In an interview with Morning Wire that was released on Sunday, Washington Free Beacon reporter Jon Levine opened up about the FBI&#8217;s coverup of the Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020.
Earlier this week, the House Judiciary Committee <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/04/02/opinion/miranda-devine-new-fbi-chat-logs-reveal-extraordinary-gag-order-senior-leadership-used-to-shutdown-any-hunter-biden-laptop-discussion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">revealed</a> that after the New York Post published the Biden laptop story in October 2020, the FBI instructed its agents not to discuss it and even scolded one agent for confirming the story&#8217;s authenticity. According to chat logs released by the House Judiciary Committee, an FBI analyst confirmed the Biden laptop story to Twitter and was promptly &#8220;admonished&#8221; by higher-ups who lamented that &#8220;he won&#8217;t shut up.&#8221;
In one discussion, an FBI attorney told an agent, “Please do not discuss the Biden matter.”
Levine, who formerly wrote for the New York Post, told Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley that he and his team at the Post &#8220;already kind of knew the FBI knew [the laptop] was real,&#8221; but added that the House Judiciary Committee&#8217;s revelations were &#8220;new&#8221; to him.
&#8220;And it&#8217;s extra insidious because if you go back to that time, which is now five years ago, the FBI was running around that same week saying, &#8216;Well, we&#8217;re looking into this being a Russian information dump,'&#8221; Levine said. &#8220;So on the same week, the same day, they knew it was real, they were counter-programming the narrative.&#8221;
<iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/coverup-the-fbi-hunter-bidens-laptop-4-6-25/id1576594336?i=1000702363522" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe> 
A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/collections/the-hunter-biden-files" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Daily Wire review</a> of the contents of Biden&#8217;s laptop conducted by reporter Luke Rosiak revealed Hunter Biden&#8217;s attempts to use the family name for massive business deals and propose business plans that would apparently include Joe Biden.
The FBI appeared to know about the laptop in the weeks before the story dropped, asking social media companies to look out for a Russian “hack and leak” operation involving Hunter Biden. The suppression of the story — and of the New York Post — that followed likely had a major impact on the 2020 presidential election.
&#8220;They were actively casting doubt on it when they knew it was real. And it&#8217;s inescapable now that it was clearly so they could help steer the election towards Joe Biden, which is actually what happened,&#8221; Levine told Morning Wire.
It would have been one thing for the FBI to say that it was looking into the matter and wasn&#8217;t going to comment, but the bureau actively tried to discredit the story, Levine said.
&#8220;When they were actually the ones who were speaking the falsehoods, we were trying to tell the truth. They essentially ran an information operation on the American people,&#8221; he added. &#8220;They spread us a bunch of BS because the truth was detrimental to Joe Biden. They didn&#8217;t want it out.&#8221;
Asked if he thinks trust in the FBI can be restored under new leadership after the Hunter Biden laptop saga, Levine said that there must be a complete overhaul of the top leadership and mid-management agents.
&#8220;It&#8217;s not the rank and file people. They&#8217;re very good,&#8221; he said, adding, &#8220;I think we should get a slimmed-down FBI because obviously we&#8217;ve seen how they abuse their power, and Democrats will be in charge at some point again. And I don&#8217;t want a giant FBI in the hands of Democrats.&#8221;

Hunter Biden

‘Spread Us A Bunch Of BS’: Reporter Dishes On FBI’s Coverup Of Hunter Biden Laptop

2020 Election

Joe Biden

Media

Morning Wire

U.S.

