DES MOINES, Iowa – Former Vice President Mike Pence said Friday that he ‘can’t relate’ to President Biden concerning the appointment of a special counsel in the Hunter Biden probe, because his son was ‘defending this country’ in the military while he was serving as vice president.

‘I just heard news that the appointment of the special counsel in the matter involving President Biden’s son Hunter. To be honest with you, I can’t relate to what his son was doing when he was vice president. When I was vice president, my son was flying an F-35 for the Marine Corps defending this country,’ Pence said during a press gaggle at the Iowa State Fair.

‘But I think it’s about time that we saw the appointment of a special counsel to get to the bottom of not only what Hunter Biden was doing, but what the Biden family was doing. The American people deserve answers, and I welcome the appointment,’ he added.

Earlier on Friday, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed U.S. Attorney David Weiss as special counsel in the Hunter Biden probe, as well as any other matters that arose or may arise from that investigation.

Weiss is the federal prosecutor who has investigated the business dealings of Hunter Biden and brought charges against him in Delaware. His appointment as special counsel indicates that, contrary to Hunter’s defense lawyers’ claims, the Department of Justice investigation into President Biden’s son is not over.

Other Republicans have also sounded off over the appointment, torching Garland’s selection of Weiss, who led the prosecution in Hunter Biden’s tax and gun charges, to head up the special counsel probe.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., called Garland’s announcement ‘part of the Justice Department’s efforts to attempt a Biden family coverup in light of [House Oversight Republicans’] mounting evidence of President Biden’s role in his family’s schemes selling ‘the brand’ for millions of dollars to foreign nationals.’

Comer said Garland’s ‘move is really about’ the DOJ ‘trying to stonewall congressional oversight as we have presented evidence to the American people about the Biden family’s corruption.’

‘This action by Biden’s DOJ cannot be used to obstruct congressional investigations or whitewash the Biden family corruption,’ House Speaker Kevin McCarthy tweeted Friday.

‘If Weiss negotiated the sweetheart deal that couldn’t get approved, how can he be trusted as a Special Counsel?’ McCarthy added. ‘House Republicans will continue to pursue the facts for the American people.’

Fox News’ Chris Pandolfo, Jake Gibson, David Spunt and Houston Keene contributed to this report.

Top GOP leaders sharply criticized President Biden’s recent plea to Congress for an extra $24 billion to Ukraine on Friday amid a surging border crisis and soaring fentanyl epidemic. 

Biden’s request comprises $13 billion for defense and $11 billion for economic and humanitarian aid in Ukraine. 

The administration’s petition is part of a larger supplemental package sent to Congress Thursday that includes $4 billion for the border crisis and countering foreign involvement in the fentanyl epidemic. The U.S. has sent more than $100 billion to Ukraine since the Russian invasion last year. 

Some Republican lawmakers say the US has already provided enough, especially after a $3 billion accounting error overvaluing Ukraine’s weapons aid was reported in May. 

‘This additional spending request deserves strict scrutiny from Congress and the American people,’ Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., told Fox News Digital on Friday. ‘While the Biden Administration has ignored the security and humanitarian disaster happening at the border, their appetite to spend billions on other priorities has no end.’

He added: ‘We have real work to do here at home. The United States has doubled what other NATO countries have contributed – combined. Our NATO allies need to step up because the U.S. will not shoulder this alone.’

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who sits on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees and has been a vocal critic of aid to Ukraine, told Fox News Digital the request shows how ‘Joe Biden is totally out of step with the American people.’ 

‘By plowing billions more of our taxpayer dollars into a war in Europe, Joe Biden is sending a clear signal that Ukraine takes priority over securing our southern border, deterring China in the Pacific, and getting costs down for working families at home,’ Hawley said. 

Hawley, along with other members of Congress, has brought forth this year several pieces of legislation to restrict aid to Ukraine and institute an independent auditor. 

Last year, Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mt., a member of the House Border Security Caucus, introduced legislation to prohibit U.S. involvement in the Russia-Ukraine war until the southern border is secured. 

‘This is nothing more than a ploy by the Biden Administration to direct more money to Ukraine and disingenuously send over $3 billion to the southern border,’ Rosendale said to Fox News Digital. ‘Not to secure it, but to house the tidal wave of illegals they are bringing to our country.’

Rep. Matt Gaetz, another vocal critic of the outbound funds and a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said to Fox News Digital, ‘We fought wars for decades in the Middle East because oil companies had their hooks in the Bushes.’
 
