DOJ plans to ask court to vacate depositions in free speech case

Shana Donahue

October 28, 05:33 AM October 28, 05:33 AM

The Department of Justice plans to ask the court to vacate an order requesting depositions from members of the Biden administration, according to court documents dated Oct. 27.

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According to

court documents, the DOJ plans to file a petition asking the court of appeals to vacate an Oct. 21 order allowing depositions to be taken from Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Jen Easterly, and Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of White House Digital Strategy Rob Flaherty.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, former White House press secretary Jen Psaki, and FBI supervisory special agent Elvis Chan were also included in the Oct. 21 deposition order but are not included in the request to vacate.

The depositions are related to a lawsuit filed by the attorneys general for Missouri and Louisiana that accuses officials in the Biden administration of colluding with social media companies such as Meta, Twitter, and YouTube to censor free speech in an effort to combat misinformation which led to suppression and censorship.

“I will not stand idly by while the Biden administration attempts to trample on the First Amendment rights of Missourians and Americans,” Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt said in a May statement.

“Big Tech has become an extension of Biden’s Big Government, and neither are protecting the freedoms of Americans; rather, they are suppressing truth and demonizing those who think differently,” said Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry in May. “Ripped from the playbook of Stalin and his ilk, Biden has been colluding with Big Tech to censor free speech and propagandize the masses. We are fighting back to ensure the rule of law and prevent the government from unconstitutional banning, chilling, and stifling of speech.”

The lawsuit lists the Hunter Biden laptop story, the COVID-19 lab leak theory, and the efficacy of masks were listed as examples of suppressed speech in the suit, according to a release from the Missouri attorney general’s office.

Durham inquiry trial: FBI needed to suspend analyst who interviewed Steele supply

Jerry Dunleavy

Oct 12, 10:34 PM October 12, 10:34 PM

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia —The FBI’s interior investigation device sought to self-control and suspend the FBI analyst who interviewed Igor Danchenko in January 2017 and who was distinctive counsel John Durham’s very first witness this 7 days in the bogus statements demo from the main source for British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s discredited anti-Trump file, new court testimony disclosed.

FBI supervisory intelligence analyst Brian Auten, who disclosed Wednesday that Durham informed him in 2021 that he was a “subject” of the unique counsel’s prison evaluation of the Trump-Russia investigation, verified that the FBI had proposed he get a suspension because of to his actions as a member 1st of the Crossfire Hurricane crew and then of particular counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into ties between then-prospect Donald Trump and the Russian authorities.

Durham reported the FBI’s inspection division investigated Auten’s carry out and advisable that he be suspended. “That is being appealed," Auten countered from the witness stand.

Auten experienced been referred by FBI Director Christopher Wray to the Place of work of Expert Responsibility for disciplinary motion following the December 2019 launch of Justice Office Inspector Normal Michael Horowitz's report on Overseas Intelligence Surveillance Act abuse. Wray has claimed these proceedings were being slowed down to cooperate with Durham’s criminal investigation.

Auten was the “Supervisory Intel Agent” in Horowitz’s report and is stated 106 moments by the inside watchdog. The FBI analyst continuously downplayed his involvement in the FISA process to get hold of research authority to snoop on onetime Trump campaign aide Carter Page, who was never ever billed with any wrongdoing, admitting only that he reviewed the Webpage FISA on an “ad hoc basis” and reviewed the application’s footnotes.

Durham contended that Auten’s refusal to be wholly sincere about the whole extent of his involvement in the Web site FISAs was one of the motives he was proposed for suspension, but Auten disputed that characterization. Durham seemed overtly annoyed with Auten’s testimony about how dossier promises had been utilised in the application for surveillance, but the FBI analyst insisted, “I was not the just one who carried it above into the FISA application.”

FBI Made available STEELE UP TO $1 MILLION IF HE COULD Verify Dossier Statements

The FBI analyst briefly reviewed Horowitz’s report, which Durham explained as “scathing,” with the FBI analyst employing a lot softer language. Auten famous that “the report was really extensive” and thorough “quite a selection of glitches and omissions.” Vehicle included: “I believe that the [Office of Inspector General] described [the errors] as major.”

Horowitz’s report undermined the Steele file claims, and the watchdog criticized the DOJ and the FBI for at the very least 17 “significant glitches and omissions” connected to the FISA warrants from Site and for the bureau's “central and essential” reliance on Steele’s dossier.

