- Trump NYC protests: Small group of former president’s supporters, foes face off over criminal case ABC News
- Protesters get physical outside NYC courthouse before Trump arraignment Fox News
- Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, George Santos flee protests outside of NYC courthouse where Trump was arraigned CNBC
- ‘He did a lot of stuff more than me’: Defendants at Manhattan’s criminal court react to Donald Trump’s arraignment Gothamist
- Donald Trump’s arraignment in Manhattan: A good time was had by all – except him | Mulshine NJ.com
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Tag Archives: foes
Hunter Biden demands investigations and retractions, opening new front against GOP foes
Hunter Biden’s legal team went on the offensive Wednesday, demanding state and federal investigations into the dissemination of his personal material — purported to be from his laptop — and threatening a defamation lawsuit against Fox News’ Tucker Carlson for allegedly failing to correct false statements.
The flurry of letters to the Delaware attorney general, the Department of Justice, the I.R.S. and attorneys for Fox News and Carlson represent an aggressive new strategy for the president’s son, who is facing long-running federal criminal investigations, as well as new probes promised by congressional Republicans, according to a source familiar with Biden’s approach.
“This marks a new approach by Hunter Biden and his team,” the source told CBS News. “He is not going to sit quietly by as questionable characters continue to violate his rights and media organizations peddling in lies try to defame him.”
Attorneys for Hunter Biden called for Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings and U.S. Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew G. Olsen to launch investigations into the actions of former computer repair shop owner John Paul Mac Isaac, former Trump advisers Rudy Giuliani and Stephen Bannon, their attorney Robert Costello and others “for whom there is considerable reason to believe violated various Delaware laws in accessing, copying, manipulating, and/or disseminating Mr. Biden’s personal computer data.”
Brian Della Rocca, attorney for John Paul Mac Isaac told CBS News, “Having not seen the letters until now, I haven’t had much of an opportunity to review them. After skimming the letters, the only thing I see is a privileged person hiring yet another high-priced attorney to redirect attention away from his own unlawful actions.” Della Rocca said he had no other comments at this time.
The Delaware Attorney General did not reply to a request for comment. The Justice Department declined to comment. CBS News has also reached out for comment to representatives for Giuliani and Bannon, as well as Fox News.
According to Mac Isaac, Hunter Biden dropped off the computer at a store in Delaware for repairs in April 2019 and never returned to pick it up. He has said he waited the 90 days required by his store’s customer service policy before considering the laptop abandoned. In court filings, Mac Isaac stated that he turned over the computer to the FBI but also provided a copy of its contents to Costello.
Purported copies of the laptop were widely circulated by Republican operatives to attack then-candidate Joe Biden before the 2020 presidential election, and the New York Post published a series of stories from the computer data.
“This failed dirty political trick directly resulted in the exposure, exploitation, and manipulation of Mr. Biden’s private and personal information,” Abbe Lowell, an attorney for Hunter Biden, wrote in his letters to Jennings and Olsen.
Costello, an attorney for Giuliani and Bannon, has previously defended their efforts to publicize the laptop, and said Giuliani offered to provide its hard drive to FBI agents “on several occasions, but the agents steadfastly declined.” In October 2020, Giuliani turned the drive over to Delaware authorities, who in turn handed it over to the FBI.
The computer data that was turned over to the FBI showed no evidence of tampering or fabrication, according to an independent review commissioned by CBS News.
But Lowell cited media reports indicating “[m]ore recently, downstream recipients of what has been purported to be Mr. Biden’s hard drive have reported anomalies in the data, suggesting manipulation of it.”
Among those Hunter Biden wants investigated are Garrett Ziegler, a former Trump administration aide, who was also the subject of a letter sent by Lowell to Robert Malone, the I.R.S’s director of tax exempt organizations. A limited liability corporation associated with Ziegler operates Marco Polo, a self-described nonprofit devoted to “exposing corruption” that has zeroed in on Biden’s laptop.