He added: ‘Now we plow arms and cash into the homeland of the Burisma Biden Bribers. No thanks.’

In July discussions, Gaetz and four House Republicans sought to amend the National Defense Authorization Act, aiming to significantly curtail Ukraine’s aid. Although the amendment was rejected with bipartisan opposition, 70 Republicans voted in its favor.

Meanwhile, in the upper chamber, a similar amendment to the NDAA was proposed by GOP Sens. Hawley, John Kennedy, Jim Risch, and Roger Wicker to create a Ukraine oversight office to audit funding. That was also rejected. 

But Biden’s request is unlikely to gain support in the GOP-led House. McCarthy previously promised he wouldn’t bring a supplemental funding bill to the floor. 

Biden’s appeal coincides with an ongoing surge of illegal border crossings along Texas’ border with Mexico. All sectors of the border are grappling with overcrowding by illegal entrants and are near or at capacity limits for detainment. 

As of the end of June 2023, Border Patrol so far this year had encountered nearly 1.8 million illegal entrants.

Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Il., said to Fox News Digital Friday he supports continuing aid to Ukraine and that he would work to get those funds approved in the Senate. 

Meanwhile, Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a statement he would carefully review Biden’s request to make sure it’s ‘necessary and appropriate to keep America safe, secure our borders, support our allies, and help communities rebuild after disasters.’

Fox News’s Brandon Gillespie and Liz Elkind contributed to this report. 

President Biden ignored shouted questions from the press Friday as he departed the White House for Delaware after Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel in the probe into his son, Hunter Biden.

Video from New York Post reporter Steven Nelson showed reporters shouting questions about the special counsel being appointed, the president’s alleged involvement in Hunter’s international business dealings and whether he expected to be impeached by the House of Representatives. 

Biden appeared to smile at one point but continued walking past them and toward Marine One. Biden, whose allergy to media interviews has set historic marks, has yet to field a question from the media since the special counsel was announced. 

Earlier in the day, Garland announced the appointment of U.S. Attorney David Weiss as special counsel in the Hunter Biden probe and any other matters that arose or may arise from that investigation.

Weiss is the federal prosecutor who has investigated the business dealings of Hunter and brought charges against him in Delaware. His appointment as special counsel indicates that, contrary to Hunter’s defense lawyers’ claims, the Justice Department investigation into Biden’s son is not over.

Garland confirmed Friday that the investigation is still ongoing. In a press release, the Justice Department said Weiss will serve as special counsel ‘for the ongoing investigation and prosecutions referenced and described in United States v. Robert Hunter Biden, as well as for any other matters that arose or may arise from that investigation.’

That language leaves open the possibility that other members of the Biden family, including President Biden, could be part of this investigation. When asked earlier in the day if President Biden is being investigated as part of this probe, a Department of Justice official declined to comment.

Fox News’ Chris Pandolfo, David Spunt and Jake Gibson contributed to this report.

DES MOINES, Iowa – Former Vice President Mike Pence thinks former President Donald Trump — his former running mate and current rival for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination — Is ‘missing out’ by skipping a sit-down interview with popular Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds at the Iowa State Fair.

Pence, along with nearly all the other contenders in the large field of GOP White House hopefuls, are joining the conservative two-term governor for her ‘fair side chats’ at the Iowa fairgrounds in the state that holds the first contest in the GOP presidential nominating calendar.

The only two contenders who are not taking part are former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is concentrating most of his firepower in New Hampshire — the state that holds the first primary and votes second in the Republican schedule — and Trump.

Pence, taking questions from reporters on Friday at the fairgrounds after joining Reynolds for her chat, was asked by Fox News about Trump’s decision not to join Reynolds.

‘I’m incredibly proud of Gov. Kim Reynolds,’ Pence said as he praised the governor. ‘The way she has balanced budgets, cut taxes, expanded educational choices, stood for the right to life, has really been an inspiration to people all across this state and all across the nation. I welcome the opportunity to sit down with her to answer her questions at that gathering here at the Iowa State Fair, and frankly I think anybody who skips that is missing out.’

Pence emphasized that ‘the people of Iowa have an historic tradition of knowing how to ask real questions and to come to understand our candidates and make that decision in ways that have shaped our nation in so many decades past.’

Taking aim at Trump without mentioning the former president — who has said he may skip the upcoming Fox News-hosted first GOP presidential nomination debate on Aug. 23 — Pence argued: ‘I think anybody that skips it — with Gov. Kim Reynolds — is missing an opportunity just as much they are if they skip a debate.’