Auten, who interviewed Danchenko in early 2017 and was there when the Justice Office established up a partial immunity arrangement with the Steele supply, was also amongst the FBI personnel who interviewed Steele abroad in early Oct 2016 as the FBI sought additional specifics on the file. Auten discovered the FBI had provided Steele an incentive of up to $1 million if he could verify the allegations of collusion in his dossier, but the FBI analyst reported the former MI6 agent was unable to corroborate the statements. Steele also declined to supply the identification of his sources, which include Danchenko.

The FBI analyst circulated a February 2017 intelligence memo to top rated FBI officials about the Danchenko job interview he had carried out a month prior, but Horowitz explained it “did not explain the inconsistencies” from the FBI job interview in January 2017.

The FBI quickly designed Danchenko a compensated private human supply starting up in March 2017 by means of Oct 2020, as discovered by Durham in court docket filings. Horowitz reported FBI interviews with Danchenko “raised important concerns about the reliability of the Steele election reporting."

All through his Wednesday courtroom testimony, Auten agreed with Danchenko’s defense law firm, Danny Onorato, that it was “scary” to be informed that he experienced been named a subject of Durham’s investigation during his 1st meeting with the specific counsel workforce in late July 2021. The FBI analyst claimed that when he had fulfilled with Horowitz’s investigators, it had been as a “witness” and not a “subject.” Auten claimed he recognized the time period “subject” to be “somewhere involving a witness and a target” of an investigation.

The FBI analyst added that he was not right threatened with achievable prosecution but said that is comprehended to be a risk when you are the topic of a prison investigation. Auten stated he experienced hardly ever been the subject of an investigation prior to that stage. The FBI analyst mentioned he finished up meeting with Durham’s investigators a few or 4 moments total, including 2 times previous 7 days.

The dossier was developed following Steele was employed by the opposition research company Fusion GPS, which was itself hired by Perkins Coie by Marc Elias, the standard counsel for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 marketing campaign. Steele employed Danchenko.

According to Durham, Danchenko anonymously sourced a fabricated declare about Trump 2016 marketing campaign supervisor Paul Manafort to Charles Dolan, a Clinton ally who put in decades, like 2016, executing get the job done with Russian corporations and the Russian federal government.

Durham's indictment also said Danchenko lied to the FBI about a cellphone get in touch with he claimed he received from Sergei Millian, a Belarus-born U.S. citizen and businessman who the Steele resource had claimed advised him about a conspiracy of cooperation in between Trump and the Russians — which the special counsel mentioned is bogus.

Auten testified Wednesday that he thought Danchenko ought to have handed around to the FBI relevant e-mail he experienced sent to Millian and exchanged with Dolan but claimed the Russian lawyer did not do so.

Soon soon after remaining referred to the FBI’s Office environment of Experienced Responsibility, Auten was involved with the bureau’s inquiry into Hunter Biden, the adult son of now-President Joe Biden, with his August 2020 investigation getting used in component to justify the choice to "shut down investigative exercise."

Wray stated this summer time that he observed the whistleblower promises that the FBI had improperly labeled the youthful Biden proof as disinformation to be “deeply troubling.”

Danchenko's October trial will come after Democratic lawyer Michael Sussmann was found not guilty in Might on a wrong statements demand of concealing his illustration of Hillary Clinton’s presidential marketing campaign from the FBI when he pushed considering that-debunked Trump-Russia collusion claims about Alfa-Financial institution to the bureau in 2016. Testimony in the course of the demo unveiled Hillary Clinton personally signed off on her campaign sharing the Alfa-Bank promises with the media.

Horowitz mentioned in 2019 that Auten “told us that he factored the Alfa-Bank/Trump server allegations into his evaluation of Steele's reporting.”

Sebastian Gorka vying for purpose subsequent year in Property GOP's Hunter Biden investigation

Juliegrace Brufke

September 28, 03:58 PM September 28, 03:59 PM

Distinctive — Former adviser to President Donald Trump Sebastian Gorka is hunting to get concerned with the Home Republicans’ anticipated investigation into Hunter Biden if the get together will take again the decrease chamber.

Gorka achieved with Rep. Matt Gaetz on Wednesday as the Florida Republican attempts to recruit the controversial conservative pundit to come to be a staff director if a choose committee is shaped to look at the organization dealings of President Joe Biden’s son, according to just one source common with the meeting.

Although Dwelling Republicans have expressed that investigating Hunter Biden would be a priority for the standing committees of jurisdiction, it remains unclear irrespective of whether the party's leadership is taking into consideration establishing the select committee and no matter whether Gaetz would be tapped to lead or sit on the panel if it is produced.

"Gaetz is the a person that is attempting to convey him on board, but it seems like that is where by the other folks who are ideologically aligned with Gaetz want to go as nicely," the source claimed.

