Jack Smith’s Use of Obstruction Law Limited by Supreme Court ‘Fatally Undermines’ Case, Trump Attorneys Argue

Supreme Court

Special counsel Jack Smith’s election interference case falls apart under recent Supreme Court precedent, former President Donald Trump’s attorneys said Thursday.

The Supreme Court’s ruling in Fischer v. United States, which scaled back the Biden-Harris Department of Justice’s (DOJ) overbroad use of an obstruction statute designed to target corporate document shredding against Jan. 6 defendants, “fatally undermines” two counts and requires dismissing two others, Trump’s attorneys wrote.

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National Archives Delays Release of Biden VP Records with Hunter Biden Info until After Election

Joe Biden

The Department of Justice notified a legal group suing for Joe Biden’s vice presidential records that president’s lawyers claimed an extension, blocking the release of the records until after the election.

America First Legal sued for the records—communications involving Hunter and James Biden about several business dealings—in 2022. The group has struggled to obtain records in a timely fashion, delayed by the Archives and the Biden administration.

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Key House Chairman to Ask Congress to Repudiate Democrats’ January 6 Findings in Face of New Evidence

Barry Loudermilk

No, Donald Trump didn’t grab the wheel of his presidential limousine and try to commandeer it. Yes, Nancy Pelosi felt responsible for security lapses at the Capitol, including the failure to pre-position National Guard there.

There’s no doubt that Trump did in fact order the Pentagon to send troops to secure the U.S. Capitol ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, certification of electoral votes, but political and military brass declined to do so. And yes, there were both intelligence and security blunders by police that led to the breach of one of America’s most storied buildings.

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DOJ Sues Alabama over Attempt to Remove Noncitizens from Voter Rolls

The U.S. Department of Justice said Friday it is suing Alabama for trying to remove noncitizens from voting lists, arguing the effort comes too close to the presidential election in November.

According to the Washington Times, the DOJ asked a federal judge to order Alabama to put the names of the presumed ineligible voters back on the active voter lists, in part because it claims that some actual citizens were told that they had been moved to an inactive voter file.

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Eric Adams Claims Biden-Harris Admin Targeted Him After He Spoke Out About ‘Broken Immigration Policies’

Eric Adams

Democratic Mayor Eric Adams of New York City said on Wednesday that he was “innocent” after being indicted by a federal grand jury following multiple federal investigations, accusing the Biden administration of retaliating against him for criticizing its “broken immigration policies.”

Federal prosecutors in New York secured an indictment against the former New York Police Department captain, who had been under investigation over corruption charges, The New York Times reported. Adams accused the Justice Department of targeting him after he spoke out about the effects that the influx of migrants had on the city.

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DOJ IG Horowitz Won’t Say How Many Confidential Human Sources Were Among Crowd on January 6, 2021

U.S. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz on Wednesday would not say how many U.S. government confidential human sources were among the protestors during the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, when pressed on the matter by a lawmaker on Wednesday. Horowitz was asked if he has evidence of the number of confidential human sources that were operating on the Capitol grounds on January 6th.

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Suspect in Second Trump Assassination Attempt Wrote Note Months Prior Saying He Wanted to Kill Him

Ryan Routh, the suspect accused of attempting to assassinate former President Trump in Florida, apparently wrote a note months prior to the incident indicating he intended to kill Trump, according to a court filing released on Monday.

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Commentary: Media Push Misleading Crime Stats to Protect Democrat Narrative

Crime Scene

Crime is a major issue in this year’s election, yet major media ignored the release of a significant new government report showing a surge in violent crime. The increase in violent crime during the Biden administration is a record increase.

The latest data released last Thursday from the Department of Justice’s National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) reveal a sharp increase in violent crime under the Biden-Harris administration compared to when Trump left office.

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Alaska Man Arrested for Threatening to Murder Six Supreme Court Justices

Supreme Court Justices

An Alaska man was arrested Wednesday for threatening to murder six Supreme Court justices, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Panos Anastasio sent over 465 messages intended for the justices through the Supreme Court’s website between March 2023 and July 2024, which allegedly became threatening after Jan. 4 and included “violent, racist, and homophobic rhetoric coupled with threats of assassination via torture, hanging, and firearms,” according to the indictment. Anastasio, who will come before Judge Kyle Reardon Thursday for a detention hearing, has been temporarily detained, according to court records.

