformation,” defined as “truth used to inflict harm”?

It’s all because, according to the permanent government in Washington, D.C., all of this “mis-,” “dis” and “mal”-information represents a huge threat to … wait for it … “democracy.”

But wait, rational people might respond: Democracy simply means the will of the people! The Oxford Dictionary defines democracy as “a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.” The word democracy itself derives from the Greek words “demos,” meaning people, and “kratos,” meaning power. Democracy is, and always has been, a system wherein the governing power depends on the will of the common people – which is precisely how Americans have always understood the term.

However, in today’s “1984”-style world where, as George Orwell wrote, “War is peace,” “Freedom is slavery,” “Ignorance is strength” and everything means its opposite, “democracy” today has been given an entirely new and precisely opposite definition.

What the Deep State has determined, Benz explained to Tucker Carlson during their epic hour-long February interview, is that “preserving democracy” no longer has anything to do with enabling and honoring the will of American citizens/voters, but rather, it is all about preserving the sanctity of so-called “democratic institutions.”

"And who are the democratic institutions?” Benz asks rhetorically. “Oh, ‘it's us’: It's the military, it's NATO, it's the IMF and the World Bank. It's the mainstream media, it is the NGOs [non-governmental organizations]. And of course, these NGOs are largely State Department-funded or CIA-funded. It's essentially all of the elite establishments” that have felt threatened by “the rise of domestic populism,” Benz explained, and who have “declared their consensus to be the new definition of democracy.”

In light of this new official definition of democracy – which has literally nothing to do with the will of the people – it finally becomes clear what politicians from Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to Chuck Schumer and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez mean when they continually warn that Donald Trump and his tens of millions of law-abiding, taxpaying, America-loving supporters somehow “threaten our democracy.”

The key word is “our.”

In reality, of course, they loathe true democracy, the idea that “the rabble” might choose their leaders. A shocking new Rasmussen survey shows that when polled, more than two-thirds of America’s wealthiest and most politically engaged elites – 69% – admitted they would be willing to win an election by cheating. That kind of attitude, the willingness to lie, cheat, and steal one’s way into gaining and holding power, helps explain not only the entire “Trump-Russia collusion” hoax, which became a Deep State pretext for censoring and defaming all of Trump’s supporters but also the continual and ever-expanding persecution and mass lawfare campaign directed at Donald Trump himself.

The Washington establishment is described here, which as Trump boldly proclaimed days before the 2016 election, will do anything “to hold on to their prestige and power at your expense,” are not people who believe in “democracy.” Rather, they openly embrace political corruption, oppression, and an explicitly undemocratic ruling system.

But then, just as in the famous horror movie, bad things happen when you encounter “The Blob.”

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

It's being trumpeted by Democrats as one sure-fire way to "get" President Donald Trump but experts have another opinion about the Manhattan trial starting Monday on claims he paid "hush" money to a woman and then called it a legal fee.

"This case is just bogus from start to finish," legal expert Hans von Spakovsky said, "It’s in Manhattan. It's a Manhattan jury, and I’ll tell you, quite frankly, I think if the DA charged Donald Trump with eating a ham sandwich, the jury would find him guilty."

His comments came in an interview with the Daily Signal.

While Democrats have assembled a series of lawfare battles against Trump this election season, von Spakovsky called the Manhattan circus "the most bogus."

Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg has claimed Trump committed 34 instances of falsifying business records.

Von Spakovsky, senior legal fellow and manager of the Election Law Reform Initiative at The Heritage Foundation, says he believes the jury will "find him guilty, regardless of the facts and regardless of the law."

He confirmed that, however, would not legally impede his run for re-election.

There is a long list of untoward factors and influences regarding the case, some of which previously convinced prosecutors to ignore it.

For example, Bragg campaigned on targeting President Trump and said during several interviews he had the best background to accuse Trump.

"I'm the candidate in the race who has the experience with Donald Trump... I believe we have to hold him accountable," he once charged.

