IRS supervisory special agent Gary Shapley and IRS special agent Joseph Ziegler provided extensive evidence of Biden’s efforts to avoid paying nearly $1.6 million in taxes from 2014 and 2019.

Here are the main revelations from their testimony before the House Oversight Committee.

Hunter Biden ‘should have been charged’ with tax felonies.

Ziegler, who opened the Biden probe in 2018, testified that Hunter Biden "should have been charged with a tax felony," but that federal prosecutors and the Justice Department settled only for misdemeanor charges.

Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of failure to pay his taxes for 2017 and 2018. Ziegler and Shapley testified that prosecutors initially approved of felony charges for the tax years 2014 to 2019.

Shapley said that as recently as August 2022, prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware supported felony counts against Hunter Biden for the years 2017, 2018, and 2019.

The Hunter Biden tax probe began with payments to prostitutes.

Ziegler, a registered Democrat, testified that he opened a tax investigation of Hunter Biden in November 2018 after reviewing bank records that "identified Hunter Biden as paying prostitutes related to a potential prostitution ring." The records also showed Hunter Biden spent "lavishly" from his corporate bank account, a pattern that Ziegler said is a red flag for potential tax fraud.

According to Ziegler, Hunter Biden filed false tax returns that included improper deductions for "prostitutes, sex clubs, and his adult children’s tuition."

Hunter Biden deducted payments to his "West Coast assistant," who was actually a prostitute. Ziegler also said that Hunter Biden deducted a $10,000 payment he falsely described as a golf club membership.

"That was not a golf club membership—that was for a sex club payment," Ziegler said.

IRS agents were warned against interviewing Hunter Biden’s adult children.

Ziegler testified that the IRS investigators were prohibited from interviewing Hunter Biden’s adult children about suspicious payments they received from their father. Ziegler said prosecutors told him the interviews would "get us in hot water."

Ziegler said the stand-down order was "abnormal" and a "deviation from normal procedure." He testified the interviews would have helped investigators determine whether Hunter Biden’s deductions for payments to his children were for legitimate business purposes, or evidence of tax fraud.

Prosecutors blocked agents from investigating Hunter Biden’s infamous WhatsApp messages.

Ziegler said prosecutors handling the Biden probe blocked him from investigating an infamous Hunter Biden text message in which he invoked his father in a threatening text message to his partners at CEFC China Energy.

"I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father," Hunter Biden wrote in a July 30, 2017, message to a CEFC China Energy executive.

"I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction."

Ziegler said prosecutors declined to approve his request to obtain location data to see if Hunter was with his father when he sent the message. The IRS agent said the line of inquiry "simply wasn’t supported by the prosecutors."

The Washington Free Beacon reported that Hunter Biden was photographed at his father’s home in Delaware on the day of the message.

Foreign entities made seven-figure payments to Biden family.

Shapley and Ziegler revealed that foreign entities in China, Romania, and Ukraine paid the Biden family $17 million from 2014 to 2019.

CEFC China Energy, an energy conglomerate linked to the Chinese Communist Party, made a total of $6.7 million in payments to Hunter Biden and his consulting company. Ukraine’s Burisma Holdings paid $6.5 million to Hunter Biden and his associates. A Romanian businessman under investigation for bribery paid another $3.1 million to Hunter Biden and his associates.

According to Ziegler, Hunter Biden did not report any income from Ukraine’s Burisma in 2014, though he received more than $80,000 a month from the company.

The post The Major Revelations From the Hunter Biden Whistleblower Hearing appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Joe Ziegler, a special agent with the tax agency for 13 years, described himself as a "gay Democrat married to a man" and said he decided to come forward despite his personal politics because he believes "no one should be above the law regardless of your political affiliation." It was the first public appearance by Ziegler, who had previously given closed-door testimony to Congress under the alias "Whistleblower X."

Ziegler and his former IRS supervisor, longtime special agent Gary Shapley, said during the House Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday that federal prosecutors blocked agents from asking about Joe Biden while questioning witnesses, tipped off the Biden presidential transition team about the investigators’ next steps, and delayed search warrants. Their testimony comes one month after Hunter Biden reached a plea deal with prosecutors on misdemeanor tax charges, which Ways and Means Committee chairman Jason Smith (R., Mo.) described as a "sweetheart agreement."

Prosecutors "did not appear to follow the normal investigative process, slow-walked the investigation, and put in place unnecessary approvals and road blocks from effectively and efficiently addressing the case. A lot of times, we were not able to follow the facts," Ziegler said.

He said prosecutors repeatedly tried to block agents from following standard investigative procedures. At one point, Ziegler said Assistant U.S. Attorney for Delaware Lesley Wolf warned that he would be in "hot water" if he tried to interview President Biden’s adult grandchildren, who were named as part of false tax deductions made by Hunter Biden.

Ziegler said he was initially worried about revealing his identity, adding that some critics have accused him of being a "traitor to the Democratic Party." But he said he felt a "duty" to speak out.

"I equate this to the experience and feelings I encountered when coming out [as gay]," said Ziegler. "It was, honestly, one of the hardest things I ever went through."

Shapley said the Hunter Biden probe was "very different than any other case in my 14 years in the IRS. At every stage decisions were made that benefited the subject of this investigation."

"There should not be a two-track justice system depending on who you are and who you’re connected to," said Shapley. "In this case, there was, based on my experience."