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DOJ Sues Owner, Operator of Vessel That Hit Francis Scott Key Bridge for $100 Million

Francis Scott Key Bridge wreckage

The U.S. Department of Justice sued the owner and operator of the vessel that hit Francis Scott Key Bridge on Wednesday for $100 million in May.

“The Justice Department is committed to ensuring accountability for those responsible for the destruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which resulted in the tragic deaths of six people and disrupted our country’s transportation and defense infrastructure,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in a statement. 

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Commentary: DOJ Gets Political Before 2024 Election

Attorney General Merrick Garland broke precedent just weeks before the November election, delivering politically charged remarks at the U.S. Attorneys’ National Conference in Washington – pointedly speaking publicly rather than privately in a departure from his usual practice. “Our norms are a promise that we will not allow this department to be used as a political weapon,” he said before a packed house, gathered in the Great Hall of DOJ headquarters on Sept. 12. “Federal prosecutors and agents may never make a decision regarding an investigation or prosecution for the purpose of affecting any election or the purpose of giving an advantage or disadvantage to any candidate or political party.”

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DOJ Charges Illegal Immigrant with Voting in Multiple Elections

Amid debate in Congress over requiring proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote, federal prosecutors in Alabama charged an illegal immigrant with obtaining a false identity in 2011 and voting unlawfully in multiple elections, including two presidential contests.

The Justice Department announced that the illegal immigrant from Guatemala agreed to a guilty plea after being charged with nine counts.

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Biden DOJ Dropped Nearly Half of Pending Obstruction Charges for January 6 Defendants After Supreme Court Ruling

January Six

The Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) dropped nearly half of pending obstruction charges against Jan. 6 defendants since the Supreme Court issued a major ruling in June, according to recent data.

The Supreme Court ruled in June that in charging Jan. 6 defendants, the DOJ had interpreted too broadly a statute that carries up to 20 years in prison for anyone who corruptly “obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding.” Since the Fischer v. United States ruling, around 60 of 126 defendants had the pending obstruction charges dropped, DOJ data from Sept. 6 shows.

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YouTube Takes Down Conservative Podcast Network Tied to DOJ Russia Indictment

Lauren Chen

YouTube terminated the accounts of a conservative influencer and her media company Thursday evening, one day after the Justice Department indicated the company was tied to a Russian scheme to influence the 2024 election.

The accounts for Tenet Media and Lauren Chen were removed one day after Attorney General Merrick Garland held a press conference Wednesday announcing an indictment of two Russians in an alleged scheme to influence the 2024 election. A note on Tenet Media’s channel states that it “violated our Community Guidelines” and Chen’s personal account on the Google-owned video site was listed as “not available” Friday morning.

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Julie Kelly Commentary: Kamala Harris Likely to Tap Matthew Graves for Attorney General

US Attorney Matthew Graves

Democrats ended their four-day convention on Thursday with a vacuous speech by the party’s installed candidate, Kamala Harris. Her short stint on the main stage made the regime media, which has blessed her with 84 percent positive news coverage since the Pelosi coup according to one analysis, drunk with joy. Harris,…

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FBI Let Suspect in Plot to Kill Trump into U.S. on Parole Despite Terror Ties, Iran Trip, Memos Show

The FBI allowed Asif Raza Merchant, the Pakistani man charged with plotting with Tehran to assassinate Donald Trump and others, to enter the U.S. in April with special permission known as “significant public benefit parole” even though he was flagged on a terrorism watchlist and recently traveled to Iran, according to government documents reviewed by Just the News.

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Catholic Group Urges DOJ to Investigate Pro-Abortion Attacks on Churches, Pregnancy Centers

A Catholic organization that tracks attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers and churches is urging the Justice Department to investigate over 400 known attacks since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

The organization, CatholicVote, requested a meeting to discuss probes of pro-abortion violations of the FACE Act in a letter to Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke that it shared with The Daily Signal.

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FBI Now Thinks Gaming Account in Trump Shooter’s Name That Issued Warning Was Not His: CNN Report

CNN is reporting that the Federal Bureau of Investigation now thinks the gunman who shot former President Donald Trump at an outdoor campaign rally last weekend did not write an anonymous message on the gaming platform Steam in the days leading up to the assassination attempt.

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Commentary: Supreme Court Overturns DOJ’s Use of Key January 6 Felony Court

January Six

In a devastating but well-deserved blow to the Department of Justice’s criminal prosecution of January 6 protesters, the U.S. Supreme Court today overturned the DOJ’s use of 18 USC 1512(c)(2), the most prevalent felony in J6 cases.

