Hunter Biden's attorneys fired back Monday after a private investigation firm again attempted to stage a highly unusual intervention in
his ongoing child-custody dispute in Arkansas, this time claiming its
investigators have lawfully obtained access to Biden's bank account
records and confirmed his involvement in a massive, $156 million
"counterfeiting scheme."
In a motion to strike,
Biden's legal team unconditionally denied the unverified claims, and
called the effort by the Florida-based D&A Investigations another
obviously bogus "scheme by a non-party simply to make scandalous
allegations in the pending suit to gain media attention without any
material or pertinent material."
D&A claimed in its most recent filing Dec.
27 with the court in Independence County, Ark., that it has provided
attorneys for Lunden Alexis Roberts, who was seeking custody over the
child she said Hunter Biden fathered, "access to [Hunter Biden's] bank
account records subject of known felonies including fraud and
counterfeiting." D&A was seeking to be added as a party to the case,
claiming it could support Roberts' accusations and prove that Biden was
involved in illegal activity while dodging discovery quests.
D&A
alleged that the "bank account records bear exhibit identifier(s) known
by [Hunter Biden] as the subject of criminal investigation(s) both
adjudicated and ongoing, of which he is a party to." The firm also
claimed the bank records "provide the source and destination bank
account numbers of Burisma Holdings Limited, PrivatBank, Bank of China,
[Hunter Biden's] business partners, Rosement Seneca Bohai," and others.
Speaking
to Fox News late Monday, D&A claimed the FBI and Justice Department
have been investigating PrivatBank, the Ukrainian natural gas company
Burisma, Biden and others since April 2019 -- and that the investigation
remained open. The FBI did not return a request for comment from Fox
News.
The
bank records "verify the counterfeiting scheme accumulating
$156,073,944.24 with an average account value (monthly balance) in the
amount of $6,785,823.66." Burisma, the filing claimed, financed
"Atlantic Council (Ukraine) and associated rogue operatives from the
[U.S. State Department], FVEY, and CrowdStrike in Ukraine, suing
PrivatBank."
Hunter Biden held a lucrative role on the board of
Burisma while his father oversaw Ukraine policy as vice president,
prompting even career State Department officials to flag a possible conflict of interest. CrowdStrike
is a cybersecurity company that Trump said possessed the Democratic
National Committee (DNC) server that was hacked during the 2016 campaign
-- a claim that fact-checkers repeatedly have said was wholly invented.
Biden's
attorneys did not immediately respond to Fox News' requests for comment
late Monday. But, the lawyers told the court that D&A's motion to
intervene was riddled with falsehoods and clearly procedurally improper,
and that Arkansas law required that intervening parties share some
common issue with the existing case.
D&A had not even
attempted to explain how its latest filing complied with the law,
Biden's team said, noting that the latest motion to intervene simply
outlined a series of accusations with no legal or factual support.
The
court has not yet ruled on Biden's latest motion to strike. Shortly
after Biden's team filed, an individual in Jerusalem, Joel Caplan, filed his own bizarre motion to intervene,
saying he has lost money in the "China hustle." After saying his
investments were "basically robbed" overseas, Caplan ended his motion by
telling the court, "Thank you for your time!"
This photo obtained exclusively by Fox News showed Devon Archer,
far left, with former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, far
right, in 2014. Joe Biden has denied ever discussing his son's overseas
business dealings; Archer served with Hunter Biden on the board of
Ukraine-based Burisma Holdings.
D&A was the same firm that worked with the
defense team of Casey Anthony, a Florida woman acquitted of murdering
her child in a highly publicized trial in 2011. Anthony later accused the private investigator of smearing her for media attention.
And, D&A's website is full of head-turning and unsubstantiated claims,
including that CNN anchor Jake Tapper was a "propaganda actor" for
Netflix. The website also called Democrats' impeachment efforts against
Trump a "sham."
The legal saga began last week. D&A asserted in a Dec. 23 "Notice of Fraud and Counterfeiting and Production of Evidence" filed
with the Arkansas court that the 49-year-old Biden was the subject of
multiple criminal probes and "established bank and financial accounts
with Morgan Stanley et al" for Burisma for a "money laundering scheme."
The court quickly struck that filing, saying it had violated state procedural rules which required that intervening parties raise a claim that shared a "question of law or fact in common" with the existing case.
