An attorney for Hunter Biden, in seeking to defend both him and President Joe Biden from allegations of wrongdoing, issued a comment Thursday night that sharply contradicts numerous prior assertions from his own client.
High-profile defense attorney Abbe Lowell claimed in an interview that Hunter "did not share money" from his business dealings with his father, according to Breitbart.
Except, there are several text messages and emails in recent years where Hunter explicitly stated that he was either giving money to or paying bills on behalf of his father Joe.
Mediaite reported that Lowell appeared Thursday night on CNN for an interview with "Out Front" host Erin Burnett to discuss the trio of federal firearms charges that had been pressed against Hunter Biden by Special Counsel David Weiss.
Near the end of that discussion, Burnett cited a recent CNN poll which found that 61% of Americans believe that Joe Biden had some level of involvement in Hunter's dubious business deals with foreign individuals and entities in countries like communist China and Ukraine.
Burnett asked directly, "Can you categorically say that the president of the United States was not involved in those business dealings and did not profit from any of them?"
Lowell first deferred to the president and his spokespeople "the best people" to answer that question and then said, "From our side of the equation, I can tell you that Hunter did not share his business with his dad. I can tell you that he did not share money from his businesses with his dad."
However, Fox News reported that Lowell's claim is substantially undermined by the words of his own client in numerous prior test messages and emails that mention giving money to his father or paying his father's bills that were recovered from Hunter's abandoned laptop.
In a 2019 series of texts, while arguing with his daughter Naomi, Hunter concluded, "I hope you all can do what I did and pay for everything for this entire family [for] 30 years. It's really hard. But don't worry unlike Pop I won't make you give me half your salary."
That followed a 2018 WhatsApp message to his uncle in which Hunter spoke derisively of his stepmother Jill and asserted, "I [supported] my GM family including some of the costs you should have used your salary to [pay] for -- for the last 24 years."
Earlier in 2018, in a series of text messages with his assistant, Katie Dodge, who was having trouble paying an AT&T phone bill, in which he ultimately told Dodge to pay the bill with either his personal debit card or a Wells Fargo line of credit, Hunter wrote, "My dad has been using most lines on this account which I’ve through the gracious offerings of [former business partner] Eric [Schwerin] have paid for past 11 years."
It is unclear if the "lines on this account" Hunter referenced were the AT&T account or the Wells Fargo account -- the White House has refused to clarify that question -- but the point nonetheless remains the same; Hunter claimed to be paying bills on his father's behalf.
Fox News noted that there are also several other emails between Hunter and his business associates that mention either paying bills for his father or setting aside money received from deals -- such as the infamous "10 held by H for the big guy" line in a conversation about divvying up the proceeds from a lucrative deal with communist China's CEFC energy firm, which former associates have confirmed meant 10% set aside for Joe Biden.
Thus, despite Lowell's assertion that Hunter never shared any of his money with his father -- a seemingly false line the president and White House have also repeated in some form for years -- it sure looks like, per Hunter himself, he was routinely forking over a portion of his money to his father, a fact that will likely receive plenty of attention in the formal impeachment inquiry launched by House Republicans.
Earlier this year, a pair of Internal Revenue Service agents involved in the years-long federal investigation of Hunter Biden came forward to Congress to expose alleged preferential treatment for the president's son and interference in that probe by senior Justice Department officials.
Now, Hunter Biden's attorneys have filed a lawsuit against the IRS with claims that its employees violated his privacy rights by improperly disclosing confidential personal financial information, Breitbart reported.
Coinciding with that lawsuit are indications that Special Counsel David Weiss could soon issue a federal criminal indictment against the president's son over his alleged tax crimes.
The Washington Post reported on Monday that Biden's attorneys filed a lawsuit against the IRS in relation to the information that IRS agents secretly shared as whistleblowers in sworn testimony to Congress that has since been made public by the relevant congressional committee.
The attorneys claimed that while Biden had "all the same responsibilities as any other American citizen," he simultaneously "has no fewer or lesser rights than any other American citizen, and no government agency or government agent has free rein to violate his rights simply because of who he is."