The statute, commonly referred to as “obstruction of an official proceeding,” has been applied in roughly 350 J6 cases; it also represents two of four counts in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s J6-related criminal indictment of Donald Trump in Washington.

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Trump’s Former DOJ Official Jeffrey Clark Files Post-Hearing Brief Poking Holes in the D.C. Bar’s Disciplinary Panel Findings

Donald Trump’s former DOJ official, Jeffrey Clark, is fighting a recommendation from the D.C. Bar’s disciplinary panel to discipline him over his concerns about illegalities in the 2020 election. Last month, he filed a Post-Hearing Brief challenging a nonbinding preliminary finding of culpability for drafting a letter that was never sent to Georgia officials advising them of their options in dealing with the irregularities.

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Commentary: Trump’s Trial Is a Symptom of a Larger Crisis in American Justice

Donald Trump

Naturally, the cataract of commentary on Thursday’s Stalinist guilty, guilty, guilty verdict against Donald Trump has divided itself into two distinct pools. One is gleeful. The other is alarmed. Rather than anatomize the differences between the two, I’d like to start by simply noting the size and fervor of the response.  There are, I believe, two essential points to bear in mind.

The first is that the outpouring is only incidentally about Trump.  You might find this a surprising statement since the news has been full of little besides Trump.

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Norfolk Southern Reaches $310 Million Settlement with EPA, DOJ over East Palestine Derailment

Norfolk Southern reached a $310 million settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice on Thursday over a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, last year.

The settlement, which has yet to be approved by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, requires Norfolk Southern to spend an estimated $235 million for clean-up, $30 million for water quality monitoring, $25 million for a 20-year community health program, and $6 million to prioritize addressing historical pollution through a “waterways remediation plan,” reported the Washington Examiner.

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Biden Attempt to Hide Tapes to Collide with Precedent from Past Democratic Probes

President Joe Biden’s attempt to assert executive privilege over the tapes of his interview with federal investigators in his own classified documents case could run into the history of Democratic tactics to obtain information from former President Trump.

For example, recent court decisions surrounding Trump’s efforts to invoke executive privilege over subpoenaed documents by the Jan. 6 Select Committee confirmed a legitimate congressional investigation is often a strong basis for requesting documents or information from the executive. Though, Biden’s current control of the executive branch may allow him to stonewall successfully.

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Commentary: Defund and Investigate Jack Smith

Jack Smith

Special Counsel Jack Smith was supposed to be basking in glory right now.

In his ideal world, Smith would be hot off a quick conviction of Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. for the former president’s alleged role in the events of January 6 and attempts to “overturn” the 2020 election. The special counsel then would have immediately moved his victorious prosecutors to Palm Beach for the summer to prepare for Trump’s second federal trial related to allegedly stealing national defense information and impeding the Department of Justice’s investigation.

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Commentary: Judge Cannon Puts Jack Smith on Trial

Jack Smith

U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon may have just indefinitely postponed Donald Trump’s espionage and obstruction trial but that doesn’t mean her federal courtroom in Fort Pierce, Florida will lie dormant over the next few months.

In officially vacating the existing May 20 trial date—an impossibility considering the defendant will be in a Manhattan courtroom for the foreseeable future—Cannon declined to set another date, calling it “imprudent” at this stage of the process. She noted a “myriad” of unresolved matters in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s 42-count indictment against the former president and his two co-defendants, Mar-a-Lago employees Waltine Nauta and Carlos De Olivera, for willfully retaining national defense information and attempting to impede the government’s investigation.

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From Watergate to Now: John Solomon Exposes Deepening Collusion and Tampering in Trump Investigations

From his studios at Just the News, John Solomon joined Steve Bannon on WarRoom on Monday to examine previous impeachment proceedings and investigations concerning Donald Trump. He exposed some breaking news, reporting that there is extensive evidence of tampering and witness tampering in the Ukraine impeachment and subsequent investigations.

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Julie Kelly Commentary: The DOJ’s Doctored Crime Scene Photo of Mar-a-Lago Raid

A few weeks after the armed FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago in August 2022, the Department of Justice released a stunning photograph depicting alleged contraband seized from Donald Trump’s Palm Beach estate that day; the image showed colored sheets representing scary classification levels attached to files purportedly discovered in Trump’s private office.

