SRINAGAR: The National Investigation Agency on Wednesday attached an immovable property in Manigah village of north Kashmir’s Kupwara district under UAPA.
An official said that the land measuring 3.5 Marlas belonged to one Daulat Ali Mughal of Shilabhatu Mohalla in Manigah.
He said Mughal was involved in NIA case no. RC-2018/NIA/DLI, registered under UAPA.
The official said that property was attached after the order of special NIA court Jammu. (KNO)
SRINAGAR: The historic Hotel Lala Sheikh on Residency Road in Srinagar may be small and unassuming, but it serves up more than just a fine cup of tea. Lala Sheikh, the face behind this historical tea shop on Wednesday lost his life to cardiac arrest.
With a history that spans over 133 years, this quaint tea shop survived as a cultural icon that has stood the test of time. Despite the challenges of time and family divisions among its inheritors, Hotel Lala Sheikh remains the preferred choice for all seeking a taste of history and a delicious cup of tea.
The shop has a huge history envisaging migration of a worker from city periphery and making it big within Srinagar at a time when situations and system were not supportive of a “start-up”.
Lala Mohammad Sheikh, a young man from the Budgam village of Handjan, founded the shop and quickly gained a reputation for its bakery items. Presently, fourth generation of Lala Sheikh that include three brothers namely Sheikh Altaf, Sheikh Javeed and Sheikh Mehboob Ali are running the shop.
The bakery was very popular for its pastries and chicken patties, with many people visiting the shop, especially during the time when an English Resident lived at the Residency – now the Emporium Garden. It was this residency that made the road Residency Road. Politicians and foreigners also used to visit the shop to taste the bakery items. Lala has been serving customers since 1890 and has become region’s iconic restaurant.
Besides, serving delicious patties and fine tea, the restaurant has witnessed some of the fiercest literary, political and journalistic discussions in Kashmir. The cafe’s history and popularity have made it a must-visit destination for those who want to learn about Kashmir’s oldest tea room.
According to popular belief, the likes of Dina Nath Nadim, Bansi Nirdosh, Mirza Arif, Akhtar Mohiuddin, Amin Kamil, Pran Jalal, and other notable writers would congregate at Lala Sheikh in the evenings, engaging in discussions on poetry and politics while sipping endless cups of tea. Sometimes, these conversations would continue until past midnight.
Additionally, due to its proximity to the Doordarshan TV station and Radio Kashmir, famous singers such as Raj Begum and Ghulam Ahmed Sofi, as well as prominent broadcasters like Makhan Lal Saraf and Prana Shunglu, would frequent the establishment in the evenings.
Kashmir’s noted raconteur Zareef Ahmed Zareef attributes cafe’s success to the dedication and passion of its founder, Lala Sheikh. “This place always served pure food and that too with love. As I worked around that shop only, I used to regularly visit the shop. Lala never compromised on the quality of food” Zareef recalls. “They maintained their fame till today with its food filled with love.
Zareef said he was particularly fond of the restaurant’s tea and butter toast, which he describes as unmatched in their flavour and texture.
While the restaurant may have changed in some ways over the years, its commitment to serving delicious food with a side of history remains as strong as ever.
SRINAGAR: The Health and Medical Education (H&ME) department on Tuesday ordered an inquiry into the alleged violation of government rules and regulations by the Director of Health Services Kashmir (DHSK).
The director has allegedly delegated financial powers to Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) in contradiction to the established protocols.
As per an order, issued by Secretary Health, Director Medical Supplies corporation limited Pankaj Gupta has been appointed as inquiry officer and has been directed to submit a report within 20 days.
As per the order, the inquiry officer has been asked to find reasons for delegating financial powers to Chief Medical Officers by the Director Health Services Kashmir in violation of rules and regulations and in spite of the fact that a Central Purchase Committee, duly constituted by the government, existed at the Directorate level.
He further has been directed to find reasons for further delegation of financial powers by Chief Medical Officer, Anantnag to Block Medical Officer, Saller against extant rules, establish whether Block Medical Officer, Saller exercised authority in violation of instructions issued by Director Health Services Kashmir, and even procured items available with JKMSCL against the mandate of purchase committee or not. In case of later, compelling reasons thereof.
