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Trump Escalates Calls for Investigating Biden Corruption Scandal in Major Way; Documents Heighten Scrutiny on Biden-Ukraine Dealings

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By Daily Wire. President Donald Trump told reporters on the White House lawn on Thursday that Ukraine and China should both be investigating 2020 Democratic Party presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, over their actions while Biden served as vice president in the Obama administration.

“If they were honest about it, they would start a major investigation into the Bidens,” Trump said when he was asked what he wanted Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to do about Biden and his son. “They should investigate the Bidens. Likewise, China should start an investigation into the Bidens, because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine.”

Trump’s call for China to investigate Biden for corruption stems comes as NBC News reported this week on a 2013 vice presidential trip to China on which Hunter accompanied his dad.

“At the time, it seemed mildly noteworthy, but not particularly unusual: Then-Vice President Joe Biden, traveling to China on an official visit, had brought his son Hunter Biden along,” NBC News reported. “And when the two appeared in public together in Beijing during the 2013 trip, there were all the typical trappings of a mini-family vacation tacked on to a business trip.”

“What wasn’t known then was that as he accompanied his father to China, Hunter Biden was forming a Chinese private equity fund that associates said at the time was planning to raise big money, including from China. Hunter Biden has acknowledged meeting with Jonathan Li, a Chinese banker and his partner in the fund during the trip, although his spokesman says it was a social visit,” NBC News continued. “The Chinese business license that brought the new fund into existence was issued by Shanghai authorities 10 days after the trip, with Hunter Biden a member of the board. Seeking to expand his corruption accusations beyond Ukraine, Trump has accused Hunter Biden of using his trip on Air Force Two to procure $1.5 billion from China for his fund, calling it ‘a horrible thing.’”

(Read more from “Trump Escalates Calls for Investigating Biden Corruption Scandal in Major Way” HERE)

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Documents Heighten Scrutiny on Biden-Ukraine Dealings, Indicate Hunter May Have Made ‘Millions’

By Fox News. A batch of newly released documents, including court filings as well as notes from interviews conducted by Rudy Giuliani, have put the spotlight back on Biden family dealings in Ukraine—even as House Democrats’ impeachment probe zeroes in on President Trump’s push to convince Kiev to investigate them.

And they’ve raised more questions about how much money Joe Biden’s son Hunter made while serving on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas firm at the center of the controversy, with one estimate putting the figure in the “millions.”

Among the documents, as Fox News reported Wednesday, are notes from an interview Trump attorney Giuliani conducted with fired Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin earlier this year, in which he claimed he was told by former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey R. Pyatt to back off an investigation involving that firm, Burisma Holdings, and its founder. According to interview notes, Shokin claimed Pyatt — currently the ambassador to Greece — told him to handle that investigation “with white gloves.” . . .

In that interview, Shokin also claimed that former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko told him he should not investigate Burisma, “as it was not in the interest of Joe and/or Hunter Biden.” Shokin claimed Poroshenko told him that due to his investigation, Joe Biden held “up to one billion dollars in U.S. aid to Ukraine.” Poroshenko eventually removed Shokin.

Biden’s campaign and congressional Democrats reject these allegations, maintaining that Biden was only involved due to corruption concerns surrounding Shokin and casting Giuliani’s claims as “debunked conspiracy theories.” (Read more from “Documents Heighten Scrutiny on Biden-Ukraine Dealings, Indicate Hunter May Have Made ‘Millions’” HERE)

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Report: Another ‘Whistleblower’ Takes Aim at Trump — This Time From IRS

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An Internal Revenue Service (IRS) bureaucrat has filed a so-called “whistleblower” complaint claiming he received information that at least one Treasury Department political appointee moved to “improperly interfere” with the annual audit of President Donald Trump or Vice President Mike Pence’s tax returns, according to the Washington Post.

The Post, citing multiple anonymous sources, cannot provide key details of the complaint due to privacy laws that prohibit the disclosure of details concerning tax return filings. The complaint’s existence was revealed in court filings earlier, though it failed to garner much public attention. Two Trump administration officials downplayed the complaint due to the fact that it is based on “hearsay” and suggested it could have been prompted by political bias.

Rep. Richard E. Neal (D-MA), who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, received the complaint in July and claims it includes evidence of “potential ‘inappropriate efforts to influence’ the audit program.” . . .

