Hunter Biden told his longtime friend and business partner, Devon Archer, that they would get the ‘last laugh’ after Archer said a judge threw out his conviction, according to 2018 text messages reviewed by Fox News Digital.

Archer, who is set to appear before the House Oversight Committee on Monday and is reportedly preparing to tell lawmakers about President Biden’s interactions with dozens of Hunter’s business associates while he was vice president, informed Hunter Biden in a November 2018 text message that the ‘judge threw out my conviction today.’

‘Thank f—ing god! First good news in way too long my friend. I am so happy for you. I know its (sic) been a living hell but put it behind you now and take great steps forward,’ Hunter replied.

‘Love you brother,’ Archer said.

Hunter, son of President Biden, then appeared to refer to the Department of Justice as ‘motherf—ers’ and said he and Archer will ‘have the last laugh.’

‘I swear to god we’ll have the last laugh,’ Hunter said.

‘I know. And I mean it. Can I please come see you now that I’m not a felon!?!’ Archer said. ‘Don’t answer that. Just when and where?’

Hunter joked that he liked Archer ‘better as a felon’ and that he was in Newburyport, Massachusetts, for the next week but to call him.

U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams in Manhattan ruled on that day that evidence that was presented earlier that year against Archer did not show that he ‘knew that the bond issue was fraudulent, or that he received any personal benefit from it,’ according to Reuters. 

Abrams added that she was ‘left with an unwavering concern that Archer is innocent of the crimes charged.’

The 2018 text exchange and thousands of emails exchanged between Hunter Biden, Archer and dozens of business associates over the course of a decade will be front and center as Archer goes before the House Oversight Committee to testify behind closed-doors on his business dealings with Hunter, and reportedly about explosive allegations about the elder Biden joining his son on business calls and meeting with his business associates.

‘Devon Archer believes strongly in the rule of law and the democratic system, and is prepared to answer the Committee’s questions just as he has already answered similar questions from a federal grand jury, the Department of Justice, and several other government agencies in their investigations concerning the Biden family,’ Archer’s attorney, Matthew Schwartz, said this past week in a statement.

Archer’s intimate knowledge of the business arrangements comes after years of working closely with Hunter, including on the board of Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings with him, beginning in 2014.

He also co-founded investment firm Rosemont Seneca Partners alongside the president’s son and U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry’s stepson, Christopher Heinz. Archer served as managing director.

Archer co-founded BHR Partners in 2013 – a joint-venture between Rosemont Seneca Partners and Chinese investment firm Bohai Capital. BHR Partners is a Beijing-backed private equity firm controlled by Bank of China Limited.

Months after Hunter and Archer joined the Burisma board, Hunter expressed gratitude for Archer’s friendship in an unprompted email.

‘Just wanted to let you know- at the risk of sounding melodramatic- how much I love you. You have been a great friend through thick and thin, and I wanted to make sure you know how much I appreciate it,’ Hunter said to Archer. ‘I know I haven’t made it easy being my partner at times, but more than anyone outside my brother you have been there for me. And don’t worry I’m not planning on jumping off [a] bridge or anything- just thought I should let you know how much your friendship means to me. Love, H.’

‘Thank you my brother! I genuinely appreciate that and I’m really excited about what’s ahead for us and our families and very happy to being doing it with you,’ Archer replied.

In April, Fox News Digital reported that at least four business partners, a vice president and two assistants at Rosemont Seneca Partners visited the White House more than 80 times when Biden was vice president, including Archer.

Archer visited Joe Biden at least twice in 2009 and 2014 during his vice presidency. The December 2009 visit was a holiday reception at Biden’s vice presidential residence, and the April 2014 visit was with Biden in the West Wing.

Archer also played golf with Biden and Hunter at least once during the Obama administration in August 2014 in the Hamptons, four months after Hunter and Archer joined the board of Burisma Holdings. A few days after Biden returned from the infamous December 2015 Ukraine trip, Archer also attended Biden’s holiday party at Biden’s vice presidential residence along with Hunter, his longtime business partner, Eric Schwerim, and Sebastian Momtazi, who also had a Burisma.com email address.