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Gorka reported he would not disclose the specifics of his dialogue with Gaetz but confirmed they mentioned what the Republicans' strategy must be in advance of up coming year.

“We talked about whether or not that is the suitable technique since, here is the difficulty — the Hunter Biden laptops, it is so lots of different authorities. So, there's the query of just corruption, tax evasion, crimes against the ATF when he lied on the buy of that gun. And then, you can find all the national stability factors. So, the dealings with China, the dealings with Ukraine, the dealings in Iraq — so, you can find the total facet of, of just felony investigation, and then, there's a complete part of nationwide safety,” he told the Washington Examiner.

He additional that he feels his expertise working for the Hungarian Ministry of Defense has organized him to assist in congressional investigations and that he hopes to explore the make any difference with Household Judiciary Committee rating member Jim Jordan (R-OH).

“The question is, do we offer with the Hunter Biden scandal and the Biden corruption scandal in standing committees like Judiciary and countrywide protection, or do Armed Solutions, or do we have a select committee? So, I can not go into the information of our discussion, but you know, I have served as an investigator before in the Hungarian Parliament,” he stated.

“I investigated a previous communist key minister in 2001, so I have accomplished this work before — I've investigated corrupt heads of point out, and I still have my entire top key clearances from my time in the White Property," he included. "So, we talked about how I would operate an investigation and the two major baskets of problems that I would appear into when it will come to the corruption of the Biden family, but that is about as a lot as I can say correct now.”

Republicans on the Household Oversight Committee have vowed to scrutinize Hunter Biden’s laptop computer, the contents of which have been acquired by several news outlets, with GOP lawmakers arguing they need to have to look at irrespective of whether Joe Biden’s conclusions as vice president were swayed by his son’s company dealings. Biden has vehemently denied allegations of wrongdoing, and top rated Democrats argue that Republicans are concentrating on the president’s son though turning a blind eye to Trump and his children’s affairs, as well as other scandals.

Gorka mentioned regardless of whether to create the panel will be a “strategic determination that the GOP leadership has to take. Sebastian Gorka’s view is that we need to have a exclusive committee mainly because we are conversing about finally an impeachment of the sitting president.”

Numerous firebrand conservatives have elevated the prospect of trying to impeach Joe Biden up coming calendar year, which has been met with reservations from a sizeable element of the Home GOP meeting.

Brian Stelter diagnoses 2024 Biden ‘problem’: His son Hunter

Heather Hamilton

August 08, 09:28 AM August 08, 09:28 AM

As discussion grows about President Joe Biden’s potential clients for reelection in 2024, CNN host Brian Stelter listed 1 legal responsibility that could imperil them.

When speaking with Michael LaRosa, first woman Jill Biden’s previous press secretary who remaining the work all over two weeks in the past, Stelter introduced up his son, Hunter Biden.

“What about Hunter?” Stelter questioned LaRosa. “Hunter is under federal investigation, rates could be coming at any time. This is not just a proper-wing media tale. This is a real dilemma for the Bidens.”

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LaRosa dismissed concerns from people who assume one more Democrat ought to run as an alternative.

“I hope he operates. I know he’s heading to run, he’s planning to run,” LaRosa said, introducing that the Bidens “make conclusions as a family, and they will make that determination when it’s time.”

Stelter requested if the Bidens experienced, in simple fact, talked about a 2024 bid for reelection.

“No,” LaRosa replied. “The president is doing his career, and he’s doing his function. He’s not focused on that. It is 19 months! Why would he do that?”

LaRosa reiterated that the president “intends to run” and said the media need to shift to include “substantive wins” in the past 7 days.

The president has touted declining gasoline selling prices and July’s jobs report, which confirmed unemployment was down to 3.5% — a return to pre-pandemic amounts.

The Senate’s passing of the Inflation Reduction Act Sunday afternoon, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tiebreaking 51st vote, secured yet another coverage acquire for the Biden administration.

GOP locked and loaded: 500 'preservation letters' despatched for investigations

Daniel Chaitin

August 07, 02:13 PM August 07, 02:13 PM

Armed with subpoena energy if they acquire the Property in November, Republicans are ready for a whole-court docket push of investigations, as evidenced by House Minority Chief Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) sharing just how significantly-reaching their preparations are in the months top up to the midterm elections.

Extra than 500 "preservation letters" have already been despatched to many companies and individuals, demanding that they not ruin certain paperwork and info, in anticipation of a GOP takeover, McCarthy declared when talking with the New York Write-up.