Trump earlier this summer criticized Reynolds for staying neutral in the race for the GOP presidential nomination race.

‘I opened up the Governor position for Kim Reynolds, & when she fell behind, I ENDORSED her, did big Rallies, & she won. Now, she wants to remain ‘NEUTRAL.’ I don’t invite her to events! DeSanctus down 45 points!’ the former president wrote in a social media post.

In 2017, Trump nominated longtime Republican Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad as U.S. ambassador to China. Reynolds — who was lieutenant governor at the time — succeeded Branstad as governor. Trump endorsed Reynolds ahead of her narrow election in 2018 to a full term in office. Reynolds was easily re-elected by 19 points last year.

Reynolds’ pledge to stay neutral in the presidential nomination race is in line with previous Iowa governors. Iowa’s all-Republican congressional delegation is also staying neutral as the large field of 2024 presidential contenders descends on their state.

The governor joined Trump in March in Davenport, as the former president made his first stop in Iowa as a 2024 candidate. But Reynolds did not join Trump when he returned to the state in early June and again last month.

Trump will be at the state fair on Saturday, the same day the Reynolds holds chats with three of Trump’s rivals — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and entrepreneur and culture wars crusader Vivek Ramaswamy.  

The Trump campaign put out a statement last month, when Reynolds announced her fair lineup, saying that the former president ‘looks forward to interacting with tens of thousands of Iowans at the fair in an open and unfiltered setting.’

And Trump, calling into an Iowa talk radio program on Friday, complimented Reynolds and her family.

Trump took plenty of incoming fire for his criticism earlier this summer of Reynolds, and a Republican state senator who had endorsed the former president switched his support to DeSantis due to the incident. This week, the pro-DeSantis super PAC Never Back Down spotlighted Trump’s jabs at Reynolds in a new ad running in Iowa.

‘Why pick a fight with the most popular Republican in Iowa?’ David Kochel, a longtime Republican consultant and veteran of numerous GOP presidential campaigns in Iowa and nationally, said to Fox News.

‘It doesn’t help him, because Gov. Reynolds is very well respected and well-loved by Republicans in Iowa,’ Kochel said. ‘I don’t understand what he gets out of it except to vent his spleen.’

A Mississippi Democrat candidate for governor took $10,000 from a Chinese national tied to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and first son Hunter Biden, according to campaign finance filings.

Mississippi Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley, who is running for governor as a Democrat, has tried to position himself as a moderate candidate.

However, even as he tries to portray himself as a moderate, Presley has taken money from prominent progressive Democrats as well as some questionable donors.

On June 26, 2023, Presley took $10,000 from Wanxiang America President Pin Ni, according to campaign finance filings.

Then-Vice President Joe Biden hosted a White House meeting with Ni and Wanxiang Resources Co. President Youhong Han on July 25, 2014, according to White House visitor logs first reported last year by the Daily Mail.

According to the CCP-run China Daily, Biden had ‘invited’ the Wanxiang executives to visit several cities in the U.S. at the time, including Washington, Detroit and Dover, Delaware.

The parent company, Wanxiang Group, posthumously awarded the company’s founder, Lu Guanqiu, the title of ‘National Outstanding Communist Party Member’ in a 2021 press release and praised Guanqiu in the release as regarding ‘the pursuit of communism as a lifelong ideal and practice.’

It also said he ‘insisted that the development of an enterprise is inseparable from the correct leadership of the party.’ The founder’s bio on the Wanxiang website says he was elected as the 13th and 14th Representatives of the Communist Part of China, and a delegate to the 9th, 10th, and 11th Chinese National People’s Congress. 

Pin has direct ties to the president’s son after emailing him less than a week after meeting with his father.

Less than a week after the Wanxiang executives met with Hunter’s father at the White House in July 2014, Pin Ni sent Hunter an email about his Fisker car, according to a review of emails from Hunter’s abandoned laptop that have been verified by Fox News Digital.

‘My name is Pin Ni and I am the president of Wanxiang America which bought Fisker assets a few months ago. Last Friday when we visited DC, I heard that your Fisker is out of order and could not get serviced. Sorry,’ Pin wrote. ‘Yesterday the bankruptcy judge had approved Old Fisker’s plan of liquidation in which we will be offering warrantee service to all Fisker owners, it would be our honor to get your Fisker fixed.’

Hunter then informed Pin that he ended up selling the car back to the dealer ‘at a big loss,’ to which Pin responded that he would ‘make sure your next Fisker will exceed the expectation,’ including a smiling emoticon.

