Hunter Biden seeks dismissal of tax, gun cases, citing decision to toss Trump’s classified docs case

Hunter Biden seeks dismissal of tax, gun cases, citing decision to toss Trump’s classified docs case
Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Biden, with his wife Melissa Cohen Biden. (REUTERS/File Photo)
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Updated 19 July 2024
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Hunter Biden seeks dismissal of tax, gun cases, citing decision to toss Trump’s classified docs case

Hunter Biden seeks dismissal of tax, gun cases, citing decision to toss Trump’s classified docs case
  • Biden's lawyers are now saying that like in Trump's case, Biden was also prosecuted by a special counsel appointed by the US attorney general, and should therefore be dismissed
  • A district judge on Monday dismissed the classified documents case against Trump, ruling that the appointment of a special counsel who prosecuted Trump was not valid

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, asked federal judges on Thursday to dismiss tax and gun cases against him, citing a ruling in Florida this week that threw out a separate prosecution of former President Donald Trump.
The requests in federal court in Delaware and California underscore the potential ramifications of US District Judge Aileen Cannon’s dismissal Monday of the classified documents case against Trump and the possibility that it could unsettle the legal landscape surrounding Justice Department special counsels.
Both Hunter Biden and Trump were prosecuted by special counsels appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland. In dismissing the Trump case, Cannon ruled that the appointment of the special counsel who prosecuted Trump, Jack Smith, violated the Constitution because he was appointed directly to the position by Garland instead of being nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
Smith’s team has said the Justice Department followed long-establishment precedent — for instance, the Trump-era appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate Russian election interference was upheld by courts — and has appealed Cannon’s dismissal to a federal appeals court in Atlanta.
In a pair of filings Thursday, lawyers for Hunter Biden said the same logic should apply in his cases and should result in the dismissal of a pending tax prosecution in Los Angeles — currently set for trial in September — and a separate firearm case in Delaware, in which Hunter Biden was convicted in June of three felony charges.
Hunter Biden’s team had raised similar arguments before, unsuccessfully, but they say there’s now good reason to reconsider them. Both of Hunter Biden’s cases are being overseen by judges nominated by Trump. Cannon, the judge who threw out Trump’s case, was also nominated by the former Republican president.
“Based on these new legal developments, Mr. Biden moves to dismiss the indictment brought against him because the Special Counsel who initiated this prosecution was appointed in violation of the Appointments Clause as well,” Hunter Biden’s lawyers wrote. They also cited an opinion this month by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas that questioned the propriety of a special counsel appointment.
“The Attorney General relied upon the exact same authority to appoint the Special Counsel in both the Trump and Biden matters, and both appointments are invalid for the same reason,” the lawyers added.
Smith and the special counsel who prosecuted Hunter Biden, David Weiss, are different in that Smith was hired from outside the Justice Department while Weiss was working as the US Attorney in Delaware at the time of his appointment.
A spokesperson for Weiss said they are aware of the filings from Hunter Biden’s legal team and “will respond in due course.”
In her ruling, Cannon noted that a special counsel’s powers are “arguably broader than a traditional United States Attorney, as he is permitted to exercise his investigatory powers across multiple districts within the same investigation.”
Hunter Biden’s lawyers pointed out Thursday that that’s exactly what happened in his case, as Weiss in his role as special counsel filed cases against Biden in California and Delaware and separately brought charges against a former FBI informant charged with lying about the Bidens.
“Mere US Attorneys do not have that power. Given that Congress requires a US Attorney to be nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate, it makes no sense to assume that Congress would allow the Attorney General to unilaterally appoint someone as Special Counsel with equal or greater power than a US Attorney,” Hunter Biden’s lawyers wrote. “That is what has been attempted here.”
Jurors found Hunter Biden guilty in June of lying about his drug use in 2018 on a federal form to buy a firearm that he had for about 11 days. The trial put a spotlight on a dark period in Hunter Biden’s life during which he became addicted to crack cocaine after the 2015 death of his brother, Beau. He has said he’s been sober since 2019.
Hunter Biden faces up to 25 years in prison when he is sentenced in the gun case by US District Judge Maryellen Noreika, though as a first-time offender he would not get anywhere near the maximum, and there’s no guarantee the judge would send him to prison. She has not set a sentencing date.
The tax case centers on at least $1.4 million in taxes prosecutors say he failed to pay over four years. The back taxes have since been paid.
The long-running federal investigation into the president’s son had looked ready to wrap up with a plea deal last year, but the agreement imploded after a judge raised questions about it. Hunter Biden was subsequently indicted in both cases.