But the New York Times pointed out, "The case against the former president hinges on an untested and therefore risky legal theory involving a complex interplay of laws."

He confirmed that, however, would not legally impede his run for re-election.

There is a long list of untoward factors and influences regarding the case, some of which previously convinced prosecutors to ignore it.

For example, Bragg campaigned on targeting President Trump and said during several interviews he had the best background to accuse Trump.

"I'm the candidate in the race who has the experience with Donald Trump... I believe we have to hold him accountable," he once charged.

But the New York Times pointed out, "The case against the former president hinges on an untested and therefore risky legal theory involving a complex interplay of laws."

And the Washington Post wrote that the prosecution left "legal experts . . . scratching their heads" as "they describe it as an unusual case…"

The DOJ, FEC, and Alvin Bragg’s predecessor, Cy Vance, all looked at the same set of facts, and all declined to prosecute President Trump.

Boston University law professor Jed Shugerman said Bragg's agenda was no more or less than a "legal embarrassment."

Further, a key witness on which Bragg has built his case, Michael Cohen, is a felon, convicted perjured, and disbarred lawyer.

Meanwhile, Bragg has a record of downgrading felony charges that have been criticized publicly by the New York Post, and that included, reports confirm, "a sweetheart plea deal last December for a gangbanger with a history of robbing high-end Madison Avenue boutiques (Bragg said his office had too much on its plate), the aborted murder charge against bodega worker Jose Alba in a clear case of self-defense as well as charging Marine Corps vet Daniel Penny with manslaughter in the death of Jordan Neely, a mentally unhinged vagrant threatening other straphangers."

Then there's the judge, Juan Merchan, who is a Biden donor and has been accused of a huge conflict of interest because his daughter is a political activist who works with Trump's antagonists and makes money from the case, reportedly receiving a cut of some $93 million in fundraising proceeds raised on the case.

Retired federal judge Shira Scheindlin said, "The daughter works with many, many high-profile Democratic candidates. She works on their social media. They put out a post. They get contributions. She, as an owner, gets a percentage of those contributions. So, there is a statute, in New York, which says a judge must disqualify himself, if a person known by the judge, to be within the sixth degree of the relationship, and a daughter is the first degree, has an interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome of the proceeding. So, the question here is, is this daughter likely to profit, to benefit, from the outcome of this proceeding? And you have to understand, it's not actual conduct that's worrisome. It's the appearance, the appearance to a reasonable person, that this judge cannot be fair and impartial, given that relationship."

In a column in the New York Post, constitutional expert Jonathan Turley said the assault on Trump comes "after an absurd $450 million decision courtesy of Attorney General Letitia James" in an earlier case against Trump in which not "a single victim ... lost a single cent."

"Lawyers have been scouring the civil and criminal codes for any basis to sue or prosecute Trump before the upcoming 2024 election. This week will highlight the damage done to New York’s legal system because of this unhinged crusade. They’ve charged him with everything short of ripping a label off a mattress."

He pointed out that if there was an offense in what was done, it was a misdemeanor and it had expired under the statute of limitations already.

Even Bragg "scoffed" at the case originally, but then ramped up his case when he came under pressure from two anti-Trump activists who had worked in his office.

One, Mark Pomerantz, made all sorts of allegations about Trump in a book he released.

Turley explained, "Trump paid Daniels to avoid any publicity over their brief alleged affair. As a celebrity, there was ample reason to want to keep the affair quiet, and that does not even include the fact that he is a married man. It also occurred before the 2016 election and there was a benefit to quash the scandal as a candidate. That political motivation is at the heart of this long-delayed case."

But Turley also pointed out that the circumstances are closely aligned with a DOJ case against then-Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards in 2012. But in that case, he was acquitted and the DOJ "declined a repeat of the Edwards debacle."

Bragg claims that the misdemeanor was done to push further another crime.