Hunter’s car purchase has been a point of heavy scrutiny during federal prosecutors’ ongoing investigation into alleged tax fraud by the first son.

The filings also revealed that Presley on July 29 took $2,500 from Elizabeth Naftali — a Biden appointee who recently made headlines after it was revealed she was a buyer of Hunter Biden’s artwork — as well as $50,000 from California attorney Steve Phillips on June 23.

Phillips’ donation was the largest donation to Presley in June.

Naftali donated over $200,000 to Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. In July 2022, Biden appointed his donor to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad.

Ethics experts have decried Naftali’s art purchase as an apparent conflict of interest.

In an October 2022 opinion piece, Phillips claimed that America ‘is built on a racist social contract’ and called for Americans ‘to tear it up and start anew.’

Presley also received $25,000 from Quinn Delaney on June 30. Delaney founded the Akonadi Foundation and is a Democrat mega-donor who backed disgraced former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin.

The Akonadi Foundation in California pushes far-left policies like ‘racial justice’ and invests in and supports ‘community power to redesign systems to be just and equitable for all,’ according to the organization’s ‘Mission and Vision’ page’s ‘Values’ section.

Additionally, Presley took $500 from failed Democrat gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams on June 27 and $15,000 from New York billionaire and Democrat mega-donor Philip Munger on June 30.

Presley’s campaign did not respond to Fox News Digital’s questions on the donations.

The donations revelations come as Presley faces the music for other campaign contributions that don’t appear to pass the smell test.

Presley came under scrutiny this week after it was revealed he received campaign donations from green energy entities he oversees.

One former Mississippi Public Service commissioner who spoke to Fox News Digital said it ‘blows my mind’ that Presley accepted such contributions. 

State law prohibits a public service commissioner from ‘knowingly accept[ing] any gift, pass, money, campaign contribution or any emolument or other pecuniary benefit whatsoever, either directly or indirectly, from any person interested as owner, agent or representative, or from any person acting in any respect for such owner, agent or representative of any common or contract carrier by motor vehicle, telephone company, gas or electric utility company, or any other public utility that shall come under the jurisdiction or supervision of the Public Service Commission.’ 

The Democrat governor candidate appears to have accepted campaign contributions from several green energy companies that he regulates as a public service commissioner.

The Mississippi Public Service Commission has a broad definition of ‘utility’ in the commission’s rules, meaning ‘any person subject to the regulatory jurisdiction of the Commission.’

According to campaign finance records reviewed by Fox News Digital, several board members and key operators of Tennessee-based solar power company Silicon Ranch donated thousands of dollars to Presley in 2018 and 2021.

While Silicon Ranch is a Tennessee company, the Mississippi Public Service Commission found in 2017 that it had jurisdiction over the company when it was building a solar farm in Lauderdale County, Mississippi, though the commission noted that it wasn’t technically a public utility.

Fox News Digital also obtained screenshots of an internal poll conducted by the Democrat polling firm Impact Research – of which Presley is a client – that tested the waters for negative messaging against Presley.

‘While serving on the Public Service Commission, Brandon Presley has received more than $50,000 in campaign contributions from groups he regulates,’ the question reads. ‘He’s also taken over $35,000 from trial lawyer Dickie Scruggs who spent six years in prison for trying to bribe multiple judges.’

‘Please indicate whether this statement raises very serious concerns, serious concerns, minor concerns, or no real concerns for you about Brandon Presley,’ it continues before listing the poll options.

Presley’s communications director Michael Breyer told Fox News Digital, ‘This is a lie and a desperate attempt from Tate Reeves to distract from the fact that he is the most corrupt governor in Mississippi history.’

‘On Tate Reeves’ watch, $77 million was stolen and diverted from working families to Tate Reeves’ celebrity athlete friends and personal trainer,’ Breyer claimed.

‘Brandon is the only candidate in this race with a plan to declare war on corruption on day one, while Tate Reeves’ campaign continues to be funded by central figures in the largest public corruption scandal in state history,’ he continued.

The Mississippi Free Press found that there was no evidence Reeves had a role in the misspending of state welfare funds.

Fox News Digital’s Jessica Chasmar and Cameron Cawthorne contributed reporting.

FIRST ON FOX: Presidential candidate Tim Scott is the latest GOP hopeful to vow support for the party’s eventual nominee by signing the ‘Beat Biden’ pledge, a document the Republican National Committee (RNC) is requiring candidates to sign in order to participate in party-sanctioned debates.