President Donald Trump unveils his highly anticipated tariff plan in a Rose Garden speech. Damning new evidence points to an FBI cover-up ahead of the 2020 election. And, trade negotiations between the U.S. and the U.K. hang in the balance, as the fate of a pro-life protester becomes a bargaining chip.
It’s Thursday, April 3, and this is the news you need to know to start your day. If you’d rather listen to your news, today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:
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<h2>Trump’s “Liberation Day” Tariffs</h2>
<div id="attachment_902231" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-902231" class="size-large wp-image-902231" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Trump-Rosegarden-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Trump-Rosegarden-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Trump-Rosegarden-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Trump-Rosegarden-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Trump-Rosegarden-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Trump-Rosegarden-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Trump-Rosegarden-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Trump-Rosegarden-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)</div>
Topline:  After months of anticipation, President Trump rolled out his plans to implement historic tariffs on Wednesday, transforming American trade policy with the stroke of his pen.
World leaders, investors, the business community — everyone has been holding their breath ahead of what Trump described as “Liberation Day.” The announcement in the White House Rose Garden was among the most consequential moments in American trade policy since NAFTA was implemented in 1994, or even the Smoot-Hawley Act of 1930.
The Plan: The U.S. will establish a minimum 10% baseline tariff on all countries, regardless of what they charge. From there, the president announced that rates would be reciprocal. But according to Trump, the United States will be gracious, in his words, “kind reciprocal, not full.” In a truly remarkable scene, the president held up a giant poster board listing dozens of countries along with the rate they’ll now pay. Trump says that number was decided by adding up each country’s tariffs, value-added taxes, and currency manipulation. That number was then divided by two, and the final rate was decided.
According to the president, China’s overall rate on U.S. imports is 67%, so we’ll charge 34%. The European Union will face 20% rates; Japan, 24%; Australia, 10%; India, 26%; the United Kingdom will pay 10%; South Africa will pay 60%; and so on.
The president devoted much of his address to the auto industry, saying foreign tariffs had driven American companies to outsource production, leaving our manufacturing base decimated. In an effort to bring that auto production back to the United States, Trump announced additional 25% tariffs on all auto imports. Following that announcement, he called Brian Pannebecker, a United Auto Worker, to the podium.
 “My entire life I have watched plant after plant after plant, in Detroit and the metro area, close,” Pannebecker said. “And the UAW members… we support Donald Trump’s tariff policies 100 percent.”
This plan marks not just a transformation of global trade but also a political transformation. For decades, Republican administrations have opposed tariffs, while Democrats were generally in favor. But Democrats now argue that tariffs are a tax on consumers and will drive inflation higher. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), for example, said Trump was “taking a sledgehammer to the US economy” and vowed to fight his tariff policy “tooth and nail.”
The question now becomes how those other countries respond — will they lower rates in an effort to find relief or dig in for a prolonged trade war? We’ll have answers soon. 
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<h2>FBI Biden Cover-Up</h2>
<div id="attachment_902233" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-902233" class="size-large wp-image-902233" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/FBI-Coverup-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/FBI-Coverup-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/FBI-Coverup-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/FBI-Coverup-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/FBI-Coverup-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/FBI-Coverup-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/FBI-Coverup-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/FBI-Coverup-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />(Photo by Nes via Getty Images)</div>
Topline: House investigations revealed Tuesday that the FBI sought to silence its own agents from discussing Hunter Biden’s laptop publicly.
Congress has received internal messages from the FBI, which, while heavily redacted, suggest a coordinated effort to cover up elements of the Hunter Biden laptop story in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election. An FBI analyst confirmed the laptop’s authenticity in a phone call with Twitter on October 14, 2020, the day that a story in the New York Post on information found in Biden’s laptop dropped. After that, the FBI’s brass shut down public discussion. 
According to these messages, an FBI official told Elvis Chan, the FBI liaison for social media companies, that there was a “gag order” on talk about the laptop. This was apparently as the FBI was actively investigating the laptop for criminal conduct. Chan asked what specific crime was suspected of being violated, and the response was censored. But it was apparently shocking enough to make Chan write back, “oh crap. Ok. it ends here.”
The allegation is that the FBI knew the laptop was authentic as early as October 14, 2020, but still moved to censor the New York Post story before the election.
“We already kind of knew the FBI knew it was real,” Jon Levine of the Washington Free Beacon told Morning Wire. “But the sort of real time details, like on the very same day [the Post broke the story] they knew it was real. That&#8217;s new and it&#8217;s extra insidious because if you go back to that time… the FBI was running around that same week saying, well, we&#8217;re, we&#8217;re looking into this being a Russian information dump.”
All the FBI had to do was confirm the laptop’s authenticity. Instead, it allowed a considerable censorship operation to smother a news story. Several major media outlets propped up the FBI’s narrative, from <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/03/26/media/nprs-katherine-maher-admits-outlet-failed-to-cover-hunter-biden-laptop/">NPR</a> saying it didn’t want to “waste our time on stories that are not really stories” to <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/19/hunter-biden-story-russian-disinfo-430276">Politico</a> publishing a story citing dozens of foreign intelligence officials who claimed the laptop “[had] all the classic earmarks” of Russian disinformation. All while the FBI was, in fact, investigating a very real Hunter Biden laptop. The fact that officials from other agencies signed on to that claim suggests the suppression effort extended beyond the FBI.
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<h2>US Pressures UK Against Censorship</h2>
<div id="attachment_902235" style="width: 870px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-902235" class="size-large wp-image-902235" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/UK-Opinion-Liscence-860x576.jpg" alt="" width="860" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/UK-Opinion-Liscence-860x576.jpg 860w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/UK-Opinion-Liscence-300x201.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/UK-Opinion-Liscence-768x514.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/UK-Opinion-Liscence-1536x1028.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/UK-Opinion-Liscence-2048x1371.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 860px) 100vw, 860px" />(Edited satirical photo, Original by Mariia Morozova via Getty Images)</div>
Topline: The State Department announced it’s closely monitoring the case of a woman targeted by the British government for her pro-life activism while the United Kingdom negotiates a trade deal with the US.
Over the weekend, the State Department announced that it is following the developments surrounding retired medical scientist Livia Tossici-Bolt. She was reportedly arrested in Bournemouth, England, in 2023 for holding a sign near an abortion clinic that read, “Here to talk if you want.” She’s one of many pro-life activists prosecuted for pro-life activism and prayer in the vicinity of abortion clinics. The U.K. has “buffer zone” laws that prohibit this kind of activity in those areas, including silent prayer. She faced a criminal trial on March 6, and a verdict is expected to be handed down on April 4.
The State Department&#8217;s announcement was an oblique warning. Headlines from The Telegraph and other high-profile European publications indicate that the United Kingdom’s censorship of its citizens could actually become a massive liability in regard to the transatlantic relationship, which has historically been very friendly. The State Department never directly said the trade deal was imperiled, but it did say that the U.S. is “concerned about freedom of expression in the United Kingdom.&#8221;
The State Department confirmed to Daily Wire White House Correspondent Mary Margaret Olohan that its senior advisor, Sam Samson, recently met with Livia in the U.K. Sources close to the situation told The Daily Wire that State Department officials held bilateral meetings with members of the British government about the topic, including the officials who are pushing hate speech laws. The United States has emphasized that its alliance with the United Kingdom must be civilizational – American allies must be on board with American values, including freedom of speech. 
The White House has not commented directly on this matter, but Vice President JD Vance has consistently made opposition to government censorship a trademark issue. Vance chastised European leaders for censoring their citizens at a security conference in Munich earlier this year. On Tuesday, he reiterated his vision for a liberated West at a Heritage Foundation event.
“ We can rebuild the kind of society where virtue and freedom and our ancient liberties are preserved and enforced and facilitated by our government rather than torn down by our government,” Vance said. “You see in Europe, people arrested for praying and you have the police asking them, well, what are you praying about? As if it was any of the police&#8217;s business.”

President Trump Holds “Make America Wealthy Again Event” In White House Rose Garden

Morning Brief: ‘Liberation Day’ Tariffs, An FBI Cover-Up, & America Pressures Brits On Free Speech

