Pressure Grows in Congress to Determine If Bidens Got Defensive Intel Briefing on China Deal

The FBI conducted FISA surveillance on one of Hunter Biden’s Chinese business partners while other federal prosecutors secured evidence that a second Chinese associate of the first family was present when foreign bribery payments were made. And a major bank reported to the U.S. Treasury Department that in 2017 a $5 million loan the Bidens got from a Chinese energy company smacked of a Beijing influence operation targeting Joe Biden before he was president.

A fast-growing body of evidence from bank transactions to court transcripts is putting pressure on Congress to resolve an important question: Did Joe Biden or any of his family members get a defensive briefing from U.S. intelligence that some of their foreign business partners had unsavory ties or were engaged in criminal behavior?

Read the full story

U.S. Treasury Dept. Announces Sanctions on Mexican Migrant-Trafficking Gang

The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday announced sanctions against a migrant-trafficking gang based in Mexico that has operated since at least 2018. 

The Hernandez Salas organization, based in the border city of Mexicali, Mexico, across the border from Calexico, California, has organized travel for countless migrants seeking to cross into the United States, the Treasury Dept. said in a statement. 

Read the full story

Congress Considers Bill to Expose Russian, Chinese Funding of American Groups

Newly introduced legislation would require think tanks and nonprofits to reveal whether they have significant funding from governments and political groups in Russia and China.

U.S. Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Texas, introduced the “Think Tank and Nonprofit Foreign Influence Disclosure Act” Thursday, which would require nonprofits and think tanks to disclose foreign donations over $50,000. The bill would require the U.S. Treasury Department to create a “publicly available in a searchable database information relating to such gifts and contributions received from foreign governments and political parties…”

Read the full story