Fox News Digital previously reported that Biden met at least 14 of Hunter’s business associates while he was vice president.

Archer is facing legal issues of his own. Despite his conviction being thrown out in 2018, it was reinstated by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals a month before the 2020 election, and he was sentenced to a year and a day prison last February.

He is expected to report to prison soon for his role in defrauding a Native American tribal entity and various investment advisory clients of tens of millions of dollars in connection with the issuance of bonds by the tribal entity and the subsequent sale of those bonds through ‘fraudulent and deceptive means,’ according to the Department of Justice. He was convicted last February, but his sentence has been postponed by a series of appeals.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York on Saturday wrote to Abrams, requesting her to schedule a date for Archer to report to prison. However, a DOJ letter says Archer’s counsel argued it was ‘premature’ to set a sentencing date, citing Archer mulling over further appeals.

Attorneys for Hunter Biden and Archer did not respond to Fox News Digital inquiries.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman and Jessica Chasmar contributed reporting.

RYE, N.H. – A seemingly more aggressive Gov. Ron DeSantis appears to be stepping up his criticism of 2024 rival Donald Trump for what he charges was the former president’s failure to deliver on campaign promises during his four years in the White House.

But DeSantis, who’s seen Trump’s double-digit lead over him expand in the two months since the conservative governor from Florida launched his GOP presidential nomination campaign, says he won’t match Trump insult for insult by taking part in ‘name-calling’ on the campaign trail.

‘I don’t like the name-calling. I don’t do it. I don’t think it’s effective, and I think it turns off a lot of voters,’ DeSantis said in a one-on-one interview with Fox News Digital on Sunday in New Hampshire, the state that holds the first primary and second overall contest in the Republican presidential nominating calendar.

DeSantis is halfway through a jam-packed four-day swing through New Hampshire, which directly followed three busy days on the campaign trail in Iowa, whose caucuses lead of the GOP schedule. 

DeSantis is aiming to rebound and change the narrative in the wake of staffing layoffs by his campaign last week in a move by top officials to ‘streamline’ the governor’s 2024 White House bid.

In his Fox News interview, in a gaggle with reporters, and taking questions from the crowd as he headlined the latest edition of former Republican Sen. Scott Brown’s No BS Backyard BBQ series with the GOP presidential contenders, DeSantis charged that Trump didn’t get ‘the job done.’

‘We will make sure of course that the differences between the two of us are aired out in terms of being willing to follow through on the promises and actually get the job done, which I’ve done in Florida across the board,’ DeSantis emphasized.

And he argued that Trump ‘has made promises – draining the swamp. Having Mexico build the border wall. Locking Hillary [Clinton] up and eliminating the debt. He did not follow through on those promises. That’s just the reality.’

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung, responding, charged in a statement to Fox News that ‘Ron DeSantis is nothing more than an off-brand, bootleg version of America First. No mater how much time he spends cosplaying as President Trump, he will never be him or achieve a hundredth of what was achieved during the Trump Administration. Ron DeSantis should pack his knapsack and hitchhike his way back home to focus on the serious issues facing the great state of Florida.’

Trump started unloading on DeSantis months before the Florida governor launched his presidential campaign in May.

On Friday at a major state Republican Party dinner in Iowa, Trump told GOP voters ‘not to take a chance’ on DeSantis – who’s a distant second to Trump in the polls. Trump continued to jab at the governor with derogatory nicknames a day later, at a Saturday night rally in Erie, Pennsylvania.

Pushing back, the DeSantis campaign on Sunday morning spotlighted a new report that indicated that a Trump political committee had spent more than $40 million on legal fees, as the former president faces multiple indictments.

DeSantis’ communications director Andrew Romeo argued that Trump’s spent tens of millions of dollars ‘falsely attacking Ron DeSantis and paying his own legal fees, not a cent on defeating Joe Biden.’