Donald Trump

Free Speech

laptop computer

Politics

Tariffs

United Kingdom

President Donald Trump on Tuesday pardoned Devon Archer, the right-hand man of Hunter Biden. Archer was convicted of defrauding a Native American tribe in a business deal. Some allege that evidence indicates Hunter Biden may have been involved, though his involvement was kept out of court.
The <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/03/23/opinion/miranda-devine-trump-to-grant-full-pardon-to-hunter-biden-whistleblower-devon-archer-he-was-screwed/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York Post</a> reported on Tuesday that the pardon came after Archer met Trump at a wrestling match on Saturday, with Trump coming to view Archer as an “anti-Biden person.” 
“He was screwed by the Bidens. They destroyed him like they tried to destroy a lot of people,” he told the paper.
Peter Schweizer, the author of &#8220;Clinton Cash,&#8221; who has been at the forefront of investigating the Biden family&#8217;s influence-peddling, told The Daily Wire, &#8220;The thinking seems to be that Hunter Biden broke the law and didn’t get punished. Since Devon Archer also broke the law, he shouldn’t be punished. That is not the arithmetic of justice.&#8221;
Archer’s animosity toward Democrats arguably comes not out of shared anger at their corruption or ideology, but because he did not benefit enough from political favors, a Daily Wire review of materials on Hunter Biden&#8217;s laptop suggests.
On March 6, 2019, Archer texted Hunter, “Why did your dad’s administration appointees arrest me and try to put me in jail? Just curious… Why would they try and ruin my family and destroy my kids and no one from your family’s side step in and at least try to help me. I don’t get it. And I’m depressed. Bunch of these Asians getting in my head asking me the same so just curious what I should answer.”
Hunter replied, “we aren’t a banana republic buddy. The powerful are targets in this country the more powerful they become. But the truth prevails if you have the stamina and guts and enough love to stay the course.”
He added: &#8220;Every great family is persecuted prosecuted in the US— you are part of a great family—not a side show not deserted by them even in your darkest moments. Thats the way Bidens are different and you are a Biden. Its the price of power.&#8221;
Before President Joe Biden left office, he pardoned his son Hunter for a decade of crimes, rubbing in an apparent double standard.
In 2023, Archer <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/intimidated-biden-brand-helped-ukrainian-company-survive-hunters-ex-associate-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">testified</a> under oath to House Republicans investigating the Biden family’s influence-peddling. He did not provide any smoking gun, saying he was “not aware” of any wrongdoing by then-president <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/joe-biden">Biden</a> and had no knowledge of him altering U.S. foreign policy to benefit his son. But he said that Hunter was in the business of trading on the Biden &#8220;brand,&#8221; and that the elder Biden was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/key-testimony-alleges-biden-met-with-with-sons-business-partner-kazakh-bank-official" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on speakerphone</a> with his son during more than 20 calls relating to foreign business deals dating back to 2014.
Laptop emails suggest that at the time, Archer was all for using Biden’s brand to make money. For example, in September 2012, Hunter sent him an article claiming that Joe Biden was the star at the Democratic National Convention. “Share with our KZ friends- maybe spur them on,” he said, apparently referring to potential business associates in Kazakhstan who would be more tempted to pay the pair if they were seen as being hitched to a winning political horse.
“Good idea,” Archer wrote.
Then-vice president Biden later discussed expanding overseas business deals in Kazakhstan with Hunter, Archer, and an international banker during an in-person meeting at his Washington, D.C., mansion, Archer told Congress.
Others told GOP investigators that Archer was a willing participant in Hunter’s grift. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hunter-biden-called-father-from-lavish-russian-party-asked-for-help-getting-deal-over-the-finish-line-ex-associate-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jason Galanis testified</a>, “In 2014, I agreed with Hunter and Devon that the Burnham and Company enterprise would be significantly enhanced by forming a partnership with Harvest Fund Management, a $300 billion Chinese financial services company closely connected to the Chinese Communist Party.”
Materials promoting Burnham listed Hunter as being involved, in addition to Archer. Archer was convicted of charges related to Burnham&#8217;s schemes, and his attorney said that Hunter was also part of the deal, but Hunter was never charged. Hunter&#8217;s attorney claimed he was listed as a participant in the venture without his consent.
Archer was on the board of Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company. He was college roommates with Christopher Heinz, the stepson of John Kerry, and the trio did business together, but Heinz avoided their sketchy international business. Archer was also a Democratic fundraiser before supporting Trump&#8217;s election last year.
Galanis, the businessman and Hunter Biden associate who pled guilty to the scheme to defraud the Native American tribe, said what Hunter and Archer brought to the table were political connections. “The words ‘lean-in’ were used often by Devon and Hunter in our business dealings as a term for access to Vice President Biden’s political influence.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/death-row-or-wanted-for-murder-the-cursed-lives-of-hunter-bidens-associates">Death Row Or Wanted For Murder: The Cursed Lives Of Hunter Biden’s Associates</a>

Devon Archer

‘Screwed By The Bidens’: Trump Pardons Hunter Biden’s Business Partner Devon Archer

Department of Justice

Pardon

Two Internal Revenue Service (IRS) whistleblowers are receiving promotions after they were &#8220;wrongfully targeted&#8221; following their testimony on embattled former first son Hunter Biden&#8217;s tax evasion, according to a Tuesday <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0052" target="_blank" rel="noopener">press release</a> from the U.S. Treasury Department.
The release indicated that Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler would be given new roles as Senior Advisors within the Treasury Department, and that part of their job would be to &#8220;drive much-needed cultural reform within the IRS.&#8221;
&#8220;The United States Department of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) today announced that the two IRS whistleblowers who had been wrongfully targeted for investigating Hunter Biden’s evasion of taxes on his $8.3 million income would be brought in to the U.S. Department of Treasury as Senior Advisors,&#8221; the press release stated.
What followed was a statement from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who added, &#8220;I am pleased to welcome Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler to the Treasury Department, where they will help us drive much-needed cultural reform within the IRS. These veteran civil servants join us to help further the agency’s focus on collections, modernization, and customer service, so we can deliver a more effective and efficient IRS experience for hardworking American taxpayers. I appreciate Senator Grassley’s efforts in Congress to support whistleblower protections in order to improve transparency, accountability and root out the culture of retaliation.&#8221;
The release concluded, &#8220;Shapley and Ziegler, who spent years working on the Hunter Biden tax evasion case, came forward in 2022 and subsequently faced political persecution by the IRS, including several attempts to discredit their reputations and ruin their careers.&#8221;
Both <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/smear-irs-whistleblower-responds-to-hunter-biden-lawsuit-targeting-him" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shapley</a> and Ziegler were named in a lawsuit filed by Hunter Biden&#8217;s attorneys, alleging that they had made confidential tax information public in their testimonies.
&#8220;This suit against the IRS is just another frivolous smear by Biden family attorneys trying to turn people’s attention away from Hunter Biden’s own legal problems and intimidate any current and future whistleblowers,&#8221; Shapley responded at the time through his own legal team.

IRS Whistleblowers Testify On Hunter Biden Investigation In House Hearing

Trump Admin Promotes IRS Whistleblowers ‘Wrongly Punished’ Over Hunter Biden Probe

Executive

Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

Whistleblowers

President Donald Trump announced on Monday that he is revoking the Secret Service protective detail for President Joe Biden&#8217;s adult children.
Trump announced in a post on social media that the protective detail is being pulled effective immediately for both Hunter Biden, 55, and Ashely Biden, 43.
&#8220;Hunter Biden has had Secret Service protection for an extended period of time, all paid for by the United States Taxpayer,&#8221; Trump wrote. &#8220;There are as many as 18 people on this Detail, which is ridiculous!&#8221;
&#8220;He is currently vacationing in, of all places, South Africa, where the Human Rights of people has been strenuously questioned,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;Please be advised that, effective immediately, Hunter Biden will no longer receive Secret Service protection.&#8221;
Trump highlighted his administration&#8217;s recent actions against South Africa, including being taken off the list of countries receiving economic and financial assistance, due to its human rights abuses.
&#8220;Likewise, Ashley Biden who has 13 agents will be taken off the list,&#8221; he added.
Former presidents and their spouses receive Secret Service protection for life, but protection that is provided to their children who are over the age of 16 stops when they leave office.
The move from Trump comes after he said in a post early Monday morning that he was nullifying pardons that Biden gave during his final days in office because there were questions about whether Biden actually signed them or if an autopen was used.
“The ‘Pardons’ that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen,” Trump wrote on social media shortly after midnight.
“In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them but, more importantly, he did not know anything about them!” Trump said. “The necessary Pardoning Documents were not explained to, or approved by, Biden. He knew nothing about them, and the people that did may have committed a crime.”
“Therefore, those on the Unselect Committee, who destroyed and deleted ALL evidence obtained during their two year Witch Hunt of me, and many other innocent people, should fully understand that they are subject to investigation at the highest level,” he concluded. “The fact is, they were probably responsible for the Documents that were signed on their behalf without the knowledge or consent of the Worst President in the History of our Country, Crooked Joe Biden!”