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D.C. Bar Disciplinary Panel Makes Nonbinding Preliminary Determination of Culpability for a ‘Thought Crime’ in Disbarment Trial of Trump’s Former DOJ Official Jeffrey Clark

The disciplinary trial of Donald Trump’s former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark wrapped up on Thursday with the D.C. Bar’s disciplinary panel making a nonbinding preliminary determination that Clark was culpable on at least one of the two counts against him.

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Feds Crack Down on Pernicious Chinese Hacking Group that Targeted U.S. Gov’t, Dissidents

Hacker mugshots

The U.S. on Monday announced actions aimed at exposing a sweeping Chinese hacking campaign that has targeted U.S. government institutions, critical infrastructure, media and political dissidents for more than a decade.

Wuhan Xiaoruizhi Science and Technology Company, Limited (Wuhan XRZ), served as a front company for China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), which deals with overseas policing and espionage, allowing Chinese hackers to hide a multitude of malicious cyber operations, the Treasury Department said after sanctioning the organization on Monday in a statement alongside other U.S. agencies and the United Kingdom. In an indictment unsealed separately, the Department of Justice accused Chinese nationals Zhao Guangzong, Ni Gaobin and five others for their role “in furtherance of [China’s] economic espionage and foreign intelligence objectives” over the past 14 years.

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Impeachment Probe Dramatically Pivots to Questions of CIA, DOJ Coverup in Hunter Biden Case

After a bombastic hearing with Hunter Biden’s business partners, House impeachment investigators are dramatically pivoting to allegations of a possible coverup in the first son’s criminal tax case as the inquiry transitions to a new phase.

On Thursday, the House Judiciary Committee sued the Justice Department seeking to force two attorneys there to comply with subpoenas and testify about whether there was any political interference in Hunter Biden’s tax prosecution.

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Commentary: Biden’s DOJ Thumbs Nose at SCOTUS on Key J6 Felony Charge

Matthew Graves

Donald Trump filed his brief Tuesday at the U.S. Supreme Court to defend his argument that presidents are immune from criminal prosecution. Noting the lack of historical precedent and dire ramifications for the future, Trump’s attorneys warned that “a denial of criminal immunity would incapacitate every future President with de facto blackmail and extortion while in office, and condemn him to years of post-office trauma at the hands of political opponents.”

Oral arguments on the groundbreaking question are set for April 25; a final opinion, which could be announced in late May or sometime in June before the current SCOTUS term ends, represents a do-or-die situation for Special Counsel Jack Smith’s four-count indictment against the former president for the events of January 6 and his alleged attempts to “overturn” the 2020 election. The case is now on hold awaiting a decision by SCOTUS.

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Commentary: America’s Intelligence Community is Broken

CIA Logo

In the current discourse surrounding the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC), a prevailing narrative has emerged, as highlighted in a recent Politico article, that mistakenly warns of a future Trump administration’s destruction of the IC as we know it. This perspective is biased and misguided. The real crisis in the Intelligence Community is not what Trump will do if reelected but how to resolve the total erosion of public trust in the IC due to the actions of the D.C. intelligence establishment over the past several decades.

The intelligence officials quoted by Politico, in decrying politicization, ironically contribute to it, exacerbating the broader loss of faith in our institutions. The Intelligence Community, a cornerstone of our national security, must operate insulated from politics — a necessity for its credibility and effectiveness in safeguarding national interests.

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Commentary: In Prosecuting Trump, Democrats Have Exonerated Him

Trump Walking

Despite their best efforts, have Democrats begun an inexorable elevation of former President Donald Trump? For the better part of a decade, Democrats and the Left have thrown everything they could think of against the man they live to loathe. In the process, they have created a quasi-caricature that appears to be decreasingly believable to an increasing proportion of Americans. The question is whether these attacks have come full circle, accomplishing what Democrats most sought to avoid. Have they vilified Trump to victimhood and prosecuted him back into the presidency?

Since Trump burst on the political scene in 2016, Democrats and the Left have busted their guts laughing at him. When that didn’t work and he won, they burst all boundaries going after him. Their efforts have ranged from slights to a Russian dossier to two impeachments. Even after Trump left office, they refused to stop. Unquestionably, these efforts have had an effect — and equally unquestionably, Trump has given ample fodder to use against him: the result being that with Trump poised to win an unprecedented third successive major party presidential nomination (a feat last accomplished by Franklin D. Roosevelt 84 years ago), he has become a highly polarizing figure.