"We've accomplished the blend of all the distinct committees sending it presently. We have been clear what we want and what we want to see," McCarthy was quoted as indicating final month, for every a Politico reporter, who pointed out that "essential" places of investigation provided the origins of COVID-19, the Justice Department allegedly going following dad and mom at faculty board conferences, and the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan.

One more make a difference Republicans are eager to dig into is Hunter Biden's overseas company dealings while his father, President Joe Biden, was vice president for eight decades. McCarthy explained to the New York Article how GOP investigators are interested in dozens of U.S. intelligence veterans who signed a letter released to the general public roughly two weeks prior to the 2020 election suggesting the emergence of Hunter Biden's notebook was part of a Russian interference operation. A variety of information stores, like the Washington Examiner, have had investigators authenticate copies of his challenging push.

"Persons can occur in and converse to us and answer the thoughts. If which is not the scenario there are periods we will use the subpoena as well,” McCarthy stated. Residence Republicans have now demanded documents from these former intelligence officers, which include previous CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of Nationwide Intelligence James Clapper.

President Biden's son is the aim of a important investigation at the Office of Justice. But lots of Republicans and conservative-leaning media believe the relaxation of the media and Large Tech are mostly ignoring and even suppressing the story. Hunter Biden discovered he was underneath investigation soon following the 2020 election.

Most just lately, it was reported that prosecutors are weighing prices for alleged tax violations and for creating a false assertion in link to the invest in of a firearm at a time when he should really have been blocked from acquiring these a weapon simply because of a drug dependancy. A report from CNN last month on the most current deliberations claimed the federal investigation has arrived at a "significant juncture." The younger Biden has denied wrongdoing.

Hunter Biden could go to jail for failing to register as international agent: Report

Ryan King

July 23, 12:10 PM July 23, 12:10 PM

Hunter Biden could wind up at the rear of bars for failing to sign up properly as a foreign agent though engaging in some of his small business endeavors overseas, according to a report.

Biden had registered as a lobbyist for domestic passions, but not less than the federal International Agents Registration Act, in accordance to the New York Submit. Revelations from his laptop have indicated that the initial son has engaged in a slew of organization dealings overseas in countries these kinds of as China, Ukraine, and elsewhere that might have needed him to sign up as a foreign lobbyist.

'SPY Chief OF CHINA' Notebook RECORDING SHEDS Gentle ON HUNTER BIDEN'S Overseas Company

“The the latest disclosures of supplemental overseas contacts has only strengthened what was currently a powerful case. Indeed, in the previous couple weeks, the persuasive foundation for a FARA charge has become unassailable and undeniable,” George Washington College Law Professor Jonathan Turley explained to the New York Put up.

Below FARA, which was enacted in 1938, those who work as “an agent, consultant, staff, or servant" to a "international principal" will need to sign up with the govt. People who flout this rule could experience up to five decades at the rear of bars and a $250,000 fine, for each the outlet.

Biden is reportedly facing an inquiry from the Justice Department around his taxes, possible international lobbying, and small business dealings overseas. The investigation is believed to have started in 2018 and expanded in the time because the reporting on copies of his laptop hard generate.

During his time on the board of Ukrainian electrical power big Burisma, Biden notably released a prime government of the company to his father, who was serving as the vice president of the United States at the time. His father later pressured Ukraine to fire anyone who had been examining the business, a transfer that subsequently lifted pink flags.

Buried in his notebook was a 47-moment audio clip in which Biden mentioned his partnership with the vice-chairman of Chinese vitality conglomerate CEFC, whom Biden dubbed as "the f****** spy chief of China." That executive penned a $1 million retainer arrangement with Biden for “counsel to matters associated to U.S. regulation and guidance pertaining to the using the services of and legal assessment of any U.S. regulation firm or lawyer," the Washington Examiner discovered in a letter on the really hard generate.

These were just a couple of his organization dealings abroad noted on by the Washington Examiner and others that have raised questions about no matter if he was cashing in on his father's political stature.

Records on his laptop also reveal conferences Biden experienced with international officers. Crown Prince Alexander Karadordevic of Yugoslavia and his wife told the New York Article they had questioned Biden to set in a superior phrase with his father and experienced been trying to find funding for their palace in Belgrade.

“If Hunter relayed the ask for for US government support, then that would be a FARA registrable celebration,” Craig Engle, a FARA pro, told the outlet.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has previously asked the FBI to examine regardless of whether Biden flouted FARA prerequisites.

Reviews show that federal investigators are nearing completion of the inquiry into Biden, and some have speculated that the very first son could receive a plea offer provide.

