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‘Unethical Conduct’: Hunter Biden’s Lawyer Calls for Congressional Review of Marjorie Taylor Greene

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Hunter Biden’s legal team fired shots Monday morning at two of his chief Republican antagonists.

Attorney Abbe Lowell sent letters asking the Treasury Department’s inspector general to investigate how former Donald Trump loyalists obtained reports of Biden’s alleged “suspicious activity” and seeking a congressional ethics review of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s public attacks against President Joe Biden’s family, reported Politico’s Playbook.

“We write to request the Office of Congressional Ethics initiate a review of and take appropriate action as a result of Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA 14th C.D.) suspected violations of House Ethics rules and standards of official conduct,” Lowell wrote. “Representative Greene’s unethical conduct arises from her continuous verbal attacks, defamatory statements, publication of personal photos and data, and promotion of conspiracy theories about and against Robert Hunter Biden. None of these could possibly be deemed to be part of any legitimate legislative activity, as is clear from both the content of her statements and actions, and the forums she uses to spew her often unhinged rhetoric.”

The attorney listed several statements and allegations Greene has made against Biden that were false and easily debunked, and Lowell said her conduct reflected poorly on the House and went far beyond her legislative duties.

“Since her election to Congress in 2020 (and before), Representative Greene has engaged in steady, dogged verbal and defamatory attacks against Mr. Biden, and members of his family,” Lowell wrote. “Her online statements and public appearances are neither legislative drafting, nor oversight, nor real congressional business — they are a spray of shotgun pellets of personal vitriol that are the definition of conduct that does not reflect ‘creditably on the House.’ Her actions are not merely the expression of political views or private ‘free speech’ because she uses her official position to disseminate them and often expresses them in official proceedings.”

“Perhaps Representative Greene is beyond conducting herself properly. Many have so concluded,” Lowell added. “However, the House has a duty to make loud and clear that it does not endorse, condone, or agree with her outrageous, undignified rhetoric and brazen violations of the standards of official conduct that do not reflect creditably on the House of Representatives.”

Lowell also wrote that former Trump White House official Garrett Ziegler did not have a First Amendment defense for obtaining and publishing confidential Treasury Department records regarding the president’s son, and he said those actions may have violated the Bank Secrecy Act.

“We write on behalf of our client … to request that the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Treasury review how Garrett M. Ziegler came to acquire and then retain and publish on his website, Marco Polo USA, illegally obtained Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) from JP Morgan Chase Bank N.A. concerning what are alleged to be financial activities by Mr. Biden,” Lowell wrote. “Ziegler has stated that he worked (conspired) with a person or persons in a bank resulting in his illegally obtaining and then disclosing five SARs, which involve or concern Mr. Biden.”

Lowell wrote that those interactions with a bank employee to obtain protected information violates federal law, and he complained that the reports remain publicly available on the former Trump White House official’s website and had been publicized by the Daily Mail and other media outlets.

“While he may try to cloak himself with the protection of a real journalist, by now, it is clear that Ziegler is nothing other than a possessed and self-described political warrior against the Biden Family,” Lowell wrote. “Even if he would now like to hide in some First Amendment protection, his actions in concert with those to violate the law (e.g., the JP Morgan Chase banker to obtain and publish the SARs) necessarily exclude him from any such claim.”

ALSO IN THE NEWS: ‘A ton of weirdness’ is ripping apart the Republican Party: conservative

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‘Bad News’ for Sidney Powell as First Trump Co-Defendant in Georgia RICO Case Takes Plea Deal: Legal Expert

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September 29, 2023

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The first of 19 co-defendants in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ RICO and election interference case against Donald Trump has pleaded guilty in what is being described as a “plea deal.”

“Under the terms of an agreement with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s office, Hall pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit election fraud, conspiracy to commit computer theft, conspiracy to commit computer trespass, conspiracy to commit computer invasion of privacy, and conspiracy to defraud the state,” NBC News reports. “Under the terms of the deal, he’s being sentenced to five years probation.”

CNN previously reported “Hall, a bail bondsman and pro-Trump poll-watcher in Atlanta, spent hours inside a restricted area of the Coffee County elections office when voting systems were breached in January 2021. The breach was connected to efforts by pro-Trump conspiracy theorists to find voter fraud. Hall was captured on surveillance video at the office, on the day of the breach. He testified before the grand jury in Fulton County case and acknowledged that he gained access to a voting machine.”