U.S. Olympic and Paralympic at White House

Trump Cuts Hunter And Ashley Biden’s Secret Service Detail

Secret Service

A government watchdog is sounding the alarm on former President Joe Biden&#8217;s liberal use of an autopen to sign official documents, saying it raises concerns about who controlled the presidency, given Biden&#8217;s cognitive decline.
Biden pardoned six criminals on December 30, 2022, with the &#8220;exact same autopen signature&#8221; while the president was vacationing and golfing in the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to the Heritage Foundation&#8217;s Oversight Project.
&#8220;Note they all say they are &#8216;Signed in the City of Washington,'&#8221; the Oversight Project posted on X.
Around the same time, an omnibus spending bill was flown to Biden in the Virgin Islands to sign, but the pardons all appear to be signed by autopen, the watchdog said.
&#8220;Whoever controlled the autopen controlled the presidency,&#8221; the Oversight Project said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
🚨 Autopen Update 🚨 We analyzed Biden&#39;s Jan. 19, 2025 &quot;pardons&quot; for:
-Biden Family Members -Anthony Fauci -General Milley -J6 Committee -Gerald Lundergan
They all have the same exact Biden autopen signature <a href="https://t.co/jc6mkx37il">https://t.co/jc6mkx37il</a> <a href="https://t.co/8VeBDwLNv7">pic.twitter.com/8VeBDwLNv7</a>
&mdash; Oversight Project (@OversightPR) <a href="https://twitter.com/OversightPR/status/1899520975156216146?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 11, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Some prominent documents, including Hunter Biden&#8217;s pardon and Biden&#8217;s announcement that he was dropping out of the presidential race, appear to be hand signed, the watchdog found.
However, several other controversial pardons, including those for Dr. Anthony Fauci, General Mark Milley, the January 6 committee, and other Biden family members, were all signed with the same autopen signature, Kyle Brosnan, chief counsel for the Oversight Project told The Daily Wire.
Brosnan said that using the autopen to sign presidential pardons is particularly &#8220;troubling&#8221; since the authority to issue them rests solely with the president as a &#8220;constitutional principle.&#8221;
&#8220;You have to look at it in the context of President Biden&#8217;s mental decline,&#8221; Brosnan said, noting that Special Counsel Robert Hur&#8217;s report last year <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/4456879-special-counsel-describes-biden-as-elderly-man-with-a-poor-memory-in-eye-raising-report/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called</a> Biden an &#8220;elderly man with a poor memory.&#8221;
&#8220;I think we all saw with our own eyes his mental and physical deterioration over the course of his presidency,&#8221; Brosnan said. &#8220;There&#8217;s article after article that comes out showing how the Biden administration and his staff shielded him from public view, retinkered his schedule throughout the presidency, tried to script even what reporters he was calling on at press conferences, and that volume of evidence shows that President Biden wasn&#8217;t really running the White House. It was the staff. So if he&#8217;s not hand-signing these legally operative documents like pardons or even bills into law, that raises another question.&#8221;
The Justice Department should look into what the autopen policies of the previous White House were, whether certain individuals were authorized to operate the autopen, and what the approval process for affixing a signature looked like, Brosnan said.
&#8220;We need to figure out who was actually running the country for the last four years,&#8221; Brosnan said.
Brosnan said any legal cases against Biden&#8217;s signatures are still hypothetical, but he pointed to the questions around Chad Wolf&#8217;s status as acting homeland security secretary back in 2020, which resulted in a judge ruling that some of Wolf&#8217;s actions cracking down on illegal immigration were unlawful.

US-POLITICS-BIDEN

Biden Pardons Were Signed With Autopen While He Was On Vacation, Watchdog Finds

Anthony Fauci

Biden

Biden Administration

Fauci

Hunter Biden is struggling to make money and is now requesting to drop a lawsuit he filed in 2023 on account of his lack of funds.
In a court <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25552004-bidendec030525/?mode=document" target="_blank" rel="noopener">filing</a> on Wednesday, Biden outlined his precarious financial situation exacerbated by the recent Pacific Palisades fire and a sudden inability to sell his paintings and books.
“Since late 2023 and through today, my income has decreased significantly,” Biden said in the filing. He said his two main sources of income, selling his paintings and copies of his memoir, “Beautiful Things,” have dried up in recent months.
“In the 2 to 3 years prior to December 2023, I sold 27 pieces for art at an average price of $54,481.48, but since then I have only sold 1 piece of art for $36,000. Similarly, for my book sales, in the six month period before the statements (April 1, 2023 through September 30, 2023), based on the September 30, 2023 statement, 3,161 copies of my book were sold, but in the six months after the statements, only approximately 1,100 books were sold,” the filing says.
“Given the positive feedback and reviews of my artwork and memoir, I was expecting to obtain paid speaking engagements and paid appearances, but that has not happened,” Biden said.
In 2023, Biden filed a lawsuit against former Trump White House aide Garrett Ziegler and the company he founded, Marco Polo. Biden accused Ziegler of violating both state and federal law in accessing the contents of Biden’s now-infamous laptop, abandoned at a Delaware computer store in 2019.
Biden requested that a federal judge drop the lawsuit so he can focus his restricted resources elsewhere.
“Ultimately, this dismissal is necessary so I can focus my time and resources dealing with my relocation, the damage I and my family have incurred due to the Pacific Palisades fires, and paying for my family’s living expenses as opposed to this litigation,” Biden wrote.
Critics have raised doubts about the nature of Biden&#8217;s art sales for years. The amateur artist routinely brought in large sums of money for art pieces from anonymous buyers. In 2021, The Wall Street Journal editorial board <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/who-wants-to-buy-hunter-bidens-art-joe-biden-james-comer-georges-berges-11632344727" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called</a> on then-President Joe Biden, Hunter&#8217;s father, to explain the nature of his son&#8217;s art business in the interest of transparency.