Hunter Biden paid full-time salary to stripper who fathered his child

Andrew Kerr

Jerry Dunleavy

June 09, 06:50 AM June 09, 06:50 AM

EXCLUSIVE — Hunter Biden paid a full-time salary to the exotic dancer with whom he fathered a child in 2018, according to deleted payroll files recovered from a copy of his abandoned laptop.

Lunden Roberts earned $1,500 for 40 hours of work from Biden's company, Owasco PC, on Nov. 16, 2018, according to a recovered payroll file obtained exclusively by Washington Examiner. Two other recovered files show Owasco spent an additional $521.37 to provide health, dental, and vision insurance coverage for Roberts for the same month.

The payroll records were part of a trove of 168,000 deleted files the Washington Examiner recovered from a copy of Biden's abandoned laptop. Konstantinos "Gus" Dimitrelos, a cyber forensics expert commissioned by the Washington Examiner to examine the hard drive, retrieved the deleted files from unallocated space on the drive using a technique called data carving.

168,000 DELETED FILES RECOVERED FROM Biden BIDEN'S LAPTOP

Roberts sued Biden in Arkansas for child support in 2019. She disclosed in court filings that his company paid her from May 2018 through November 2018, but the specific amounts were not publicly disclosed. Roberts added in the filing that "she never received a tax payment for these payments."

In the recovered files, Biden expressed shock that his company was doling out payments to Roberts after his assistant, Katie Dodge, texted him the records. He then ordered Dodge to "take Lunden off payroll."

Biden severed Roberts from his company's payroll less than two months after she gave birth to his fourth child, Navy Joan Roberts, on Aug. 28, 2018,

"And is Lunden still [on] payroll???" Biden texted Dodge on Nov. 16, 2018. "Take Lunden off payroll I thought you said she decidedly [didn't] want to work and didn't need health insurance anyway. Remember that conversation?"

Dodge said she couldn't remember that particular conversation, but she said she did remember being disappointed with Biden over his payments to Roberts.

"I remember a conversation where I was disappointed that you wanted to pay her the same rate as me," Dodge said. "But I am over that. Maybe she told you that but I wasn't involved."

Dodge also earned $1,500 from Owasco during the Nov. 16, 2018, pay period for 20 hours of work, according to the recovered payroll file.

"Regardless Katie [that] was if she was working a 40 hour week full time for me," Biden responded. "I haven't talked to Lunden in 7 months???????"

"Well take whatever I pay Lunden and get my s*** straightened out Katie," Biden added. "We need to completely abandon this old process and come [up] with a new one. New accounts new record keeping new everything."

Biden paid himself $10,000 from Owasco for the Nov. 16, 2018, pay period, the recovered file shows.

That Biden paid Roberts from May 2018 through November 2018 through Owasco is notable.

Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson published bank records showing the now-defunct Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC wired $1 million to Hudson West III, another firm owned by Biden, on Nov. 2, 2017. Hudson later transferred $1 million to Owasco on March 22, 2018.

CEFC wired the funds to Hudson about two months after Biden signed a $1 million attorney engagement letter to represent Patrick Ho, the deputy of CEFC's chairman at the time, Ye Jianming.

Ho was eventually sentenced to three years in prison in March 2019 for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and was deported to Hong Kong in June 2021 after serving his sentence. Ye has since disappeared in China after being named by state media in a 2018 corruption case. China allowed CEFC to go bankrupt.

'SPY CHIEF OF CHINA' LAPTOP RECORDING SHEDS LIGHT ON HUNTER BIDEN'S OVERSEAS BUSINESS

An Arkansas judge ruled in January 2019 that a DNA paternity test proved Biden was the father of Roberts's child.

Biden and Roberts settled the child support case in March 2020. Biden agreed to pay an undisclosed monthly amount of child support and health insurance premiums, according to Courthouse News.

Other texts found on the copy of the laptop show Roberts was met with silence when she tried reaching out to him in the weeks before their baby was born.

"Just called to check in on you," Roberts texted Biden on July 3, 2018.

"Amoeba DD (Due Date) Sep 8, 2018 All Good," she texted him on July 24, 2018.

"Reached out a few times, it's clear you don't want to be reached," Roberts texted on Aug. 8, 2018. "Need to talk to you. If you feel the need to reach out, my line is always open. Hope all is well."

Roberts is mentioned in just one email on the laptop copy.

The manager of the House of Sweden, Biden's Washington, D.C., office building, accused him in a September 2017 email of violating building rules by sneaking Roberts in through the building's side doors after business hours.