Asked for his reaction to the report on Trump’s legal fees, DeSantis told Fox News ‘I think people can make their own judgments about that.’

But he quickly spotlighted that ‘we also pointed out that his other big expenditure since going back to last year was spending almost $25 million to attack me. And he was attacking me even before I was a candidate for president. I was down in Tallahassee doing all this great stuff for the people of Florida.’

DeSantis emphasized ‘I just think we should be focusing our resources on beating the Democrats and on beating Joe Biden and that goes with all of this stuff.’

The governor reiterated that he thinks Trump’s ‘name-calling and stuff – I think is juvenile. It’s not something I’m going to be involved in. I’m a guy about substance.’

‘I’m a guy about getting the job done. So we’ve been very clear when people have asked about substantive attacks that he’s launched on policy, where we may disagree,’ DeSantis said. 

And pointing to Trump’s growing legal controversies, DeSantis highlighted that ‘you’re not going to be able to bring the administrative state to heal, to slay the deep state, to do all this, if you have distractions. If you’re not focused. You’ve got to go in there, guns blazing, spitting nails. But man, you’ve going to be focused on the task at hand and I will do that we will get the job done.’

DeSantis argued that the attacks he’s facing from Trump and his other rivals in the large field of GOP presidential candidates shows that he’s a threat.

‘If you were up by so much, you would not be worried about anybody else,’ DeSantis said. ‘So I think the fact that I’m taking the incoming from all of these people, not just him, but a lot of the other candidates, a lot of the media, that shows people know that I’m a threat. They know what was going on in the ground in Iowa the last couple of weeks when we’ve had these functions. Everybody’s seen that.’

Trump’s the commanding front-runner in the latest GOP presidential nomination polls nationally and in the key early voting states, but DeSantis disagrees with suggestions the former president has a lock on the Republican primary electorate.

‘I don’t think he has a strong hold on the majority. I think he’s got a stronghold on some,’ the governor said as he answered a question from a GOP voter. ‘But I think the vast majority of Republican primary voters are either definitely going to vote for someone else or are willing to if you make the case. And with me, I think I’m the candidate that’s more likely to beat Biden. I’m more reliable on policy. ‘

DeSantis is expected to spotlight his policy differences with Trump when he rolls out his economic policy in a Monday speech in New Hampshire that was first reported last week by Fox News.

While DeSantis appears to be picking up the pace in the frequency of his jabs at Trump, they still pale in comparison to the attacks on former president by some of the lower tier contenders for the nomination – such as former Govs. Chris Christie of New Jersey and Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, and former Rep. Will Hurd of Texas.

Trump has not committed to taking the stage at next month’s first presidential debate, a Fox News hosted showdown on August 23 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

DeSantis told Fox News that ‘You’ve got to earn this nomination. People should show up. They should make the case. They should answer the questions, and then they should show Republican votes why they should be the nominee. And that’s what I’ll be doing.’

Asked if Trump’s participation or lack of participation in the debate will affect his gameplan, DeSantis said ‘we will be prepared for all eventualities. I mean clearly if here’s there it will add a different dynamic than if he’s not. But we’ll be ready either way. We’re looking forward to doing it. I think it’s a good part of the process.’

Rep. John James, R-Mich., wants to prevent members of Congress from getting their paychecks if they don’t do the work needed to keep the government open.

The House of Representatives will be out for six weeks and return on Sept. 12, giving them just a few weeks to pass spending bills for the next fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. A partial government shutdown could happen if no agreement is reached between the House and Senate by then.

‘If politicians don’t work, politicians don’t get paid,’ James told Fox News Digital when explaining his Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is Act. ‘Where I’m from, Michigan’s 10th Congressional District, the number one manufacturing district in the nation, if you don’t work, you don’t get paid. And the same should go for D.C. politicians.’

His bill would exclude members of both chambers from the payroll during pay periods that land during a government shutdown. It’s designed to take effect in the event any part of the government shuts down due to a failure in the appropriations process.