Jury finds Illinois landlord guilty of murder, hate crime in 2023 attack on Palestinian American boy

Jury finds Illinois landlord guilty of murder, hate crime in 2023 attack on Palestinian American boy
Updated 12 sec ago
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Jury finds Illinois landlord guilty of murder, hate crime in 2023 attack on Palestinian American boy

Jury finds Illinois landlord guilty of murder, hate crime in 2023 attack on Palestinian American boy
  • Ben Crump, the national civil rights attorney representing Shaheen, released a statement calling the verdict a “measure of justice”
  • “Wadee was an innocent six-year-old child whose life was stolen in an act of unimaginable violence fueled by hatred,” the statement added

JOLIET, Illinois: A jury found an Illinois landlord guilty of murder and hate crime charges Friday for the brutal killing of a 6-year-old whose mother rented rooms in the man’s home, an attack that spiked fears over anti-Muslim discrimination in the earliest days of the war in Gaza.
Joseph Czuba, 73, was charged in the fatal stabbing of Wadee Alfayoumi and the wounding of his mother, Hanan Shaheen on Oct. 14, 2023 in Plainfield, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) from Chicago. Authorities alleged the family was targeted because of their Islamic faith and as a response to the war between Israel and Hamas that erupted on Oct. 7, 2023.
Jurors deliberated less than 90 minutes before returning with the verdict.
“I don’t know if I should be pleased or upset, if I should be crying or laughing,” Wadee’s father, Odai Alfayoumi, said at a news conference, speaking in Arabic. “People are telling me to smile. Maybe if I were one of you, I would be smiling, but I’m the father of the child and I’ve lost the child. And I feel like this decision came to a little too late.”
Ben Crump, the national civil rights attorney representing Shaheen, released a statement calling the verdict a “measure of justice.”
“Wadee was an innocent six-year-old child whose life was stolen in an act of unimaginable violence fueled by hatred,” the statement added. “While we are relieved that his killer has been held accountable, we must continue to stand against the rising tide of hate that led to this senseless act. We must honor Wadee’s memory by continuing to fight against hate in all its forms and working toward a future where every child is safe, valued, and free from violence.”
Crump asked that the media continue respecting Shaheen’s privacy as she honors her son’s memory.
Shaheen did not speak at a press conference following the jury decision. Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the civil rights group Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR-Chicago, said it was too difficult for her and added that she “only prays for peace and love.”
The trial featured detailed testimony from police officers, medical workers, Czuba’s ex-wife and Shaheen, who described how Czuba attacked her with a knife before going after her son in a different room. Prosecutors say that the child had been stabbed 26 times. He was found naked with a knife still in his side.
Graphic photos of the murder, a knife holder Czuba allegedly used that day, along with police video footage were central to the Will County prosecutors’ case. At times video screens showing explicit footage were turned away from the public viewing audience where members of Wadee’s family sat during the trial.
“If it wasn’t enough that this defendant killed that little boy, he left the knife in the little boy’s body,” Michael Fitzgerald, a Will County assistant state’s attorney, told jurors during opening statements.
Czuba’s attorney, George Lenard, declined comment Friday. Czuba had pleaded not guilty. He faced murder, attempted murder, aggravated battery and hate crime charges in an eight-count indictment.
Czuba is scheduled for sentencing on May 2, according to the Will County Circuit Clerk’s office.
Defense attorneys insisted pieces of evidence tying Czuba to the crimes were missing. His ex-wife, testifying for the prosecution, could only describe one outburst during their 30 years of marriage and said he carried knives often because he was handy around the house.
“Go beyond the emotions to carefully examine the evidence,” said Kylie Blatti, one of Czuba’s public defenders. “It is easy to get lost in the horror of those images.”
One of the critical parts of the trial was Shaheen’s testimony and the 911 call she made to report the crime that happened just days after the war started. She said they had not previously had any issues in the two years they rented from the Czubas. They shared a kitchen and living room with the Czubas.
Then after the start of the war, Czuba told her that they had to move out because Muslims were not welcome. Later, he confronted Shaheen and attacked her, holding her down, stabbing her and trying to break her teeth.
“He told me ‘You, as a Muslim, must die,” said Shaheen, who testified in English and Arabic though a translator.
Shaheen had more than a dozen stab wounds and it took her weeks to recover. The boy was later pronounced dead.
Police testified that officers found Czuba outside the house sitting on the ground with blood on his body and hands.
Separately, civil lawsuits have been filed over the boy’s death, including by his father, Alfayoumi, who is divorced from Shaheen and was not living with them.
The case generated headlines around the world and struck deeply for the Chicago area’s large and established Palestinian community. The US Department of Justice also launched a federal hate crimes investigation.
“All of us who are parents, who are Arab or Palestinian … who are Muslim, we all saw our children die in Wadee Alfayoumi, because this could have been any one of our boys, any one of our girls,” CAIR-Chicago’s Rehab said. “It just so happened that it was Wadee Alfayoumi. When he was targeted, all of our children were targeted. Every Muslim was targeted when he (Czuba) yelled, ‘All Muslims must die.’”