Biden was incensed at the accusation. He responded to the manager in a previously reported lengthy email explaining that Roberts was his daughter Maisy's "basketball mentor."

"I had phoned ahead to let security know that my youngest daughter's basketball mentor she worked out with Maisy and Sasha Obama when they played in rec league together," Biden said. "Maisy, my daughter continues [to] pursue a NCAA Div. One team and Lunden continues to help. [Lunden] Roberts. Here is a partial bio."

Biden sent the email just one day after he had requested that the same manager create keys for his "office mates" — his father, Joe Biden, his mother, Jill Biden, his uncle, Jim Biden, and Gongwen Dong, the "emissary" of then-CEFC Chairman Ye.

Hunter Biden claimed to not remember ever having sex with Roberts in his 2021 memoir, Beautiful Things, in which he attempted to distance himself from her and his daughter.

Hunter Biden was married to Kathleen Biden from 1993 until their divorce in 2017, and their three daughters, Naomi, Finnegan, and Maisy, are featured in the memoir. He has since remarried South African filmmaker Melissa Cohen. The two had a son, Beau, named after Hunter Biden's deceased brother, in March 2020.

“I’m not proud of it," he wrote of his dalliance with Roberts in his memoir. "It’s why I would later challenge in court the woman from Arkansas who had a baby in 2018 and claimed the child was mine — I had no recollection of our encounter. That’s how little connection I had with anyone.”

Hunter Biden's attorneys, Chris Clark and George Mesires, did not return a request for comment.

168,000 deleted files recovered from Hunter Biden's laptop

Andrew Kerr

June 08, 07:00 AM June 08, 07:01 AM

A cyber forensics expert commissioned by the Washington Examiner recovered over 168,000 deleted files from a copy of Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop.

Many of the deleted files were system files, application files, or duplicates of user files stored elsewhere on the laptop.

Some of the recovered data, however, shed light on his financial dealings in 2018 and early 2019, as well as his personal dealings during that time frame. Also recovered from the drive were deleted pictures of government ID cards for two individuals linked to President Joe Biden's son.

Konstantinos "Gus" Dimitrelos, a former Secret Service agent who has testified in over 100 classified, criminal, and civil matters, retrieved the deleted files from unallocated space on the hard drive using a technique called data carving.

HUNTER BIDEN'S LAPTOP IS 100% AUTHENTIC, FORENSIC EXAMINATION CONCLUDES

The existence of recoverable deleted user files adds another layer of authenticity to the hard drive, Dimitrelos said.

"In order for user-created data — including personal photographs, bank records, invoices, business records, third-party data such as the driver's licenses of other persons, chat conversations, and medical records, as examples — to exist within the unallocated hard drive space, the computer user would have had to manually delete the files," Dimitrelos said. "Any Robert Hunter Biden recovered files in unallocated space was there as a result of deletions by the user ‘roberthunter.’"

Dimitrelos has examined the Washington Examiner's copy of the hard drive and determined with 100% certainty that Hunter Biden "was the only person responsible for the activity on this hard drive and all of its stored data."

Many of the recovered user files were attachments to text messages that Hunter Biden sent to or received from his associates. The text messages contain markers indicating that an attachment was deleted.

One of the recovered text attachments was a selfie he took in which he can be seen holding a vape pen. He attached the photo to a message sent to an unknown person Jan. 30, 2019.

"That's the weed vape pen that a Russian Escort left in my room before I came here this time," Hunter Biden texted them.

A report by Republican senators in 2020 concluded Hunter Biden paid “nonresident women” who were “nationals of Russia or other Eastern European countries” and who appeared to be linked to what records indicated was an “Eastern European prostitution or human trafficking ring.”

Hunter Biden also received an invoice from his psychiatrist, former Fox News contributor Keith Ablow, showing he had racked up $13,600 worth of psychotherapy charges in November and December 2018. Hunter Biden had requested that Ablow send him the invoice in a Dec. 10, 2018, text.

Hunter Biden's legal team told CBS News in May that it obtained a laptop he left at Ablow's office in February 2019. It says the laptop is "the Rosetta Stone" that can prove if copies of Hunter Biden's drive that have circulated through the media have been altered. But the copy of the drive obtained by the Washington Examiner has user files dating through March 17, 2019.

Dimitrelos also recovered numerous deleted screenshots of text message conversations with Hunter Biden's ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle.

One of the screenshots shows that Hunter Biden wired $2,900 to Buhle through Apple Pay on April 19, 2018. He sent Buhle the screenshot later that day after she suggested he hadn't sent the payment.

