News of the World

[kyonides]

James Comer Opens Probe
into Hunter Biden’s Art Buyer and Biden Appointee

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) opened a probe into a buyer of Hunter Biden’s artwork to ascertain if Hunter used his novice art career to “peddle influence in and access to the White House.”

Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali, a prominent Biden donor and Biden appointee to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, reportedly bought Hunter Biden’s art in July 2022. It is unknown if Hirsh’s purchase occurred before or after her appointment to that position.


“The White House has stated that ‘Hunter Biden would be walled off from knowing the identities of his buyers in an attempt to separate his business dealings from his father’s administration,'” Comer wrote in a statement, continuing:

Abbe Lowell, Hunter Biden’s lawyer, told reporters that the gallery “does not disclose the names of any purchasers to Mr. Biden.” This system, however, seems to have failed, because Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali’s identity as a purchaser of this art has become public.

“Her position on the Commission is particularly suspicious because of Hunter Biden’s previous actions to elevate his business partner—Eric Schwerin—to the same post while his father was Vice President,” he added.

Naftali also reportedly visited the White House 13 times after the president’s son first showcased his paintings at his art dealer’s gallery in New York City.

Naftali is not the only purchaser of Hunter Biden’s art. A mystery buyer reportedly spent $875,000 on 11 Hunter Biden paintings from his art dealer, Georges Bergès, who previously boasted strong ties to businessmen in Communist China.

Hunter Biden also reportedly sold art to his top lawyer, Kevin Morris, who also paid Hunter’s IRS bill of about $2 million. The entertainment lawyer is at the center of Hunter Biden’s new-found career of painting modern art, an occupation connected to the art market known for corruption.

Special Counsel Jack Smith Seeks ‘Speedy Trial’
in Donald Trump January 6 Indictment

Trump was indicted by a Washington, DC, grand jury on Tuesday on four counts, including conspiracy to defraud the U.S., conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights, in relation to the January 6 capitol riots.

Smith described the Capitol riots as “an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy,” and claimed it was “fueled by lies” during a press conference shortly after the indictment against Trump was unsealed.

“Lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the U.S. government, a nation’s process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election,” Smith said.

Smith praised the law enforcement officers who “defended the U.S. Capitol” on January 6 as “heroes.”
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Smith announced his team is still investigating “other individuals” in connection with January 6.

In a statement released just before the indictment was unsealed, Trump’s campaign blasted it as “the latest corrupt chapter in the continued pathetic attempt by the Biden Crime Family and their weaponized Department of Justice to interfere with the 2024 Presidential Election.”

Smith plans to seek a “speedy trial” to ensure the DOJ’s “evidence can be tested in court and judged by a jury of citizens,” he added.

Irony: Jack Smith’s Team Admits Incorrectly Telling Court
DOJ Turned Over All Materials

Smith has charged Trump with 40 counts in the so-called “documents” case. Among them is the accusation that Trump caused his lawyers to tell the government that they had handed over all of the documents the government wanted, when in fact they had not.

The indictment against Trump alleges that he conspired with his staff to move boxes of documents, and to attempt to delete some video footage, without telling his attorneys, so that the final delivery of documents and video to the government was incomplete.

But in an ironic twist, Smith’s team had to admit to the court in a July 31 filing that it had not, in fact, uploaded all of the video footage that it had taken from Trump’s residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, to a platform established by the court for the defense to review it.
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“The Government’s representation at the July 18 hearing that all surveillance footage the Government had obtained pre-indictment had been produced was therefore incorrect,” Julie Edelstein, a Smith assistant, told the court.

In criminal trials, the defense is entitled to see all of the evidence that the government plans to introduce at trial. Under a rule called the Brady rule, the prosecution has a special duty to disclose anything to the defense that might prove to be exculpatory.

Trump January 6 Case Assigned
to Obama-Appointed Judge, Obama Donor

Appointed in 2014 to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by Obama, Judge Tanya Chutkan has been known to give some of the harshest sentences for January 6 defendants, with some even going beyond government recommendations.
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That’s the same Tanya Chutkan who represented Theranos at Boies Schiller (the firm that hired Fusion GPS to attack Theranos whistleblowers) and then presided as judge in the U.S. House lawsuit against Fusion GPS. Completely corrupt.
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) August 1, 2023
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In 2021, Chutkan ruled hundreds of pages of the former president’s White House records could be turned over to the January 6 investigating committee despite Trump’s objections.

“The court holds that the public interest lies in permitting—not enjoining—the combined will of the legislative and executive branches to study the events that led to and occurred on January 6, and to consider legislation to prevent such events from ever occurring again,” Chutkan wrote.

According to Open Secrets, Chutkan also donated to the 2008 and 2012 political campaigns of Barack Obama.

Locals Live in Fear Amid Massive Migrant Gun Battles Near Hungarian Border

The village of Hajdukovo/Hajdújárás, a small farming community in the north of Serbia on the Hungarian border has been described as a terrifying warzone this past week as what are reported to be migrant smuggler gangs face off in hours-long gun battles, with household security footage audio attesting to the persistent sound of automatic gunfire.
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The battles started last Monday, in a two-hour long fight which left one dead and several injured, and “pools of blood” and discarded bandages littering the streets and orchards of the village the next morning. Hungarian state broadcaster MTVA reports on the plight of the locals, who are ethnically majority Hungarian, describing how the migrant smuggler gangs were “shooting indiscriminately at everything and everyone between the houses and in the gardens” on Monday 24th.

Because of the weakness of the European Union’s external border and asylum policies, human trafficking has become an extremely lucrative — if deadly — business in Europe. In Hajdukovo, gangs may be fighting over territory and customers.
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“Presumably, Afghan migrants wanted to settle scores with each other”, one report caustically notes, but nevertheless as well as shooting at one another, the gangs also exchanged fire with the police, Serbian broadcaster Pannon RTV reports.

An official announcement on Monday’s battle revealed medics discovered several victims, including a dead Afghan lying near a main road, and an injured Afghan male lying nearby.

The violence continued through the week, local witnesses state, and there was another major battle on Friday evening, just hours after a local resident’s meeting to address the problem of shootings took place with the regional mayor in the village.

President of Bolivia Looks to Sell Lithium at China-Led BRICS Summit

Bolivia’s Foreign Minister Rogelio Mayta announced Monday that the nation’s socialist president, Luis Arce, will attend the upcoming BRICS summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, hoping to join the China-led trade bloc.

According to Mayta, Arce will attend the trade and security bloc’s summit at the invitation of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. The Bolivian president will seek investment and partnership opportunities to help boost Bolivia’s exports and nascent lithium industry after signing contracts in June that gave away control of two of the country’s largest lithium deposits to China and Russia.
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Bolivia is home to some of the world’s largest known lithium resources at 21 million tons, but the South American nation has almost no industrial production or commercially viable reserves. Lithium is an indispensable material for manufacturing electric vehicle batteries and batteries used in a wide range of devices.
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Mayta reiterated Bolivia’s “willingness and interest” to join the BRICS coalition, explaining that the Bolivian government issued a letter in June addressed to the five presidents of the bloc’s founding members. According to Mayta, the Bolivian government asserted that it “shares a common vision regarding an international order founded on equality, solidarity, inclusion, consensus, mutually beneficial cooperation, and multilateralism, without hegemonies.”