The former IRS agents said the case against Biden should have automatically carried a felony charge under Department of Justice rules. They also noted that the four prosecutors assigned to the case recommended felony charges last August, but Biden ultimately only faced misdemeanor charges.

"In August of 2022, the assigned prosecutors, all four attorneys, agreed to recommend felony and misdemeanor charges for the 2017, ‘18, and ‘19 tax years," said Ziegler. "That didn’t happen here and I am not sure why."

He said the DOJ tax division policy states that cases "involving individuals who fail to file tax returns or pay a tax, but also commit acts of evasion and obstruction, should also be charged as felonies to avoid inequitable treatment."

Democrats avoided direct attacks on the whistleblowers’ credibility but accused Republicans of "hypocrisy" for holding the hearing.

"There seems to be a new level of hypocrisy here," said Rep. Stephen Lynch (D., Mass.), claiming that Republicans had "no interest" in investigating President Donald Trump’s public criticism of the DOJ during the prior administration.

Smith, the Republican Ways and Means Committee chairman, slammed Hunter Biden’s legal team for mounting a "vicious smear campaign to discredit these whistleblowers and discourage others from coming forward."

The post IRS 'Whistleblower X,' a Gay Democrat, Reveals Identity and Tells Congress He Was Blocked from Investigating Hunter Biden appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Kennedy distanced himself from Farrakhan as part of a clean-up effort after the Democrat asserted that the coronavirus may have been "ethnically targeted" to harm black and white people, while Ashkenazi Jews appeared to have greater immunity to the virus. Kennedy, who was denounced by some Jewish groups and Democratic Party leaders, claimed his statements were taken out of context and that he is not anti-Semitic.

Kennedy’s remarks brought his relationship with Farrakhan back into the spotlight. Farrakhan has railed against "satanic Jews" and in 2013 claimed that "the Jewish media" promoted "sexual degeneracy, profanity, and all kinds of sin." Farrakhan said in 2018 that "powerful Jews are my enemy."

Asked this week about his relationship with Farrakhan, Kennedy claimed he is an "opponent" of Farrakhan and has "never endorsed anything that Louis Farrakhan has said."

But Kennedy’s previous actions appear to contradict that claim.

In 2015, Kennedy visited Farrakhan and introduced him to the unfounded theory that measles vaccines are linked to higher rates of autism, the Washington Free Beacon reported. A Nation of Islam official who attended the meeting said that Kennedy informed the group that the measles "vaccine is genetically modified to give black boys autism," a claim without evidence.

Kennedy called Farrakhan a "truly great partner" at a protest outside Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in October 2015. Kennedy continued over the next few years to work with the Nation of Islam on the vaccine issue. In 2020, Farrakhan urged his supporters to "follow Robert Kennedy," and claimed that scientists administered the coronavirus vaccine in order to "depopulate the Earth."

Kennedy claimed in his recent interview that he was not aware of Farrakhan’s history of anti-Semitism when they began working together in 2015. But Kennedy’s writings in his private diary appear to contradict that. According to a 2013 report, Kennedy wrote that he was disenchanted with civil rights leader Jesse Jackson because of his "love affair with Louis Farrakhan and his Jewish xenophobia."

Kennedy claimed he cut ties with the Nation of Islam after a colleague informed him of Farrakhan’s comments about Jews. Kennedy said he asked his friend, Nation of Islam official Tony Muhammad, to publicly disavow Farrakhan. When Muhammad declined, according to Kennedy, "that was the end of our friendship."

Kennedy did not say when that conversation occurred, but he worked with Muhammad as recently as 2021. Kennedy hosted Muhammad to discuss his documentary Medical Racism: The New Apartheid. Kennedy pushed the unfounded claim that scientists are "conducting an experiment on black Americans" by vaccinating black children against measles.

In his interview, Kennedy said the "worst two accusations that anybody can make about you are that you’re an antisemite or a pedophile."

Kennedy recently interviewed Scott Ritter, a convicted child sex offender, on his podcast. The pair criticized United States support for Ukraine in its defensive war against Russia.

Kennedy’s campaign and Tony Muhammad did not respond to requests for comment.

The post RFK Jr. Disavows Anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan, Whom He Once Called a ‘Truly Great Partner’ appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Biden in a Sunday social media post boasted that real wages, which reflect a worker's pay after accounting for inflation, are higher than before the pandemic. "That's Bidenomics," the Democrat said. Biden's claim, however, relies on data from February 2020, when real wages were just two cents lower than they are now. Over the next 11 months—from March 2020 to January 2021, when Biden took office—real wages rose, only to continuously decline under Biden. In total, real hourly wages have dropped more than 3 percent since Biden became president.

Biden is nonetheless insisting that his "Bidenomics" have clawed Americans out of a deep economic hole created by the coronavirus pandemic, a message that comes as he faces a difficult reelection campaign and abysmal approval ratings.

For now, Americans aren't buying it—just a third approve of the president's economic decisions, according to an Associated Press poll released in June. Many economists agree, contending that the U.S. economy is not in the shape Biden says it is.

Hillsdale College economics department chair Charles Steele, for example, told the Washington Free Beacon he "would be embarrassed" to brag about a two-cent jump in real hourly wages. "I'm reminded of when my wife and I each measured a course we were running and disagreed over where the half mile point was—by a distance of four feet. That's the kind of argument they are making," Steele said. "It is dishonest to pretend this shows 'Bidenomics' works. 'Bidenomics' has failed to match the economic growth of the Trump era."