The senator from South Carolina joined the likes of his state’s former governor Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis by committing to the pledge. 

Their signatures allow them to officially qualify for the first Republican presidential primary debate slated to be held later this month in Milwaukee.

‘I look forward to sharing my positive, optimistic message on the GOP Debate stage in Milwaukee. Republicans are ready for conservative leadership with a backbone, one that will crush the cartels, stand up to China, and protect the America we all love,’ Scott said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

His signed pledge, dated Wednesday, Aug. 9, reads as follows:

‘I, Tim Scott, affirm that I agree to appear in only Primary and General Election debates that have been sanctioned by the Republican National Committee, pursuant to Rule 10(a)(11) of The Rules of the Republican Party. I acknowledge and accept that if I fail to sign this pledge or if I participate in any debate that has not been sanctioned by the Republican National Committee, I will not be eligible to participate in any further Republican National Committee sanctioned debates.

‘Additionally, I affirm that if I do not win the 2024 Republican nomination for President of the United States, I will honor the will of the primary voters and support the nominee in order to save our country and beat Joe Biden.

‘I further pledge that I will not seek to run as an independent or write-in candidate nor will I seek or accept the nomination for president of any other party.’

During a Wednesday appearance on ‘Fox & Friends,’ Scott told Brian Kilmeade he would ‘absolutely’ support whoever becomes the Republican nominee for president if it isn’t himself.

‘I will be the nominee and I certainly will support myself, but no matter who the nominee is, I’ve already committed to supporting our nominee without any question. But I’m gonna continue to work hard to prove that America can do for anyone what she’s done for me,’ he stated. 

Republican candidates wanting to participate in RNC-sanctioned debates ahead of the 2024 presidential election must sign the ‘Beat Biden’ pledge, as required by RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. The new rule flies in the face of an earlier comment made by former President Donald Trump suggesting that he may not support the eventual GOP nominee.

The pledge makes candidates commit to appearing only in debates sanctioned by the RNC. If they do not sign the pledge, or if they choose to participate in an unapproved debate, they will not be allowed to participate in RNC-sanctioned debates going forward.

In addition to the pledge, candidates wanting to qualify for the debate must also reach 1% in three national polls, or 1% in two national polls and two state-specific polls from the early voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. The polls must also be recognized by the RNC and must be conducted on or after July 1.

Additionally, to reach the debate stage, candidates must have 40,000 unique donors to their campaign committee (or exploratory committee), with ‘at least 200 unique donors per state or territory in 20+ states and/or territories,’ according to the RNC criteria.

It’s unclear if Trump, who stated Thursday he will not be signing the ‘Beat Biden’ pledge, will end up attending the upcoming debate despite being the GOP frontrunner and meeting the RNC’s fundraising requirements.

When asked about the former president potentially joining the qualifying candidates on stage in Milwaukee, Scott said he hopes to see him there, but his debate strategy isn’t dependent on Trump’s participation.

‘He’s a strong debater without any question. It will be entertaining without any question, but the American people deserve to see every single one of us that qualifies for the debate stage on that stage talking about our vision for America and how our presidency would change the tide away from this terrible, disastrous presidency of President Biden,’ Scott explained.

The first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle will air on Fox News at 9 p.m. ET on Aug. 23. Rumble is the online live-streaming partner and Young America’s Foundation is also a partner in the first debate.

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

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Hunter Biden’s longtime business partner who is likely to know more about the Biden family’s business dealings than Devon Archer was instrumental in the first son expanding his enterprise in China.

Following Devon Archer’s bombshell congressional interview last week alleging President Biden’s involvement with his son’s business dealings, a new light is being cast on Eric Schwerin, who was a founding partner and managing director of Hunter’s now-dissolved firm Rosemont Seneca Partners.

Schwerin was at Rosemont Seneca when he was appointed by then-President Obama to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, an independent U.S. government agency, in early 2015.

‘Eric asked for one of these the day after the election in 2008,’ Hunter revealed about Schwerin’s appointment in an email on March 13, 2015. Schwerin was reappointed to the commission in January 2017.

Schwerin, who visited the White House and vice presidential residence at least 36 times during the Obama-Biden administration, was deeply connected with the Biden family and ‘managed almost every aspect of our financial life,’ according to Hunter’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, who was married to the president’s son from 1993 to 2017.

Hunter acknowledged that Schwerin was a ‘close confidant and counsel’ to his father in a February 2014 email and frequently talked about their finances in emails.