Further, inquire how BMO Saller ascertained rates’ reasonability and establish whether the rates were reasonable or not and establish whether procured items bear the requisite technical specifications or not, the order reads.
“The Inquiry Officer shall fix responsibility for failure in observing financial propriety at various levels. The inquiry shall also extend to procurements made for the Baltal axis of Sh. Amarnath ji Yatra during 2022. The Inquiry Officer shall submit the report within a period of 20 days from the issuance of this order,” reads the order—(KNO)
As both parties gaze toward a tumultuous 2024 election cycle, the president’s visit is already putting the Hudson Valley’s moderate Republicans, who narrowly won a handful of toss-up seats six months ago, back on the defensive. The economic tremors associated with a busted debt ceiling could be felt quickly by their constituents.
“It’s exactly the wrong message,” Rep. Marc Molinaro, a Republican who won New York’s 19th District, said in an interview.
“I think most Americans see the highest rate of inflation in 40 years, the debt crisis, spending crisis and a border crisis. And the president’s hopping on Air Force One to go siphon campaign dollars out of New York City, and then deliver partisan speeches in the marginal congressional districts. Frankly, there’s plenty of time for that. Right now, he ought to be engaged in negotiation on any one of those fronts.”
Biden and congressional leaders in both parties met late Tuesday to see if they could reach a compromise, but it appeared no progress was made.
Both he and Republican Rep. Mike Lawler pointed to Biden’s focus on negotiations — rather than campaign rhetoric — for similar crises when he was senator and then vice president.
“So it’s a little surprising to see the tact that he has taken, frankly, throughout this process,” Lawler, who flipped New York’s 17th District by fewer than 2,000 votes, said in an interview Tuesday.
“My position is one that I think most Americans would agree with,” Lawler continued. “Americans elected a House Republican majority to serve as a check and balance on the Biden agenda. And so they expect that there’s going to be a give-and-take. We don’t live in a dictatorship or a monarchy. And, and there needs to be compromise. And both sides need to be willing to give.”
But Biden’s visit is not surprising to New Yorkers watching the scramble that ensued after November’s bruising results, and it won’t be surprising to see the president and other top Democrats return to Hudson Valley again and again, said Democratic strategist Jon Reinish.
“I think that both parties regard the Hudson Valley — of all places — as the sort of political epicenter,” Reinish said. “It’s where [House Speaker Kevin] McCarthy made his majority, with a series of unlikely wins, but it’s also where his majority is the most fragile, and if you’re the White House, and if you’re President Biden, you’re going to seek to exploit that.”
The issue’s partisan nature may serve to push lawmakers like Molinaro and Lawler toward more centrist positions relatively early in the reelection campaign.
“2024 is coming down the pike really, really fast,” Reinish said. “And Lawler certainly knows that whichever Democrat runs against him is going to be extremely well funded and is going to go after him for any out of the mainstream radicalization and try to tie the rest of a faraway Republican House around him. So if I’m Lawler, I’m going to try to disarm whoever is going to be my opponent from those talking points.”
The two Hudson Valley Republicans will be targeted by Democrats next year, along with the four seats on Long Island that the GOP swept. Biden and his surrogates made a series of stops in the region last fall to help Democrats, including the then-troubled campaign of Gov. Kathy Hochul, who was able to pull out a narrow win.
Molinaro shrugged off the idea that the spotlight on the region would alter his or his colleagues’ positions in the near or distant future.
“At the end of the day, the public — your voters — will reelect you, if you’ve done an earnest and honest job,” he said. “I would say the president of the United States owes my voters, my constituents and every American the same honest earnest job of delivering on the compromise that’s necessary to ensure we do not default and that we don’t continue to spend and mortgage away our kids’ futures.”
Lawler said he welcomes Biden to his district and looks “forward to being there to hear his remarks.” Molinaro will not.
“I will be working on Wednesday, in Washington, D.C.,” Molinaro said, pointedly.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
When Collins was banned from a Rose Garden press conference
In 2018, Collins was barred from attending a press conference in the Rose Garden after asking questions about Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, and Russian President Vladimir Putin while she was on duty as the pool reporter.