Then,
the firm told Fox News to expect another filing soon -- and asserted
its investigators have found that the intelligence community
whistleblower at the center of the Democrats' impeachment of President
Trump accompanied Joe Biden when he traveled to Ukraine in early 2016 and, by his own admission, pressured the country's government to fire its top prosecutor by threatening to withhold $1 billion in U.S. aid.
The whistleblower's attorney, Mark Zaid, did not respond to Fox News' request for comment on D&A's claims, which Fox News has not independently verified. Zaid previously has acknowledged that
the whistleblower had "contact" with presidential candidates of both
parties, amid reports that he had a "professional working relationship"
with one of the Democrats seeking the White House in 2020.
Zaid openly declared that a "coup has started" against the administration all the way back in 2017, and promised that impeachment would result.
D&A's
incendiary claims highlighted some unanswered questions that could
arise in a possible GOP-led impeachment trial in the Senate. Most
notably, after leaving the vice presidency, Joe Biden attended a
conference at which he discussed a previously unreported meeting in
Ukraine for the first time.
"I said, 'I’m telling you, you’re not getting the billion dollars,'" Biden boasted at the conference.
"I said, 'You’re not getting the billion. I’m going to be leaving here
in --,' I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said, 'I’m
leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting
the money.' Well, son of a b----. He got fired, and they put in place
someone who was solid at the time."
The prosecutor, Viktor Shokin,
was fired in March 2016, and had widely been accused of corruption
himself. However, publicly available records showed that Joe Biden did not officially travel to Ukraine in 2016.
Meanwhile,
in her filing in the case, the 28-year-old Roberts claimed Hunter Biden
has "had no involvement in the child's life since the child's birth,
never interacted with the child, never parented the child," and "could
not identify the child out of a photo lineup."
DNA tests allegedly confirmed "with scientific certainty" that Hunter Biden was the biological father of Roberts' baby, according to court documents filed in November.
Joe Biden tangled with a Fox News reporter when asked about that development.
"I'm
wondering if you have a comment on this report, and court filing, out
of Arkansas, that your son Hunter just made you a grandfather again,"
Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked.
"No, that’s a private matter and I have no comment," Biden fired back before attacking the reporte
"Only you would ask that," Biden said. "You're a good man. You're a good man. Classy."
Hunter Biden reportedly is expecting a child with his wife Melissa Cohen Biden, whom he married this past May. Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.
Sen. Chuck Schumer on Monday took up his push to have the Senate issue subpoenas that
demand testimony from top Trump administration officials during the
Senate impeachment trial after a new report claims to detail what
occurred inside the administration during the decision to freeze aid to
Ukraine.
The New York Democrat sent a letter last week
to fellow senators that cited records including an email sent by the
Office of Management and Budget Associate Director Michael Duffey to
Defense Department officials roughly an hour-and-a-half after Trump's
controversial July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The
email showed a push to place aid on hold after Trump made his request
for Ukraine's help in political investigations. The House voted to impeach Trump earlier this month on obstruction of Congress and abuse of power.
Schumer on Monday pointed to a New York Times report
published Sunday that claimed that Trump went forward with freezing the
aid despite warnings from his top staffers, including Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo and his former adviser John Bolton.
Schumer called the new revelations a "game-changer."
"This
shows all four witnesses we requested—[acting White House chief of
staff] Mulvaney, Bolton, Duffey, [White House aide Robert] Blair—were
intimately involved & had direct knowledge of Pres. Trump’s decision
to cut off aid to benefit himself," Schumer tweeted.
Schumer
was likely referring to the report that said Mulvaney wrote an email to
Blair on June 27 inquiring about "the money for Ukraine and whether we
can hold it back?" Blair reportedly responded that it was possible but
warned him to "expect Congress to become unhinged," and further the
narrative that the president was pro-Russia, the report said.
Trump
has insisted he did nothing wrong regarding Ukraine and said his
intention was to determine whether of not Keiv was making good on its
promise to crackdown on corruption. He called the entire process a
"hoax." Fox News' Ronn Blitzer contributed to this report
WHITE
SETTLEMENT, Texas (AP) — A man pulled out a shotgun at a Texas church
service and fired on worshippers Sunday, killing two people before he
was shot to death by congregants who fired back, police said.