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has disclosed to Neal that his office transmitted the complaint to the inspector general.

In June, the House Ways and Means Committee filed a lawsuit against the Treasury Department and the IRS in an effort to obtain President Trump’s tax returns. At the time, Neal said his panel doesn’t need to justify why lawmakers seek the president’s tax return information. The panel stated that the administration defied a subpoena for the records “in order to shield President Trump’s tax return information from Congressional scrutiny.” (Read more from “Report: Another ‘Whistleblower’ Takes Aim at Trump — This Time From IRS” HERE)

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The Trump-Ukraine Scandal Just Got More Ridiculous With This New Dossier

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House Democrats’ impeachment theater was always shoddy. The reasoning was ridiculous, their demeanor absurdly transparent, and the self-righteousness was nauseating. President Trump now faces impeachment proceedings because he spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in July. Trump allegedly shook down the leader, saying he would withhold aid unless a corruption investigation was launched against Hunter Biden, who was sitting on the board of an energy company there without any prior experience. And then, a transcript of the call torched all of that. There was no quid pro quo as alleged in a whistleblower complaint. The complainant is reportedly a CIA officer, who didn’t listen in on the call and the entire report is grounded by second-hand sources. It’s all hearsay, which explains the oodles of errors. And did Democrats read the complaint before executing their impeachment fantasy? No.

With every passing day, it’s becoming clearer that we have a nothing burger. Democrats wanted to impeach Trump because he won the 2016 election. Here was their window before the 2020 cycle to avoid angering their base. It’s truly pathetic. To show that this whole effort has truly gone off the rails, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) is not talking about a new dossier the supposedly related to the Trump-Ukraine story is not supported by evidence—and no one knows where it came from. State Department Inspector General Steve Linick was on the Hill Wednesday to discuss it. Raskin said it really has nothing to do with Trump’s impeachment inquiry, but then decided to suggest that it follows the narrative the Trump team is trying to peddle regarding this Ukraine story (via Roll Call):

The State Department’s inspector general on Wednesday shared with Congress a dossier of unknown origins that one lawmaker said contained conspiracy theories and was hand-delivered to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo months ago.

With members away from the Capitol for a two-week recess, Steve Linick, the State Department’s top watchdog, briefed congressional staffers Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, on the documents that Raskin said arrived at the department in May.

“It raises more questions than it answers,” Raskin said of the documents. “The inspector general had no idea where it came from.”

(Read more from “The Trump-Ukraine Scandal Just Got More Ridiculous With This New Dossier” HERE)

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Recent Poll: Here’s Trump’s Job Approval Amid Impeachment Proceedings

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There’s a lot of statistical noise out there, so I wouldn’t get too swept up in any individual poll — especially as many Americans are still trying to figure out what to make of the Ukraine situation, and impeachment more broadly. Virtually every major pollster has measured a clear uptick in support for at least launching an impeachment inquiry, though other surveys have asked different variations of impeachment-related questions (unsurprisingly, there’s more popular support for beginning an inquiry than for removing the president from office). A brand new batch of numbers from The Hill’s pollster shows Trump’s overall approval rating surging to one of its highest levels of his presidency:

President Trump’s approval ticked up to 49 percent — its highest mark this year, according to a new Hill-HarrisX survey released on Wednesday. The figure marks a 2-point increase from a Sept. 11-12 poll, but a 2-point decrease from its previous peak of 51 percent last August. Trump’s disapproval rating, meanwhile, dropped to 51 percent, which marks his lowest level so far this year. The nationwide survey was conducted on Sept. 28 and 29, less than a week after House Democrats launched a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump over concerns raised in a whistleblower’s complaint about the president’s communications with Ukraine.