At a photo-op in the Oval Office, Collins called out several questions to Trump as White House staffers ushered the press out of the room. Later, Collins said White House communications director Bill Shine and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called her into Shine’s office and told her she could not attend the upcoming press conference because her questions had been inappropriate.
The incident sparked outrage from Collins’ fellow White House reporters and her own network, which issued a statement calling the move “retaliatory in nature and not indicative of an open and free press.”
‘A very nice question so beautifully asked’
Trump mocked Collins at a 2019 press conference when she pressed him on statements he had made about his administration’s plans for a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border amid the partial government shutdown caused by a standoff between lawmakers and the White House over funding for the wall.
“You ran your campaign promising supporters that Mexico is going to pay for the wall,” Collins began before Trump interrupted her. “Oh here we go again,” he said.
“And that wall was going to be made of concrete,” Collins continued. “You just said earlier that the wall could be made of steel and right now our government is shut down over a demand from your administration that the American taxpayer pay for the wall. So how can you say that you are not failing on that promise to your supporters?”
“A very nice question so beautifully asked, even though I just answered it,” Trump replied.
“I just told you that we just made a trade deal. We will take in billions and billions of dollars, far more than the cost of the wall,” Trump said.
Collins attempted to ask a follow-up question about that trade deal, but Trump had already moved on to a question from another reporter.
‘CNN is fake news. Don’t talk to me.’
After CNN reported on North Korean President Kim Jong Un’s health in 2020, Trump attacked the network and Collins during a press conference for what he said he believed was incorrect reporting.
Collins asked Trump if he had been in contact with North Korea, to which he replied, “I don’t want to say. I won’t say that. We have a good relationship with North Korea — as good as you can have. I mean, we have a good relationship with North Korea. I have a good relationship with Kim Jong Un and I hope he’s OK.”
But when Collins attempted to ask a follow up, he shot her down and called CNN “fake news.”
“No, that’s enough,” Trump said. “The problem is, you don’t write the truth.”
“No, not CNN please,” he added when Collins continued to press him. “I told you, CNN is fake news. Don’t talk to me.”
When Trump’s administration tried to make Collins move to the back of the briefing room
Shortly after clashing over questions on North Korea, Trump’s staff tried to order Collins to move from her front-row seat in the White House briefing room, defying the seating assignments managed by the White House Correspondents’ Association, which White House officials had agreed to.
Collins refused and the press conference went ahead, but Trump kept the briefing short and took no questions.
When Trump walked out of a press conference after a question from Collins
Trump abruptly ended a press conference in July 2020 after Collins tried to ask him questions about a video he retweeted that included false information about Covid-19.
“The woman that you said is a ‘great doctor’ in that video that you retweeted last night said that masks don’t work and there’s a cure for COVID-19, both of which experts say is not true,” Collins said during a press briefing with the president. “She’s also made videos saying that doctors make medicine using DNA from aliens and that they’re trying to create a vaccine to make you immune from becoming religious. So, what’s the logic in retweeting that?”
“She was on air with many other doctors. And they were big fans of hydroxychloroquine,” Trump replied. “And I thought she was very impressive in the sense that where she came — I don’t know which country she comes from — but she’s said that she’s had tremendous success with hundreds of different patients. And I thought her voice was an important voice, but I know nothing about her.”
When Collins pressed Trump, he abruptly ended the press conference and quickly walked out.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
“There’s been this obsession that ‘She’s not nice’ and ‘She rubs people the wrong way.’ Well, we got a lot of shit done,” Lightfoot said during an interview in her office on the 5th Floor of City Hall, describing how her critics have portrayed her. “And I am proud. I’m very proud of it, unapologetically.”
She even played off that tension in a farewell address two days ago, after the interview, taking a swipe at pundits and the news media for “obsessing” about her temperament. Then, she said, the four-letter word she was fond of “was spelled h-o-p-e.”