Taking specific aim at IRS supervisory agent Gary Shapley, who has spoken in numerous interviews after Congress made his secret testimony public, and another whistleblower, the lawsuit stated, "This assault on Mr. Biden’s rights involved the public disclosure of his confidential tax information during more than 20 nationally televised and non-congressionally sanctioned interviews and numerous public statements."
The whistleblowers' disclosures "detailed allegations regarding the specific tax years under investigation, the amounts of deductions, the nature of those deductions, and allegations of liability regarding specific tax years and the amount thereof, that could only be known to them based on a review of the physical tax returns themselves."
In June, the House Ways and Means Committee under Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) voted to publicly release the sworn testimony of Shapley and another IRS whistleblower who had been involved in the years-long federal investigation of Hunter Biden under then-U.S. Attorney Weiss.
The testimony revealed allegations of preferential treatment for Biden, which included allowing the statute of limitations to expire on certain tax crimes, tipping off Biden's attorneys about planned investigatory actions, and blocking Weiss from pursuing serious charges in Delaware and other jurisdictions, as well as retaliation against the whistleblowers for raising concerns with superiors prior to seeking whistleblower protections from Congress, among other things.
The Post noted that in response to the Biden lawsuit, attorneys for Shapley dismissed it as "another frivolous smear" and insisted that the agent followed all of the rules to properly disclose what he knew to Congress as a whistleblower.
The attorneys further stated that neither they nor Shapley ever improperly disclosed "any confidential taxpayer information except through whistleblower disclosures authorized by statute. Once Congress released that testimony, like every American citizen, he has a right to discuss that public information."
The Post pointed out that the IRS itself declined to respond immediately to a request for comment on the Biden lawsuit against it.
Meanwhile, buried near the end of that report from The Post was the revelation that "Special counsel David Weiss might soon file a new indictment against Hunter Biden in another federal court -- potentially in California -- over alleged tax crimes that the agents say they found in reviewing his finances from 2014 to 2019."
That comes following the prior collapse of a proposed plea agreement on a pair of previously charged misdemeanor tax crimes in Delaware that have since been withdrawn, as well as the recent filing of a trio of federal felony firearms charges that would have been dismissed in a diversionary agreement if the scuttled plea deal had been approved.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) says that former President Donald Trump has a "sickness" and that an "intervention" is necessary to prevent Trump from regaining the White House in 2024.
Pelosi's remarks, according to the Washington Examiner, came on Sunday, when Pelosi made an appearance on MSNBC's The Sunday Show.
Take a look:
Rep. Nancy Pelosi responds to Trump's new comments blaming her for January 6:
"The former occupant of the White House has always been about projection. He knows he's responsible for that, so he projects it onto others... shame on him." https://t.co/BpXqSGJFic pic.twitter.com/cgqAfdUZVW
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) September 17, 2023
Pelosi's MSNBC appearance came within hours of Trump's own appearance on NBC. Trump, on Sunday morning, actually participated in an interview on Meet the Press.
As is always the case with leftist outlets like NBC, the Capitol protest of Jan. 6, 2021, was brought up. And, Trump wasted no time in blaming the events of that day on Pelosi, who was the House Speaker at the time.
"She’s responsible for January 6. Nancy Pelosi is responsible," Trump said.
The former president went on to explain:
Nancy Pelosi was in charge of security. She turned down 10,000 soldiers. If she didn’t turn down the soldiers, you wouldn’t have had Jan. 6
Here, the host, Kristen Welker jumped in to say that Pelosi, even though she was House Speaker, did not have the authority to call in the National Guard. But, Trump was not having it. He insisted that Pelosi was in charge of Capitol security and that, in this respect, she failed.
As already stated, MSNBC decided to have Pelosi on within hours of Trump's interview so that she could respond to the former president's comments. Rather than undermine Trump's remarks with facts, Pelosi, instead, spent most of her time launching a personal attack on Trump.
"The former occupant of the White House has always been about projection," Pelosi said.
Pelosi went on to insist that she told Trump to call in the National Guard but that Trump refused. She also reiterated the Democrats' common refrain that Trump led an "insurrection."
Pelosi claimed that it was "Trumpites" who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, that it was "Trumpites" who fought police, and that it was "Trumpites" who threatened her life and the lives of others on that day.