 


British minister resigns over overseas aid cut

British minister resigns over overseas aid cut
Updated 01 March 2025
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British minister resigns over overseas aid cut

British minister resigns over overseas aid cut
  • In her letter, Dodds said she backed the need for higher defense spending and knew that the aid budget might have to pay for some of that increase

LONDON: The British minister responsible for international development quit on Friday after Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s decision earlier this week to ramp up defense spending by slashing the foreign aid budget.
In a letter to Starmer, which she posted on social media, Anneliese Dodds resigned as international development minister and minister for women, saying there were “no easy paths” to increasing defense spending but that she disagreed with the decision to cut overseas aid.
On Tuesday, Starmer said the government would raise UK defense spending to 2.5 percent of gross domestic product by 2027 from the current 2.3 percent, saying Europe is in a new era of insecurity that requires a “generational response.”
The increase would be funded by reducing the aid budget from 0.5 percent of GDP to 0.3 percent, a decision that Starmer described as “very difficult and painful.”
In her letter, Dodds said she backed the need for higher defense spending and knew that the aid budget might have to pay for some of that increase.
But she said the scale of the cut was so big it will “remove food and health care from desperate people” and “deeply” harm the UK’s reputation.
“You have maintained that you want to continue support for Gaza, Sudan, and Ukraine; for vaccination; for climate; and for rules-based systems,” said Dodds, who attended Cabinet meetings.
“Yet it will be impossible to maintain these priorities given the depth of the cut; the effect will be far greater than presented.”
The increase in defense spending has been sharply criticized by aid agencies, who said it harmed some of the world’s poorest people and reduced Britain’s soft power.
In her letter, Dodds said she held back from resigning earlier this week when the cut to the aid budget was announced as it was “imperative” Starmer had “a united Cabinet” behind him ahead of his trip to Washington. 

 


UN authorizes evacuation of staff families from Burundi

UN authorizes evacuation of staff families from Burundi
Updated 01 March 2025
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UN authorizes evacuation of staff families from Burundi

UN authorizes evacuation of staff families from Burundi
  • DR Congo’s government and rebels traded blame for several explosions at a rally in the eastern city of Bukavu that killed 13 people and wounded scores of others the previous day