Contrast that finding with Monmouth’s latest outcome showing Trump flat, and both Gallup and Rasmussen tracking Trump’s standing downward. A fresh national survey from USA Today finds plurality support for impeachment, including for removing Trump from office, but fewer than 40 percent of respondents say there’s sufficient reliable evidence for doing so. As I said above, many people are still puzzling through these questions and waiting for more information, but some of the trends among independents should be troubling to the Trump campaign. This is also an interesting nugget from the internal data:

(Read more from “Recent Poll: Here’s Trump’s Job Approval Amid Impeachment Proceedings” HERE)

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President Trump’s Biden-Ukraine Tweet Is Sure to Cause a Liberal Meltdown; Trump GOES OFF: ‘Biden and His Son Are Stone-Cold Crooked’

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By Townhall. If there’s a reason why Republicans like Donald Trump, it’s because the man knows how to punch back. He’ll slap down liberal reporters to their faces. He’ll tweet. He’ll hold rallies. And all of this against insane odds. The Democrat-media complex is vast, well-financed, organized, and merciless. They control the cultural centers of the country. It’s an uphill battle, but Trump always finds a way to find a seam and get under the Left’s skin.

(Editor’s note: Twitter took down the photo – see below – even though Trump had modified it, bringing the photo squarely into fair use. Twitter virtually never does this to other public figures)

(Read more from “President Trump’s Biden-Ukraine Tweet Is Sure to Cause a Liberal Meltdown” HERE)

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Trump GOES OFF: ‘Biden and His Son Are Stone-Cold Crooked’

By Breitbart. President Donald Trump criticized former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden on Wednesday, accusing them of corruption in Ukraine and China.

“Biden and his son are stone-cold crooked and you know it,” Trump said to reporters at the White House. “His son walks out with millions of dollars, the kid knows nothing, you know it and so do we.”

In 2013, Hunter Biden scored a $1.5 billion dollar investment deal with the Bank of China just days after traveling with his father to visit the country. Hunter Biden was also hired as a paid board member of Burisma Holdings in April 2014, earning up to $83,000 a month. . .

Trump demurred when reporters asked what he wanted Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky to do about Biden, during their phone conversation that was widely scrutinized after a whistleblower raised the alarm of the president discussing the topic. (Read more from “Trump GOES OFF: ‘Biden and His Son Are Stone-Cold Crooked’” HERE)

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Cheese, Scotch and Coffee: A Big Win for Trump on Tariffs

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President Donald Trump plans to slap punitive tariffs on about $7.5 billion worth of European aircraft, agricultural and industrial goods later this month after the United States won an important victory in a ruling before the global trade body that handles trade disputes.

The action brings a 15-year-old case one step closer to resolution while allowing Trump to impose tariffs with the official blessing of the World Trade Organization. That’s in contrast to his earlier actions that unilaterally set duties on steel and aluminum imports, which other countries believe violate global trade rules. . .

The WTO authorized the Trump administration to impose duties after it decided that the EU failed to completely end illegal loan subsidy programs for Airbus. The EU argues it has taken meaningful steps to comply and expects the WTO to validate that in a separate ruling.

The decision is the highest penalty ever granted by a WTO arbitrator. American officials said the United States would use the authority to impose a 10 percent tariff on Airbus aircraft and a 25 percent duty on various European agricultural and industrial goods effective Oct. 18. (Read more from “Cheese, Scotch and Coffee: A Big Win for Trump on Tariffs” HERE)

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WATCH: President Trump Considering ‘a Major Lawsuit’ in Response to Mueller Investigation

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President Trump said Wednesday that he’s considering bringing “a major lawsuit” against unidentified people regarding former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, accusing Mueller of treating him and his associates unfairly.

“We’ve been investigating on a personal basis, through Rudy [Giuliani] and others, lawyers, corruption in the 2016 election. We’ve been investigating corruption because I probably will, I was going to definitely, but I probably will be bringing a lot of litigation against a lot of people having to do with the corrupt investigation having to do with the 2016 election,” Trump said during a press conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinistö.

“I’ve been looking at that long and hard for a long period of time, how it started, why it started, it should never happen to another president, ever, but I’ve been talking about it from the standpoint of bringing a major lawsuit, and I’ve been talking about it for a long time,” he added.

Trump has long accused Mueller of political bias and misconduct during his two-year probe into Russia’s election meddling and obstruction of justice.

The former special counsel found insufficient evidence to charge Trump with conspiracy to collude with Moscow but declined to make a prosecutorial judgement as to whether the president obstructed subsequent probes. (Read more from “President Trump Considering ‘a Major Lawsuit’ in Response to Mueller Investigation” HERE)

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President Trump: Schiff Should Be Investigated for Treason (VIDEO)

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Speaking during a meeting with Finnish President Sauli Niinistö in the Oval Office Wednesday afternoon, President Trump called for House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff to not only “resign in disgrace,” but argued he should be investigated for treason.