Another recovered screenshot is a message from Buhle's phone showing that David Barboza of the New York Times had reached out and asked her: "I wonder if I can call you about a story I am writing about a Chinese company you may have heard about. I don't know that you know for sure. But someone suggested I ask you."

It's not clear exactly when Barboza contacted Buhle or when she forwarded the screenshot to Hunter Biden.

Hunter Biden's lawyer George Mesires texted him Dec. 4, 2018, warning him Barboza had indicated to him that the New York Times would be running a story about his involvement with the now-defunct Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC in the coming days.

"No reference to Joe Biden specifically relative to CEFC's efforts," Mesires informed the president's son.

The New York Times published a December 2018 story, for which Barboza was a co-author, that focused on CEFC and its leader at the time, Ye Jianming. Buhle was not quoted in the article.

Hunter Biden was paid millions by CEFC as he attempted to work out business deals with them.

Tony Bobulinski, Hunter Biden's former business associate, released a separate trove of WhatsApp text messages in October 2020 not found on the laptop that show the pair discussing meetings involving Joe Biden and CEFC in May 2017. The president has denied ever speaking with his son about his overseas business dealings.

Hunter Biden was given a $1 million retainer to represent Ye's deputy, Patrick Ho, who was eventually sentenced to three years in prison in March 2019 for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Ho was deported to Hong Kong in June 2021 after serving his sentence.

Ye has since disappeared in China, and Chinese state-run media named him in an alleged corruption case in 2018. China allowed CEFC to go bankrupt.

Another recovered record shows Hunter Biden was notified by his assistant, Katie Dodge, that Bank of America had notified him on Feb. 4, 2019, that his scheduled credit card payment had been returned unpaid.

"Please give me a call to let me know how payments should proceed please," Dodge texted Hunter Biden on Feb. 14, 2019, after texting him the notice from Bank of America.

These files were recovered just over two months after former Steve Bannon adviser Jack Maxey claimed he had recovered "450 gigabytes of erased material" from his copy of the abandoned laptop. Dimitrelos said his recovery and analysis of deleted data is ongoing but that it would "not be possible" for 450 gigabytes of deleted files to be retrieved from the laptop, as the system was only capable of storing a maximum of 234 gigabytes in the user volume.

Not all deleted files on the drive were able to be recovered.

Among the more notable nonrecoverable deleted files was a screenshot Joe Biden texted his son March 6, 2019. Joe Biden was not yet president. The file name of the screenshot suggests it was taken from Signal, an encrypted messaging application. The father-son text exchange has been previously reported, but the attachment being unrecoverable is new.

"What would you like me to do. Dad," Joe Biden texted his son after sending the screenshot.

Hunter Biden then responded to his father with a lengthy text message about his falling out with his former business partner Eric Schwerin.

The next day, Joe Biden offered to help his son with his troubles with Schwerin.

"Can i help with Eric," he texted Hunter Biden. "I have absolutely no hesitancy."

The younger Biden responded, "I'll handle Eric."

Dimitrelos explained that the Signal file Joe Biden texted his son is not recoverable because it may have been overwritten by new data after deletion.

"There are many attachments, screenshots, and other identified files which are not recoverable," he said. "This is because unallocated space becomes free space for new files to be copied to, thus overwriting the previous file data."

Of the aforementioned ID cards, the first recovered was a picture of a woman holding up her California ID, showing she was slated to turn 21 in 2019.

The woman, Joanna Rush, texted the image to Hunter Biden on Nov. 22, 2018, less than two hours after he requested that she call him. Other text messages on the drive show Hunter Biden was engaged in a sexual relationship with Rush. She did not respond to a request for comment.

The second was a picture of the driver's license for Richard McCray, a Virginia Lyft driver who got in a car crash with Hunter Biden on Feb. 6, 2019. McCray had texted Hunter Biden a picture of his license as well as a picture of the Hertz vehicle incident report he had filled out after the accident. McCray declined to comment without personal confirmation from Hunter Biden that the reporter reaching out to him was who he said he was.

Hunter Biden's attorneys, Mesires and Chris Clark, did not return a request for comment.

5 targets for congressional Republicans if they win in November

Sarah Westwood

June 04, 07:00 AM June 04, 07:00 AM

Property Republicans are previously placing targets for congressional oversight in the celebration they get regulate of the lower chamber in November, an end result that polling indicates is ever more likely.

Presently in the minority by a slender margin, Republicans have so much been denied the investigative applications of Congress: the capacity to get in touch with hearings, situation subpoenas, and demand from customers files.

But with polls forecasting significant gains for Republicans throughout the state in November, congressional Republicans are presently planning how they’ll wield their investigative electric power from Democrats future calendar year.