For Some Reason, Hunter Biden Can’t Sell His Paintings Anymore

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is taking further action against the 50 former intelligence officials who falsely suggested Hunter Biden&#8217;s laptop was &#8220;part of a Russian disinformation campaign,&#8221; instructing agencies to also ban those individuals from stepping foot in secure U.S. government facilities, according to a memo obtained by The Daily Wire.
The Jan. 29 cabinet memorandum, first obtained by The Daily Wire, expands Trump&#8217;s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/holding-former-government-officials-accountablefor-election-interference-and-improper-disclosure-of-sensitive-governmental-information/">day-one executive order</a>, which revoked the security clearance for the 50 individuals. Sent &#8220;on behalf of the President,&#8221; it orders the country&#8217;s top national security agencies to &#8220;revoke unescorted access to secure U.S. Government facilities from the 50 former intelligence officials named in the Executive Order.&#8221;
&#8220;These individuals no longer possess a need to access secure facilities, and as outlined in the Executive Order, do not have the appropriate security clearances to access classified information,&#8221; the memo states.
Included in the list of individuals are prominent members of the intelligence community, including former CIA directors John Brennan, Michael Hayden, and Leon Panetta, who also at one time served as Secretary of Defense. It also includes the former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and John Bolton, the longtime diplomat who most recently served under Trump as his national security advisor.
<div id="attachment_869259" style="width: 607px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-869259" class="wp-image-869259 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/Screenshot-2025-01-31-at-10.59.43-AM.png" alt="" width="597" height="391" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/Screenshot-2025-01-31-at-10.59.43-AM.png 597w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/Screenshot-2025-01-31-at-10.59.43-AM-300x196.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 597px) 100vw, 597px" />Image from cabinet memorandum issued by White House / The Daily Wire</div>
The memo was sent to the Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Director of National Intelligence, and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. It was also distributed to the Director of the Office of Personnel Management, who is tasked with informing any other &#8220;clearance-granting U.S. Government entity&#8221; of the ban &#8220;to ensure compliance.&#8221;
The action comes as part of the Trump administration&#8217;s effort to weed out government officials who participated in political weaponization of their power. His initial executive order charged that &#8220;the signatories willfully weaponized the gravitas of the Intelligence Community to manipulate the political process and undermine our democratic institutions.&#8221;
Trump on Friday ordered several FBI officials who served in the prior administration to resign, telling them they will be fired if they choose not to. Trump&#8217;s pick to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, faced a contentious confirmation hearing on Thursday, and pledged to &#8220;de-weaponize&#8221; the intelligence community.
“America deserves a better brand of justice and I’m going to give it to them,” Patel said in the hearing.
The <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/19/hunter-biden-story-russian-disinfo-430276">initial letter from the intelligence officials</a> came in October 2020, weeks before the presidential election, after the <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/10/14/email-reveals-how-hunter-biden-introduced-ukrainian-biz-man-to-dad/">New York Post reported</a> on emails on Hunter Biden&#8217;s laptop. The story stated that the laptop was left by the former president&#8217;s drug-addicted son at a computer repair shop. The letter, however, said the story had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation,” and this claim was used as an excuse to censor the reporting ahead of the election. The laptop and the emails on it proved to be authentic.
Trump&#8217;s newly confirmed CIA Director, John Ratcliffe, was Director of National Intelligence at the time, and from the beginning <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/10/19/russian-disinformation-not-behind-biden-emails-dni-ratcliffe-says/3712484001/">stated that there was no evidence</a> of Russian involvement.
The full memo obtained by The Daily Wire can be <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/Cabinet-memo-intel-Daily-Wire-WM.pdf">read here</a>.

House Oversight Committee Considers Citing Hunter Biden For Contempt Of Congress

EXCLUSIVE: Trump Bans Intel Officials Who Pushed Russian Disinfo Hoax From Federal Buildings