James argued there was a disparity in work expectations for different groups, and said half of his district was ‘working poor’ and a quarter lived below the poverty line.

‘And now you have politicians who are making over $175,000 a year to shut down the government and hurt people back home. That’s not acceptable. There needs to be accountability,’ he said.

Asked about the reaction from House GOP colleagues, James said it was mixed.

‘There’s a little bit of excitement, a little bit of frankly, hesitance, because it’s something new… it’s something new that people will come and hold each other accountable. But that’s what we need,’ he said.

His legislation was introduced against the backdrop of a tense standoff over government spending in Congress. Conservative House members are pushing their conference’s thin majority to make further cuts, while Senate Democrats have already said they will refuse to consider any spending bills below the level agreed to by Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and President Biden.

James would not say directly if he believed there would be a shutdown, but said, ‘I’m confident that we’re going to come together… But we need to absolutely make sure that we keep services going for the American people who are counting on us to do our job.’

‘We’re going to do everything we possibly can to avoid a shutdown. And if this bill helps motivate some people then so be it,’ he said.

At least five House Republicans have called on lawmakers — who are currently enjoying a legislative recess — to return to Capitol Hill after the Department of Justice asked Hunter Biden’s business partner Devon Archer to surrender to prison. The request came over the weekend before Archer was scheduled to testify to the committee Monday on the Biden family, Hunter’s business dealings and the alleged role of his father, President Biden, in securing these deals.

Reps. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.; Mike Johnson, R-La.; Chip Roy, R-Texas; Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo.; and Dan Bishop, R-N.C., each said on social media Sunday that lawmakers should return to Washington, D.C. for an emergency hearing to discuss potential DOJ interference in the committee’s investigation into President Biden and Hunter Biden. 

‘The DOJ is now actively committing the crime of obstructing a congressional investigation,’ Gaetz wrote. ‘If Devon Archer isn’t in the witness chair Monday, we better haul every SOB at the DOJ before congress EVERY DAY to make them pay for this.’

Gaetz said that if Archer is not in the witness chair for his testimony on Monday, Attorney General Merrick Garland will be called to testify. 

In another post, Gaetz said the DOJ’s request for Archer’s surrender is ‘all because Hunter’s problems and Joe’s problems merge with the testimony of Devon Archer.’

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York sent a letter to Archer on Saturday requesting he surrenders to prison concerning his 2018 felony convictions for his role in a conspiracy to defraud a Native American tribe. He was sentenced in 2022 to one year behind bars, but the sentence has been repeatedly postponed over a series of appeals.

Johnson, Roy, and the others swiftly expressed support for Gaetz.

‘I will join you back on the Hill, Rep. Matt Gaetz,’ Johnson tweeted. Roy agreed.

‘Make that four,’ Hageman added. ‘While I plan to be in Wyoming visiting constituents- this is imperative and warrants immediate action. I will also join.’

Bishop added: ‘I think you need five. Count me in.’

‘Subpoenas should fly tomorrow,’ he also wrote.

The Republicans are each on the House Judiciary Committee.

The letter did not specifically demand Archer go to prison before he testified Monday, but to set a date to begin his jail sentence.

‘In light of the foregoing, the Government respectfully requests that the defendant be ordered to surrender, at a date and time determined by the Court, to a facility designated by the Bureau of Prisons to commence his term of imprisonment,’ it reads.

The court is not expected to make a decision before Archer will meet behind closed doors with the House Oversight Committee. The U.S. Attorney’s Office acknowledged Archer is not expected to surrender before his meeting with congressional lawmakers in a follow-up letter.

‘To be clear, the Government does not request (and has never requested) that the defendant surrender before his Congressional testimony,’ the letter sent on Sunday reads. ‘As the Court knows, to surrender and commence his sentence of imprisonment, the defendant first must be designated to a federal facility by the Bureau of Prisons—a process that can take several weeks or months after the Court sets a surrender date.’