After she steps down on Monday, leaving electoral politics entirely, her photo will be added to a wall in the lobby of City Hall featuring pictures of her 55 predecessors, where just one woman and two other brown faces are on display. Lightfoot even used her exit to reignite her long-running tension with the media by deciding to sit down with just one print media organization before she leaves office: POLITICO.
It’s one way she broadcasts that she lost reelection but not her right jab. In her mind, disruption was what voters bought when they elected her over longtime Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who also chairs the county Democratic Party.
“I came into government with a mandate of 75 percent of votes to break up the status quo and to make sure that I was doing things and putting ordinary residents of our city front and center,” Lightfoot said. “With that mandate, you’re going to disrupt the status quo. You’re going to make some people angry.”
Given how important public safety was in a mayor’s race that attracted nine Democratic candidates this year, Lightfoot said the party needs to figure out how to balance its themes. Progressive Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson won running to Lightfoot’s left and that of other Black mayors, including Eric Adams in New York City, on policing, so she said it’s critical to weave multiple issues together.
“As Democrats, we can’t just talk about police reform or criminal justice reform. What we leave out when we just focus on those two parts of a larger whole, is we leave out the victims and witnesses who have to be at the table,” said Lightfoot, who once served as president of an oversight board of Chicago’s police force before she was elected mayor.
“If we don’t talk about the grandmas, the moms, the kids, the families that are under siege in neighborhoods that are violent here and across the country … and we don’t advocate for them,” she said, “we are missing out entirely.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
“I’m very aware [that] in this exact moment in time … we have just spent months … screaming ‘the FDA is a scientific authority,’ over and over and over again,” said Greer Donley, an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh law school who favors increased abortion access. “It makes it harder for us to criticize [the FDA] when we think there are legitimate flaws with their decision.”
The agency’s independent advisers met Tuesday and will meet Wednesday to review data from the pill’s maker to decide whether to recommend the FDA approve the drug, Opill, for over-the-counter sale. FDA approval would be a major step forward for the decadeslong campaign to have the U.S. join dozens of other countries where hormonal contraceptives are available without a prescription. A decision is expected sometime this summer.
HRA Pharma, the pill’s maker — backed by many health care providers and abortion-rights supporters — argue it’s especially incumbent upon the Biden administration to grant approval given the swift erosion of abortion access after the fall of Roe v. Wade last summer and the pressing need to help patients avoid unwanted pregnancies.
However, in briefing documents for the two-day meeting made public Friday, FDA staff warned that consumers may not be able to understand and follow the pill’s instructions, which include taking it at the same time every day, potentially lowering its effectiveness. The FDA also raised concerns about the pill’s manufacturer relying on 50-year-old data from when the pill was approved for prescription use in 1973.
Groups pushing the Biden administration to approve Opill, including Ibis Reproductive Health and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, told reporters Monday the FDA’s analysis is “surprising” and “disappointing,” and “absolutely did not reflect what we know about the strong body of evidence on safety and effectiveness” of the pill. The groups voiced confidence that the agency’s questions and concerns would be put to rest after this week’s advisory committees’ deliberations.
But other experts say the Biden administration and the FDA face a difficult decision — and they’re likely to be excoriated and accused of political interference whether the pill is approved over the objections of FDA staff or rejected.
“We’re caught between a rock and a hard place,” said Donley.
The FDA and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.
Political pressure is also coming from anti-abortion and religious groups, including the Catholic Medical Association, the National Association of Catholic Nurses and the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists. They are demanding the FDA block OTC approval of Opill.
Kristan Hawkins, president of the advocacy group Students for Life Action, said she fears dropping restrictions on birth control pills will lead to an increase in unprotected sex, adding that she is “offended” the FDA is considering the pill’s over-the-counter approval given the country’s current record rate of sexually transmitted infections.
Similar predictions of increased promiscuity were made when Plan B, the so-called “morning after” pill, was up for over-the-counter approval and, a decade after it was approved for non-prescription sale, they have yet to come true, said Carolyn Sufrin, an associate professor of gynecology and obstetrics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
The FDA’s advisory committee meeting Tuesday focused on how trial data from HRA Pharma could translate into real-world use among U.S. consumers. In its application to the FDA, HRA Pharma submitted results of a recent study on how well consumers could use Opill without help from a health care provider. They asked more than 1,700 participants to decide whether the pill was appropriate for them and then followed nearly 900 participants, who electronically recorded daily whether they took the pill.
