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Hunter Biden will sit for a closed-door interview on February 28, along with five Biden family associates at various dates, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) and Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) announced Thursday. The announcement came as a surprise to some Republicans. Last week, the chairmen went through procedural hurdles to prepare for a House vote to hold Hunter in contempt of Congress for failing to sit for the deposition.

Virginia Giuffre, who accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein of abusing her when she was underage and who sued his ex-lover Ghislaine Maxwell and Prince Andrew, mocked the dozens of other Epstein associates scheduled to be named publicly at the start of the new year. "Finally we are hearing members of the US government senators about the need for transparency and a call to arms for accountability!!" she wrote on X. "There’s going to be a lot of nervous ppl over Christmas and New Years, 170 to be exact, who’s on the naughty list?" The quip came in response to a...

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) subpoenaed four Biden family associates on Wednesday and also requested a transcribed interview with an Americore Holdings, LLC trustee regarding “loans” the Bidens received. The subpoenas are the second batch issued in two days, signaling Comer’s initiative to cast a wide net around the Biden family business. The subpoenas and transcribed interview requests include: “Moneyman” Eric Schwerin (Subpoena) Former top CEFC China Energy Co. official Mervyn Yan (Subpoena) Art dealer Georges Bergès (Subpoena) Art buyer Elizabeth Naftali (Subpoena) Trustee, Americore Health, LLC, Carol Fox Associate Joey Langston Ukrainian-American businessman and longtime donor to...

A Russian oligarch has been charged with allegedly paying $1 million to Rudy Giuliani associates Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas as part of a scheme to influence the 2018 US elections through illegal straw donations, prosecutors announced Monday. Andrey Muraviev, 47, was charged with conspiring with Fruman, Parnas and Andrey Kukushkin to pay US politicians illegal donations in order to help them secure licenses to start a legal marijuana business.

A strange thing happened when Jeffrey Epstein came back to New York City after being branded a sex offender: His reputation appeared to rise. In 2010, the year after he got out of a Florida prison, Katie Couric and George Stephanopoulos dined at his Manhattan mansion with a British royal. The next year, Mr. Epstein was photographed at a “billionaire’s dinner” attended by tech titans like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. A page popped up on Harvard University’s website lauding his accomplishments, and superlative-filled news releases described his lofty ambitions as he dedicated $10 million to charitable causes.

When MSNBC's Thomas Roberts announced the new line of Duck Commander guns on January 3rd, he was joined by Len Everett of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. Everett claimed Phil Robertson, of Duck Dynasty fame, made his controversial comments to sell guns to conservative, middle-aged, white males and criticized the Robertson family for selling the kinds of guns used in mass shootings. Roberts used leading questions to guide Everett in making these points throughout the segment. For example, Roberts introduced Everett by pointing out that the new line of guns includes a "semi-automatic pistol" and "two semi-automatic rifles." Moreover,...

A major scandal amoung influential Democrats just broke, and so far it appears to be flying under the radar. Stephen Losey at Federal Times has the scoop. bilde.jpg In a nutshell: Alan Kessler, the former finance vice chair of the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's finance chair during her 2008 campaign, resigned suddenly from his position on the USPS' Board of Governors last month. Turns out, he was pressuring postal officials to back off of a land deal that would have cost his friend, Douglas Band -- who is Bill Clinton's lawyer, helps run the Clinton Foundation and helped...

Iraq hanging video shown to reporters BAGHDAD, Iraq - The official video of hanging of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants screened for reporters Monday showed the former leader's half brother lying headless below the gallows, his severed head several yards away. The video shows Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam's half brother and former intelligence chief, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, being hanged side by side. They wore red prison jumpsuits. As they reached the gallows, black hoods were put on their heads and five masked men surrounded them. After the trap doors opened, al-Bandar could be seen dangling from the...

As dismay grows in his own party and among many observers over Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s seemingly surprising embrace and defense of left-liberal Democrat Rob Reiner and his tenure as chairman of the California Children and Families Commission, it is becoming evident that some of Schwarzenegger’s highest ranking appointees and advisors have long been involved with the controversial commission and the movie director/initiative promoter himself and have played key roles in the direction the program has taken. “The First 5 Commission,” says one Schwarzenegger friend using the Reiner commission’s nickname, “and Reiner himself have been much closer to the governor...

Federal prosecutors want financial records on incoming state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata and several of his relatives and closest associates, according to a subpoena issued in a federal grand jury probe into possible public corruption. One such subpoena -- obtained by the Oakland Tribune on condition that the recipient remain anonymous -- names Perata, D-Oakland; his son, Nick Perata of Oakland; his daughter, Rebecca Perata-Rosati, and his son-in-law, Michael Rosati, both of Alameda; his former aide, Oakland lobbyist Lily Hu; political consultant Sandra Polka; Perata's friend and sometime business partner Timothy Staples of Sacramento; and several of these...

The leak of a CIA operative's name has also exposed the identity of a CIA front company, potentially expanding the damage caused by the original disclosure, Bush administration officials said yesterday. The company's identity, Brewster-Jennings & Associates, became public because it appeared in Federal Election Commission records on a form filled out in 1999 by Valerie Plame, the case officer at the center of the controversy, when she contributed $1,000 to Al Gore's presidential primary campaign. After the name of the company was broadcast yesterday, administration officials confirmed that it was a CIA front. They said the obscure and possibly...

Mugabe gave white farms to 'violent' associates By Basildon Peta Southern Africa Correspondent 28 March 2003 An inquiry into President Robert Mugabe's land reforms in Zimbabwe has uncovered massive corruption in the allocation of farms seized from white farmers, ostensibly for the resettlement of landless black peasants. The black farmers, originally resettled on the farms, are being evicted to pave the way for Mr Mugabe's cronies, many of whom own up to five farms. In Zimbabwe's tobacco-producing Mashonaland province, about 90 formerly productive white farms are lying idle because Mr Mugabe's associates are arguing about how to carve up the...

<p>WASHINGTON --Hillary Rodham Clinton has begun building a national political organization, softening her liberal image and taking a lead role in Democratic criticism of President Bush--steps toward a potential campaign to become the first female president.</p> <p>Former President Bill Clinton speaks about his wife's run for the presidency as a matter of when, not if, say people who have discussed it with him. Several of her associates said she is eyeing 2008 as the year to run.</p> <p>Sen. Clinton (D-N.Y.) said Friday that she will not break a pledge to complete her 6-year term, which expires in 2006.</p>