Authorities
at a Sunday evening news conference praised the two congregants who
opened fire as part of a volunteer security team at West Freeway Church
of Christ in White Settlement. It was unclear if the two people who were
killed were the two who shot at the gunman.
“This
team responded quickly and within six seconds, the shooting was over.
Two of the parishioners who were volunteers of the security force drew
their weapons and took out the killer immediately, saving untold number
of lives,” said Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who also hailed the state’s gun
laws.
Britt Farmer, senior minister of the church, said, “We lost two great men today, but it could have been a lot worse.”
Authorities said there were more than 240 parishioners in the West Freeway Church at the time of the shooting.
White
Settlement Police Department Chief J.P. Bevering said the gunman had
sat down in a pew before getting up, taking out a shotgun and firing at a
parishioner, who was killed. He said the church’s security team then
“eliminated the threat.”
Officials
have not released the names of the victims or the gunman. FBI Special
Agent in Charge Matthew DeSarno said they’re working to identify the
gunman’s motive, adding that he is “relatively transient” but had roots
in the area.
DeSarno also said the gunman had been arrested multiple times in the past but declined to give details.
An elder at the church told the New York Times that one of those killed was a security guard who responded to the shooter, calling him a dear friend.
“He was trying to do what he needed to do to protect the rest of us,” said the elder, Mike Tinius.
“It’s extremely upsetting to see anyone committing violence,” he said.
Tinius said he didn’t know the gunman and that the shooting appeared to be random.
A
woman who answered the phone at the West Freeway Church of Christ told
the AP she could not answer any questions and that she was told to
direct inquiries to authorities.
In
a livestream of the church service, the gunman can be seen getting up
from a pew and talking to someone at the back of the church before
pulling out a gun and opening fire. Parishioners can then be heard
screaming and seen ducking under pews or running as papers fly to the
floor.
Two
people with minor injuries that were sustained while ducking for cover
were treated at the scene, MedStar Mobile Healthcare spokeswoman Macara
Trusty said.
Gov.
Greg Abbott asked the state to pray for the victims, their loved ones
and the community of White Settlement, about 8 miles (12 kilometers)
west of Fort Worth.
“Places
of worship are meant to be sacred, and I am grateful for the church
members who acted quickly to take down the shooter and help prevent
further loss of life,” Abbott said in a tweeted statement.
It is not the first deadly shooting to take place at a church in Texas. In November 2017, Devin Patrick Kelley
opened fire on the congregation at a church in Sutherland Springs,
killing more than two dozen worshippers, before taking his own life. And
in 1999, a gunman killed seven people in Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth before detonating an explosive device and killing himself.
Sunday’s
shooting in Texas was also the second attack on a religious gathering
in the U.S. in less than 24 hours. On Saturday night, a man stabbed five people as they celebrated Hanukkah in an Orthodox Jewish community north of New York City.
This
is around the time of the winter break that children have busted most
of the toys they acquired for Christmas and mom and dad can't wait for
the kids to go back to school.
It kind of works this way in Congress, too.
Everyone
has played with all of the toys over the holidays. Everyone has tired
of their toys or broken them. And lawmakers start to get antsy to head
back to Capitol Hill. We conceivably have another week-and-a-half or
more of the interregnum.
No votes are scheduled in the Senate until January 6. Nothing in the House until January 7. However,
the prospects of a Senate trial – and any potential negotiations
between Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Senate
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) loom. And no one has any clue
exactly what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is up to, clinging to the articles of impeachment adopted earlier this month by the House.
The House has to vote to send the articles over to the Senate. If and
when the Speaker will ever send the articles to the Senate remains
unclear.
So everyone in Washington is focused on a Senate trial
and if there will ever be a Senate trial. How long it goes. Who
testifies. If there are ever any GOP defectors. At this stage, there’s
still no chance the Senate convicts and removes President Trump.
So, what does Congress have on its docket this year once the impeachment trial wraps up?
Frankly, not a lot when it comes to significant legislation.
The Senate still needs to sync up with the House and approve the USMCA.
McConnell says the Senate won’t tackle that until the trial is
complete. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
scheduled a “markup” session for early January to prep the USMCA for the
floor. If the articles of impeachment remain in abeyance, it’s possible
the Senate could turn to the trade pact sooner rather than later.
The government is now funded through September 30, 2020.
