All posts tagged: House Oversight Committee

Jamie Raskin tangles with Byron Donalds on Trump hotels, emoluments clause

Jamie Raskin tangles with Byron Donalds on Trump hotels, emoluments clause

Published by skeptic

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) sparred with Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) at a House Oversight Committee hearing Wednesday over former President Trump’s hotels and the emoluments clause of the Constitution, after Democrats found that the former president received millions from foreign entities while in in the White House. “There is no hotel exception, Mr. Donald, to the foreign emoluments clause,” Raskin said. “There is no international real estate syndicate exception to the foreign emoluments clause, Mr. Donald.” Oversight Committee Democrats released a report last week that found Trump took at least $7.8 million from foreign entities in 20 countries in payments to his businesses, which they say could violate a constitutional prohibition on accepting funding from foreign government. A majority of the payments, about $5.6 million, came from China and went to Trump’s hotels in Washington and Las Vegas, as well as Trump Tower in New York, the report found. The lawmakers got into a back-and-forth over specifics of the report, as Democrats tangled with Republicans in the hearing focused on Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings. …

Comer: Bidens ‘played’ by Hunter surprise visit

Comer: Bidens ‘played’ by Hunter surprise visit

Published by skeptic

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) defended himself Wednesday, claiming it was actually the Biden family who “got played” when Hunter Biden unexpectedly showed up to the committee’s contempt hearing. Hunter Biden took limited questions from Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) before abruptly leaving the hearing, creating a stir among GOP members.  The committee voted to advance a resolution holding him in contempt of Congress over refusing a subpoena to testify behind closed doors last month. Biden previously agreed to testify, but only in public.  “In my opinion, the Bidens are the ones that got played today,” Comer said in a NewsNation interview. “I think that the American people saw the arrogance and entitlement of the president’s son.” The Oversight investigation into the Biden family has centered on allegations that Hunter Biden, as well as the president’s brother James Biden, accepted money in foreign business deals. Republicans have also accused the president of accepting money, though they have not shown concrete evidence. During the Wednesday hearing, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) confronted Hunter Biden over his …

What is contempt of Congress? Here’s what you should know

What is contempt of Congress? Here’s what you should know

Published by skeptic

Hunter Biden showed up unexpectedly at a House Oversight and Accountability Committee markup Wednesday, before the panel voted in favor of a resolution to hold him in contempt of Congress for what they claimed was his defiance of a December subpoena. The move sets up a full House floor vote on the subject and possible further charges against him. But what does it mean to be held in contempt of Congress? Here’s what you need to know: What is contempt of Congress? According to a report by the Congressional Research Service, Congress’ “contempt power is the means by which Congress responds to certain acts that in its view obstruct the legislative process.” Another Congressional Research Service report notes that under criminal contempt of Congress law, “it is a misdemeanor criminal offense to ‘willfully’ fail to comply with a valid congressional subpoena for either documents or testimony ‘upon any matter under inquiry before either House…or any committee of either House of Congress.’” What is the penalty for contempt of Congress? A “witness suffers no direct legal …

How Trump Taught America to Tolerate Brazen Corruption

How Trump Taught America to Tolerate Brazen Corruption

Published by skeptic

Have you heard about the president who received money from China and other foreign countries? No, not the current president. The former one. House Republicans recently launched an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, premised on the claim that he is hiding, in the words of Speaker Mike Johnson, “millions of dollars in payments from America’s foreign adversaries.” As yet, they have produced no evidence to back up the idea that Biden profited. (The payments they have flagged involve the business interests of his son Hunter Biden, who is facing two separate federal indictments at the moment, and his brother James.) David A. Graham: Republicans are playing house Meanwhile, House Democrats on Thursday released a report detailing how former President Donald Trump received, and then tried to hide, millions in payments from America’s foreign adversaries. Unlike in the impeachment inquiry, which is premised on a suspicion that Republicans hope will turn up evidence, the receipts are here. “President Trump’s businesses received, at a minimum, $7.8 million in foreign payments from at least 20 countries during …

Trump’s Loyalty Only Goes One Way

Trump’s Loyalty Only Goes One Way

Published by skeptic

The symmetry is striking: two lawyers, two different eras of Donald Trump’s career, and two courtrooms in different regions of the country. The lessons from Jenna Ellis and Michael Cohen, however, are the same. Loyalty to Trump is seldom returned, with disastrous results for those who offer it. In an Atlanta courtroom today, Jenna Ellis, a former attorney for Trump, pleaded guilty to a single felony count of aiding and abetting false statements. She agreed to five years’ probation and will pay restitution and testify in future cases. Ellis is the third lawyer—following Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro—to plead guilty in the past week as part of the wide-reaching racketeering case over attempts to subvert the 2020 presidential election. But she is the first to make a statement in court as she entered her plea, and what she said was revealing. “As an attorney who is also a Christian, I take my responsibilities as a lawyer very seriously and I endeavor to be a person of sound moral and ethical character in all of my …