International
‘Really Astonishing’: Jonathan Turley Says ‘All Of’ Hunter Biden’s Trial ‘Defenses’ Quickly ‘Collapsed’
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By JASON COHEN
George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said Thursday he was shocked by how quickly Hunter Biden’s various defenses in his gun trial have “collapsed.”
Biden’s trial began Monday and he is confronting three federal gun charges brought by Special Counsel David Weiss in September, which include providing false statements and knowingly possessing a gun while being addicted to drugs. Turley asserted on “America’s Newsroom” that the prosecution effectively countered Biden attorney Abbe Lowell’s argument that his client’s laptop, which is a key piece of evidence in the trial, is not fully authentic as well as the argument that Biden was not using drugs when he signed paperwork to purchase a gun.
“The prosecution is doing an amazingly good job in my view,” Turley said. “This is a very disciplined case. What’s really astonishing is how fast all of the defenses put forward by Abbe Lowell collapsed within 48 hours. There was a long argument that the laptop was tampered with. They put on an agent saying there’s no tampering here. This is real and authentic. They said that Hunter Biden wasn’t doing drugs when he signed that. They have a text of him the next day trying to score drugs from a guy named Mookie, and a day after that, doing drugs on the hood of a car, according to a text.”
Corporate media, Big Tech, former intelligence officials and then-candidate Joe Biden cast doubt on the laptop’s authenticity in October of 2020, but now prosecutors are using it as important evidence during the trial.
“And all these other witnesses saying ‘of course he was an addict, he was doing crack every 20 minutes when I knew him.’ They then said well, ‘maybe someone else filled out the form.’ You had Mr. Cleveland say ‘I watched him fill out the form. I told him to take his time.’ So every one of these defenses collapsed shortly after they were stated by the defense. And that leads to this question of why, why isn’t he just pleading guilty? This is an open and shut case,” Turley added.
“It’s obvious he was doing drugs and that he had signed the form falsely,” he continued. “That might keep him out of jail. It certainly would have avoided an embarrassing trial. The answer is, this is Biden town. This is a Biden who is standing trial in his hometown and this is the opposite of Manhattan. Here the jury pool could not be better for the defendant. I think the defense is using a nullification strategy.”
Prosecutors obtained messages and material from Biden’s abandoned laptop, which is now considered real despite the previous assertions before the 2020 election, showing it to the jury as evidence of the defendant’s drug use around the period of purchasing the gun in 2018, according to CNN. Criminal defense attorney Bernarda Villalona suggested Biden plead guilty on Monday, asserting Weiss’ evidence against him is “strong” and that it may be his “best” course of action to evade incarceration.
More than $2.6 million has been raised for a suburban Sydney shop owner who put himself directly in the line of fire to stop a terrorist during last Sunday’s attack at Bondi Beach, a moment of raw courage that has resonated far beyond Australia’s shores.
The GoFundMe campaign for Ahmed al Ahmed surpassed the $2.6 million mark by Sunday morning, fueled by more than 45,000 donations after video of his actions spread rapidly online. The footage shows Ahmed charging one of the attackers, tackling him to the ground, wrenching a shotgun from his hands, and turning the weapon back on the would-be killer to prevent further carnage.
Ahmed, you are an Australian hero.
You put yourself at risk to save others, running towards danger on Bondi Beach and disarming a terrorist.
In the worst of times, we see the best of Australians. And that's exactly what we saw on Sunday night.
On behalf of every Australian, I… pic.twitter.com/mAoObU3TZD
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) December 16, 2025
Ahmed, 44, is a father of two young daughters, ages five and six, and owns a small shop in suburban Sydney. His intervention came at a brutal cost. As he fought to disarm the first attacker, a second terrorist opened fire on him, shooting him multiple times in an effort to stop him from taking control of the gun. Ahmed survived, but only narrowly.
The overwhelming financial support has turned Ahmed into an unlikely national figure — not because he sought attention, but because he acted when others couldn’t. The outpouring of donations has unfolded alongside growing public anger toward Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s government, which has faced mounting criticism over its handling of rising antisemitic violence across Australia in the wake of recent terror incidents.
For many Australians, the contrast has been impossible to miss: ordinary citizens stepping up with courage and clarity while political leaders scramble after the fact. Ahmed didn’t wait for instructions or statements. He saw a threat, moved toward it, and stopped it — and millions of people around the world have now responded in kind.
Business
Some Of The Wackiest Things Featured In Rand Paul’s New Report Alleging $1,639,135,969,608 In Gov’t Waste
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul released the latest edition of his annual “Festivus” report Tuesday detailing over $1 trillion in alleged wasteful spending in the U.S. government throughout 2025.
The newly released report found an estimated $1,639,135,969,608 total in government waste over the past year. Paul, a prominent fiscal hawk who serves as the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said in a statement that “no matter how much taxpayer money Washington burns through, politicians can’t help but demand more.”
“Fiscal responsibility may not be the most crowded road, but it’s one I’ve walked year after year — and this holiday season will be no different,” Paul continued. “So, before we get to the Feats of Strength, it’s time for my Airing of (Spending) Grievances.”
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The 2025 “Festivus” report highlighted a spate of instances of wasteful spending from the federal government, including the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) spent $1.5 million on an “innovative multilevel strategy” to reduce drug use in “Latinx” communities through celebrity influencer campaigns, and also dished out $1.9 million on a “hybrid mobile phone family intervention” aiming to reduce childhood obesity among Latino families living in Los Angeles County.
The report also mentions that HHS spent more than $40 million on influencers to promote getting vaccinated against COVID-19 for racial and ethnic minority groups.
The State Department doled out $244,252 to Stand for Peace in Islamabad to produce a television cartoon series that teaches children in Pakistan how to combat climate change and also spent $1.5 million to promote American films, television shows and video games abroad, according to the report.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) spent more than $1,079,360 teaching teenage ferrets to binge drink alcohol this year, according to Paul’s report.
The report found that the National Science Foundation (NSF) shelled out $497,200 on a “Video Game Challenge” for kids. The NSF and other federal agencies also paid $14,643,280 to make monkeys play a video game in the style of the “Price Is Right,” the report states.
Paul’s 2024 “Festivus” report similarly featured several instances of wasteful federal government spending, such as a Las Vegas pickleball complex and a cabaret show on ice.
The Trump administration has been attempting to uproot wasteful government spending and reduce the federal workforce this year. The administration’s cuts have shrunk the federal workforce to the smallest level in more than a decade, according to recent economic data.
Festivus is a humorous holiday observed annually on Dec. 23, dating back to a popular 1997 episode of the sitcom “Seinfeld.” Observance of the holiday notably includes an “airing of grievances,” per the “Seinfeld” episode of its origin.
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