Hunter Biden declines invitation to testify on Capitol Hill
CNN
Hunter Biden’s attorney has informed House Oversight Chairman James Comer that the president’s son will not accept the committee’s invitation for him to appear at a public hearing, according to a letter obtained by CNN.
Hunter Biden’s attorney has informed House Oversight Chairman James Comer that the president’s son will not accept the committee’s invitation for him to appear at a public hearing, according to a letter obtained by CNN. Last month, Hunter Biden spoke at a closed-door deposition before the House Oversight and Judiciary committees about his foreign business dealings as part of the Republican-controlled House’s larger interest in pursuing his father for a potential impeachment. Republicans are still planning to hold a hearing next week with three other witnesses they’ve interviewed as part of their inquiry into President Joe Biden, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan told CNN on Wednesday. The attorney, Abbe Lowell, argued the hearing “is not a serious oversight proceeding. It is your attempt to resuscitate your Conference’s moribund inquiry with a made-for-right-wing-media, circus act.” Calling the invitation “a Hail Mary pass,” Lowell wrote: “I thought even you would recognize your baseless impeachment proceeding was dead.” In his letter, Lowell also criticized Comer’s decision to invite some of the discredited business associates tied to the president’s son to the same hearing. He argued if Comer was serious about holding an oversight hearing to address alleged influence peddling, the committee should invite Jared Kushner and members of the Trump family alongside Hunter Biden. Lowell said that the president’s son answered every question Republicans had for him in the six-hour closed door deposition. And Lowell even used Comer’s own words against him to argue that a hearing was not necessary.
US officials are furiously trying to avert a potential monthslong closure of the Strait of Hormuz, privately acknowledging that reopening the key waterway is a problem without a clear solution and dependent at least in part on what lengths President Donald Trump is willing to go to force the Iranian regime’s hand, multiple administration and intelligence officials tell CNN.
The chief executive of Live Nation testified Thursday that it was “disgusting” that a top ticketing employee talked about “robbing fans blind” in internal messages.
Supreme Court revives First Amendment lawsuit from street preacher who called concertgoers ‘sissies’
The Supreme Court on Friday revived a First Amendment lawsuit from a street preacher who used a loudspeaker to call people “whores,” “Jezebels” and “sissies” as they tried to enter an amphitheater to attend concerts in a suburban Mississippi community.
As millions of Americans braced for a series of brutal storms this winter, the senior official in charge of the federal government’s disaster response had been on the job only a few weeks — and had previously claimed on podcasts that he once teleported to a Waffle House.
Air travelers across the US continue to face travel headaches as Transportation Security Administration workers go without full pay. Find the latest live updates here.
Veterans’ advocates are raising concerns that a new agreement between the departments of Veterans Affairs and Justice could take away veterans’ autonomy over their health care decisions and deter them from seeking care, particularly those facing homelessness.
Admirers of Cesar Chavez and public officials are scrambling to respond to claims about the man who has been honored with holidays, statues and school names in communities around the country.
The co-founder of Super Micro Computer and two others were charged with diverting $2.5 billion worth of servers with Nvidia’s artificial intelligence chips to China, in violation of US laws barring exports to that country without a license.
The Treasury Department will begin to manage federal student loans in default, taking on a key function of the Education Department as the Trump administration further pushes to dismantle it.
The Justice Department on Thursday seized several websites it says were used by Iran as part of “psychological operations” targeting perceived advisories and spreading terrorist propaganda.
Sen. Thom Tillis on Thursday blasted talk of ending the Senate filibuster to pass the “SAVE America Act” as a “foolish and lazy idea” and warned his party that pushing the president’s priority through the so-called talking filibuster would hand control to Democrats.
On two major occasions, the Trump administration has gestured at Israel being mostly responsible for major inflection points in the Iran war — even though the evidence on both counts isn’t totally clear.
Conservative hardliners who supported subpoenaing Attorney General Pam Bondi in the House Oversight Committee’s Jeffrey Epstein probe are now indicating that they are open to changing their position after Bondi met with the panel for a briefing that turned contentious with Democrats.