Feels like mid-30s in parts of Canada, while other areas expecting snow
Anything is possible this week, as far as Canada's weather is concerned, with forecasts ranging from scorching heat in some parts of the country to rain and snow in others.
Hunter Biden ’s lawyers suggested Tuesday that claims made by a former FBI informant charged with fabricating a bribery scheme involving the presidential family may have tainted the case against the president’s son.
The gun and tax charges against Hunter Biden are separate from the claims made by the informant, Alexander Smirnov, who has been charged with making up a bribery scheme involving U.S. President Joe Biden, his son and a Ukrainian energy company.
But Hunter Biden’s attorneys say the chatter over the informant contributed to the collapse of the plea deal offered to Hunter Biden last summer.
The filing comes as Hunter Biden continues his public offensive over claims about his professional life and drug use that have been central to Congressional investigations and an impeachment inquiry that seeks to tie his business dealings to his father.
The president’s son is charged with lying on a form about his drug use to buy a gun in 2018. He has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers say one photo that prosecutors used as evidence of cocaine use was actually a photo of sawdust sent by his therapist to encourage him to stay clean.
The Justice Department special counsel overseeing the case against him also filed the charges against Smirnov last week. He is accused of falsely reporting to the FBI in June 2020 that executives associated with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid Hunter and Joe Biden US$5 million each in 2015 or 2016.
But before that case was filed, the prosecution followed the informant “down his rabbit hole of lies,” defense attorneys said in court documents. The special counsel's office started investigating Smirnov's claims three years after he originally reported them to his handler, in July 2023. The plea deal imploded around the same time, after prosecutors indicated that an investigation into bribery allegations remained open, defense attorneys said in court documents.
A spokesperson for special counsel David Weiss declined to comment. Prosecutors have previously said that the evidence against Hunter Biden is “overwhelming,” including cocaine residue found on the pouch used to hold his gun, and rejected the defense contention that the charges were politically motivated.
Hunter Biden is also charged in Los Angeles, accused of failing to pay US$1.4 million in taxes while living an “extravagant lifestyle.” Both cases stem from the time when he acknowledged being addicted to drugs.
The cases were filed by special counsel David Weiss, who also charged Smirnov with lying to the FBI in an indictment filed last week. Smirnov's defense attorneys are pressing for his release from custody.
The charges against Hunter Biden were filed after the collapse of a plea deal that would have avoided the possibility of a trial while his father is campaigning for another term as president. The deal imploded, though, during a hearing in July, around the same time prosecutors from the special counsel’s office started looking into the informant’s claims at the request of the FBI, according to court documents.
Associated Press writer Rio Yamat in Las Vegas contributed to this report.
Anything is possible this week, as far as Canada's weather is concerned, with forecasts ranging from scorching heat in some parts of the country to rain and snow in others.
Canada's annual inflation rate slowed to a three-year low of 2.7 per cent in April, matching expectations, and core measures continued to ease, data showed on Tuesday, likely boosting chances of a June interest rate cut.
One person has died aboard a London-Singapore flight that encountered severe turbulence, Singapore Airlines said Tuesday. The plane was diverted to Bangkok, where emergency crews rushed to help injured passengers amid stormy weather.
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The Vatican has announced that the investigation it commissioned into allegations of sexual touching against Cardinal Gerald Cyprien Lacroix did not confirm any act constituting misconduct or abuse on the part of the Vatican.
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