HUNTER BIDEN

The president’s son is possible to be amid the most prominent of the Household GOP’s investigative targets if the party secures a the vast majority.

Inquiries into Biden are probable to take a number of different paths.

The White Household has to date deflected concerns about how Hunter Biden has collected earnings for his artwork. Ethics industry experts had warned previous year, when Biden commenced exhibiting his get the job done at a ritzy SoHo gallery, that his foray into the art globe could possibly permit interested parties to order access to the Biden family members.

Household Republicans could dig into who has acquired pieces of Hunter Biden’s art over the previous two many years and whether or not any of those people consumers gained favorable treatment from the White Home.

Revelations from information discovered on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop computer, which the Washington Examiner has independently authenticated, have uncovered factors of his substantial foreign business enterprise dealings that Democrats sought to downplay ahead of the 2020 election.

Individuals incorporate considerable earnings from get the job done with Chinese entities and a high-paying placement on the board of a Ukrainian electrical power business.

Household Republicans have shown curiosity in checking out no matter if any of Biden’s small business interactions created a conflict of curiosity for his father when serving as vice president.

AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL

Home GOP lawmakers are previously gearing up to dig into the Biden administration’s disastrous withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan past summer.

Republicans have claimed they want to look into the guiding-the-scenes deliberations that led to a sequence of conclusions about exactly where to focus U.S. staff and methods in the direct-up to the chaotic evacuation.

The administration decided to hand above management of nearby Bagram Air Base, for instance, months before U.S. citizens and allies bought caught in a violent bottleneck at the Kabul airport.

Biden administration officers at the time shared frequently contradictory interpretations of what intelligence studies proposed about the Taliban’s energy and chance of having over the place.

And the mixed messages from Joe Biden’s team led to community speculation about whether the White Residence was forthcoming about the ways in which its setting up for the withdrawal fell small.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI

The country’s most ubiquitous physician is possible to appear under the microscope in a GOP-managed Congress.

Property and Senate Republicans have both indicated they want to probe Dr. Anthony Fauci, whose prominent purpose in the pandemic reaction of both equally the Trump and Biden administrations has gained him scorn from the Appropriate and adulation from the Still left.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has led a cost to appear into Fauci’s awareness of allegations that the Chinese government covered up an accidental leak of the virus from its virology lab in Wuhan.

Republicans have also demanded responses as to why Fauci, in the earliest times of the pandemic, explained to the general public masks would not prevent the spread of the virus, only to reverse system and aggressively boost mask-carrying for the relaxation of the pandemic.

Fauci’s outsize general public profile has created him the facial area of a pandemic reaction that GOP lawmakers have attacked and are possible to probe extensively, even if all strains of inquiry do not run straight by way of him — from cooperation amongst the Centers for Illness Command and Avoidance and academics unions to the way the CDC has disclosed the facts bordering vaccine performance.

Significant TECH BIAS

Congressional Republicans are reportedly making designs to haul executives from social media platforms before Congress to reply concerns about what they explain as bias in Significant Tech.

A Republican operative who worked with congressional aides recently on their preparations for forthcoming investigations explained to Axios that Large Tech providers could assume “document requests and subpoenas and depositions” subsequent 12 months.

While Home and Senate Democrats in the present-day Congress have investigated Big Tech for various reasons, on the lookout into what they see as the industry’s failure to prevent the proliferation of hate speech and misinformation, Republicans are possible to focus on techniques that limit the arrive at of selected content for partisan good reasons.

Independently, Republicans have also vowed to go after laws that would rein in the electricity of platforms this sort of as Google and Facebook their investigative endeavours are very likely to feed their efforts to force regulatory changes to the marketplace.

BORDER Crisis

Perhaps no other difficulty has united Republicans in their criticism of the Biden administration like the rush of unlawful immigration at the southern border.

Republicans have instructed they want to target Homeland Protection Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas exclusively as effectively as the Office of Homeland Security’s operations additional broadly.

Some congressional Republicans have even floated the notion of impeaching Mayorkas if they protected a large enough vast majority.

Biden’s selection to rescind most of his predecessor’s immigration procedures preceded an pretty much fast uptick in unlawful immigration, which swiftly overcome the administration’s methods at the border.

Republicans are probably to investigate the administration’s deportation strategy as properly. Even though Biden administration officials have regularly claimed they are eliminating several migrants who cross the border illegally, DHS figures have demonstrated the administration is essentially performing comparatively few removals as it fights to close 1 of the only authorities below which it has deported migrants.