“He made up my conversation. He actually made it up. It should be criminal. It should be treasonous. He made it up, every word of it, and read to Congress as if I said it. And I’ll tell you what, he should be forced to resign from Congress. Adam Schiff, he’s a low life. He should be forced to resign,” Trump said. “He took that conversation, which was perfect, he said, ‘I can’t read this,’ so he made up a conversation and he reported it and said it to Congress and the American people.”

“It was horrible what he said,” he continued. “It was all fabricated. He should resign from office in disgrace and frankly they should look at him for treason because he is making up the words of the President of the United States. Not only words, but the meaning.”

(Read more from “President Trump: Schiff Should Be Investigated for Treason” HERE)

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Trump’s ‘Civil War’ Quote Tweet Is Actually Grounds for Impeachment, Says Harvard Law Professor; GOP Rep. Goes off on ‘Civil War’ Tweet: ‘Beyond Repugnant’

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By Newsweek. President Donald Trump’s recent tweet quoting a longtime evangelical pastor who warned of a “Civil War” if Democrats seriously pursue removing him from office could actually be grounds for impeachment, one Harvard Law professor said.

“If the Democrats are successful in removing the President from office (which they will never be), it will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal,” Trump tweeted on Sunday night.

The tweet was a quote from Robert Jeffress, a Southern Baptist pastor who gave the comment during an appearance on Fox & Friends Weekend. Trump added his own parenthetical aside to Jeffress’ quote, in which the president asserted that Congress won’t be successful in their impeachment efforts.

The president’s tweet was immediately met with backlash, and Harvard Law professor John Coates argued that the social media post itself is an “independent basis” for lawmakers to remove him from the White House.

“This tweet is itself an independent basis for impeachment – a sitting president threatening civil war if Congress exercises its constitutionally authorized power,” Coates wrote on Twitter on Monday.

(Read more from “Trump’s ‘Civil War’ Quote Tweet Is Actually Grounds for Impeachment, Says Harvard Law Professor” HERE)

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Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger on President Donald Trump’s ‘Civil War’ Threat: ‘Beyond Repugnant’

By USA Today. Republican congressman and Air Force veteran Adam Kinzinger slammed President Donald Trump for suggesting that his impeachment could lead to a “Civil War.”

“If the Democrats are successful in removing the President from office (which they will never be), it will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal,” Trump tweeted on Sunday, quoting Robert Jeffress, an evangelical pastor and loyal Trump supporter who appeared on “Fox & Friends Weekend.”

The suggestion of a civil war was met with widespread backlash — even from Trump’s own party, including Kinzinger, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I have visited nations ravaged by civil war,” the Illinois lawmaker tweeted. “I have never imagined such a quote to be repeated by a President. This is beyond repugnant.”

(Read more from “Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger on President Donald Trump’s ‘Civil War’ Threat: ‘Beyond Repugnant'” HERE)

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House Dems Subpoena Rudy Giuliani

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The House Intelligence Committee has subpoenaed President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani for documents as part of its impeachment inquiry into the president.

In a letter to Giuliani dated Monday, the heads of three House committees asked for information related to the president’s and his lawyer’s efforts to get Ukraine’s government to investigate the Biden family.

Three Democratic-led panels — the Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees — are demanding that Giuliani produce all text messages, phone records and other communications related to the “scheme” he is accused of perpetrating “in order to determine the full extent of this effort by the President and his Administration to press Ukraine to interfere in our 2020 presidential election.”

They wrote that the House Democrats’ probe “includes an investigation of credible allegations that [Giuliani] acted as an agent of the President in a scheme to advance his personal political interests by abusing the power of the Office of the President.” Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and Eliot Engel, D-N.Y. — who lead the Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees, respectively — asked him to produce documents by Oct. 15. . .

The subpoena adds to the heightened scrutiny of both administration officials and outside Trump confidants after the House decided last week to move forward with impeachment proceedings. On Friday, the Intelligence Committee subpoenaed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for documents. The heads of the Appropriations and Budget committees also asked Friday for records related to the Office of Management and Budget’s involvement in the Trump administration deciding to hold back nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine. (Read more from “House Dems Subpoena Rudy Giuliani” HERE)

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