EJ Antoni, a public finance economist at the Heritage Foundation, echoed Steele's rhetoric. Antoni told the Free Beacon that Biden is "either ignorant or intentionally deceptive" if he believes his economic policies have helped Americans.

"The administration seems to be implying that real earnings have clawed their way back up from depressed levels, but the opposite is true," Antoni said. "Real earnings are still down relative to when Biden took office."

Still, the White House defended Biden's Sunday claim, arguing that March 2020—when real wages were higher than they are now—is not an accurate portrayal of the pre-pandemic economy because the United States was already in a recession. As a result, the White House told the Free Beacon, the labor force was "substantially distorted" and did not reflect a "pre-pandemic normal."

That argument is "nonsensical," Antoni said. He noted that wage data are "gathered the week of the month containing the 12th," meaning the data for March 2020 would have been compiled before "government-imposed lockdowns and mass layoffs" plagued the U.S. economy.

"You can certainly consider March 2020 as pre-pandemic when it comes to wage data," Antoni told the Free Beacon. Using March 2020 as a pre-pandemic benchmark would mean real wages are not higher today than before the pandemic, as Biden claimed.

Biden is far from the only prominent Democrat to use misleading stats to pump up the economy. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.) on Monday said the "Biden economy" has produced "declining inflation," adding that "extreme MAGA Republican haters are having a meltdown" as a result. Under Biden, however, inflation in 2022 reached a 40-year high. While inflation is now slowly coming down from those record levels, prices remain high. Nearly 60 percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, according to a CNBC survey published in April.

For Job Creators Network president and CEO Alfredo Ortiz, Biden "is desperate to distract from the reality that average Americans have gotten poorer under his presidency."

"Over the course of his term, inflation has risen by approximately 16 percent, significantly faster than average wages," Ortiz told the Free Beacon. "In an attempt to sell 'Bidenomics,' Biden is making a series of misleading and false claims about Americans' wages. But as any consumer or small business can tell you, the reality is that 'Bidenomics' equals Bidenflation."

The post 'I Would Be Embarrassed': Economists Hammer Biden's Attempts to Spin Sky-High Inflation appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

The university this year retained a law firm to investigate President Marc Tessier-Lavigne, a neuroscientist, following claims that some of his papers contain manipulated data. While the firm's report found no evidence that Tessier-Lavigne himself doctored the papers, he "'has not been able to provide an adequate explanation' for why he did not correct the scientific record when presented the opportunity on multiple occasions," the Stanford Daily reported.

Stanford faced a major crisis under Tessier-Lavigne's leadership. Law school students shouted down a conservative federal judge, disrupting his talk in violation of Stanford's free speech policies, the Washington Free Beacon reported. School diversity dean Tirien Steinbach, who arrived on the scene, sided with the students, accusing the judge of causing "harm."

The incident prompted Tessier-Lavigne and law school dean Jenny Martinez to write a formal apology to the judge and put Steinbach on leave.

Following the controversy, Martinez announced that students had to complete free speech training. A Free Beacon investigation, however, found that the training "required barely a minute's effort" and that students could easily tune out or skip the required training videos.

Tessier-Lavigne has also decided to retract or write extensive corrections for several of his peer-reviewed articles. According to the Daily, retractions are very rare in academia, occurring only in .04 percent of research papers. The retractions typically come only after "clear evidence" surfaces that "the findings are unreliable."

The report also found that Tessier-Lavigne had a tendency to reward lab workers who provided him with results he found "favorable" while punishing those who were "unable or struggled to generate such data."

Another professor at an elite university faced similar charges in recent months. A Chronicle of Higher Education report credibly accused a Harvard professor who studies honesty of using fraudulent data in her research.

The post Stanford President Resigns Over Doctored Research appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Who said it: The authors of the Politico Playbook newsletter published Wednesday morning.

Context: The Politico journalists were discussing how Gov. Ron DeSantis (R., Fla.) had hoped to overcome "a deluge of negative headlines" and "hit the reset button" by taking part in "a rare sitdown interview with a mainstream, nonpartisan media outlet: CNN."

However, the journalists wrote, DeSantis's big plans were thwarted by former president Donald Trump, who "stole the headlines" on Tuesday by announcing that he may soon face charges in connection with the storming of the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021.

More context: The "deluge of negative headlines" about Ron DeSantis were published in so-called mainstream media outlets such as Politico and CNN that desperately want Trump to be the Republican presidential nominee in 2024.

CNN, for example, enjoyed soaring ratings and record profits during Trump's presidency. Ratings and profits have plummeted since President Joe Biden took office in 2021. Accordingly, Trump does not have to work very hard to steal headlines in media outlets desperate to write about him.

Why it matters: Most "mainstream" journalists are Democratic activists who falsely present themselves as "nonpartisan" arbiters of truth. It is important to hold them accountable for their lies.

Analysis: The facts do not support the claim that CNN is a "nonpartisan media outlet." Such an outlet would not employ a professional fact-checker who spends all his time fact-checking Trump and various right-wing Facebook memes while ignoring the gibberish routinely spouted by President Biden, the most powerful politician in the world.

• Chris Licht, the network's former CEO, tried to make CNN less partisan. It cost him his job.

• Given CNN's precipitous ratings decline, it seems like a stretch even to describe the network as "mainstream."

Go deeper: CNN Is a Clown Network Run By Creeps.

Verdict: We rate this claim 4 Fiery But Mostly Peaceful Clintons.