"Once again, the contrast to other controversies is telling. Before the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton’s campaign denied that it had funded the infamous Steele dossier behind the debunked Russian collusion claims. The funding was hidden as legal expenses by then-Clinton campaign general counsel Marc Elias (the FEC later sanctioned the campaign over its hiding of the funding)," Turley explained.

"Likewise, John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman, was called before congressional investigators and denied categorically any contractual agreement with Fusion GPS. Sitting beside him was Elias, who reportedly said nothing to correct the misleading information given to Congress. Yet, there were no charges stemming from the hiding of the funding, though it was all part of the campaign budget."

And he pointed out, "Cohen has a long record as a legal thug who has repeatedly lied when it served his interests. He has a knack for selling his curious skill set to powerful figures like Trump and now Bragg."

Trump, on heading into court, said, "This is an assault on America. Nothing like this has ever happened before. There has never been anything like it. Every legal scholar says this case is nonsense and should never have been brought. There has never been anything like this. There is no case.

"People that don't necessarily like Donald Trump say this is an outrage this case was brought. It is political persecution, a persecution like never before. Nobody has ever seen anything like it and again it is a case that should have never been brought. It is an assault on America and why I'm very proud to be here.

"This is an assault on our country. It's a country that is failing. A country that's run by an incompetent man very much involved in this case. An attack on a political opponent. That's all it is. I'm very honored to be here, thank you very much.”

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Joe Biden, and others in his Democrat party, long have claimed that President Donald Trump is a "threat" to the nation's democracy.

Their warning is that only they can "save" democracy and therefore voters must keep them in power at all times. It's one of their 2024 campaign talking points, along with their promotion of abortion and the transgender agenda.

However, a series of statements on social media, from Tom Elliott, the founder of Grabien and other sites, has undermined their claims.

He explains in the posts assembled in a report at Twitchy, that Biden is worse for democracy than Trump.

For example, there's Biden's use of the FBI to target MAGA-aligned voters.

"Seems like something a dictator would do," the report, headlined, "Buckle UP troglodytes because HERE are 16 reasons Biden is WAY worse than Trump for 'our democracy,'" said.

Elliot, by the way, explained he's not a Trump supporter.

He said, "P.S. And as my followers know, I oppose Trump, and will vote for RFK in 2024. But my opposition to Trump hasn't turned me blind from seeing the Biden Admin in all its tyrannical infamy."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Social media was erupting in outrage this week after a journalism institute gave an award for a photograph of a Jewish murder victim, one of the hundreds killed in the October 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel.

The New York Post called the image "sickening" and explained it was taken as Hamas terrorists paraded the women's "near-naked body" through the streets of Gaza.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

The president of Mexico, in an interview, has confirmed what essentially appears to be his attempt to blackmail the United States into paying billions of dollars, or else the "flow of migrants will continue."

A report at Fox News reveals that Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador earlier demanded a series of actions by the United States for him to try to cut off some of the millions of illegal aliens coming from Mexico into the United States across its southern border.

Then just days ago, he said in an appearance on 60 Minutes that if the U.S. fails to meet his demands, "The flow of migrants will continue."

The report said Obrador, in recent weeks, has demanded that the U.S. give $20 billion a year to Latin American nations, lift sanctions on Venezuela, end the Cuban embargo, and give legal status in America to the millions of Mexicans who already have entered illegally.

Fox reported that the original demands, which have been described by critics as "blackmail," came in January when he made the demands regarding billions in cash, amnesty, and more.

"Mexico has reportedly taken some state-level action to curb mass migration at President Biden’s request, making crossings drop, however, the number of migrants began to rise again in February, with Border Patrol expecting another surge in the spring," the report said.

Interviewer Sharyn Alfonsi asked, "Everybody thinks you have the power at this moment to slow down migration. Do you plan to?"

He responded that the "root causes" must be addressed.

"Your critics have said what you’re doing, what you’re asking for to help secure the border, is diplomatic blackmail. What do you say?" Alfonsi asked.