"There's a sickness here. There has to be an intervention," Pelosi said, clarifying that the "intervention has to be the election, which we have to win."
Despite Saudi Arabia being a putative ally of the United States, President Joe Biden has on several occasions spoken harsh and provocative words against that oil-rich Middle Eastern nation and its de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.
Now it appears that the Saudi Kingdom is preparing to launch a major attack against Biden's U.S., albeit not militarily but economically, according to a Breitbart report.
In fact, in some respects, that economic attack is already underway and will almost certainly get worse in the coming months and years -- that is, unless substantial political and policy changes are made by the U.S.
The Washington Post reported in June on the discovery of a classified document amid the broader Discord leak of Pentagon papers that the Saudi crown prince, known as MBS, had privately threatened to exact "major economic consequences" against the U.S. because of President Biden.
Biden had personally blamed MBS for the 2018 murder of Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, pledged during his 2020 campaign to transform Saudi Arabia into an international "pariah," and threatened "consequences" of his own in 2022 after the Kingdom reduced its daily oil production output.
All of that and more reportedly led MBS to threaten that he "will not deal with the U.S. administration anymore" and promise to impose "major economic consequences for Washington," according to a leaked classified document.
Of course, in public, the Biden administration downplayed or outright denied the document and played up the supposedly still-close relationship between the U.S. and Saudi governments, per the Post's report.
Yet, in other developments outside the administration's control, it increasingly appears that the promised "major economic consequences" for the U.S. from MBS are already underway.
In August, China's Global Times reported that Saudi Arabia, along with five other nations -- Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates -- are set to join the BRICS economic coalition next year. BRICS is a counterweight to the West's G7 economic group and includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
The sizeable expansion of BRICS, especially including major oil-producing nations like Saudi Arabia, will undoubtedly hasten the already-ongoing international decoupling of the so-called "petrodollar," or the use of the U.S. dollar by all nations to buy and sell oil globally, by instead making trades using local currencies.
"If you take into account the other trading blocs in which each of the current five BRICS countries are members, as well as the countries that are willing to join BRICS, it is enough to build an independent transnational monetary system," a Shanghai-based oil industry insider told the Global Times. "It means that more international oil trade can break the stranglehold of the petrodollar by using local currency settlement."
Perhaps more pressing than the eventual displacement of the U.S. dollar as the global reserve currency, at least in terms of President Biden and his political future, is Saudi Arabia's voluntary cut of oil production that has helped drive up the price per barrel of oil at the same time that Biden is demanding increased production and lower prices, according to a recent report from Reuters.
The Saudi Kingdom and other nations in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC+, first began to jointly reduce oil production in October 2022, then further reduced production in April to a level that will extend through the end of 2024. On top of those cuts, the Saudis have also reduced production by an additional 1 million barrels per day, at least through the end of 2023.
Those continued cuts and reduced global supply will inevitably drive up the price of oil and gas, which when paired with the transition away from the U.S. dollar in international oil trading, will indeed cause substantial economic damage to the U.S. and Biden's political future as president.
A rather prominent Senate Republican and former GOP presidential nominee just announced that his lengthy tenure in the political arena, particularly in Washington D.C., will soon be coming to an end.
Utah Sen. Mitt Romney revealed on Wednesday that he will not be running for re-election in 2024 and instead will retire at the conclusion of his current term in January 2025, Breitbart reported.
Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who unsuccessfully challenged former President Barack Obama in 2012 and became a pariah among much of the Republican base over his vehement opposition to former President Donald Trump, made it clear that he was preparing to step aside to make way for a "new generation of leaders" in D.C.
Sen. Romney made his announcement in a brief video posted to multiple social media platforms in which he began by touting his "accomplishments" over the past few years -- many of which were things that most Republican voters opposed or are of minimal importance -- at both the federal and state levels.
"I've spent my last 25 years in public service of one kind or another," Romney said. "At the end of another term, I'd be in my mid-80s. Frankly, it's time for a new generation of leaders. They're the ones who need to make the decisions that will shape the world they will be living in."