NAIROBI: The UN has authorized the evacuation of families of its international staff from Burundi following violence in DR Congo, according to a letter seen by AFP on Friday.
The Rwanda-backed M23 group has, in recent weeks, seized two major cities in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, or DRC, giving the armed group a significant foothold in the mineral-rich region since taking up arms again in late 2021.
The group has continued its advance, and the fighting has moved closer to the Burundian border, with the small Great Lakes nation — which has supported Kinshasa with some 10,000 troops under a previous agreement — increasingly sounding the alarm.
The UN authorized the evacuation of Bujumbura-based families of its staff last week, according to a letter dated Feb. 21 from the UN’s Department of Safety and Security and seen by AFP.
Several flights have been chartered since then, a UN employee with knowledge of the departures said on Thursday.
“Others are expected ... to bring these families and certain non-essential personnel to safety,” the employee added.
“We are acting with the greatest discretion so as not to upset the government,” the source said, stressing these are “instructions that apply everywhere ... when there are security risks.”
On Thursday, Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye — who previously warned against the threat posed by Rwanda — adopted a more conciliatory tone.
“We are still committed to resolving the differences between our two countries by peaceful means,” he told the diplomatic corps in Burundi’s capital of Gitega.
However, his statement came as military and local sources said Burundi had placed troops on its border, some 10 km from Kamanyola town and the M23 advance.
Burundian military sources said troops were being withdrawn earlier this month, although officials denied this.
Burundi is also seeing the most significant influx of refugees in 25 years, with more than 43,000 people crossing the border in the last two weeks, the UN said.
DR Congo’s government and rebels traded blame for several explosions at a rally in the eastern city of Bukavu that killed 13 people and wounded scores of others the previous day.
The finger-pointing over the deadly incident has further inflamed tensions in eastern Congo.
Congo’s army said Rwandan troops, who it accuses of supporting the rebels, fired rockets and grenades into a crowd gathered in Bukavu’s central square for a speech by one of the uprising’s leaders on Thursday.
“The Rwandan army and its (proxies) bombed and fired live ammunition at the civilian population who, although forced to attend this meeting, expressed their disapproval of the Rwandan aggression,” Congo’s Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Corneille Nangaa, leader of a rebel alliance that includes M23, blamed Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi for the violence in Bukavu.
He told a press conference on Thursday that the grenades used were the same type as those used by the Burundian army, which has backed Congo’s military. Reuters could not independently verify this.

 


Pope had coughing fit, inhaled vomit and now requires assisted ventilation, Vatican says

Pope had coughing fit, inhaled vomit and now requires assisted ventilation, Vatican says
Updated 01 March 2025
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Pope had coughing fit, inhaled vomit and now requires assisted ventilation, Vatican says

Pope had coughing fit, inhaled vomit and now requires assisted ventilation, Vatican says
  • The episode, which occurred in the early afternoon, resulted in a “sudden worsening of the respiratory picture”
  • Doctors decided to keep Francis’ prognosis as guarded and indicated they needed 24 to 48 hours to evaluate how and if the episode impacted his overall clinical condition