Lowell wrote that Marco Polo is “little more than a thinly disguised political operation to attack the Biden administration and the Biden family.”
Ziegler told CBS News in a statement that the “letter to the IRS about Marco Polo is full of speculations and basic misunderstandings about the case law surrounding 501(c)(3) organizations.” He called it a “desperate attempt by “Hunter and his family to get the attention off of their crimes.”
The IRS did not reply to a request for comment.
In another letter sent Wednesday, Biden attorney Bryan Sullivan demanded that Fox News and Tucker Carlson devote airtime to retracting statements made about Biden paying “rent” to his father, “in what Mr. Carlson implied was essentially a money laundering scheme to finance President Biden’s lifestyle prior to his election … and alluding to Mr. Biden having unauthorized access to classified documents because of his presence at President Biden’s house.” Sullivan writes that the claims were false, and even after others acknowledged as much, Carlson continued to make them.
The letter, which cites California’s defamation statute, notes that the Daily Caller website retracted an article that made similar claims.
Trump slams reconciliation deal, touts endorsements at rally while taking jabs at Republican foes
Former President Trump used his rally in Waukesha, Wis., on Friday evening to criticize Democrats’ sweeping climate, tax and health package while touting his track record of recent endorsements.
While Trump was in the Badger State to boost several of his endorsed candidates ahead of the Aug. 9 primary, including gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels (R) and Adam Steen, running in the 63rd Assembly District race against Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R), the former president used the rally to take jabs at his opponents.
“The radical Democrats now intend to impose the biggest tax hike in American history, the exact opposite of what I did,” Trump asserted, referring to the reconciliation deal. “And they are working feverishly to pile on more regulations at levels never seen before. You’re going to have regulations like nobody’s ever seen before.”
He name-checked Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), claiming he got “taken for a ride” by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who made a surprise announcement with Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) last week that they had reached a deal on climate, health and tax reforms.
“Joe Manchin has totally sold out West Virginia, what he’s done to that state is disgraceful. And I told the old broken crow, Mitch McConnell, that this was going to happen,” Trump said.
Manchin had earlier in July appeared to pour cold water on the prospects of a deal after data was released showing inflation at 9 percent annually.
When the deal was announced, after the Senate with GOP support passed a bill to boost domestic semiconductor production and fund scientific research, some Republicans expressed frustration about the agreement, saying they would have blocked the chips and science bill if they knew Democrats were pressing forward with provisions on taxes and climate in a reconciliation package.
Manchin claimed he and Schumer had not misled their colleagues.
The former president touted the recent successes of Arizona candidates Kari Lake (R) in the GOP gubernatorial primary and Blake Masters in the Republican Senate primary as well.
He also mentioned Michigan gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon (R) and former Department of Housing and Urban Development official John Gibbs (R), who defeated Rep. Peter Meijjer (R-Mich.), one of 10 House Republicans to vote in favor of impeaching Trump.
Trump called Michels, who is running against former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch (R) in the gubernatorial primary next Tuesday, an “incredible success story” and touted his construction company.
He called Steen — a candidate he endorsed as part of a larger revenge tour against Republicans who he believes crossed him following the election and the Capitol riot — a “true patriot.” Vos, Steen’s opponent, drew Trump’s ire after he refused efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
As Trump took a few jabs at Kleefisch, he also appeared to subtly hit back at those who endorsed her, including former Vice President Pence.
“Tim’s opponent in the primary is Rebecca Kleesfisch, a career politician and a political insider. Known her for a long time. She’s the handpicked candidate of the failed establishment, the RINOs … the Washington swamp, and she’s running a campaign of falsehoods and lies,” he alleged, using the acronym for “Republican in name only.”
The former president even waded into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) trip to Taiwan, one of several stops she made in her travel to East Asia amid heightened tensions between China and the self-governing island, asking why she would travel to Taiwan.