Convicted felon Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, pled guilty to nine additional federal charges in Los Angeles on Thursday related to tax crimes that he committed. The stunning reversal from Hunter Biden, who initially had pled not guilty, came as jury selection for the trial was supposed to start today, but was upended after Hunter Biden’s legal team submitted an Alford plea in federal court. An Alford plea would allow him to acknowledge the strength of the case against him, accept whatever penalties he is sentenced to, but give him the ability to maintain his innocence. Hunter Biden reportedly decided he wanted to avoid taking the case to trial because “he refused to subject his family to another round of anguish and humiliation after a gut-wrenching gun trial in Delaware three months ago.” Tickets for “Am I Racist?” are on sale NOW! Buy here for a theater near you. The guilty plea was not part of any kind of deal that would have resulted in reduced punishment for Hunter Biden. U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi told Hunter Biden that charges he pled guilty to carry a maximum sentence of up to 17 years in prison and a maximum fine of over $1 million. Sentencing in the case is scheduled for mid-December. This is a breaking news story; refresh the page for updates.

As District Attorney of San Francisco, Kamala Harris proposed a program for drug dealers that would have allowed criminals to only be charged for selling narcotics on their third arrest.  San Francisco’s chief of police at the time sent an October 24, 2005 letter to Harris declining to participate in the program, “Operation Safe Streets,” according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Daily Wire.  “This proposal asks us not to arrest, but instead detain and release observed narcotics sales suspects pursuant to Penal Code Section 849(b) P.C. When the same suspect is arrested the third time for narcotics sales, your office would then charge all three counts,” wrote Heather Fong, who served as police chief until 2009.  The revelation comes as Harris attempts to campaign as a tough-on-crime, law-and-order prosecutor, touting her past record and describing herself as someone who “took on perpetrators of all kinds — predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain.”  But back in 2005, the police chief warned Harris that her proposed policy would allow narcotics sellers to immediately be released back onto the streets without consequences, encourage dealers to come to San Francisco, potentially increase violent crime in the city, and result in a double standard, “as adults would be released while juveniles would be booked.”  “Additionally, narcotics dealers who sell drugs near a school would be released after only a brief detention,” Fong continued, noting, “Undoubtedly, this would send the wrong message to observant children who unfortunately witness drug dealing activity on a regular basis.”  The chief also warned that the public would not view a “detain and release” program favorably, since neither the community nor the police department are sympathetic to drug dealers who “exploit for profit the weakness of others.” She also noted that it would be bad for officer morale and “counter to what every officer is taught.”  Letter from Heather Fong to Kamala Harris, October 24, 2005. Letter from Heather Fong to Kamala Harris, October 24, 2005. Harris’ office told The Daily Journal in April 2006 that the idea behind the proposal was not to allow criminals to get off the hook, but instead help prosecutors build stronger cases against them. The Daily Journal reported that “police have scoffed at the plan.”  “Defense attorneys who regularly represent drug dealers also are pooh poohing Harris’ plan, saying it sounds weird and unworkable,” The Daily Journal’s Dennis Opatrny wrote at the time.  Harris’ criminal division chief, Jeff Ross, reportedly suggested to the police chief at the time that they should move forward with the program despite potential media criticisms.  “It is true that San Francisco is home to some media outlets that may perceive of this program as being too tough on narcotics offenders, because more dealers will wind up behind bars as a result of this approach,” he wrote, adding, “I’m sure you would agree that we must pursue effective enforcement approaches without regard to whether there might be critical media coverage.”  The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Wire.  A report released Wednesday from The Heritage Foundation found that she has always been “soft-on-crime,” though her representations of her record have varied based on her audience or political climate: she has shown support for defunding the police, bail policies that let violent criminals back onto the streets, and did not seek the death penalty in a number of “egregious cases,” according to the report.  Just weeks after the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody while an officer knelt on his neck, Harris claimed that it “is outdated and is actually wrong and backward to think that more police officers will create more safety.”  She also promised to end cash bail, expunge some felon records, end federal mandatory minimum sentences, get rid of court-ordered fines, impose more restrictions on cops, and more, according to a memo from her 2020 presidential campaign exposed by the Washington Free Beacon in July. 