The post FACT CHECK: CNN Is a 'Nonpartisan Media Outlet' appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

"You are a stickler for the law. It reminds me of Les Mis and the famous person who wanted to get the person who had a sandwich," Khanna told whistleblower Gary Shapley, suggesting he is excessively committed to enforcing the law and self-righteous.

The comparison refers to the antagonist Inspector Javert, a central character in the novel Les Misérables and its musical adaptation. Javert pursues the protagonist, Jean Valjean, for breaking his parole after serving prison time for stealing a loaf of bread to feed a starving child. Javert lacks empathy for criminals and is obsessively devoted to returning Valjean to prison for the minor offense.

IRS whistleblowers Shapley and Joseph Ziegler testified before Congress Wednesday surrounding the agency's investigation into first son Hunter Biden, which they say was sabotaged by the Justice Department.

The whistleblowers allege that the DOJ shielded Hunter Biden and his father President Joe Biden from scrutiny, preventing prosecutors from filing felony charges and undermining the tax investigation.

"There were certain investigative steps that we weren't allowed to take that could have led us to President Biden," Shapley said when he came forward. "We needed to take them."

Hunter Biden agreed in June to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax crimes, a move that will likely keep him out of prison. The plea deal ended a five-year probe into Biden's taxes.

The post WATCH: House Dem Compares IRS Whistleblower to Villain From 'Les Mis' appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

The assailant, identified by authorities as Sawyer Walden Allee, threw an unidentified liquid on the councilman, Phil Brock, and his girlfriend in an attack that was caught on video. Brock had approached the man, who was tearing down signs on a store, to request he throw away the refuse. The man then shoved Brock, shouted obscenities, stole his hat, and threw the liquid.

Allee was charged with battery and grand theft, marking his third felony arrest in less than three weeks. He had been released twice from Los Angeles County jail on felony charges days before the attack.

"I turned to walk away. He took a bottle of some sort of liquid and threw it on me," Brock told KTLA. "Made a second throw and doused Kathryn [Brock's girlfriend] as well. We called 911."

Brock, who advocates on his campaign website for more police and for the enforcement of misdemeanors, noted that Santa Monica—like other cities across the state— is struggling with a homelessness problem on its streets.

California also faces rising crime as Democratic state leaders push to ease sentencing and empty prisons.

"L.A. is finished," Rapper Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson said earlier this month after Los Angeles county, in which Santa Monica is located, reinstated a zero-bail policy for people charged with nonviolent felonies. The city saw an 11 percent increase in its crime rate in 2022.

Homicides in San Francisco increased nearly 40 percent from 2020 to 2022 and deaths from fentanyl spiked. The city lost more than 50,000 residents last year—the highest population decrease for any major U.S. city.

The post WATCH: Homeless Man Attacks Santa Monica Councilman Who Asked Him To Stop Littering appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Three county supervisors in Loudoun County, Va., including board chair Phyllis Randall, traveled to Africa in June to sign a sister city agreement with the mayor of Tema, Ghana. Receipts and travel documents obtained by ABC affiliate 7News reveal a lavish set of expenses from Randall, supervisors Sylvia Glass and Koran Saines, and two staffers. The group spent most of their time sightseeing, according to the itinerary.

In an interview with Randall, 7News asked the board chair why the officials and staffers flew business class, drawing a contrast to Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, who says he usually flies economy on commercial flights.

When asked about the comparison, Randall told 7News, "Pete Buttigieg is not the chief elected official of the federal government. I am the chief elected official of the county."

The report comes after Randall was found to be associated with members of a controversial Facebook group, "Loudoun Love Warriors." Members of the group doxxed and threatened Loudoun County parents who spoke at school board meetings, according to 7News. The county sheriff’s office opened an investigation into the group in May. Randall has condemned the group’s behavior.

On top of the $7,300 spent per business class ticket, taxpayers paid Saines's $200 overweight bag fee and a room upgrade for Randall that doubled the cost of her hotel stay. Randall confessed the county "shouldn’t have paid for" the upgrade and said she would "write a check" to cover the difference.

The post Virginia Dems Take Lavish Trip to Africa on Taxpayers' Dime appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Though Herzog did not name the lawmakers, his comments appeared to be directed at representatives who refused to attend his speech, which commemorated 75 years of Israeli independence. That group includes "Squad" members Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Jamaal Bowman (N.Y.), Cori Bush (Mo.), and Rashida Tlaib (Mich.).

Omar and other members of the far-left "Squad" have routinely employed anti-Semitic rhetoric when criticizing Israel and working to undermine the U.S.-Israel alliance. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D., Wash.), the chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, drew outrage in the days before Herzog's speech when she publicly slammed Israel as a "racist state."

"I'm not oblivious to criticism among friends, including some expressed by respected members of this House," Herzog said. "I respect criticism, especially from friends, although one does not always have to accept it."

"Criticism of Israel must not cross the line into negation of the State of Israel's right to exist," Herzog said to wide applause in the chamber. "Vilifying and attacking Jews, whether in Israel, in the United States, or anywhere else in the world, is anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism is a disgrace in every form."

Herzog also delivered a dire warning about Iran's pursuit of a nuclear weapon, imploring Congress to work alongside Israel to confront Tehran's genocidal designs.

"Perhaps the greatest challenge Israel and the United States face at this time together is the Iranian nuclear program," the Israeli leader said. "Let there be no doubt: Iran does not strive to obtain nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Iran is building nuclear capabilities that pose a threat to the stability of the Middle East and beyond."