Archer’s attorney also said that his client will move forward with his planned appearance Monday, and pushed back on the idea that the DOJ’s request for Archer’s surrender is an attempt to prevent him from meeting with House members.

‘We are aware of speculation that the Department of Justice’s weekend request to have Mr. Archer report to prison is an attempt by the Biden administration to intimidate him in advance of his meeting with the House Oversight Committee,’ Archer’s attorney Matthew Schwartz said in a statement to POLITICO. ‘To be clear, Mr. Archer does not agree with that speculation. In any case, Mr. Archer will do what he has planned to do all along, which is to show up on Monday and to honestly answer the questions that are put to him by the Congressional investigators.’

Oversight Chair James Comer, R-Ky., said during an interview on Fox News’ ‘Sunday Morning Futures’ that the timing of Saturday’s letter was ‘odd.’

Archer’s testimony before the House Oversight Committee is expected to begin at 9 a.m. Monday, July 31.

–>

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has announced an ‘official criminal referral’ to the Department of Justice with regard to Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Paul pointed to an email from February 2020 in which Fauci detailed a call with British medical researcher Jeremy Farrar, who was director of the Wellcome Trust at the time. According to Fauci, those on the task-force call, including Francis Collins, former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, and other ‘highly credible’ scientists with expertise in evolutionary biology, expressed concern about the ‘fact upon viewing the sequences of several isolates of the nCoV, there were mutations in the virus that would be most unusual to have evolved naturally in the bats and that there was a suspicion that this mutation was intentionally inserted.’

‘The suspicion was heightened by the fact that scientists in Wuhan University are known to have been working on gain-of-function experiments to determine the molecular mechanisms associated with bat viruses adapting to human infection, and the outbreak originated in Wuhan,’ Fauci wrote, according to a screenshot of the newly unredacted email shared by RealClearPolitics White House reporter Philip Wegmann. 

‘This directly contradicts everything he said in committee hearing to me, denying absolutely that they funded any gain of function, and it’s absolutely a lie. That’s why I sent an official criminal referral to the DOJ,’ Paul wrote on ‘X,’ formerly known as Twitter, on Saturday.

In July 2021, Paul reminded Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and medical adviser to the president, that lying to Congress is a federal crime, suggesting that the NIAID director had done so with regard to COVID-19 gain-of-function research conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.

During a heated exchange, Fauci insisted he had ‘never lied before Congress’ during prior testimony in May, telling Paul that ‘you don’t know what you’re talking about.’ Fauci further denied that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded gain-of-function research, despite Paul citing a journal article titled ‘Discovery of a rich gene pool of bat SARS-related coronaviruses.’

Paul, who graduated from Duke University School of Medicine and was a practicing doctor before being elected to Congress, noted how the paper’s author credits the NIH and lists the actual number of the grant given by the NIH. The author took two bat coronavirus spike genes and combined them with SARs-related backbone to create new viruses that are not found in nature, and the lab-created viruses were then shown to replicate in humans, Paul said during the July congressional hearing.

‘Viruses that in nature only infect animals were manipulated in the Wuhan lab to gain the function of infecting humans,’ he said. 

Fauci said the paper to which Paul referred ‘was judged by qualified staff up and down the chain as not being gain of function.’

‘Let’s read from the NIH definition of ‘gain of function,” Paul said. ‘This is your definition that you guys wrote. It says that ‘scientific research that increases the transmissibility among mammals is gain of function.’ They took animal viruses that only occur in animals, and they increased their transmissibility to humans. How you can say that’s not gain of function – it’s a dance, and you’re dancing around this because you’re trying to obscure responsibility for 4 million people dying around the world from a pandemic.’

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, a 2024 Republican presidential candidate, accused the Republican National Committee of trying to keep new voices off the debate stage.

Burgum, the latest candidate to meet the RNC’s polling and fundraising thresholds for the first GOP debate on Aug. 23, made the comments during an appearance on ‘Fox News Sunday’ when addressing his controversial approach for attaining the required 40,000 unique donations.