"Now, we face critical challenges -- mounting national debt, climate change, and the ambitious authoritarians of Russia and China," he continued. "Neither President Biden nor former President Trump are leading their party to confront them."
"On the deficits and debt, both men refuse to address entitlements even though they know that this represents two-thirds of federal spending. Donald Trump calls global warming a hoax and President Biden offers feel-good solutions that make no difference to the global climate. On China, President Biden underinvests in the military and President Trump underinvests in our alliances. Political motivations too often impede the solutions that these challenges demand. The next generation of leaders must take America to the next stage of global leadership."
Romney went on to note that he would continue working on those and other issues through the conclusion of his term and said it was a "profound honor" to represent the state of Utah at the national level.
According to Politico, a "mad dash" of prospective replacements for Sen. Romney had already begun even before his retirement announcement, as he was likely to face a tough and potentially crowded GOP primary field if he had decided to run for another term in the U.S. Senate.
Leading that pack is State House Speaker Brad Wilson, who has already formed an exploratory committee and raised more than $2.2 million for a senate campaign, but close on his heels is Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs, though he has only raised about a tenth of what Wilson has in campaign funding.
They certainly are not alone, however, and Politico noted that a substantial battle is shaping up between conservatives and moderates in regard to who will control the Utah Republican Party and its soon-to-be-open seat in the Senate.
Utah's Deseret News, in responding to Romney's retirement announcement, addressed the question of who might replace the outgoing senator in the 2024 election and listed off the names of nearly two dozen Republicans who may ultimately throw their hats in the ring, though some of those individuals have said they aren't interested or are unlikely to actually enter the race, much less gain any real traction with voters.
Of course, while Utah is fairly solidly red, it is not entirely a one-party state, and the outlet named no less than five prominent Democrats in the state who could seek their party's nomination to challenge the eventual GOP candidate and, perhaps, turn the state slightly purple by adding some blue to the congressional delegation.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) announced on Tuesday that he had authorized the launch of a formal impeachment inquiry into alleged misconduct by President Joe Biden and his family, particularly including his son Hunter Biden.
A somewhat surprising supporter of that House impeachment inquiry was shortly thereafter revealed to be Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), according to Breitbart.
Romney, of course, all but openly supported Biden's 2020 bid for the presidency by virtue of his ardent opposition to then-President Donald Trump, whom the senator voted to convict during the second failed Democratic impeachment and removal effort following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot of 2021.
According to HuffPost political reporter Igor Bobic, when asked about a President Biden impeachment inquiry, Sen. Romney said, "The fact that the White House has been singularly silent and coddled Hunter Biden suggests an inquiry is not inappropriate."
Romney was most likely referring to the fact that the Biden White House has essentially refused to answer numerous pertinent questions about Hunter's alleged criminal and unethical behaviors as well as the recent scuttled plea deal that would have given the president's son a slap on the wrist for minor violations and immunized him against future prosecution for other alleged crimes after the agreement fell apart under the scrutiny of a federal judge.
Per Bobic, the senator went on to say that "Inquiring is something the president and the White House could have avoided, but they’ve been pretty quiet," though he did add that, at least as of yet, there has been "no allegation of a high crime or misdemeanor" credibly lodged against Biden.
Nonetheless, Romney described Hunter Biden's dubious foreign business dealings and apparent influence-peddling as "ugly" and was critical of the Biden White House for "not indicating what it is the president knew" about his son's questionable and potentially criminal activities, among other things.
Earlier on Tuesday, in his announcement of the formal opening of an impeachment inquiry, Speaker McCarthy said, "In recent months, House Republicans have uncovered serious and credible allegations into President Biden’s conduct; taken together, these allegations paint a picture of a culture of corruption."
"Through our investigations, we have found that President Biden lied to the American people about knowledge of his family’s foreign business dealings," he continued. "Eyewitnesses have testified that the President joined multiple phone calls and had multiple interactions, dinners, resulting in cars and millions of dollars to his son and his son’s business partners."
"Bank records show that nearly $20 million in payments were directed to Biden family members and associates through various shell companies," the speaker revealed. "The Treasury Department, alone, has more than 150 transactions involving the Biden family and other business associates that were flagged as 'suspicious activity' by U.S. banks."