He later seemed to contradict himself, confirming that even if those things don't happen, he will continue to try to help secure the border because the relationship between the nations is important.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

A House hearing on the possibility of impeaching Joe Biden turned wild on Wednesday with a key witness, a former business associate of Hunter Biden, accusing two Biden defenders in Congress, Reps. Dan Goldman and Jamie Raskin, of being "liars."

Further, the witness, former Hunter Biden business association Tony Bobulinski, joked about whether he should "let Hunter go first," a pointed comment about the fact Hunter Biden refused to come to the hearing.

He confirmed Joe Biden was part and parcel of the Biden family's "influence peddling" schemes that netted the family millions, and is a "serial liar and fabulist," Joe Biden's brother Jim is a "75-year-old man who cannot keep his lies straight," and Hunter a "chronic drug addict facing two indictments with 12 counts."

Raskin interrupted the opening statement to protest being called a liar.

Bobulinski, who worked as an associate with Hunter Biden several years ago on various deals, testified before one of the House committees considering impeaching Joe Biden over his international business schemes that involved selling access to foreign interests not always friendly to the U.S., including Russia and China.

Bobulinski said Congress is hearing two narratives. The first, "false" one is from Joe Biden, "a serial liar and fabulist now under this impeachment investigation for public corruption; his brother Jim Biden, a 75-year-old man who cannot keep his lies straight, including under oath; and his son Hunter Biden, a chronic drug addict facing two indictments with twelve counts."

He said the other side is "the truth, confirmed by multiple Biden family business partners over many years and backed up by mountains of irrefutable evidence, including text messages, emails, documents, and recordings."

"We keep hearing from certain corners that our 'democracy is at risk' and that 'democracy is on the ballot in 2024,' yet the same people preaching this mantra, who know better, continue to lie directly to the American people without hesitation or remorse. Representatives Dan Goldman and Jamie Raskin, both lawyers, and Mr. Goldman a former prosecutor with the Southern District of New York, will continue to lie today in this hearing and then go straight to the media to tell more lies. Hunter Biden’s defense attorney, Abbe Lowell, weaponizes letters to Congress to try to smear my name and misstate the cold hard facts in an attempt to save his powerfully connected client - and his father. I challenge Mr. Lowell to make those claims on national television so he can be held accountable for his lies."

Then he addressed directly what the committee was reviewing.

"I want to be crystal clear: from my direct personal experience and what I have subsequently come to learn, it is clear to me that Joe Biden was 'the Brand' being sold by the Biden family. His family’s foreign influence peddling operation – from China to Ukraine and elsewhere – sold out to foreign actors who were seeking to gain influence and access to Joe Biden and the United States government.

"Joe Biden was more than a participant in and beneficiary of his family’s business; he was an active, aware enabler who met with business associates such as myself to further the business, despite being buffered by a complex scheme to maintain plausible deniability. If there is no evidence of corruption - if Joe’s conduct and the conduct of his family were fully legal and proper - then why are they so dishonest about it? Not just slight misrepresentations of fact but deep untruths about the entire corrupt enterprise."

He also accused Hunter Biden of perjury in his previous, behind-closed-doors, interview with Congress, and provided testimony about his interaction with Joe Biden that refuted Hunter's claims.

He also charged that Jim Biden was "untruthful" in his interview with Congress.

"There are many other examples of Hunter’s and Jim’s lies, which I am happy to discuss during my testimony here today, and I hope this committee will hold them accountable for their perjury before you," he said.

His opening statement continued, "How are the American people supposed to get the unvarnished facts and truth when the son and brother of Joe Biden are willing to perjure themselves to protect the family? I hope this Committee will hold Hunter and Jim Biden accountable for the perjury they have committed before you.

"Last but not least: why is Joe Biden blatantly lying to the American people? Why has he not simply leveled with the American people about all of the meetings, phone calls, emails, and handshakes he has had with the Biden family’s U.S. and foreign business partners, including players from some of America’s most challenging adversaries such as China and Russia, as well as Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Romania and others. If he were doing nothing wrong, why go through this insane exercise of obstructing and denying obvious facts?"