‘If Devon Archer was the sort of business guy, the deal guy in how you structure this, Eric Schwerin was the money guy,’ Peter Schweizer, the president of Government Accountability Institute and an expert on Hunter’s business dealings, told ‘Sunday Morning Futures’ host Maria Bartiromo on Sunday.

As recently as March 2017, Rosemont Seneca Advisors, where Schwerin served as president, held a stake in a company run by a Chinese executive with ties to officials at some of the highest levels of the Communist Party of China (CCP), FOX Business previously reported.

Schwerin sent Hunter an email in March 2017 breaking down the ownership interests of Rosemont Seneca Advisors, which included a 5% stake in Harves Amusement Parks and ownership in Harves Sports and Entertainment.

Fox News Digital has extensively reported on the CCP ties of the parent company, Harves Century Group, and its affiliates, which have backing from the state-owned China Development Bank.

Bo Zhang, the founder and CEO of Harves Investment Group, among other U.S. based Harves affiliates, was being ‘groomed to take over his family’s dynasty’ in China, according to an email that top former Biden aide Francis ‘Fran’ Person wrote to Hunter in 2015.

Multiple emails reviewed by FOX Business showed that Schwerin and Hunter met with Person and Zhang in Washington, D.C., on multiple occasions and emailed back and forth, coordinating potential Harves-related business deals.

One of the emails was from Schwerin to Zhang, Biden, Person, an assistant and Tara Greco, a former director of communications for the union that represents NBA players. The April 2016 email, which was directed at Zhang, said Greco had learned that the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) had a deal with the NBA to ‘build NBA branded stadiums around China’ but said it appeared the project was ‘stalled’ after only two stadiums were built, prompting Schwerin to say, ‘If Liaoning can get one of these stadiums that would be a big help in your efforts to get more NBA related content in Liaoning.’

After listing off several questions he had for Zhang, Schwerin concluded the email by saying they could discuss when they met the following week.

In November 2020, a joint press release announced that Harves was partnering with NBA China, a company that was formed in 2008 to conduct the NBA’s business throughout China and develop NBA-themed entertainment centers. Zhang was quoted in the press release as saying, the centers ‘furthers our mission to provide best-in-class global entertainment experiences to local populations.’ In May this year, the eastern city of Suzhou is expected to open its first experience center. Zhang said, ‘We hope to grow it into a landmark project in the sports industry.’

‘As part of the partnership, Harves, plans to open six NBA-themed entertainment centers across China, with the first opening by 2022,’ the press release said. ‘These entertainment centers will bring together fans and families to experience the excitement of the NBA through a variety of new activities and offerings, including cutting-edge, interactive digital games, NBA-themed dining and more.’

In 2015, Schwerin introduced Hunter to CEFC China Energy, a Chinese energy company based in Shanghai.

On Oct. 6, 2015, Schwerin sent an email to Hunter and Archer saying he met with a CEFC representative and was working on setting up a meeting.

‘Talked to Scott Oh today. He represents the Chinese conglomerate, CEFC China Energy,’ Schwerin wrote. ‘It is a $35 Billion company and among the 10 largest private companies in China. They are looking to move some of their assets to the U.S. and are looking for an asset manager to invest with.’

‘They are coming to D.C. the last week of October and would like to meet. I am giving them some dates that would work,’ he said. 

At the time, the CCP-connected Ye Jianming was the CEFC’s chairman. Fox News Digital previously reported that in 2012 Hunter extended ‘best wishes from the entire Biden family’ to Jianming and urged him to ‘quickly’ send a $10 million wire to ‘properly fund and operate’ their joint venture, which was never completed.

Hunter and possibly Schwerin met with Jianming and Oh on Dec. 7, 2015. Days later, Hunter and Schwerin held a call with the CEFC and World Food Program USA founder Rick Leach, presumably about a donation that Hunter and Schwerin helped facilitate from CEFC to the WFP USA, where Hunter Biden served as the board’s chairman, according to emails.

During that same year, Schwerin was on several emails related to a movie venture opportunity for Hunter, business associate Jimmy Bulger and George Hsieh, a pro-China lawmaker in Taiwan who would leave government to open up a movie production company. Schwerin was involved in multiple conversations with Bulger and Hsieh and would then go back to Hunter to relay their conversations.

In September 2015, Schwerin emailed Hunter letting him know he held a phone call with Bulger and Hsieh and that Hsieh proposed Biden and Bulger become movie producers for his company for a total of $1 million over the course of three years. Schwerin said Hsieh was also pushing for Biden and Bulger to meet with potential investors in China, which wouldn’t occur until September 2016.