"Even a trusted FBI informant has alleged a bribe to the Biden family. Biden used his official office to coordinate with Hunter Biden’s business partners about Hunter’s role in Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company," McCarthy stated. "Finally, despite these serious allegations, it appears that the President’s family has been offered special treatment by Biden’s own administration; treatment he would not otherwise have received if he were not related to the President."
"These are allegations of abuse of power, obstruction, and corruption, and they warrant further investigation by the House of Representatives," Speaker McCarthy said in his announcement. "That’s why today, I am directing our House committees to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. This logical next step will give our committees the full power to gather all the facts and answers for the American public. It’s exactly what we want to know, the answers, and I believe the President would want to answer these questions and allegations as well."
After noting that the inquiry would be led the House Oversight Committee in conjunction with the Judiciary and Ways and Means Committees, the speaker made it clear that this should be a nonpartisan issue and insisted, "I don’t make this decision lightly."
"The American people deserve to know that public offices are not for sale -- and that the federal government is not being used to cover up the actions of a politically associated family. I would encourage the President and his team to fully cooperate with this investigation in the interest of transparency," McCarthy concluded. "We are committed to getting the answers for the American public -- nothing more, nothing less. We will go wherever the evidence takes us."
President Joe Biden continues to insist that he is running for re-election in 2024, despite the fact that a significant majority of Americans, including a majority of Democrats, believe that he is "too old" and have legitimate concerns about his increasingly apparent decline in physical and mental health.
Now a New York Times columnist, ostensibly a Biden ally, has warned that the "decrepit-seeming president" could potentially lose the 2024 election in a rematch against former President Donald Trump, according to Breitbart.
While Biden and the White House will either dispute or ignore that nightmare scenario for them -- and quite possibly accuse the anti-Trump NYT columnist of betrayal -- the columnist was not at all wrong in his assessment of the current situation.
In a New York Times op-ed published Saturday, columnist Ross Douthat sought to query why President Biden was so consistently unpopular and began with the conclusion, "Joe Biden is an unpopular president, and without some recovery, he could easily lose to Donald Trump in 2024."
He suggested that "it’s been hard to distill a singular explanation for what’s kept his numbers lousy" but proceeded to offer up a handful of plausible explanations, including inflation and economic uncertainty, the presence of even more unpopular Vice President Kamala Harris, the veritable insanity of far-left activists who drive controversial issues amid the Democratic Party's base, and, of course, Biden's advanced age and questionable health.
"Maybe the big problem is just simmering anxiety about Biden’s age," Douthat wrote. "Maybe his poll numbers dipped first in the Afghanistan crisis because it showcased the public absenteeism that often characterizes his presidency. Maybe some voters now just assume that a vote for Biden is a vote for the hapless Kamala Harris."
"Maybe there’s just a vigor premium in presidential campaigns that gives Trump an advantage," he continued. "In which case a different leader with the same policies might be more popular. Lacking any way to elevate such a leader, however, all Democrats can do is ask Biden to show more public vigor, with all the risks that may entail."
Douthat also made mention of the "pall of private depression and general pessimism hanging over Americans, especially younger Americans, which has been worsened by Covid but seems rooted in deeper social trends," but failed to see how Biden would be able to actually address that in any substantive way.
"Biden got elected, in part, by casting himself as a transitional figure, a bridge to a more youthful and optimistic future. Now he needs some general belief in that brighter future to help carry him to re-election," he concluded. "But wherever Americans might find such optimism, we are probably well past the point that a decrepit-seeming president can hope to generate it himself."
According to the RealClearPolitics average of polls, President Biden's approval dipped into negative territory following the Afghanistan withdrawal in August 2021 and has remained there ever since, and currently sits at 42.3% approval and 54.1% disapproval, a spread of -11.8%.
As Douthat noted, there are likely a number of reasons why that is the case, but his advanced age and questionable health are certainly at the forefront, as was acknowledged last week by The Washington Post.
That outlet pointed to numerous public polls over the past few years and showed how American opinions in that regard have worsened for Biden over time, so much so that upwards of three-quarters of all Americans, including up to two-thirds of Democrats in some instances, now feel that Biden is "too old" and incapable health-wise of effectively serving a second term in office.
