Commerce Secretary's Financial Ties To Putin Allies Draw Scrutiny

ATLANTA — Already reeling from their November defeats, Democrats now are grappling with President Joe Biden’s pardoning of his son for federal crimes after the party spent years slamming Donald Trump as a threat to democracy who disregarded the law. The president pardoned Hunter Biden late Sunday evening, reversing his previous pledges with a grant of clemency that covers more than a decade of any federal crimes his son might have committed.

Trump’s picks for taking over the federal government range from the conspiratorial to the absurdly underqualified. But it’s former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense, who may take the cake as the president-elect’s most controversial. (He had arguably been tied for that ignominious distinction with former Florida Rep.

Late last month, Donald Trump named Karoline Leavitt as his incoming press secretary, positioning her to become the youngest person ever to hold the job. That’s a big step up. Just two years ago—following a failed congressional campaign—Leavitt was putting her name on a series of op-eds in right-wing publications lauding a fugitive Chinese mogul who has since been convicted of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from fans of his purportedly anti-communist movement. Leavitt’s articles closely echoed topics, talking points, and even specific language that had been prepared for her by supporters of exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui, as journalist Walker Bragman and I reported last year.

Oh, the wailing and gnashing of teeth in response to Joe Biden pardoning his son in what was an obvious political prosecution -- and persecution. I can tell you this much: Hunter did not pay his father for the pardon. Unlike some people. Allegedly. No rational person cares what James Comer thinks. Rep James Comer (R-KY): "

As Pencil Neck stressed, we wouldn’t want a president abusing the pardon power to “shield himself from liability.”

A tiny town of just 1,300 people and no flagpole finds itself subject to a “quasi-judicial power” meting out “Orwellian” punishments.