HRA Pharma concluded its study showed that the general population, including adolescents and people with limited health literacy, could correctly take the pill.
But FDA scientists raised significant questions about the data in general. They noted that the company didn’t submit the study protocol to the agency ahead of time and also flagged that a “substantial portion” of study participants said they took more pills than they had received — casting doubt on the new study’s rigor. The scientists also questioned whether the company’s submission of data used to approve Opill for prescription use would still apply today, when a dramatic rise in obesity over recent decades is a much bigger health issue than it was in the early 1970s.
Advocates in favor of a non-prescription birth control pill held a demonstration outside the White House on Monday, featuring testimony from medical experts and teenagers who have encountered barriers to birth control access, as well as an obstacle course to symbolize what patients currently have to go through to get a prescription. Rally organizers argued that researchers have had decades to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the pills and have not issued concerns before, emphasizing that the public health benefits of avoiding unwanted pregnancies outweigh the risks.
“More than 50 years of research and science speaks for itself on the safety and efficacy of birth control pills,” said Angela Maske, manager of Free the Pill Youth Council. “The data show that people are able to self-screen for contraindications and use the medication appropriately whether or not they’re under the supervision of a physician.”
Many advocates fear that no matter how robust the data presented to the FDA or how much the Biden administration pledges to “follow the science” in its decision, decades of social discomfort and heated battles around the idea of sexually active young people will play a role in whether non-prescription Opill is approved.
“When it comes to people being able to control their own reproductive destinies and desires, there always seems to be a lot more government involvement and control of what they can and cannot have easy access to,” said Sufrin. “There tends to be much easier access to less politically charged medications. Something as common as ibuprofen carries much higher risks of complications and high-risk events than the drug up for consideration for over-the-counter status.”
Previous clashes between science and politics when it comes to birth control access loom large over this debate — particularly the yearslong regulatory and legal battle to get over-the-counter approval for Plan B emergency contraception that Mara Gandal-Powers, director of birth control access and a senior counsel at the National Women’s Law Center, sees as a cautionary tale.
“It became clear through litigation that it was an act of political interference,” Gandal-Powers said. “There was no science backing the age restriction. It was just based on the ideological belief that young people should not have easy access to contraception.”
Given Plan B’s approval history and the current political tug-of-war over reproductive rights access, lawsuits and citizen petitions are possible no matter what decision the FDA makes.
At day’s end, “we can’t pretend that this is happening in a vacuum outside of politics,” said Donley. “All of these decisions are also political.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
The verdict comes on the eve of Trump’s town hall in New Hampshire moderated by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, a 31-year-old anchor and correspondent who gained a reputation for challenging Trump while she covered the White House.
Trump signaled that he would take a combative approach to any questions around the case, writing on Truth Social immediately after the verdict that he had “ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA” who Carroll was, and that the “VERDICT IS A DISGRACE – A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!” He had spent part of the day recording policy videos.
Trump advisers had been negotiating for weeks with CNN, which approached them earlier this year about the idea of doing a sit-down. Trump’s decision to agree to the town hall was seen as an implicit jab at Fox News, which he has clashed with in recent months, and at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has eschewed interviews with mainstream media outlets in favor of friendly conservative ones.
The verdict immediately split Republicans on Capitol Hill with some saying it should give voters pause and others arguing that it was a continuation of biased prosecution against the former president. That schism quickly became evident among Republicans on the campaign trail as well.
Vivek Ramaswamy, who quickly defended Trump after news broke of his criminal indictment a month ago, on Tuesday did the same.
“I wasn’t one of the jurors and I’m not privy to all of the facts that they have, but I’ll say what everyone else is privately thinking,” Ramaswamy said in a statement to POLITICO. “If the defendant weren’t named Donald Trump, would there even be a lawsuit?”
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who called for Trump to drop out of the race after his indictment, said the jury’s verdict should be taken seriously “and is another example of the indefensible behavior of Donald Trump.”
