More than a year has passed since President Donald Trump held the only solo news conference of his administration - a rollicking, hastily arranged, 77-minute free-for-all during which he railed against the media, defended his fired national security adviser and insisted nobody who advised his campaign had had contacts with Russia.īut there are no signs the White House press shop is interested in a second go-round. Attorney David Weiss, a Trump appointee, denied that in a letter to Congress, saying he had “full authority” over the probe and never requested special counsel status.WASHINGTON - The presidential news conference, a time-honored tradition going back generations, appears to be no longer. Republicans have decried the agreement as a “sweetheart deal” and heard from two IRS agents who claimed the long-running investigation was “slow walked” and the prosecutor overseeing it was refused broader special counsel powers.ĭelaware U.S. The dustup came hours before Biden is expected to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax charges in an agreement that allows him to avoid prosecution on a gun charge if he meets certain conditions. The judge agreed to keep the information sealed for a day to consider the issue.

Kittila, though, said he had only filed materials that the committee had already released publicly online. The second employee emailed Kittila.īiden’s attorneys are still seeking to keep information deemed private out of the public court record. Jessica Bengels said in court documents that she did speak to two different clerk’s office employees, which could have contributed to the misunderstanding. When Noreika learned of the situation, she demanded the defense show why she should not consider sanctioning them for “misrepresentations to the court.”ĭefense attorneys answered that their lawyer had represented herself truthfully from the start, and called from a phone number that typically displays the firm’s name, Latham & Watkins, on the caller ID. The lawyer gave her name and said she worked with an attorney from the Ways and Means Committee but was in fact a lawyer with the defense team, a clerk wrote in an email to Theodore Kittila, an attorney representing Smith. A court clerk received a call requesting that “sensitive grand jury, taxpayer and social security information” it contained be kept under seal, according to an oral order from Noreika. The dynamics of the case became even more complicated hours after the lawmakers filed their motion. Judges rarely throw out plea bargains, but the effort to intervene by Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith of Missouri amounted to a high-profile push to raise questions about the deal, which is expected to spare the president’s son from jail time. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, who was also appointed by Trump, will consider whether to accept the plea agreement.

The whistleblowers alleged the Justice Department interfered with investigations into Biden, a charge that has been denied by the lead prosecutor in the case, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump. On Capitol Hill, where Republicans are ramping up their investigations of the president and his son, the GOP chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee took the unusual step of filing court documents urging the judge in Hunter Biden’s case to consider testimony from IRS whistleblowers. WASHINGTON (AP) - President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, faced new challenges on the eve of a scheduled court appearance Wednesday in which he’s set to plead guilty in a deal with prosecutors on tax and gun charges.

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