The Senate will likely focus on confirming more judges. House Democrats
will return to their “For the People” agenda, promoting voting rights,
bolstering election security and curbing firearm violence. Any future
Supreme Court vacancy could make the confirmation battle over Justice
Brett Kavanaugh look like Joe Burrow picking apart the Oklahoma secondary.
There’s just not a lot of big-ticket legislative items on the docket.
2020 will be about politics. House and Senate elections and certainly the presidency.
It’s hard to judge if the House is in play.
Even
learned Republicans concede to Fox that there aren’t many pathways to
the majority for the GOP this fall – even with impeachment. They note
that’s why there are so many retirements by House Republicans.
Certainly
everyone will focus on the (now) 29 House Democrats who voted to
impeach President Trump who represent districts Mr. Trump carried in
2016. The figure had been 31 Democrats who occupied districts the
President won. But Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) opposed the articles and
switched parties. Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN) voted nay on both
articles. Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) split his votes, supporting
impeachment on the abuse of power article and opposing the article
dealing with obstruction of Congress. Republicans will certainly target
those Democrats who backed impeachment. But it’s unclear if votes in
favor of impeachment could be enough to flip the House to Republican
control.
House Democrats will continue to pursue a host of
investigations into the Trump Administration and litigate subpoenas to
get various officials to testify or provide documents. And, there is
chatter that the House may not be done with impeachment articles. House
Democrats are leaving the door open to potentially pursue additional
charges down the road.
Meantime, Democrats are already targeting
the Senate as the “legislative graveyard” for dozens of bills approved
by the House. Democrats are prepared to turn up the heat against the
Republican-controlled Senate. Democrats will also make an issue over how
“fair” a Senate trial may be and what that means for at-risk GOP
senators from battleground states: Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Cory
Gardner (R-CO), Martha McSally (R-AZ), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Joni Ernst
(R-IA) and maybe even Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX), David Perdue (R-GA) and
Sen.-designate Kelly Loeffler (R-GA).
Meantime, expect Senate
Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Governmental Affairs
Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Grassley at the Finance panel
to ramp up their inquiries into the 2016 election, FISA abuse, Ukraine
and the Bidens.
And, the GOP Senate brass may try to engineer some
challenging votes in 2020 to trip up the Democratic presidential
contenders who serve in the Senate: Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Amy
Klobuchar (D-MN), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and
Michael Bennet (D-CO). And, consider if one of those senators becomes
the Democratic presidential nominee. Senate Republicans will weaponize
roll call votes to get those senators on the record on controversial
issues. Plus, Republicans will concoct problematic roll call votes to
make vulnerable Democratic senators sweat: think Sens. Doug Jones
(D-AL), Gary Peters (D-MI), Tina Smith (D-MN) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH).
And
then there is President Trump. Without question, the President is the
biggest factor on Capitol Hill in 2020. He always is. The President’s
rallies, speeches, tweets and visits with Graham and Rep. Mark Meadows
(R-NC) will dictate the political contours of Capitol Hill throughout
the year. And buckle in if there is yet another White House conclave
with the President and Pelosi sometime in the next 12 months. The last
two episodes have imploded in phenomenal fashion.
And, if the
Democratic presidential nominee comes from the Senate, the President
will direct a lot of ire toward the other end of Pennsylvania Ave.
So,
it’s around that time of the holidays. Most of the toys from Christmas
are broken. The batteries are dead. The kids are bored. People are
itching to get back to Washington and stir things up.
2020 is an election year. And so 2020 will be mostly about politics and not about legislation.
Rudy Giuliani, President Trump's personal attorney, fired back at Rep. Eric Swalwell after
the California representative tweeted shortly after an attack at a
rabbi's house that the ex-mayor was helping stoke the rise of
anti-Semitism in the U.S.
Swalwell, has been an outspoken critic of Trump, and took to Twitter on Sunday shortly after a knife-wielding man stormed into a rabbi’s home and stabbed five people as they celebrated Hanukkah in an Orthodox Jewish community north of New York City.
Swalwell tweeted an op-ed he penned earlier this month for The Forward
where he warned of the rise of anti-Semitism. He wrote that Giuliani,
among others, "have relentlessly attacked Jewish philanthropists
including Michael Bloomberg and George Soros."
Giuliani has been criticized recently over remarks he made about being "more Jewish" than Soros, the billionaire investor.
Soros, who reportedly survived the Holocaust, has donated heavily to liberal causes
and is vilified on the right. He is also the subject of many unfounded
conspiracy theories. Some have falsely accused him of being a Nazi
collaborator during World War II, when he was a child in Hungary.