ROME: Pope Francis suffered an isolated coughing fit on Friday that resulted in him inhaling vomit and requiring non-invasive mechanical ventilation, the Vatican said in relaying an alarming setback in his two-week long battle against double pneumonia.
The 88-year-old pope remained conscious and alert at all times and cooperated with the maneuvers to help him recover. He responded well, with a good level of oxygen exchange and was continuing to wear a mask to receive supplemental oxygen, the Vatican said.
The episode, which occurred in the early afternoon, resulted in a “sudden worsening of the respiratory picture.” Doctors decided to keep Francis’ prognosis as guarded and indicated they needed 24 to 48 hours to evaluate how and if the episode impacted his overall clinical condition.
The development marked a setback in what had been two successive days of increasingly upbeat reports from doctors treating Francis at Rome’s Gemelli hospital since Feb. 14. The pope, who had part of one lung removed as a young man, has lung disease and was admitted after a bout of bronchitis worsened and turned into pneumonia in both lungs.
Dr. John Coleman, a pulmonary critical care doctor at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, said the episode as relayed by the Vatican was alarming and underscored Francis’ fragility and that his condition “can turn very quickly.”
“I think this is extremely concerning, given the fact that the pope has been in the hospital now for over two weeks, and now he’s continuing to have these respiratory events and now had this aspiration event that is requiring even higher levels of support,” he told The Associated Press.
“So given his age and his fragile state and his previous lung resection, this is very concerning,” added Coleman, who is not involved in Francis’ care.
Dr. William Feldman, a pulmonary specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said it was a good sign that the pope remained alert and oriented, but concurred that the episode marked “a worrying turn.”
“Often we will use noninvasive ventilation as a way of trying to stave off an intubation, or the use of invasive mechanical ventilation,” Feldman said.
Types of noninvasive ventilation include a BiPAP machine, which helps people breathe by pushing air into their lungs. Doctors will often try such a machine for a while to see if the patient’s blood gas levels improve so they can eventually go back to using oxygen alone.
The episode, which doctors described as an “isolated crisis of bronchial spasm” began as a coughing fit in which Francis inhaled vomit. The longer respiratory crisis Francis suffered on Feb. 22 was a longer crisis in actually breathing, the Vatican said.
Doctors did not resume referring to Francis being in “critical condition,” which has been absent from their statements for three days now. But they say he isn’t out of danger, given the complexity of his case.
Earlier on Friday, Francis had spent the morning alternating high flows of supplemental oxygen with a mask and praying in the chapel. He had breakfast, read the day’s newspapers and was receiving respiratory physiotherapy, the Vatican said.
The Vatican also published a document signed by Francis on Feb. 26 “From the Gemelli Polyclinic,” a new official tagline that showed Francis was still working from the hospital.
Prayers continued to pour in
Late on Friday, Francis’ closest friend in the Vatican bureaucracy, Argentine Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, led the nightly prayer in St. Peter’s Square to pray for Francis’ health.
With other cardinals bundled against the night chill, Fernández urged the crowd to pray not just for Francis but for others as the pope himself would.
“Certainly it is close to the Holy Father’s heart that our prayer is not only for him, but also for all those who in this particular dramatic and suffering moment of the world, bear the hard burden of war, of sickness, of poverty,” said Fernández, the Vatican’s doctrine chief.
In Mexico City, a few dozen people gathered Thursday night at the cathedral to pray for Francis’ recovery.
“He is like part of the family,” said Araceli Gutiérrez, who treasures the time she saw the pope during his trip to the country of nearly 100 million Catholics in 2016. “That’s why we feel so concerned for him.”
María Teresa Sánchez, who was visiting from Colombia with her sister, said that she has always felt close to Francis — the first Latin American pope.
“That’s like having a relative within the higher-ups, with God,” she said. “He has done so much for religion; he’s such a humble person.”


Macron urges Algeria to help mend diplomatic ties

Macron urges Algeria to help mend diplomatic ties
Updated 01 March 2025
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Macron urges Algeria to help mend diplomatic ties

Macron urges Algeria to help mend diplomatic ties
  • Hard-line French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has led the verbal attacks on Algeria in the media, fueling tensions between the countries

LISBON: French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday warned Algeria against playing “political games” with frayed diplomatic ties between the two countries, notably over immigration.
Relations between Paris and Algiers have been strained since Macron recognized Moroccan sovereignty of the disputed territory of Western Sahara in July last year.
But they have worsened after Algiers refused to accept the return of undocumented Algerian migrants from France.
Last weekend, one of them, a 37-year-old man, went on a stabbing rampage in the eastern city of Mulhouse, killing one person and wounding several others.
“We won’t make progress if there’s no work, we can’t talk to each other through the press, that’s ridiculous, it never works like that,” Macron told journalists during a visit to the Portuguese city of Porto.
“(Relations) shouldn’t be subject to political games,” he said.
He hoped “millions of French people born to Algerian parents” would not be “caught up in these debates.”
Hard-line French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has led the verbal attacks on Algeria in the media, fueling tensions between the countries.
“Nothing can take precedence over the security of our compatriots,” Macron said, with emotions still high after last weekend’s attack in Mulhouse.
Agreements mandating the automatic return of nationals, signed between the two countries in 1994, “must be fully respected,” he added.
In recent months, France has arrested and deported several undocumented Algerians on suspicion of inciting violence, only for Algeria to send back one of those expelled.
France warned that it could restrict visas and, as a result, limit development aid.
Macron also voiced fears about the health of detained Franco Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, arrested in November last year and held in Algeria on national security charges.
In mid-December, his publishers, Gallimard, said he had been hospitalized.
Macron said that Sansal was being held in “arbitrary detention” and that resolving the matter would help restore confidence in diplomatic ties.
Sansal, 75, is known for his strong support of free speech and for opposing authoritarianism and Islamism.
Algeria’s government has previously criticized Macron for “blatant and unacceptable interference in an internal Algerian affair.”