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Media giant Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) is expected to catch a subpoena following a Thursday hearing in the $1 billion defamation suit against its subsidiary, CNN. In a hearing lasting almost four hours, exclusively recorded by NewsBusters, Florida 14th Judicial Circuit Judge Scott Henry cleared the way for Plaintiff and Navy veteran Zachary Young to issue a subpoena to turn over select financial documents that pertained to CNN. In addition, Judge Henry also signaled that punitive damages sought against CNN could go beyond the simple net worth of the network. Looking to “boil it down to something simple,” Judge Henry delivered an analogy likening a request of financial documents from WBD to asking a doctor for the medical records of a patient involved in an accident claim: In a car accident case, the defense does a RFP to the plaintiff saying, ‘send me all your medical records,’ but then, at the same time, there's a notice of production and subpoenas all the medical providers and gets their records not only from the accident but predating it or whatever. And it's just to make sure that what's being produced on one side is the same as what the doctor actually has in their office.     But the subpoena for CNN’s finances via WBD will be limited to the documents the network presented to its parent company. Essentially, this will act as a way to double check to see if CNN was being honest with the financial documents they were turning over as part of discovery; comparing what they turned over to Young’s legal team vs what they told corporate. The Judge’s analogy for this part was that a kid trying to ask a parent for a larger allowance with a very detailed PowerPoint presentation: I compare this, for instance, to, you know, the kid goes to the parents and go, ‘hey, I need to up my allowance this year.’ ‘Well, Johnny, why do you need to up your allowance?’ ‘Well, I got to pay for this. I gotta pay for this, you know, these are the things I wanna do, um, you know, I'm gonna go cut grass and I'm only gonna get, you know, so much from cutting mowing yards during this point in time, so here's where I think you ought to settle on my allowance per week now because this is what I need to pay for lunch or go have fun to the movies with my friends or do whatever.” But it's Johnny's bringing that to mom and dad and saying here, up my allowance. So, I mean, if CNN did internal modeling or predictions and set that within the umbrella for Warner Brothers and Warner Brothers happens to have a copy of it. I think Warner Brothers can produce it, and it's the same thing as asking the doctor's office to produce the records that maybe the plaintiff's attorney produces as well, but the defendant can, you know, in that case has a right to verify it. Y'all have the right to verify it. “I would overrule the objection to the extent that it was prepared by or on behalf of CNN Inc. or CNN Worldwide and just submitted to Warner Brothers,” he added. CNN received more bad news by way of Judge Henry signaling that the punitive damages claim that would be presented to the jury next year would go beyond just the global network’s net worth. Citing previous cases that involved punitive damages, Judge Henry noted that the precedent in Florida was that a juries are instructed to take into account the financial resources of a defendant, not just net worth: All right. So, with those guiding principles, nowhere in here does it say ‘the defendant’s net worth.’ The only thing that financial talks about are: motivation by unreasonable financial gain and the financial resources of the defendant. Resources, not financial net worth of the defendant. The financial resources of the defendant. And then, as I indicated, the note referenced two cases the deal with punitive damages being awarded in other cases. So, that is what the jury is instructed on to make a determination as to the proper amount of punitive damages. “So, obviously information that is being requested in discovery that would go to those things that obviously would have to be admissible evidence at trial are certainly fair game for purposes of discovery,” he said. “And any other request that would drive toward that information or potentially uncover that information would be discoverable.” Young is also allowed to see the last three years of CNN's defamation settlements. These are important because punitive damages are meant to cause enough pain to deter or prevent an entity from repeating the offensive behavior. So, if what they paid in settlements wasn’t enough to correct their behavior, a jury could take that into consideration in setting a price to punish them. CNN did not respond to a request for comment. The relevant portions of the transcript are below. Click "expand" to read: CNN Defamation Suit September 5, 2024 12:03 p.m. Eastern (…) JUDGE SCOTT HENRY: All right. So, with those guiding principles, nowhere in here does it say ‘the defendant’s net worth.’ The only thing that financial talks about are: motivation by unreasonable financial gain and the financial resources of the defendant. Resources, not financial net worth of the defendant. The financial resources of the defendant. And then, as I indicated, the note referenced two cases the deal with punitive damages being awarded in other cases. So, that is what the jury is instructed on to make a determination as to the proper amount of punitive damages. So, obviously information that is being requested in discovery that would go to those things that obviously would have to be admissible evidence at trial are certainly fair game for purposes of discovery. And any other request that would drive toward that information or potentially uncover that information would be discoverable. (…) 1:07 p.m. Eastern HENRY: And then the last bit is on the Warner Brothers subpoena. And I think the way that I'm looking at this is – You know, let's boil it down to something simple. In a car accident case, the defense does a RFP to the plaintiff saying, ‘send me all your medical records,’ but then, at the same time, there's a notice of production and subpoenas all the medical providers and gets their records not only from the accident but predating it or whatever. And it's just to make sure that what's being produced on one side is the same as what the doctor actually has in their office. So, I think even though something may be being produced by CNN, it wouldn't necessarily bar it if Warner Brothers has the same type of document. Having said that, I don't think Warner Brothers should be compelled to produce something that it was creating as its own separate entity. That is separate apart from a financial record that CNN may have internally produced itself, and I think there's a difference of opinion or a difference in terms of how those need to be looked at. And hence some of my questions that I asked you, Mr. Delich of ‘Well do you really think this is the same thing if Warner Brothers is doing it for its evaluation purposes as opposed to CNN walking in to apply for the loan.’ And I think, at least at this point in time, I think there is a slight difference on that because Warner Brothers is not CNN and CNN is not Warner Brothers. So, having said that, if, for number one, for instance, if there is internal modeling or predictions of future revenues or profits for CNN that Warner Brothers has in its records and archives. And it was sent by CNN to Warner Brothers. And it wasn't just generated by Warner Brothers itself. I think Warner Brothers should produce what CNN – you know, I mean – You know, I don't know. I compare this, for instance, to, you know, the kid goes to the parents and go, ‘hey, I need to up my allowance this year.’ ‘Well, Johnny, why do you need to up your allowance?’ ‘Well, I got to pay for this. I gotta pay for this, you know, these are the things I wanna do, um, you know, I'm gonna go cut grass and I'm only gonna get, you know, so much from cutting mowing yards during this point in time, so here's where I think you ought to settle on my allowance per week now because this is what I need to pay for lunch or go have fun to the movies with my friends or do whatever.” But it's Johnny's bringing that to mom and dad and saying here, up my allowance. So, I mean, if CNN did internal modeling or predictions and set that within the umbrella for Warner Brothers and Warner Brothers happens to have a copy of it. I think Warner Brothers can produce it, and it's the same thing as asking the doctor's office to produce the records that maybe the plaintiff's attorney produces as well, but the defendant can, you know, in that case has a right to verify it. Y'all have the right to verify it. If it's internally done for Warner Brothers. Financing. Modeling You know, what are making a determination on what we're paying on – to shareholders for dividends this year. If it's Warner Brothers doing these things, Warner Brothers doesn't have to produce its own document. Okay? And I know Mr. Delich, I know you're saying, well, it's mom and dad would be the one, they're not selling Johnny, but mom and dad would be the ones selling the car if they had that, and therefore they ought to be able to value that asset that they own. Mom and dad aren't a party to this case. So, at this point I would sustain an objection to anything Warner Brothers prepared itself. I would overrule the objection to the extent that it was prepared by or on behalf of CNN Inc. or CNN Worldwide and just submitted to Warner Brothers. (…)