The Islamic Republic "is the only nation on the planet publicly calling, plotting, and developing means to annihilate another nation and member of the family of nations, the State of Israel," Herzog warned. "Allowing Iran to become a nuclear threshold state, whether by omission or by diplomatic commission, is unacceptable."

Though Herzog did not openly criticize the Biden administration's secret diplomacy with Iran to revive the 2015 nuclear deal—an agreement that would provide Tehran's hardline regime with billions of dollars—he made clear that the Ayatollah's government will never be reformed.

"The world cannot remain indifferent to the Iranian regime's call to wipe Israel off the map," Herzog said. "Tolerating this call and Iran's measures to realize it is an inexcusable moral collapse."

Israel, he added, remains "determined to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons capabilities."

Herzog also revealed that efforts are underway to foster a landmark peace deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

"Israel thanks the United States for working towards establishing peaceful relations between Israel and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," Herzog said. "We pray for this moment to come. This would be a huge sea change in the course of history in the Middle East and the world at large."

The Abraham Accords—the landmark peace deal between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco brokered by the Trump administration—wholly "realigned … our region," Herzog said, noting that more than one million Israelis have visited these countries since peace was struck.

"Israel's hand is extended, and our heart is open, to any partner in peace near or far," including the Palestinians, Herzog said. Peace is impossible, however, as long as the Palestinian government foments terrorism and kills Israeli citizens.

"Palestinian terror against Israel or Israelis undermines any possibility for a future of peace between our peoples," Herzog said. "Israelis are targeted while waiting for buses, while taking a stroll on the promenade, while spending time with their family. At the same time, successful terror attacks are celebrated, terrorists are glorified, and their families are financially rewarded for every Israeli they attack. This is inconceivable. It's a moral disgrace."

Palestinian terrorism "is not a bump in the road," Herzog said. "Terror is hatred and bloodshed. It contradicts humanity's most basic principles of peace. Israel cannot and will not tolerate terror, and we know that in this we are joined by the United States of America."

Even amid ongoing disagreements between Israel's conservative government and the Biden administration, the U.S.-Israel alliance remains unbreakable, Herzog said to sustained applause.

"America is irreplaceable to Israel, and Israel is irreplaceable to America," he said. "Our bond may be challenged at times, but it is absolutely unbreakable."

The post Israeli President Isaac Herzog Blasts Democratic Anti-Semitism in Landmark Congressional Address appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

As part of his "Energy Master Plan," Murphy on Monday unveiled environmental rules that require vehicle manufacturers to make 100 percent of their passenger cars, trucks, and SUVs electric by 2035. Murphy said the move "build[s] upon our nation-leading record of bold climate action while delivering on our promise to utilize every tool at our disposal to combat the intensifying climate crisis."

Murphy's proposal aligns New Jersey with California and other deep-blue states. The Democrat's electric car rule, Advanced Clean Cars II, originated in California—the state's Air Resources Board approved it in August 2022 and today says it requires "all new passenger vehicles sold in California to be zero emissions by 2035." Murphy, who succeeded Republican governor Chris Christie, told former Golden State governor Jerry Brown in 2018 that he aspires to make New Jersey "the California of the East Coast."

Murphy in a Monday press release touted the proposed rule, which he said "does not impose any obligations on consumers or car dealers." Republicans quickly criticized that claim, with state lawmaker Ed Durr saying Murphy's "extreme energy policies will force people to replace their affordable gas-powered cars with more expensive EVs." Durr also called Murphy a hypocrite who recently used "taxpayer dollars to purchase a fleet of new gas-powered SUVs to shuttle him and other Democrat leaders across the state."

"It's like John Kerry with his multiple mansions flying around the world on his private jet while telling the rest of us that we're responsible for climate change," Durr said. "The rest of us are forced to suffer while they are the real problem."

New Jersey environmentalists defended the electric vehicle mandate, with the state's Sierra Club calling the program "one of the most important policies for New Jersey to adopt." Some experts, however, doubt that electric vehicles will actually help the environment. Electric vehicles require large amounts of mined, processed, and refined minerals to be built, meaning the cars roll off the lot having produced considerably more carbon emissions than their gas-powered counterparts. As Manhattan Institute senior fellow Mark Mills argued in a recent report, driving an electric vehicle instead of gas-powered one could "lead to a net increase in emissions."

Murphy's proposed rule is likely to prompt backlash, given that electric cars are not very popular with American consumers. Less than one-fifth of Americans say they're very likely to make their next vehicle an electric one, according to an Associated Press poll published in April, with respondents citing the high cost of electric vehicles. The cars on average cost about $10,000 more than their gas-powered counterparts.

Murphy's announcement marks his second major green energy push this month. The Democrat just two weeks ago signed a bill approving major tax breaks for a foreign green energy company that is set to build a massive offshore wind farm off the coast of Atlantic City. State energy experts and Republican lawmakers say the project will raise electric bills, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

The post 'California of the East Coast': New Jersey Moves to Ban New Gas-Powered Cars By 2035 appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

The Court last month overturned Biden's order to give borrowers $10,000 to $20,000 in onetime student debt forgiveness. The Court said the president overstepped in his powers and circumvented Congress's power to make laws regarding spending.

The administration quickly moved to roll out an alternative plan to relieve student debt. Biden last month unveiled the Saving on Valuable Education, or SAVE, plan. Proposed by the Education Department, SAVE would bring down payments by thousands of dollars over the life of many people's loans.

A single person making less than $32,805 a year would see their monthly payment go to $0 under the policy.