Of course, given President Biden's age and health, it is not outside the realm of possibility that Democrats will decide to replace him as the party's 2024 nominee, his insistence on running for another term notwithstanding. Likewise, given the multiple criminal indictments against former President Trump, to say nothing of similar but less pressing concerns about his own age and health, may ultimately not be the Republican nominee, despite him clearly leading the GOP field by a wide margin currently.
All of that said, should the 2024 election turn out to be a rematch of 2020, the RCP average of polls shows that Biden and Trump are locked in what is essentially a statistical tie in which they are separated by just 0.2%, with Biden edging out Trump by a margin of 44.5% to 44.3%.
U.S. Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) says that a "perfect storm" is getting ready to hit the U.S. House of Representatives and that the storm could be particularly problematic for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).
Buck said as much on Sunday, during an appearance on MSNBC's Inside with Jen Psaki.
As the show's name would suggest, it is hosted by Jen Psaki, the former White House press secretary of the Biden administration.
During the interview, the two spoke about what to expect when the House returns from recess.
Buck told Psaki, "I think there’s a perfect storm brewing in the House in the near future in September."
Buck went on to suggest that there are at least three different forces that are coming together to produce this "perfect storm."
Buck said:
On the one hand, we've got to pass a continuing resolution. We also have the impeachment issue. And we also have members of the House, led by my good friend, [U.S. Rep.] Chip Roy [R-TX], who are concerned about policy issues. They want riders in the appropriations bills, amendments in the appropriations bills that guarantee some type of security on our Southern border.
Part of the problem is that some of these things - such as the passing of a continuing resolution to temporarily fund some government functions while Congress decides upon appropriations - are controversial even among House Republicans. The same can be said for impeaching President Joe Biden.
To provide some more context here, Buck, himself, is for a continuing resolution and against an impeachment of Biden.
Buck went on to suggest that McCarthy may end up being the target of this "perfect storm."
"So, you take those things put together, and Kevin McCarthy, the speaker, has made promises on each of those issues to different groups. And, now it is all coming due at the same time," Buck said.
Buck, here, is referring to the fact that he had to make various concessions to his fellow House Republicans in order to gain the House speakership position. And, if McCarthy does not follow through on his promises, then the arrangement is such that he could be ousted.
Buck was asked directly, by Psaki, whether he thinks that McCarthy will be able to survive the "perfect storm." Buck answered in the affirmative, saying, "I don’t see anybody else that really has risen up and is willing to take on this job."
This will certainly be something to keep an eye on when the House resumes this month.
As talk has grown over the past few weeks and months of a formal impeachment inquiry being launched against President Joe Biden, it has consistently been pointed out by Democrats and the media that a handful of moderate House Republicans, fearing potential blowback and a lack of evidence of wrongdoing, were not on board with the move.
Yet, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) just stated his belief this week that there are now a sufficient number of votes in support of an impeachment inquiry to pass a measure authorizing that investigatory tool, Breitbart reported.
Comer suggested that recent revelations about then-Vice President Biden using pseudonyms on government emails that were either shared with his son Hunter Biden and his associates or directly discussed Hunter's foreign business dealings was the "straw that broke the camel’s back" for some of the more hesitant House Republicans.
Rep. Comer's remarks about a potential impeachment inquiry against President Biden came during an interview Thursday with Newsmax host Rob Schmitt.
According to PJ Media, Schmitt asked, "Where are we with the impeachment inquiry? And do you think there are still even -- though most people know this man is corrupt -- are there still some limp-wristed Republicans who might vote no, if this was put to an impeachment vote?"
Comer eventually replied, "I do believe that we have the votes for an impeachment inquiry."
"I think that with the revelation of all these emails -- that Joe Biden was communicating with Hunter Biden about his business, about all of the corruption that he was involved in -- I think that was the straw that broke the camel’s back with a few of the Republicans that were a little nervous about going the route of impeachment inquiry," he continued. "They realized that we need this tool to be able to win in court because that’s where we’re headed. We’ve just about picked all the low-hanging fruit."