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Merrick Garland Vows to Fight Against Voter ID Laws

Merrick Garland

Attorney General Merrick Garland recently declared his intentions to actively combat voter ID laws being enacted in various states, falsely claiming that such laws “disadvantage minorities.”

As reported by Breitbart, Garland appeared alongside Vice President Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) at an event in Selma, Alabama on Sunday. At the event, Garland described such efforts to protect election integrity as “discriminatory, burdensome, and unnecessary.”

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Julie Kelly Commentary: In the Room at Friday’s Florida Hearing in Trump’s Classified Documents Case

FL Judge Aileen Cannon Infront of florida courthouse

I am digging into a few other matters related to this case, the contempt order issued Thursday against veteran investigative reporter Catherine Herridge, and a new appellate court ruling overturning the use of a sentencing enhancement for J6ers convicted of the controversial 1512(c)(2) charge so unfortunately I can’t write a full article on yesterday’s hearing that I attended in person in Fort Pierce. So I want to share my X posts about what happened.

A few additional observations: Judge Cannon’s approach and style is inimical from that of judges in D.C. For part of the proceedings, I kept thinking how DOJ’s J6 prosecution in Washington would be so different if only half the judges were as careful and prepared and nontheatrical as Cannon. I shared this with a J6 defense attorney last night and he agreed.

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Commentary: Obama’s CIA Asked Foreign Intel Agencies to Spy on Trump Campaign

Obama CIA

The revelation that the U.S. intelligence community, under the Obama administration, sought the assistance of the “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance to surveil Donald Trump’s associates before the 2016 election is a chilling reminder of the lengths to which the Deep State will go to protect its interests and challenge its adversaries. (The Five Eyes countries are the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.) This bombshell, reported by a team of independent journalists, exposes a dark chapter in American political history, where foreign intelligence services were reportedly mobilized against a presidential candidate.

The alleged operation against Trump and his associates, which predates the official start of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation, is a stark example of political weaponization of intelligence. The involvement of foreign allies in surveilling American citizens under the pretext of national security raises serious questions about the integrity of our democratic processes and the autonomy of our nation’s intelligence operations.

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D.C. Court of Appeals Panel Gives Trump’s Former DOJ Official Jeffrey Clark a Unanimous Victory on Subpoena Violating His Fifth Amendment Rights

A panel of the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled unanimously on Monday that the D.C. Bar’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel (ODC) unconstitutionally subpoenaed documents from former President Donald Trump’s former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark in violation of his Fifth Amendment rights.

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Commentary: America’s Weaponized Intelligence Community

The Intelligence Community of the United States of America has been weaponized against the incumbent leader’s political opposition, having even turned the spy agencies of our closest allies against the leading Republican candidate.

This is the inescapable conclusion to be drawn if a bombshell report released last week is accurate.

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Biden Defends His Mental Fitness After DOJ Report Calls Him ‘Elderly Man with Poor Memory’

Biden Speaking

A visibly upset President Joe Biden addressed the nation late Thursday to respond to news that the special counsel tasked with investigating his handling of classified documents had chosen not to charge him, but also detailed numerous examples of his memory loss.

The blockbuster special counsel report, while clearing Biden, sparked questions about Biden’s mental fitness when it called him an “elderly man with a poor memory.” Biden is 81 years old.

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Classified Ukraine Documents Discovered in Biden’s Possession from Time of Hunter’s Burisma Work

According to the appendices listing the documents recovered in the Justice Department investigation into Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents, the president retained talking points and a telephone call transcript with the Ukrainian prime minister from a key period in Hunter Biden’s Burisma Holdings employment.

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Special Prosecutor Gives Scathing Assessment of Biden’s Mental Acuity

Though the special counsel investigating Joe Biden’s possession of classified documents ultimately did not recommend charges after finding he “willfully” kept and shared some of the memos, the prosecutor gave a scathing assessment of the President’s mental acuity months before the presidential election.

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Special Counsel Robert Hur Says Biden ‘Willfully’ Kept, Shared Classified Memos but Won’t Be Charged Because of His Poor Memory

Special counsel Robert Hur concluded in a stinging report released Thursday that President Joe Biden willfully kept classified documents from his time as vice president, shared them with an author and knew he had them as far back as 2017, but he recommended against prosecution.

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