That plan, which is set to take effect in July 2024, could cost an estimated $475 billion over the next decade, according to the Penn Wharton Budget Model, a research initiative at the University of Pennsylvania.

The model shows that the cost could even be tens of billions of dollars higher, The Hill reported:

The model predicts $200 billion will go toward payment reductions from the $1.64 trillion in outstanding loans in 2023, while the other $275 billion would go toward the $1.03 trillion in outstanding loans expected over the next 10 years. 

It is predicted that around 6.57 percent of future borrowers wouldn’t have to pay any money back under this plan. 

On the conservative side, the model says the program could cost around $390 billion, while the maximum projection is more than $558 billion. 

The Supreme Court's 6-3 decision that overturned Biden's first attempt at student debt forgiveness spared the United States roughly $300 billion in spending. Biden's Education Department had estimated the debt relief would cost $30 billion a year for the next decade.

The post Biden's Student Loan Forgiveness 2.0 Could Cost an Estimated $475 Billion appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

According to a Health and Human Services memo, which the House's coronavirus subcommittee made public on Tuesday, the Wuhan Institute of Virology "likely violated" U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) protocols, a conclusion that the memo calls "undisputed."

"There is risk that [the Wuhan institute] not only previously violated, but is currently violating, and will continue to violate, protocols of the NIH on biosafety," the memo says. "The immediate suspension of [the institute] is necessary to mitigate any potential public health risk."

The memo temporarily suspends funding for the institute and proposes a permanent ban.

House Republicans have zeroed in on a leak from the Wuhan Institute as the most likely cause of the pandemic—a conclusion supported by multiple government officials and agencies, including former CDC director Robert Redfield, the Department of Energy, and the FBI.

Under former White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci, an NIH subagency doled out at least $600,000 for researching bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan lab through a group called EcoHealth Alliance. As part of that research, EcoHealth boosted coronaviruses to be more infectious than their natural counterparts, according to a January inspector general's report. The report also revealed that Fauci's agency made egregious errors in funding and overseeing the research.

While the recent HHS memo names EcoHealth's "material non-compliance with terms and conditions" of the bat coronavirus grant as a reason for banning Wuhan funding, it does not affect funding for EcoHealth, which the Biden administration in May decided to resume.

As his agency funded the Wuhan research, Fauci in the early days of the pandemic repeatedly pooh-poohed the lab-leak theory. Fauci went so far as to commission a report to dismiss it and then cited the report as evidence against the theory.

The Wuhan Institute has 30 days to respond to the HHS memo.

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What happened next: Nothing. Kennedy, the youngest brother of former president John F. Kennedy, fled the scene of the accident, which likely occurred sometime after midnight. He did not report it to police until 10 a.m. the following day.

• The Democratic scion faced no meaningful consequences for his actions and would go on to serve four more decades in the U.S. Senate until his death in 2009.

• Even in the post-#MeToo era, Democrats generally regard him as a legendary figure worthy of reverence and respect. The Kennedy family featured prominently at the 2020 Democratic National Convention, as did notorious sex pest Bill Clinton.

Waitress sandwich: In reality, Kennedy was a disgusting human being. GQ magazine recounted one (of presumably many) incidents in which the senator behaved disgracefully.

• One evening in 1985, Kennedy and Sen. Chris Dodd (D., Conn.) were very drunk and wrapping up dinner with their dates—"two very young blondes"—who had just gone to the bathroom.

• The senators called for their waitress, Carla Gaviglio, who entered the private dining area and was immediately ambushed, GQ reported.

• Kennedy grabbed the diminutive waitress and threw her on the table, shattering plates and glasses. He then threw Gaviglio on top of Dodd's lap and began "rubbing his genital area against hers."

What they're saying: "I would not get in a car driven by a member of [the Kennedy] family, let alone let them run the government," writes journalist Josh Barro.

Bottom line: The Kennedys are terrible and always have been. They have no place in American politics.

The post On This Day in History: Democrat Ted Kennedy Killed an Innocent Woman and Got Away With It appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Levine, a man who began publicly identifying as a woman as an adult, was asked in a Friday interview on ABC why sex-change treatments should not be reserved for adults.

"Adolescence is hard and puberty is hard," Levine said. "What if you’re going through the wrong puberty? What if you, inside, feel that you are female but now you're going through a male puberty?"

Levine claimed "there are no medical procedures done" on "prepubertal children" but, "the standard of care allows them to explore that with therapy." Puberty blockers are administered early in puberty,

"Gender-affirming care is literally suicide prevention," Levine also said, adding that red-state bans of such treatments are are "unscientific" and "medically harmful."

Levine has been a vocal critic of restrictions on youth sex-change treatments. Last year, Levine falsely insisted: "There is no argument among medical professionals ... about the value and the importance of gender-affirming care" for children.

While the Biden administration last year issued guidelines endorsing puberty-blockers and hormone replacement therapy for minors that identify as transgender, more than 20 Republican-led U.S. states have banned such treatments.

The post WATCH: Trans Biden Official Says Kids Need Sex-Change Treatments To Avoid 'Wrong Puberty' appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Kerry during a press conference said that while he went to China to "break new ground" on the communist nation's climate commitments, he was unable to do so. Kerry went as far as to admit that he made no demands of the Chinese, arguing that "nobody should be 'dictated to.'" He nonetheless argued that his trip was a success, as he held "very frank conversations."

"We did succeed in having long and very detailed meetings with a lot to catch up on," Kerry said. "We did have very frank conversations, but we came here to break new ground … and it is clear that we are going to need a little more work to complete that task."