Giuliani
told journalist Olivia Nuzzi, "Soros is hardly a Jew. I’m more of a Jew
than Soros is. I probably know more about — he doesn’t go to church, he
doesn’t go to religion — synagogue. He doesn’t belong to a synagogue,
he doesn’t support Israel, he’s an enemy of Israel. He's elected eight
anarchist DA’s in the United States. He’s a horrible human being."
Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, told The Hill that Giuliani’s comments were “baffling and offensive.”
Giuliani
defended himself and was swift to respond to Swalwell’s criticism. He
pointed out his 35 years of taking up causes to defend against
anti-Semitism. He pointed to his prosecution of two Nazi war criminals
and his condemnation anti-Semitism "early & often."
"Meanwhile, Swalwell, doesn’t have the guts to condemn the anti-Semites in his own party—a fraud & COWARD."
In July, the House voted on a resolution to condemn the boycott campaign against Israel and overwhelmingly passed 398-17. Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,
D-N.Y., were among the 16 Democrats who voted against the resolution.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., was the only Republican to vote "no." Rep.
Justin Amash, I-Mich., was one of five lawmakers who voted "present."
Giuliani
did not name any member by name, but Omar has been outspoken against
Israel, once tweeting that lawmakers were supportive of the Jewish state
because they were essentially being paid to do so. It was widely
considered a slur that relied on a trope against Jewish people, and she
later “unequivocally” apologized.
Omar,
who was among a handful of Democrats who voted against the bill
Tuesday, said she supports the long-held U.S. goal of a “two-state
solution,” one for Israel and one for Palestine. But she said at the
time that “truly achieving peace” means “ending this occupation” of
Israeli settlements. The Associated Press contributed to this report
Former Vice President Joe Biden was
interrupted by a series of hecklers calling him "creepy" and a
"pervert" during a campaign event in Milford, N.H., on Sunday night.
Shortly
after Biden started speaking, a man in the back of the room accused him
of acting inappropriately, shouting, "don’t touch kids, you pervert."
"This is not a Trump rally," a flustered Biden fired back. "This is a democracy."
A
woman then started chanting "quid pro Joe," before another attendee
shouted at the 2020 hopeful, inquiring about Biden's business dealings
in Ukraine.
“I've released 21 years of my tax returns, how many has yours? What's he hiding?" Biden responded.
The
last two hecklers' comments seemingly referred to Biden's links to
Ukraine, which President Trump referenced in his July 25 phone call with
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a call that ultimately led to
Trump's impeachment. Biden previously said that back in 2016, he had
threatened to cut off loan guarantees to Ukraine unless the country
replaced its prosecutor general, an official who had faced widespread
allegations of corruption. Ukraine ultimately did replace the prosecutor
that year.
Many Democrats said Trump improperly urged Zelensky to
open investigations into Ukraine’s alleged involvement in the 2016
election, as well as into Biden and his son Hunter’s dealings in the
country, withholding military aid as leverage. The president has denied
doing anything wrong.
No campaign staff or law enforcement removed the hecklers from the event.
Earlier
this month, Biden blasted a man at an Iowa town hall as a "da-- liar"
-- and challenged him to a push-up contest -- after he accused the
77-year-old former vice president of being "too old" and took a swipe at
son Hunter's role on the board of a controversial Ukrainian natural gas firm.
"You
sent your son over there to get a job and work for a gas company where
he had no experience. ... In order to get access for the
president... you're selling access to the president just like he was,”
the questioner said.
Biden fired back: "You’re a da-- liar, man. That's not true and no one has ever said that."
Biden,
who would be 78 upon becoming president if he wins, repeatedly has
defended his fitness on the campaign trail, noting that with age "comes
wisdom."
The
2020 hopeful was ramping up his campaign efforts ahead of early voting
contests in Iowa and New Hampshire, as nobody has emerged as a clear
front-runner to win the Democrats' race for the presidential nomination. Fox News' Allie Raffa in Milford, N.H., contributed to this report.
This photo obtained exclusively by Fox News showed Devon Archer,
far left, with former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, far
right, in 2014. Joe Biden has denied ever discussing his son's overseas
business dealings; Archer served with Hunter Biden on the board of
Ukraine-based Burisma Holdings.