Election 2020

The following is an edited transcript of an interview between Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley and bestselling author Peter Schweizer on a weekend edition of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/morning-wire/schweizer-truth-behind-biden-s-family-pardons-1-26-25" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Morning Wire</a>.
* * *
In the final minutes of his presidency, Joe Biden shocked the political world by issuing preemptive pardons for several of his own family members. The move has sparked outrage on both sides of the aisle – and sparked renewed calls for investigations into Biden family corruption. Morning Wire sat down with bestselling author Peter Schweizer to discuss the unprecedented Biden family pardons – and Republicans’ plans to follow the money.
JOHN: Joining us now is Peter Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute and bestselling author of multiple books that address allegations of Biden family corruption. Peter, always great to talk with you, thanks for coming on.
PETER: Of course. Happy to be with you.
JOHN: We witnessed something this week that Joe Biden repeatedly told the American people he would never do – he preemptively pardoned members of his own family. Five of them. This comes after he did something else he swore he wouldn’t do, pardoned his son Hunter. So first, we hear the term “unprecedented” thrown around a lot. Is this unprecedented?
PETER: Yeah, there&#8217;s no example in American history of a family member of a sitting president being pardoned – no less five members of the family, or six if you include Hunter. Also, these sort of preemptive pardons are really unprecedented, and they will probably be tested in court.
JOHN: I would assume so. Now we’ve covered the Hunter pardon at length here – in fact, we had you on to talk about it at one point. We now have five more members of the Biden family. And again, like you said, these are preemptive pardons so different in kind. First, who exactly did he grant this blanket immunity to?
PETER: These are essentially his siblings and their spouses, and his son and his daughter. And what&#8217;s significant is all six of these people are individuals who are connected to LLCs, these limited liability companies that the family had multiple listings of. These are all entities that received money from foreign entities. It&#8217;s also important to point out, John, that each one of these pardons, whether it&#8217;s Hunter or the other five family members, the pardon specifically mentions any crimes that occurred beginning after January 1, 2014. That&#8217;s significant because all of the foreign deals – those involving China, Ukraine, and Russia – all started happening in early 2014, so they clearly seem to be dated and designed to cover the transfers of those foreign deals.
JOHN: Yeah, pretty revealing. Had the names of these particular members come up in investigations or claims by members of Congress?
PETER: Yes, in fact they had. James Comer (R-KY) mentioned all of them, I think. Comer actually has <a href="https://www.amazon.com/All-Presidents-Money-Investigating-Foreign/dp/0063420015">a new book</a> out, which is quite good by the way, where he mentions all of them. And I think there is a connection there. I think the fact that these are in the sights of congressional investigators is probably one of the things that prompted Joe Biden to issue this action. Keep in mind that this also, in a way, provides some protection of Joe Biden , because if you do believe this was an influence-peddling scheme, Joe Biden was certainly involved. And by pardoning his spouses and his children, it provides a guardrail of protection for him as well. So this is self-serving, not just something beneficial to his family.
<div id="attachment_865071" style="width: 391px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-865071" class="size-large wp-image-865071" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/81JL3vN6voL._SL1500_-381x576.jpg" alt="Credit: HarperCollins" width="381" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/81JL3vN6voL._SL1500_-381x576.jpg 381w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/81JL3vN6voL._SL1500_-199x300.jpg 199w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/81JL3vN6voL._SL1500_-768x1160.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/81JL3vN6voL._SL1500_.jpg 993w" sizes="(max-width: 381px) 100vw, 381px" />Credit: HarperCollins</div>
JOHN: You&#8217;ve been documenting for years the allegations of Biden family corruption. What is some of the more compelling evidence against them?
PETER: Well, I think the most compelling evidence is that they have collected tens of millions of dollars, some $31 million from these foreign entities, and there&#8217;s no evidence of them giving anything legitimate in return. In the case of China, for example, we know that they got $5 million from a Chinese businessman named Mr Zhao. There&#8217;s no evidence that anything was given to him in return of a business nature – and people generally don&#8217;t pass around $5 million without expecting something in return. That has always been the mystery. And the fact that the Bidens have A) denied that there was any money transference, and of course there was. And then B) they denied that Joe Biden was aware of this or involved. We now know that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/america-first-legal-new-photos-allegedly-prove-biden-muddied-vp-duties-and-hunters-business-deals">he met with several of these people</a>, which makes it very clear that they were trying to cover something up. What Joe Biden did specifically in return for those funds, we don&#8217;t know. But that&#8217;s why I think we need to have continued congressional investigations. It&#8217;s not about looking in the past and trying to punish a political opponent. It&#8217;s about trying to unpack exactly what was done for this money, so we can deter it from happening in the future with other political figures.
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JOHN: Right, you bring up investigations. First of all, are Biden’s family members now truly immune from all charges that have any connection to this? And can Congress still investigate them? Does this block actual thorough investigations?
PETER: Those are great questions. Well, it&#8217;s going to be challenged in court. A lot of people question whether you can grant pardon for a crime that may or may not have been committed that you haven&#8217;t been charged for. That has never been done before, and there are a lot of legal scholars who say this just simply is too broad because you could essentially, under this construct, provide blanket immunity for a murder that was not discovered until later on, and that seems overly broad. As far as congressional investigations are concerned, absolutely they can continue to investigate. Jim Comer (R-KY), I talked to him a couple of days ago, and he told me he has advised the incoming Attorney General, Pam Bondi, that he believes that the Department of Justice needs to investigate this. You can do a criminal investigation, even if you&#8217;re not targeting the specific family member. I think Congress needs to investigate it because, again, it&#8217;s not just about what the Bidens did. One of the true things about Washington DC is, if people in power figure out a way to make money for their family, and they&#8217;re not going to be caught, they&#8217;re not going to be held liable, it will be imitated. So this notion of getting foreign entities to enrich your family when you&#8217;re a decision maker in a position to help or hurt them could become widespread, and I don&#8217;t think anybody wants that.
JOHN: There&#8217;s been a lot made of Trump coming in with retribution on his mind, but the argument that we are maybe exposed to national security risks from foreign entities that might have their hands in the pockets of people who have a lot of power – I would think that argument would win the day. You&#8217;ve mentioned maybe that these preemptive pardons might just collapse legally. Is there any other way to override or work around a presidential pardon of this nature?
PETER: Well, some people, like professor Alan Dershowitz – a Professor of Law, Emeritus, at Harvard – has said that these pardons actually create problems for the Biden family, because now when you are asked questions by a congressional committee or by Department of Justice lawyers, you cannot plead the Fifth Amendment – because, of course, the Fifth Amendment prevents you from self-incrimination. Now, if you are exempt from being prosecuted for these crimes, you presumably cannot plead the Fifth Amendment. So it may actually make things harder for the family in terms of actually having to answer questions. But the key thing is those questions have to be asked. The Department of Justice, under Pam Bondi, who I think is going to be confirmed, and by the Congressional Oversight Committees, need to proceed. This is not about retribution; it&#8217;s not about being vindictive. That certainly seems to be what people have accused Trump of doing. But if you look at his first term as president, he certainly did not prosecute Hillary Clinton or anyone else. And there&#8217;s no reason to believe that that would be taking place here. It&#8217;s simply trying to get clarification and facts of what actually transpired and what these Chinese, Russian, and Ukrainian entities actually got in exchange for sending millions of dollars to Joe Biden&#8217;s family.
<div id="attachment_864357" style="width: 896px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-864357" class="size-large wp-image-864357" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2187280340-886x576.jpg" alt="A November 29, 2024 photo shows US President Joe Biden and son Hunter Biden stepping out of a bookstore while shopping in Nantucket, Massachusetts on November 29, 2024. Biden on Sunday issued an official pardon for his son Hunter, who is facing sentencing for two criminal cases related to tax evasion and the purchase of a firearm." width="886" height="576" />MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images</div>
JOHN: You bring up Pam Bondi. Judging by the Cabinet picks so far from Trump, what is the sense you get about the priority he&#8217;s laid out of weeding out government corruption. Do you feel that they&#8217;re fully invested in this project?
PETER: I think that&#8217;s going to be the central question, John, going forward, because you have these large institutions – the Department of Defense, for example, or the CIA – there&#8217;s a reason people call them “the deep state” because they&#8217;re deeply embedded within those bureaucracies. So you&#8217;re going to have somebody who is confirmed as the SECDEF or as the CIA director who&#8217;s going to be having to deal with bureaucracies that are trying to counteract what you&#8217;re doing. It&#8217;s very hard to fight that kind of trench warfare at the same time you&#8217;re carrying out policies to deal with, say, the threat from China, the threat from Russia. So, that is going to be the defining issue. But I think it is the battle that has to be fought because it comes down to the question of: Are we actually governed by the people we elect, that we have chosen to represent us? Or are government decisions being made by unelected bureaucrats? And are those unelected bureaucrats involved at some level in corruption? And I think the history of our country demonstrates that absolutely they are. So, to me, this is the marquee issue, and it&#8217;s a reflection of this broader concern that I have of what I call “the globalization of corruption.” When we think of corruption, we think of the guy who&#8217;s got a paving business back in some congressional district who wants some federal highway dollars steered his way by the congressman. What we&#8217;re talking about now are foreign governments, in some cases those that are hostile to the United States, giving money to our elected officials and getting something in return. So, this is not just rank and file corruption, which is bad enough. This is globalized corruption – and it&#8217;s only going to get worse, not better, unless we actually do something about it.
JOHN: I think you’re right. What do you expect to see in the coming weeks and months from the White House and the Republican-led Congress related to Biden family corruption and other sort of government level corruption issues?
PETER: Well, I think on Capitol Hill, the House Oversight Committee’s Jim Comer I think has done an excellent job. He&#8217;s fact-based, he&#8217;s driven, and he&#8217;s prepared to name names, which is the key in the investigation. So I expect a lot of activities in the House of Representatives. And I think in the Department of Justice, in the next several weeks, you&#8217;re going to see a series of reviews done by senior attorneys at DOJ under Pam Bondi making decisions about some of the very controversial things that have happened with regard to, say, Tony Fauci, who apparently lied before Congressional committees when he testified. What is the legal standard for lying before Congress? Did he cross that line? And is there a reason to open an investigation and to bring him in to ask him questions about that? So, I think there&#8217;s going to be a little bit of quiet before the storm because, again, when you&#8217;re dealing with these legal matters, you want to make sure that you are crossing all the T&#8217;s and dotting the I&#8217;s – because what gets you into trouble is when you don&#8217;t do the prep work, and Bondi certainly has a reputation for doing her prep work.
<div id="attachment_863203" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-863203" class="wp-image-863203 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2194087519-864x576.jpg" alt="WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 15: Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee during her confirmation hearing to be the next U.S. attorney general in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on January 15, 2025 in Washington, DC. Bondi, who was nominated by President-elect Donald Trump, defended him during his first impeachment trial in 2020 and publicly supported false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2194087519-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2194087519-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2194087519-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2194087519.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images</div>
JOHN: Yes, I think there’s no arguing that she’s someone who comes prepared. Final question: What do you expect from the Biden family? Will they withdraw from public life or try to stay politically relevant?
PETER: Well, I think one of the unanswered questions about the Biden family, and again, if you look at the pardons that were issued to Hunter Biden and the family, they run up specifically through December of last year. So any crimes that would have been committed in 2024 would be covered as well. And you wonder, well, what does that mean? Well, that could be the Hunter Biden art deals that were very controversial. But I also think it&#8217;s worth looking at this period when Joe Biden had that disastrous debate performance with Donald Trump, and he spent about four or five weeks refusing to get out of the race, and Hunter Biden moved into the White House. I believe – I don&#8217;t have evidence to confirm this – I believe that the Biden family negotiated financial deals to secure his exit from that race. Whether that crosses the legal line and is illegal, I don&#8217;t know, but I think that is worth looking into as well. It certainly fits their pattern of monetizing things. It certainly makes sense that Hunter Biden was at the center of it – that&#8217;s where a lot of this money would flow through. And that would of course raise questions about what they might be doing in the post-presidential years and the money they might be living off of in this case.
JOHN: Intriguing questions – and hopefully we do get some answers and Congress does pursue what I think the American people deserve to know has actually happened here. Peter, thank you so much for joining us.
PETER: It&#8217;s always a pleasure. Thanks, John.
JOHN: That was bestselling author and GAI president Peter Schweizer – and this has been a weekend edition of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/morning-wire/schweizer-truth-behind-biden-s-family-pardons-1-26-25" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Morning Wire</a>.
***