‘These are in the clubhouse rules designed to keep fresh faces, fresh ideas, entrepreneurs and innovators off the stage because you set a limit like this and of course it favors people who’ve held national office, it favors people who have been, you know, pundits on TV, and it favors people that have been career politicians and their name recognition,’ Burgum said.

Fox News Digital reached out to the RNC but did not immediately hear back.

Burgum’s approach involved giving donors $20 gift cards for a $1 donation, something the second-term governor and former software executive has previously called a ‘completely legal’ hack. Burgum said it was a bargain compared to the ‘$100 per customer acquisition’ that consulting firms would have charged him.

The method helped secure his spot on the first Republican debate stage.

One of the Republican National Committee’s requirements is for debate participants to receive at least 40,000 individual contributions with at least 200 unique donors in 20 or more states. 

Its second qualification is that candidates either earn 1% support in three national polls, or in two national polls and two polls from two of the first four states voting in the GOP primary.

So far, the candidates qualified for the first debate are Burgum, former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

Fox News is scheduled to host the Aug. 23 showdown in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It remains to be seen if Trump will choose to participate.

Fox News’ Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.

–>

GOP presidential candidates Nikki Haley and Asa Hutchinson disagree when it comes to talking about possibly pardoning former President Donald Trump.

Haley, the former U.N. ambassador and South Carolina governor, and Hutchinson, the former governor of Arkansas, each appeared on CBS’ ‘Face the Nation,’ where they were asked about pardoning Trump should the former president be convicted on charges related to the handling of classified documents.

‘I think that one of the things we have to look at is not what’s in the best interest of the president, but what’s in the best interest of the country,’ Haley said. ‘We have to move forward.’

‘We can’t keep living with indictments and court cases and vengeance of the past,’ Haley continued. ‘We’ve got to start going forward. American people are not talking about these indictments.’

In a separate interview on the same program, Hutchinson remarked that there shouldn’t be any discussion about pardons during a presidential election.

‘You don’t put pardons out there to garner votes. That is premature,’ said the former governor, who has previously called on Trump to drop out of the race. ‘I think that anybody who discusses pardons during a presidential campaign is not serving our system of justice well, and it’s inappropriate.’

In the latest turn in the classified documents case against Trump, new criminal charges unsealed Thursday allege the former president sought to delete Mar-a-Lago surveillance footage to obstruct the Justice Department’s investigation into his handling of classified documents.

Trump on Sunday insisted that security tapes at his Mar-a-Lago club and residence in Florida were not deleted, and in fact were handed over to Special Counsel Jack Smith. 

‘Mar-a-Lago security tapes were not deleted,’ Trump wrote on TRUTH Social. ‘They were voluntarily handed over to the thugs, headed up by deranged Jack Smith. We did not even go to court to stop them from getting these tapes. I never told anybody to delete them. Prosecutorial fiction & misconduct! Election interference!’ 

‘Same as the Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX. They knowingly accuse you of a fake crime, a crime that they actually make up, you fight these false charges hard, and they try and get you on ‘obstruction.’ We are dealing with sick and evil people!’ he added in a second post. 

Fox News’ Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.

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Hunter Biden was spotted in the early hours Friday morning as he arrived at a California airport less than two days after he contradicted his father’s claims about nobody in the Biden family receiving ‘money from China.’

The first son made his first appearance in a Delaware federal court on Wednesday, pleading not guilty after Judge Maryellen Noreika rejected a proposed plea deal that was criticized by Republicans as too lenient. Less than 48 hours later he would be spotted shortly before 1 a.m. PT at the Los Angeles’ Van Nuys Airport after getting off a private jet, according to photos obtained by Fox News Digital.

One photo shows Hunter talking to a man with a New York Yankees baseball cap before later embracing him for a hug.

Other photos, which were first reported by the New York Post, show a man who got off the private jet while carrying a camera with him. It is unclear if he was filming interactions between Hunter and the other passengers. Hunter was also spotted hugging at least one other passenger before his two-SUV motorcade left the airport.