READ MORE: Will McConnell and Senate Republicans Use Feinstein’s Passing to Grind Biden’s Judicial Confirmations to a Halt?

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, a professor of law and frequent MSNBC contributor, says Hall “was in the thick of things with Sidney Powell on Jan 7 for the Coffee County scheme involving voting machines. If he’s cooperating, it’s a bad sign for her.”

Hall’s plea deal “spells bad news for, among others, Sidney Powell,” says former Dept. of Defense Special Counsel Ryan Goodman, an NYU Law professor of law. Goodman posted a graphic showing the overlap in charges against Hall and Powell, which he called “alleged joint actions.”

See the graphic above or at this link.

 

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Far-Right Republicans Kill GOP Bill to Keep Government Running in ‘Embarrassing Failure’ for McCarthy: Report

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September 29, 2023

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With a shutdown less than 36 hours away, far-right Republicans in the House of Representatives Friday afternoon voted against their party’s own legislation to kept the federal government running. Democrats opposed the content of the bill and voted against it. Just 21 far-right members of the GOP conference were able to effectively force what appears to be an all but inevitable shutdown at midnight on Saturday.

“HARDLINE HOUSE RS take down stopgap funding bill. 21 GOP no votes. 232-198,” reported Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman just before 2 PM Friday.

NBC News reported that a “band of conservative rebels on Friday revolted and blocked House Republicans’ short-term funding bill to keep the government open, delivering a political blow to Speaker Kevin McCarthy and likely cementing the chances of a painful government shutdown that is less than 48 hours away.”

READ MORE: Will McConnell and Senate Republicans Use Feinstein’s Passing to Grind Biden’s Judicial Confirmations to a Halt?

“Twenty-one rebels, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., a conservative bomb-thrower and a top Donald Trump ally, voted Friday afternoon to scuttle the 30-day funding bill, known as a continuing resolution or CR, leaving Republicans without a game plan to avert a shutdown. The vote failed,” NBC added. “The embarrassing failure of the GOP measure once again highlights the dilemma for McCarthy as his hard-liners strongly oppose a short-term bill even if it includes conservative priorities. It leaves Congress on a path to a shutdown, with no apparent offramp to avoiding it — or to quickly reopen the government.”

A bipartisan group of at least 75 U.S. Senators has passed two bills this week that would keep the government running. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy has refused to allow it to come to the floor for a vote.

 

 

 

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‘Wannabe Dictator’: Milley Appears to Slam Trump After Ex-President Suggested He Should Be Executed

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September 29, 2023

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General Mark Milley, the outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the top military advisor to the President, during his retirement speech Friday appeared to deliver strong criticism of former President Donald Trump, who appointed him to that post but since has waged war against him.

One week ago the ex-president had said that “in times gone by” General Milley would have been executed for treason. Trump in 2021 had called for General Milley to be “tried for treason.”

“Trump’s rhetoric is dangerous, not just because it is the exact sort that incites violence against public officials,” professor of global politics and political scientist Brian Klass wrote at The Atlantic after Trump’s most recent attack on the Chairman, “but also because it shows just how numb the country has grown toward threats more typical of broken, authoritarian regimes.”

READ MORE: Trump Goes on Wild Rant Targeting Judge and Attorney General After Being Found Liable for Fraud

Trump had written, “if the Fake News reporting is correct,” General Milley “was actually dealing with China to give them a heads up on the thinking of the President of the United States. This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH! A war between China and the United States could have been the result of this treasonous act.”

Milley was acting within his duties in a White House approved conversation, according to Klass.

On Friday, Milley appeared to blast Trump.

“We don’t take an oath to a tribe. We don’t take an oath to a religion. We don’t take an oath to a king, or queen, or a tyrant, or dictator. We don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator,” Milley declared. “We don’t take an oath to an individual. We take an oath to the Constitution, and we take an oath to the idea that is America, and we’re willing to die to protect it.”

“Every soldier, sailor, airman, Marine, Guardian and Coast Guardsmen, each of us, emits our very life to protect and defend that document, regardless of personal price to a country.”

READ MORE: ‘He Knows I’m Right’: Democrat Mocks ‘Scared’ McCarthy and Blows Off Chairman Comer in ‘Very Unserious’ Hearing

Vanity Fair on Thursday reported General Milley “said he has taken security precautions to protect himself and his family after Donald Trump all but called for his execution last week.”

Watch Milley’s remarks below or at this link.

 

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