President Biden Delivers Farewell Address To The Nation

What The Preemptive Pardons Reveal About Biden Family Corruption: An Interview With Peter Schweizer

2024 Election

Books

China

James Biden

Peter Schweizer

No president in American history has ever pardoned his family members as he prepared to exit the Oval Office. Until <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/joe-biden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Joe Biden</a>.
Now, with Donald Trump’s successful return to the White House, many lawmakers and pundits have questions about Joe Biden’s unprecedented, sweeping pardons.
Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley sat down with bestselling author Peter Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute, to discuss Biden’s eleventh-hour moves for an episode of &#8220;Morning Wire&#8221; that will be released this weekend.
Schweizer, who has written several books about the Biden family, including “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Money-Powerful-Blind-Americans/dp/0063061198" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Blood Money</a>” and “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Red-Handed-American-Elites-Helping-China/dp/0063061147" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Red-Handed</a>,” began the conversation by stating flatly, “These sort of preemptive pardons are really unprecedented.”
With a final stroke of his pen, Biden granted pardons to five of his closest family members: His brother Frank Biden, his brother James and his spouse, and his sister Valerie and her spouse. Hunter Biden was pardoned by his father one month earlier, on December 2, 2024.
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While politicians and pundits speculate and guess the motivation behind this recent round of pardons, Schweizer has an idea.
“What&#8217;s significant,” says Schweizer, “is all six of these people are individuals who are connected to LLCs, these limited liability companies that the family had multiple listings of.”
Not only do the LLCs offer a logical explanation for the sweeping pardons, but Schweizer believes they offer an even bigger clue as to why Joe Biden would finally agree to drop out of the 2024 presidential race.
The pardons span a little over a decade, from January 1, 2014, to December 2024, making the time frame even more suspicious. These facts lead Schweizer to speculate that Joe Biden may have cut some kind of backdoor deal before bowing out of the presidential race in July 2024.
&#8220;I think one of the unanswered questions about the Biden family &#8212; and again, if you look at the pardons that were issued to Hunter Biden and the family, they run up specifically through December of last year. So any crimes that would have been committed in 2024 would be covered as well. And you wonder, well, what does that mean? Well, that could be the Hunter Biden art deals that were very controversial,&#8221; Schweizer said.
&#8220;But I also think it&#8217;s worth looking at this period when Joe Biden had that disastrous debate performance with Donald Trump, and he spent about four or five weeks refusing to get out of the race, and Hunter Biden moved into the White House,&#8221; he added. &#8220;I believe – I don&#8217;t have evidence to confirm this – I believe that the Biden family negotiated financial deals to secure his exit from that race. Whether that crosses the legal line and is illegal, I don&#8217;t know, but I think that is worth looking into as well. It certainly fits their pattern of monetizing things. It certainly makes sense that Hunter Biden was at the center of it – that&#8217;s where a lot of this money would flow through. And that would, of course, raise questions about what they might be doing in the post-presidential years and the money they might be living off of in this case.&#8221;
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Schweizer also argued that Biden&#8217;s sweeping pardons of his family members could come back to bite the former president, highlighting a point made by attorney Alan Dershowitz earlier this week. Dershowitz said that while Biden&#8217;s pardons protect his family from criminal charges, they take away their ability to plead the Fifth Amendment if they are subpoenaed by Congress, The Daily Caller <a href="https://dailycallernewsfoundation.org/2025/01/20/bidens-sweeping-last-minute-pardons-could-come-back-to-haunt-his-family-alan-dershowitz-says/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
“One of the reasons the president gave [for the pardons] is he doesn’t want his relatives and friends and people who are good people in his view to be subject to the expenses of massive investigation. Duh, you didn’t stop that. Congress can still investigate all these people,” Dershowitz said.
“In fact, they’ve lost their Fifth Amendment privilege,&#8221; he added. &#8220;So, now, if Congress subpoenas them, they have to testify, they can’t claim the Fifth Amendment. So, your brother and all the others can be called in front of the Republican-controlled Senate committee or House committee.”
Schweizer acknowledged the critical role Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Pam Bondi, may play in any new investigations into the Biden family business. He told &#8220;Morning Wire&#8221; that it&#8217;s important for Trump&#8217;s DOJ to continue looking into the Biden family&#8217;s business deals, saying it&#8217;s &#8220;not about retribution&#8221; or &#8220;being vindictive.&#8221;
&#8220;It&#8217;s simply trying to get clarification and facts of what actually transpired and what these Chinese, Russian, and Ukrainian entities actually got in exchange for sending millions of dollars to Joe Biden&#8217;s family,&#8221; he said.