Hunter’s arrival in Los Angeles came after prosecutors said in their proposed plea agreement with him that he received $664,000 from a ‘Chinese infrastructure investment company,’ according to the official court transcript.

Hunter then confirmed to the judge that he earned $664,000 from a company he formed in 2017 with the chairman of the CCP-backed CEFC.

‘I started a company [in 2017] called Hudson West, Your Honor, and my partner was associated with a Chinese energy company called CEFC,’ Hunter said.

‘Who was your partner?’ the court asked.

‘I don’t know how to spell his name, Yi Jianming is the chairman of that company,’ Hunter responded.

‘$664,000 from a Chinese infrastructure investment company – is that one of the companies we’ve already talked about?’ the judge continued.

‘I believe so, yes, Your Honor,’ he said before adding, ‘I believe CEFC.’

Hunter’s confirmation in the courtroom that he made more than a half-million dollars from a Chinese company directly contradicted President Biden’s previous denials that his family made money in China.

‘My son has not made money in terms of this thing about, what are you talking about, China,’ then-candidate Biden told then-President Trump during an October 2020 debate.

‘The only guy who made money from China is this guy,’ Biden said at the time, referring to Trump. ‘He’s the only one. Nobody else has made money from China.’

Biden denied the allegations again this year after the House Oversight Committee said that subpoenaed financial records revealed members of the Biden family received more than $1 million in payments from accounts related to Hunter’s business associate Rob Walker and their Chinese business ventures in 2017.

‘That’s not true,’ the president said March 17.

Hunter was expected to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax counts of willful failure to pay federal income tax as part of the deal to avoid jail time on a felony gun charge. However, the court hearing got contentious when Noreika pressed federal prosecutors on the investigation and questioned whether there was the possibility for future charges, and she asked prosecutors if Hunter Biden was currently under active investigation. Prosecutors said he was but would not answer specifically why the president’s son was under investigation.

Federal prosecutor Leo Wise, however, confirmed to Noreika that the DOJ is still investigating Hunter Biden over a potential Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) violation. According to the DOJ, a willful violation of FARA could result in up to five years imprisonment and $250,000 fine or both. Hunter would end up pleading not guilty after Noreika could not accept the plea deal. 

According to the judge, Hunter must ‘actively seek employment,’ abstain from drugs or alcohol, submit to random drug testing and not possess a firearm as conditions for staying out of jail.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman, Joe Schoffstall, Jessica Chasmar and Bradford Betz contributed reporting.

A federal judge has blocked the state of Arkansas from enforcing a law that would have subjected libraries and booksellers to criminal charges if they provided ‘harmful’ materials to minors.

Judge Timothy L. Brooks for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas issued a preliminary injunction against the law, which was set to take effect Aug. 1.

Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed the measure into law earlier this year. A coalition that included the Central Arkansas Library System challenged the law, saying fear of prosecution under the measure could prompt libraries and booksellers to no longer carry titles that could be challenged.

Brooks rejected a motion by the defendants, which include prosecuting attorneys for the state, seeking to dismiss the case.

The ACLU of Arkansas, which represents some of the plaintiffs, applauded the court’s ruling and said the absence of a preliminary injunction would have jeopardized First Amendment rights.

‘The question we had to ask was – do Arkansans still legally have access to reading materials? Luckily, the judicial system has once again defended our highly valued liberties,’ Holly Dickson, the executive director of the ACLU in Arkansas, said in a statement.

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin told the Associated Press his office would be ‘reviewing the judge’s opinion and will continue to vigorously defend the law.’

The Arkansas lawsuit names the state’s 28 local prosecutors as defendants, along with Crawford County in west Arkansas. A separate lawsuit is challenging the Crawford County library’s decision to move children’s books that included LGBTQ+ themes to a separate portion of the library.

The plaintiffs challenging Arkansas’ restrictions also include the Fayetteville and Eureka Springs Carnegie public libraries, the American Booksellers Association and the Association of American Publishers.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.