Kerry's failure to return to the United States with any sort of climate agreement likely comes as an embarrassment to the Biden administration, which argued in the buildup to Kerry's trip that U.S.-China climate negotiations should not be derailed by political disagreements. During Kerry's time in Beijing, Xi poured cold water on the Biden administration's attempts at climate diplomacy—he did not meet with Kerry during the visit and on Tuesday said his nation's climate goals "will never be influenced by others."

In response to that statement, Kerry on Wednesday said he agrees that the United States should not make demands of the Chinese.

"We all agree that nobody should be 'dictated to,' and we're not doing that. That's why we had three days of intensive discussions," Kerry said. "And I think if you ask [Chinese officials] … they would tell you there was no dictation here, there was a clear exchange of ideas."

In addition to Xi's comments, the Chinese Communist Party used climate negotiations to threaten the United States during Kerry's trip. CCP-run propaganda rag Global Times on Monday warned that America must end its "crackdown" on China or risk losing "any kind of cooperation" on climate change.

"While Washington has long wanted to isolate climate change issues related to China, there is actually no way to separate bilateral cooperation on global warming from the broader context of China-U.S. relations," the state-run media outlet's editorial said.

Kerry worked to avoid angering Xi ahead of the trip. During a Thursday congressional hearing, he refused to call Xi a "dictator," saying that while Xi "wields enormous power as the leader of China," the Biden administration shouldn't get "tangled up in labels and names."

"Frankly, all of that is water off a duck's back," Kerry said.

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In a 59-page decision, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan also dismissed Trump's arguments for reducing damages to less than $1 million.

Kaplan said the unanimous May 9 verdict was "almost entirely in favor of Ms. Carroll," and neither a "seriously erroneous result" nor a "miscarriage of justice."

Carroll, 79, accused Trump, 77, of raping her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the mid-1990s, and defaming her when he branded the incident a hoax in an October 2022 post on his Truth Social platform.

Trump, who is again seeking the presidency, is appealing the verdict. His lawyer did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Carroll is also pursuing a $10 million defamation lawsuit against Trump over comments he made in the White House in June 2019, after she first accused him of forcing himself upon her in the Bergdorf Goodman department store.

Trump had told a reporter he had not known Carroll, that the former Elle magazine columnist was not his "type," and that she lied to boost sales of her memoir, which had been excerpted in New York magazine.

Carroll's lawyer Roberta Kaplan, who is not related to the judge, said her client looks forward to collecting the $5 million, and "continuing to hold Trump accountable for what he did to her" at a trial of the other defamation lawsuit, scheduled for Jan. 15, 2024.

JUDGE SAYS TRUMP MISINTERPRETED JURY VERDICT

In seeking a reduction in damages, Trump called the $2 million award for sexual abuse "grossly excessive" because such abuse could have included groping Carroll's breasts through clothing, "which is a far cry from rape."

But Judge Kaplan said New York's penal law defines rape much more narrowly than ordinary people think of the term, and that Trump was wrong to insist it excused him.

"The proof convincingly established, and the jury implicitly found, that Mr. Trump deliberately and forcibly penetrated Ms. Carroll's vagina with his fingers, causing immediate pain and long lasting emotional and psychological harm," the judge wrote.

"Mr. Trump's argument therefore ignores the bulk of the evidence at trial, misinterprets the jury's verdict, and (ignored) evidence of what actually occurred between Ms. Carroll and Mr. Trump," he added.

The judge also said the evidence justified awarding Carroll $3 million for defamation, rejecting Trump's claim that the award was based on "pure speculation" about how Carroll's reputation was harmed.

Carroll filed her first lawsuit in November 2019. She amended it after Trump disparaged her in a CNN town hall one day after the $5 million verdict, calling her account "fake" and her a "whack job."

Trump is also suing Carroll for defamation, after she said "oh yes, he did; oh yes, he did" when asked on CNN about the jury finding that he did not commit rape.

Carroll wants to dismiss that claim, saying her statement was "substantially true" and reflected her thoughts as the verdict was read.

Trump faces many other legal problems. These include a federal indictment for taking classified documents and obstructing government efforts to reclaim them, a New York indictment over hush money payments to a porn star before the 2016 election, and possible charges over his efforts to stay in the White House following his 2020 election loss.

The case is Carroll v. Trump, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 22-10016. Carroll's original lawsuit is Carroll v Trump in the same court, No. 20-07311.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jonathan Oatis)

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Wagner's failed June 23-24 mutiny has been interpreted by the West as a challenge to President Vladimir Putin's rule that illustrates the weakness of the 70-year-old Kremlin chief and the strain of the Ukraine war on the Russian state.

The footage, reposted by his press service on Telegram, is the first video evidence of Prigozhin's whereabouts since the night of the mutiny.

In the video, the authenticity of which Reuters could not immediately verify, a man whose voice and Russian sounded like Prigozhin's is heard welcoming his men. The video was reposted by his press service on Telegram.

"Welcome lads... Welcome to Belarusian soil," Prigozhin said.

"We fought honorably," said Prigozhin. "You have done a great deal for Russia. What is going on at the front is a disgrace that we do not need to get involved in."

Putin initially said he would crush the mutiny, comparing it to the wartime turmoil that ushered in the revolutions of 1917, but hours later a deal was clinched to allow Prigozhin and some of his fighters to go to Belarus.