Joe Biden, Hunter Biden

Peter Schweizer Floats Theory On Why Biden Really Left The 2024 Race

Elections

President Donald Trump on Monday is expected to issue an executive order to suspend the security clearances for the 51 national security officials who claimed that the report about Hunter Biden’s laptop was Russian disinformation.
Trump will sign the executive order as part of his Day One agenda, which is expected to include signing more than 200 executive actions, including ones that eliminated DEI from federal offices and defined biological sex, Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-take-more-than-200-executive-actions-day-one.amp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
In mid-October 2020, just ahead of a debate between Trump and President Joe Biden, 51 intelligence officials, including former CIA Director John Brennan and ex-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, signed a letter claiming the recently discovered laptop belonging to Hunter Biden had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.” The letter went public on October 19, 2020, shortly after the New York Post published <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/10/14/email-reveals-how-hunter-biden-introduced-ukrainian-biz-man-to-dad/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a bombshell report</a> detailing the laptop showed evidence that the elder Biden was involved in his son’s shady business dealings.
At the debate, Trump mentioned the laptop and, because of the letter, Biden was able to say that “50 former national intelligence folks who said that what he’s accusing me of is a Russian plan.” Biden also added that “Four, five former heads of the CIA, both parties, say what he’s saying is a bunch of garbage.”
But the laptop has been deemed authentic, including during Hunter’s gun trial. The 51 former intelligence officers have refused to apologize or admit they were wrong.
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Further, in 2023, emails revealed that former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell asked members of the intelligence community to add their names to the letter for the express purpose of giving Biden a talking point at the debate, The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/former-cia-chief-sought-debate-talking-point-with-hunter-biden-laptop-letter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> at the time. Brennan was one of the people Morell reached out to, and responded by saying: “Ok, Michael, add my name to the list. Good initiative. Thanks for asking me to sign on.”
Morell also told congressional Republicans that a call from Biden’s then-campaign adviser, Antony Blinken, had prompted the letter. Morell also testified that the chair of the 2020 Biden campaign, Steve Richetti, called him after the debate to thank him for getting the letter out.
Morell told congressional Republicans that the letter had two intents. “One intent was to share our concern with the American people that the Russians were playing on this issue; and, two, it was [to] help Vice President Biden,” he explained, <a href="https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2023-04-20-jdj-mt-to-blinken-re-public-statement-on-hunter-biden-emails_0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to a transcript</a> of his testimony.
Democrats accused Republicans of cherry-picking Morell’s testimony, claiming “no part of that interview demonstrates that Tony Blinken or any other Biden campaign official asked Mike Morell to write a letter about Hunter Biden’s laptop.”

Trump Suspends Security Clearances For 51 Officials Who Claimed Hunter Biden Laptop ‘Disinformation’

Executive Orders

New York Post

President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/joe-biden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Joe Biden</a> claimed on Friday that as his failed presidency comes to an end, he has no plans to pardon himself — but he may issue preemptive pardons to some opponents of President-elect Donald Trump.
Biden made the remarks during a press conference from the White House when asked if he has &#8220;ruled out a pardon for yourself or any other additional members of the family.&#8221;
Reporter: “On pardons, have you ruled out a pardon for yourself or any other additional members of the family?”
“For myself?” Biden asked. “Well, why should I pardon myself?”
“No, I have no contemplation of pardoning myself or anything,&#8221; he claimed. &#8220;I didn&#8217;t do anything wrong.”
Biden said last summer that he would not pardon his son, convicted felon Hunter Biden, but later went back on his word following the election.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Reporter: “On pardons, have you ruled out a pardon for yourself or any other additional members of the family?”
Biden: “For myself?”
Reporter: “Yes, sir.”
Biden: “Well, why should I pardon myself?”
Reporter: “That&#8217;s what I&#8217;m asking.”
Biden: “No, I have no contemplation of… <a href="https://t.co/zLYo4fsIkC">pic.twitter.com/zLYo4fsIkC</a>
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) <a href="https://twitter.com/CurtisHouck/status/1877857338440216844?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
When asked if he could give reporters a sense of what additional pardons he was considering giving, Biden said the answer was &#8220;no.&#8221;
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&#8220;It depends on some of the language and expectations that Trump broadcast in the last couple of days here as to what he&#8217;s going to do,&#8221; Biden said. &#8220;The idea that he would punish people for not adhering to what he thinks should be policy as related to his well-being, is outrageous, but there&#8217;s still consideration of some folks that — nothing — but no decision.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Reuters’s <a href="https://twitter.com/jeffmason1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JeffMason1</a>: “Can you just give us a sense of what other pardons and commutations you&#8217;re considering in your last ten days?”
Biden: “Well, the answer is no, because two things. One is that — it depends on some of the language and expectations that Trump broadcast in… <a href="https://t.co/U77e5xBIoX">pic.twitter.com/U77e5xBIoX</a>
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) <a href="https://twitter.com/CurtisHouck/status/1877863373502546131?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 10, 2025</a></blockquote>

US-POLITICS-BIDEN-ECONOMY

Biden: No Plans To Pardon Myself; May Issue Preemptive Pardons For Trump Opponents

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