Other emails show that Bulger was in conversations with Hsieh, and he wanted Hunter to meet Alibaba Group co-founder Jack Ma and other Alibaba executives after a few people went to Hsieh requesting help doing a biopic film on the life of Jack Ma.

Alibaba, a Chinese firm that reportedly helped create surveillance technology used against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, is one of China’s largest technology firms that actively works to advance the interests of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The technologies that Alibaba helped produce have also been used for government surveillance and to ‘reeducate’ Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, according to a congressional report in June 2020.

In September 2016, Schwerin sent an itinerary to Hunter Biden for an upcoming China trip looking for investors for their movie venture. The list of Chinese business leaders they were scheduled to visit had multiple CCP ties.

In 2014, Schwerin discussed with Hunter a business proposal by CITIC, a Chinese state-owned company.

‘They’d like an introduction to Universal (Comcast) as they’d like to open a Universal Studios China theme park outside of Beijing,’ Schwerin said of CITIC, adding that the company would ‘like to pay us for our help.’

It’s not clear what came of the proposal, but according to internet archives on the Wayback Machine from 2011, CITIC was listed in the ‘Alliances/Clients’ section of the website for Thornton Group, James Bulger’s firm that later partnered with Rosemont Seneca to form Rosemont Seneca Thornton.

In 2013, Hunter’s and Bulger’s firms secured their partnership with Li’s firm Bohai Capital in order to launch Bohai Harvest RST (BHR), which is controlled by the state-owned Bank of China Limited.

In December 2013, then-Vice President Biden traveled to Beijing due to a scheduled meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. 

Hunter expressed interest in joining his father on the trip and ended up going, where he admitted to the New Yorker that he introduced his father to Li.

According to the report, Hunter arranged for a brief handshake in the lobby of the hotel where the U.S. delegation was staying and then Hunter met up with Li privately.

However, Archer revealed to the House Oversight and Accountability Committee in a closed-door interview last week that Biden, as vice president, also had coffee with Li during his Beijing trip.

Schwerin organized a lunch with Hunter, Li and the Buccini brothers on Feb. 9, 2017, according to emails.

Days later, Schwerin sent Li a college letter of recommendation that Biden had written for his son, Christopher.

‘Hunter asked me to send you a copy of the recommendation letter that he asked his father to write on behalf of Christopher for Brown University,’ Schwerin wrote Li on Feb. 20, 2017. ‘The original is being FedExed to Dr. Paxson directly at Brown. It should be there by Tuesday at the latest (given Monday is a holiday here in the U.S.).’

‘It is just great!’ Li replied. ‘Thank you very much! And Hunter, thank you very much too.’

About the same time, Schwerin was also trying to arrange a meeting between Li and Nick Rohatyn, a Biden donor and then-client of Rosemont Seneca.

‘It was good to see you the other day at the White House,’ Hunter wrote Rohatyn in an email drafted by Schwerin. ‘I wanted to see if you or someone on your team wanted to meet with Jonathan Li, the CEO of BHR Partners, a Chinese cross border private equity fund that Rosemont Seneca helped found and of which we are a shareholder.’

‘Happy to connect with Jonathan Li when he is here,’ Rohatyn responded. ‘Copying my assistant Caroline to coordinate.

From May 2015 to February 2016, Schwerin was also part of talks between Harves and SeaWorld on potentially launching a theme park in Shanghai, and he helped arrange meetings between Harves and SeaWorld in China and Orlando, according to emails, though the deal was never realized.

Fox News Digital reported in September that Schwerin and Hunter were also instrumental in helping a Rosemont Seneca client and Democrat donor secure an event at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., after networking with one of the top officials at the embassy during a January 2011 luncheon hosted by then-Vice President Biden.

Schwerin did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

The Biden administration is requesting Congress spend six times more on supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia than on the border and fentanyl crisis plaguing the nation, according to a new emergency spending request submitted Thursday.

In the request sent to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Biden specifically called for $24 billion in aide to Ukraine, split between $13 billion for defense related spending, and $11 billion in economic and humanitarian assistance.

But Biden only requested $4 billion in spending on the border and immigration, as well as combating fentanyl flowing into the United States from foreign origins. The total combined amount of the request reached roughly $40 billion.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and the Department of Homeland Security for comment.

The additional spending request comes after Congress approved $48 billion in funding for Ukraine in December, prior to Republicans taking control of the House of Representatives.

Approval of the funding is expected to be an uphill battle in the House, where McCarthy has promised he would not bring a supplemental Ukraine funding bill to the floor. Many conservatives have been vocally opposed to giving Ukraine more money without more accountability.