“Over the course of my over 25 years of experience in the courtroom, I have seen firsthand how a cavalier and arrogant contempt for the rule of law can backfire,” Hutchinson said in a statement.
Mike Pence, Nikki Haley and Tim Scott didn’t speak to the verdict.
Trump’s support and fundraising have only strengthened in the aftermath of past legal flashpoints, including his indictment over his alleged involvement in a hush money payment scheme to a porn star.
Sarah Longwell, a political strategist and founder of the anti-Trump Republican Accountability Project, said she conducted a focus group last week in which two-time Trump voters were asked about the Carroll lawsuit. Just one of the seven voters, a woman, had heard of it — “and she didn’t believe her,” Longwell said.
Throughout other recent focus groups with Republican voters, Longwell and her staff have remarked internally about how Trump’s support is “the fiercest” among women who have already supported him twice.
“I wish things were different, but I can’t see this changing anything in a Republican primary,” Longwell said of the sexual abuse verdict Tuesday. “The things that are going to change anything in a Republican primary are if the field — his opponents for 2024 — show some political backbone and political talent and ability to capture some of the oxygen that he is sucking up.”
A recent NBC News poll found that two thirds of Republican voters believe the investigations are “politically motivated attempt to stop Trump.” But some party strategists are convinced it could hamper his prospects in a general election where he would have to reach beyond his loyal base.
RNC chair Ronna McDaniel was pressed by Fox News’ Martha McCallum over whether or not the Carroll ruling or the hush money scheme verdict could have a negative impact on suburban and women voters. McDaniel deflected, and said that women are more focused on President Joe Biden’s disappointing administration.
“I think we have a long way until the primary process begins, we have debates in August,” McDaniel said. “I think a lot of women are incredibly disappointed with the Biden administration so they’ll be looking at the Republican nominee, whoever that is, to put forward an opposing vision and one that will help suburban moms and kids and families across the country.”
But the question, which McCallum repeated again with other guests, underscores how that cohort of female and suburban women voters could potentially impact Trump. While Trump did better with women in 2020 than in 2016, Biden led among women in the last election by 11 points.
How Trump will handle discussing the lawsuit at the CNN town hall is hardly a mystery, said Dave Carney, a New Hampshire-based Republican strategist.
“He will spin it, and we could write that script right now,” Carney said soon after the verdict was issued. “‘Judge who hates me, a lady made this up, and blah, blah, blah.’ He will definitely have something to say about it.”
And he did, following that script almost exactly in posts he made on his social media website throughout the evening Tuesday.
But for a candidate who won the 2016 election mere weeks after a recording was published of him bragging about being able to sexually assault women, “none of this is new,” Carney said, and it’s unlikely voters are still trying to make up their mind about Trump’s character.
“Do I think any different eyeball is going to watch this show that wasn’t going to watch it beforehand? No,” Carney said of the Wednesday town hall. “Do I think any undecided voter was thinking ‘I don’t know about that Trump guy, I’m going to tune into CNN and see what he has to say?’”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
And unless Comer’s yet-to-be-released findings — based on bank records and payments made to Biden family members — contain that hard proof, his maneuver is at serious risk of backfiring just as he’s ramping up efforts to get more buy-in for his probe.
“It’s an investigation of Joe Biden,” Comer said in a brief interview, asked if Wednesday would focus on the president or more broadly on his family. “The thing that’s been most frustrating to me in the media: They say we’re investigating Hunter Biden. We’re investigating Joe Biden. This is all about Joe Biden.”
Comer said he would “talk about” further details, such as whether any bank records showed a direct link to President Biden or any distinctions he’d make between potentially unethical versus illegal actions, at his press conference Wednesday.
Democrats, the White House and their off-Hill allies are already gearing up to push back on the Oversight chair, betting that Republicans will fail to conduct the independently legitimate oversight that Comer once insisted upon.
“There’s a lot of innuendo and a lot of gossip taking place and much of it is recycled from prior claims,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, said in a brief interview.