"Now, I guess, we surprised the Biden legal team by the route we went," Rep. Comer said. "I think they thought we would start on Day One and subpoena Hunter Biden. If we had done that, it would've been locked up in court, and any request we had, they would have said there’s pending litigation and they would have run the clock out."
"But, we got the shell companies, we’ve got the bank records of the shell companies. So, we built a case, Rob, that would win in court," he continued.
"And with respect to the emails, I didn't think there'd ever be emails, on a government email between Joe Biden and Hunter Biden talking about his business, or talking about Ukraine," Comer added. "What I never dreamed of is that they would have ever used pseudonyms, and what we're finding is there are probably thousands of emails, so this is just more evidence of wrongdoing by Joe Biden."
Schmitt then asked Comer for his predictions on when there might be some "action" on the impeachment front against the "visibly corrupt" President Biden, to which the Oversight chairman replied, "I think that the House will vote in September."
"Now, this is all up to Kevin McCarthy, but he and I’ve had several conversations. I know Jim Jordan has spoken with him many times as well," he continued in reference to the House Speaker and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, respectively.
"I would predict that in the middle of September, we have a vote. I will predict that it passes, and I will predict that we will use that with all these government agencies that are refusing to turn over valuable information like the National Archives," Comer added. "We'll use that with the banks when we're in court that were cooperating with us and now they're being threatened by the Biden legal team not to cooperate with us."
A former star National Football League player was erroneously reported to have died following a horrific accident at a construction site last week.
As it turns out, former NFL wide receiver Mike Williams, 36, is on life support in a hospital in Tampa, Florida, according to People magazine.
Per Williams' father, Wendell Muhammad, his son recently suffered "a major accident at work" in the Tampa Bay area when "a steel beam fell on his head causing a massive head injury."
The former player was swiftly transported to a nearby hospital and, "As a result of this accident, there was swelling on his brain and swelling on his spinal cord that was ruptured. These injuries resulted in complete paralysis in his right arm as well as his lower body from the waist down."
People noted that there had been initial reports from certain media outlets that Williams had died on Tuesday but that his agent had quickly corrected those erroneous reports to let everyone know that Williams, though in bad shape, was still alive, at least for now.
The Tampa Bay Times reported Wednesday that Williams was on life support systems in the Intensive Care Unit of St. Joseph's Hospital and had been visited by his wife, Tierney Lyle, and their 8-year-old daughter Mya.
"They were waiting on me and (his daughter). We’re here and still trying to figure it out," Lyle told reporters outside the hospital. "He was asleep when we went in there and he woke up when he heard our voices and his daughter’s voice. And he looked around, and he blinked and he was crying but he can’t move."
She went on to reveal that a plan had been discussed to potentially remove her husband from life support but that hadn't happened yet and she was unsure when or even if that would occur.
CBS Sports reported that Williams had been working in construction in Florida's Hillsborough County, where Tampa is located, several years after his brief but stellar NFL career had concluded at the start of the 2016 season.
Williams had been drafted in the fourth round of the 2010 NFL draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and played exceptionally well as a rookie, enough to earn a hefty contract extension in 2013 that was marred when he was sidelined with a hamstring injury and then was traded to the Buffalo Bills after that season was finished.
He only played in a handful of games with Buffalo, his hometown, and though he showed flashes of his prior abilities on the field, he was later released and did not play in 2015 due to a suspension and the fact that he hadn't been signed by any other teams. Williams made one more attempt to continue his NFL career when he signed a deal with the Kansas City Chiefs ahead of the 2016 season but was ultimately cut prior to the start of regular season games.
Local Buffalo media outlet WIVB reported that Williams had been a standout football and basketball star at Riverside High School and went on to also be a star football player at Syracuse University before being drafted into the NFL.
The outlet noted that according to a close friend, Williams had begun a new job doing electrical work in the Tampa area several months ago and suffered a horrible accident on a construction site on September 1, which resulted in emergency surgery and his being placed in a medically-induced coma.
"He was just one of the hardest working kids I knew," former Riverside football coach Tony Truilizio said of his former star player. "In terms of his athleticism, he was the best student-athlete I’ve ever coached. … I’m devastated, I can’t lie to you. I’m sick to my stomach."