Last month, 70 House Republicans voted for an amendment in the annual defense bill that would cut off all funding to Ukraine. It ultimately failed.

The request also comes as mass illegal crossings have continued to surge on Texas’ border with Mexico, with all sectors either at overcapacity or about to hit the maximum number of immigrants they can hold.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection source told Fox News on Thursday that there are currently 19,400 migrants in Border Patrol custody, nationwide.

Fox News Elizabeth Elkind, Bill Melugin and Greg Wehner contributed to this report.

Lawyers for Pentagon leak suspect Jack Teixeira on Thursday filed a motion pushing for their client’s release from jail while he awaits trial. 

The memorandum comes in response to a 20-page court filing from the government last week which argued that Teixeira is a risk to national security, poses a physical danger to the community and should not be released from custody. 

Thursday’s 14-page reply from Teixeira’s defense attorney was filed in support of appealing the magistrate judge’s ruling in May that Teixeira must remain behind bars while the case plays out. The judge found that releasing Teixeira would pose a risk that he would attempt to flee the country or obstruct justice. 

Teixeira challenged the judge’s decision last month, pointing to the pretrial release of former President Donald Trump and others charged in high-profile classified documents cases. 

In Thursday’s court filing, Teixeira’s defense team argued the government is ‘attempting to justify pretrial detention on dangerous grounds’ and that ‘The Court should reject the government’s thin attempt to trojan horse an argument.’ 

The defense argued that the government ‘should vacate the Magistrate’s Order on Detention and order that Mr. Teixeira be released subject to the least restrictive conditions it finds appropriate.’  

Teixeira, a 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guard member, has been behind bars since April on charges that he shared classified military documents about Russia’s war in Ukraine and other sensitive national security topics on Discord, a social media platform popular with people playing online games.

Authorities say Teixeira, who enlisted in the Air National Guard in 2019, began around January sharing military secrets with other Discord users — first by typing out classified documents and then sharing photographs of files that bore SECRET and TOP SECRET markings. Teixeira worked as a ‘cyber transport systems specialist,’ essentially an IT specialist responsible for military communications networks.

Authorities have provided few details about an alleged possible motive, but accounts of those in the online private chat group where the documents were disclosed have depicted Teixeira as motivated more by bravado than ideology.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

President Biden bragged Thursday that all of his grandchildren enjoy Secret Service protection, but the White House has yet to clarify whether that includes his estranged grandchild via Hunter Biden.

Biden only recently acknowledged 4-year-old Navy Joan Roberts, whose mother is engaged in a child support case against Hunter. 

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for clarification from Fox News Digital.

‘Years ago, when John Kerry was the nominee for president for the Democratic Party, he talked with me about the possibility of being vice president,’ Biden said. ‘I said no. I didn’t want to be vice president.

‘But had I known that, as vice president, I get Secret Service, and had I known that meant my daughters get Secret Service and my granddaughters, I would’ve fought even harder for him at the time.

‘Now, I have a bunch of grandchildren, and they all have Secret Service. My daughter has Secret Service, and It’s just wonderful. I’m not sure what they think about it, but it’s just wonderful.’

Biden made the statement during a speech marking the one-year anniversary of the passage of the PACT Act, which relates to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Conservative legal group Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit in late July seeking records relating to any Secret Service protection for Roberts. The lawsuit comes after the Secret Service responded to a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act request in May by stating that no responsive records had been located.

‘For security reasons we do not comment specifically on who may receive Secret Service protection,’ Secret Service communications chief Anthony Guglielmi told Fox News Digital in a statement Thursday.

Biden only recently acknowledged his estranged granddaughter, having previously referred only to his ‘six’ grandchildren that he has through his children’s marriages. Roberts was born through Hunter’s extramarital relationship with Lunden Alexis Roberts.

‘Our son Hunter and Navy’s mother, Lunden, are working together to foster a relationship that is in the best interests of their daughter, preserving her privacy as much as possible going forward,’ Biden said July 28 in a statement to Fox News Digital.

‘This is not a political issue, it’s a family matter,’ he added. ‘Jill and I only want what is best for all of our grandchildren, including Navy.’

In June, Hunter settled his Arkansas child support case with Roberts’ mother, ending a yearslong paternity dispute. 

A court filing showed Hunter agreed to give his daughter some of his paintings, and the mother of the child agreed to withdraw her counterclaim to change their child’s last name to ‘Biden.’