That’s not to say that Wednesday marks the end of Comer’s investigation. He plans to unveil his next “investigative actions,” which will likely include requesting a broader swath of third-party financial records, as part of the press conference. But he’s also fighting to gain traction, after getting pushback from high-profile pundits within his own party, while kvetching that “mainstream” media have also downplayed his probe.
Still, the press conference marks the most information Comer’s been willing to share about the investigation in months. Though he disclosed in March that Biden family members had received money from an associate who had made a business deal with a Chinese energy company, much of the information about the Kentuckian’s subpoenas has come from Democrats on the committee. Even some Republicans on the panel have indicated that they aren’t in the loop on his investigation.
And there are other Biden investigations competing for the spotlight.
Recently, Comer subpoenaed the FBI and accused the bureau of having a document alleging a “criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions.” The deadline for the subpoena is also Wednesday. The allegation from Comer provided no details — though Democrats and Trump allies have signaled they believe it is related to Ukraine. Asked about that theory, Comer singled out Raskin, saying he’d advise that “sometimes it’s best to keep your mouth shut when you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Meanwhile, Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who is also a member of Comer’s Oversight Committee, is conducting a separate investigation into a 2020 letter from 51 former intelligence officials who warned that a New York Post story related to Hunter Biden could be the product of Russian disinformation. Jordan’s also gobbled up weeks of media attention over a high-profile standoff with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg over his investigation involving former President Donald Trump.
And unspoken but far from forgotten, Justice Department officials still have to decide whether to charge Hunter Biden as part of a yearslong tax- and gun-related case. That probe into Hunter Biden began in 2018 and initially centered on his finances, related to overseas business ties and consulting work. Investigators later shifted their focus to whether he failed to report all of his income and whether he lied on a form for buying a gun.
But the larger sweep of the Biden family is where Comer’s piled a lot of his chips. It’s also the investigation that has earned him skepticism from some members of his own party and made the once under-the-radar GOP lawmaker a target of Democrats, the White House and outside groups.
Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.), another member of the committee, credited Comer for handling the political crosswinds of his high-profile committee. Asked about his expectations for Wednesday, he caveated that lawmakers “don’t prosecute crimes” but he believes Republicans will lay out “very clearly that the Biden family was influence peddling.”
“You’re not getting Jim Jordan lite. You’re getting a very different person,” Armstrong added of Comer. “He’s methodical. He’s smart. He trusts his staff. He trusts his members and he communicates well. Pretty good place to be when you’re dealing with a pretty fractious caucus.”
Democrats have knocked Comer for probing payments made to Biden family members while brushing off similar questions about Trump family members. (Comer has argued Trump’s family has been the subject of its own investigations in previous Congresses and that he will eventually craft ethics and financial disclosure legislation that would impact both presidents’ family members.)
Ian Sams, a White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations, accused Comer of a “history of playing fast and loose with the facts and spreading baseless innuendo while refusing to conduct his so-called ‘investigations’ with legitimacy.”
“He has hidden information from the public to selectively leak and promote his own hand-picked narratives as part of his overall effort to lob personal attacks at the President and his family,” Sams added.
Meanwhile, Comer has a right flank pushing him to go further, faster. His committee is stacked with conservative firebrands including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and House Freedom Caucus Chair Scott Perry (R-Pa.). Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), a member of the Freedom Caucus and Comer’s panel, described the allegations that will be unveiled Wednesday as “damning.”
Asked if he meant for President Biden or Hunter Biden, he said: “Both.”
Comer and Greene, meanwhile, are in frequent contact, with the Georgia Republican floating potential investigative avenues and raising questions. But she’s also going down lanes that Comer isn’t following: Greene and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who is not on Comer’s committee, have met with a woman who has accused Biden of sexual assault dating back to his time in the Senate, an allegation the president denies.
And while Comer has thanked Trump when he’s voiced support for the Kentucky Republican’s investigation, he’s also bristled when he gets questionsabout any talks with the former president, noting that he voted to certify Biden’s Electoral College win despite coming from a deeply red district.
“I get asked … ‘What do you and Trump talk about?’ I haven’t talked to Trump,” Comer said in a recent interview. “I voted to certify the presidential election. … I don’t know why people think I’m on the phone with Donald Trump all the time.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