Since Prigozhin was last seen leaving the Russian city of Rostov on June 24, mystery has surrounded his fate after he was cast as a traitor by Putin. It is also unclear what Wagner, which Prigozhin said had 25,000 men, would do next.

The video was shot after night had fallen, though it was possible to discern what looked like Prigozhin's profile and a group of men.

'WELCOME TO HELL'

Since a deal was struck to end the mutiny, the Kremlin has sought to project calm, with Putin chairing a variety of meetings, meeting crowds in Dagestan and even discussing quantum computing and artificial intelligence.

Russian officials dismiss Western interpretations of the mutiny and say the West should not concern itself with such "scrapes".

The video posted on Wednesday showed Prigozhin receiving a Wagner black flag, decorated with the motto "Blood, honour, Motherland, Courage", from their camp in southern Russia.

Belarus said last week that Wagner fighters were instructing its soldiers at a military range southeast of Minsk.

Prigozhin says in the video that his men should behave well towards the locals and orders them to train the Belarusian army and gather their strength for a "new journey to Africa."

"And perhaps we will return to the SMO (special military operation in Ukraine) at some point, when we are sure that we will not be forced to shame ourselves," Prigozhin said.

Wagner was founded by Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin, a former special forces officer in Russia's GRU military intelligence, as a way for Russia to get involved in wars in countries including Syria, Libya and Mali with full deniability.

Wagner helped Russia annex Crimea in 2014, fought Islamic State militants in Syria, operated in the Central African Republic and Mali and took the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut for Russia earlier this year with considerable losses on both sides.

Prigozhin had said his mutiny was not aimed at toppling Putin but at settling scores with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov.

After Prigozhin's speech, a man identified as Utkin, then spoke to the men.

"This is not the end. This is just the beginning of the biggest work in the world that will be carried out very soon," Utkin said in Russian.

He then switched to English: "And welcome to hell!"

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge Editing by Andrew Osborn and Jon Boyle)

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"Israel is an apartheid state. To assert otherwise, Mr. Speaker, in the face of this body of evidence, is an attempt to deny the reality and to normalize violence of apartheid," Tlaib said on Tuesday. The resolution supporting the U.S. ally passed overwhelmingly, with only nine members voting against it, all members of the Progressive Caucus.

The resolution stated that "Israel not a racist or apartheid state." It also said the United States will "always be a staunch partner and supporter of Israel."

The comments came one day before a joint session address to Congress by Israeli president Isaac Herzog, who will commemorate the 75th anniversary of Israel's founding.

Tlaib and several other progressive House members, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) and Ilhan Omar (Minn.) have announced they plan to boycott Herzog's Wednesday speech.

"There is no way in hell I am attending the joint session address from a President whose country has banned me and denied @RashidaTlaib the ability to see her grandma," Omar said last week.

Fellow progressive Pramila Jayapal (Wash.) has been under fire since the weekend, when she dragged Israel during a speech in Chicago.

"Can I say something as somebody who's been in the streets and participated in a lot of demonstrations?" Jayapal told the crowd. "I want you to know that we have been fighting to make it clear that Israel is a racist state, that the Palestinian people deserve self-determination and autonomy."

House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) on Monday called out House Democrats for making anti-Semitic comments and blamed the Democratic Party for not holding them accountable.

The post WATCH: Congresswoman Shouts Israel Is ‘Apartheid State’ Before 9 Dems Vote in Agreement appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

The U.S. military was scrambling to establish the fate of King, who made an unauthorized crossing of the inter-Korean border into North Korea on Tuesday, throwing Washington into a new crisis in its dealing with the nuclear-armed state.

King's motivations for his high-stakes gambit remain unclear.

U.S. officials said he had finished serving time in detention in South Korea for an unspecified infraction and was transported by the U.S. military to the airport to return to his home unit in the United States, when he apparently decided to join a tour to the North Korean border.

King pleaded guilty to assault and destruction of public goods stemming from an October incident, and on Feb. 8 the Seoul Western District Court fined him 5 million won ($4,000), according to a copy of the ruling reviewed by Reuters.

Two U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the soldier had been due to face disciplinary action by the U.S. military.

Reuters was not immediately able to ascertain whether the disciplinary action was linked to his conviction over damaging the police vehicle.

The Seoul court said on September 25 last year King punched a man in the face at a club several times but the case was settled.

Two weeks later, on October 8, police officers responded to a report of another altercation involving King, and tried to question him. He continued with his "aggressive behavior" without answering questions from police, according to the court document.

Police placed him in the backseat of their patrol car where he shouted expletives and insults against Koreans, the Korean Army, and the Korean police, the ruling said. During his tirade, he kicked the vehicle's door several times, causing about 584,000 won in damages, the ruling said.

The court said the defendant had admitted to the charges, had no previous criminal record, and paid 1 million won to fix the vehicle, citing reasons in favor of him in the sentencing.

A spokesman for U.S. Forces Korea declined to confirm whether King had been in South Korean or U.S. military detention.

One of the lawyers who represented him at the time told Reuters King had spent time in U.S. military detention in Pyeongtaek since the October case.

The lawyer, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, said he was unaware of the status of King's custody or whereabouts after February.

King's other lawyers listed in court documents were not immediately available for comment.

King's mother, Claudine Gates, told ABC News she was shocked at the news her son had crossed into North Korea.

"I can't see Travis doing anything like that," she told the U.S. broadcaster.

(Reporting by Ju-min Park; Editing by Josh Smith and Lincoln Feast.)

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