He said it's obvious that "the Bidens are guilty of foreign influence peddling, and they can't even get their stories coordinated."

He said the result of the Biden family's operations is that "the Chinese Communist Party through its surrogate, China Energy Company Limited, or 'CEFC' – a CCP-linked Chinese energy conglomerate – successfully sought to infiltrate and compromise Joe Biden and the Obama-Biden White House."

Congress already has confirmed that the Biden family got tens of millions of dollars from America's strategic opponents.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

When state officials in Indiana took a son away from his parents because their religious beliefs "distressed" him, they asked the Supreme Court to intervene.

Those justices now have abandoned them.

The offense committed by the parents was that they would not refer to their son with pronouns and a name inconsistent with his biological sex.

In short, they declined to support a transgender ideology.

Leftist bureaucrats across the nation, under Joe Biden's leadership, have tried to make promoting transgenderism mandatory, even for parents. They fiddle with the regulations and rules until they can define NOT promoting transgenderism as child abuse, and then use their definitions to take confused and troubled children away from concerned parents.

A report from The Gateway Pundit said this case involves Mary and Jeremy Cox, who are Catholic. They chose to bring their son to therapy when he insisted, a few years ago, that he wanted to be a girl.

Becket, representing the family, said authorities soon intervened.

"Indiana began investigating the Coxes after a report that they were not referring to their child by his preferred gender identity. Indiana then removed the teen from the parent's custody and placed him in a home that would affirm his preferred identity."

The report said the Supreme Court abandoned the parents without any comment.

The parents previously had sought therapeutic care for their son over his gender dysphoria and an eating disorder.

Becket had explained, "Because of their religious belief that God creates human beings with immutable sex—male or female—they could not refer to him using pronouns and a name inconsistent with his biology. The Coxes also believed that he needed help for underlying mental health concerns, including an eating disorder."

The report pointedly noted the state "did not find evidence of abuse – but claimed the couple’s non-acceptance of their son’s gender identity was harmful to the child’s mental health."

Becket spokeswoman Lori Windham warned, "If this can happen in Indiana, it can happen anywhere. Tearing a child away from loving parents because of their religious beliefs, which are shared by millions of Americans, is an outrage to the law, parental rights, and basic human decency."

The Coxes, after the Supreme Court rejected helping them, said, "We can’t change the past, but we will continue to fight for a future where parents of faith can raise their children without fear of state officials knocking on their doors."

State officials denied the parents' faith had anything to do with the investigation and its results. They claimed the child was taken because of an "eating disorder," for which the parents were seeking help.

WND previously reported state officials took the boy after finding the parents disagreed with their son's claim to be a girl.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Librarians, in both public and school facilities, in the past few years have been caught over and over by parents buying and delivering promotions of LGBTQ ideology and critical race theory issues to children to read.

Now one organization has been caught admitting that they hid such information from parents.

It's in a report from The Daily Signal that the details are documented.

It reports that at least one school library in a school district in South Carolina actually "restricted access" to its online card catalog to hide "critical race theory books" from parents.

The group Moms for Liberty obtained internal documents where officials admitted just that.

The report said the school district alleged it insisted all schools in the district unlock their catalogs to start the school year, but Moms for Liberty officials say at least one remained blocked into February.

"Instead of listing these books as available in the library, they are making a conscious decision to include them in curriculum read aloud in class so parents don’t know," charged Carly Carter, of the Anderson County Moms for Liberty chapter.

She explained to The Daily Signal it was her Freedom of Information Act case that revealed the proof.

"What’s most insulting here is that they intend to cut parents out. They want to expose children to a social curriculum that they don’t want their parents to know anything about. That’s appalling."

The evidence is from an email from Jennifer Chesney, librarian at Powdersville High, who confirmed, "We had to remove our card catalogs from online, so parents can’t scour it for critical race theory books (sigh)."