Hunter Biden’s legal team throws Hail Mary in an attempt to re-try his federal gun case after conviction

Attorneys for Hunter Biden are demanding a new trial for the embattled president’s son weeks after his conviction on three federal gun charges.

According to the court filing, the request for a fresh trial is over a legal technicality, not over the meat of the case.

Earlier this month, Hunter’s lawyers bizarrely filed, and then quickly deleted, a demand for a new trial after he was found guilty on charges related to lying on a form for purchasing a handgun.

The filing had made arguments on complex procedural grounds.

It stated that an appeals court ‘has not yet issued its mandate as to the orders dismissing either appeal’ related to criminal charges involving the president’s son. The filing argued that when the court empaneled a jury on June 3, ‘it was without jurisdiction to do so.’

Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, who served as White House physician under Presidents Obama and Trump, is calling on Joe Biden to take a drug test ahead of this week’s presidential debate.

According to a letter Jackson sent to Biden and his top doctor obtained by DailyMail.com, the Republican requested drug tests for the president before and after Thursday’s televised event.

‘I demand that you submit to a clinically validated drug test in order to reassure the American people that you are mentally fit to serve as President and not relying on performance enhancing drugs to help you with your debate performance or on a day-to-day basis to assist you in performing your duties as President of the United States.’

‘This drug test should be administered both immediately before and after the debate and should include, but not be limited to, performance enhancing drugs,’ Jackson continued.

Ratcheting up the pressure, Jackson specifically includes Kevin O’Connor, Biden’s main physician, in the note to the president and his entire cabinet, telling the doctor how he has a duty to the American people to complete the drug test.

‘DRUG TEST FOR CROOKED JOE BIDEN??? I WOULD, ALSO, IMMEDIATELY AGREE TO ONE!!!’ former President Donald Trump wrote in response to the letter.

A top prosecutor who has taken on some of the nation’s top political corruption cases dramatically apologized to Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon as Jack Smith’s team battled over a proposed gag order Monday.

David Harbach, who led cases against former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell issued the stunning statement inside Cannon’s courtroom Monday, in a case where Trump critics complain she has repeatedly ruled against the government.

‘I just want to apologize about earlier,” Harbach said following a contentious courtroom exchange. “I didn’t mean to be unprofessional. I’m sorry about that.”

It came after he appeared to bristle at questions from Cannon, a U.S. district judge in Florida, in response to her questions about the prosecution’s claims of threats to law enforcement personnel and Trump’s language about the FBI that fed into the government’s request to modify his terms of release.

On Monday over 100 female constituents wrote to state Rep. Ryan Mackenzie demanding an apology after DailyMail.com reported he lied about his age on his Tinder profile by nearly a decade.

Eight years into his state lawmaker career, Mackenzie was telling women on Tinder he was 29 when he was actually 37 in March 2020. He messaged at least one woman from the profile, ‘Surviving the pandemic?’

Mackenzie is now running for the U.S. House in Pennsylvania against Democrat incumbent Susan Wild.

The concerned women said Mackenzie ‘never took accountability’ for the lie, noting his campaign only told DailyMail.com that he was neither engaged nor married at the time of the profile.

‘Trolling on Tinder for younger women is one thing (we can’t help but notice that you fudged your age by nearly a decade), but doing so while you are actively serving on the Pennsylvania State Legislature is another,’ the letter read.

CNN issued a statement defending its anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash who will moderate the presidential debate.

It came after Karoline Leavitt, Donald Trumps press secretary, suggested they were ‘biased’. That led to Leavitt being taken off air during an interview with another CNN anchor Kasie Hunt.

Jake Tapper and Dana Bash are well respected veteran journalists who have covered politics for more than five decades combined.

They have extensive experience moderating major political debates, including CNN’s Republican Presidential Primary Debate this cycle. There are no two people better equipped to co-moderate a substantial and fact-based discussion and we look forward to the debate on June 27 in Atlanta.

The Ethics Committee announced Monday it had found ‘substantial reason to believe’ Texas Republican Reps. Ronny Jackson and Wesley Hunt had used campaign money for personal use – on social club dues.

Campaign finance laws do not allow lawmakers to spend campaign dollars on dues for unlimited access social or country clubs. Candidates are allowed to spend on political events at such clubs.

A separate office – Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) – had probed some $12,000 in payments Jackson’s campaign made to the Amarillo Club from 2020 to 2024. Following that investigation, the office said Jackson’s campaign changed payments like ‘Registration Fees’ to other designations like ‘Membership Fees,’ ‘Food/Beverage,’ or ‘Membership for Exclusive Campaign Purposes.’

Hunt was investigted for spending at the Oak Room, a social club in Houston. His campaign listed ‘membership’ at the club in its filings, along with a $5,412 payment for dues and fees. The Hunt campaign on November 4, 2022 paid $43,626.52 to the club for ‘Facility Rental/Catering’ that it says was for its election night watch party.

Both Hunt and Jackson refused to cooperate with the ethics probes.

A new law passed by Louisiana that forces all public classrooms to display The Ten Commandments is being challenged in court.

The challenge was filed Monday by several civil liberties groups including the ACLU.

The southern state became the first in the country to introduce the policy under a bill signed into law by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry last week.

The GOP-drafted legislation mandates the display must be in ‘large, easily readable font’  in all public classrooms, from kindergarten to state-funded universities.

Joe Biden leads Donald Trump with voters under 30, a new poll shows.

61 percent of under-30s who are likely to vote backed Biden and 38 percent Trump, according to the CBS News/YouGov poll.

For younger voters issues including abortion and climate change were more improtant than for over-30s.

The poll found 57 percent of under-30s viewed abortion as a major factor in how they would vote, 54 percent said the same of climate change, and 52 percent said race and diversity.

A YouGov poll shows millioniares back Joe Biden’s plan to hike taxes on the super-rich.

Eight hundred respondents who have over $1 million, excluding their homes, were asked their opinion.

The poll found almost 60 percent support introducing a higher marginal tax rate for people with over $100 millon.

Bannon gave his view in the wake of Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt having her CNN interview cut off by presenter Kasie Hunt.

Leavitt had suggested in the interview that the CNN debate moderators are biased.

Soon after, Bannon hosted Leavitt on his War Room show.

To the Trump campaign and to MAGA today, President Trump should cancel this.

It’s not three on one. They have the entire news apparatus because she (Hunt) had a producer. You know, Karoline, you’ve done so much TV. She had a producer in her ear saying, you know, “cut her off, cut her off, cut her off” because you had the facts.

Leavitt said Trump knows he is ‘going into the lions’ den’ but is ‘determined to go forward’ with the debate.

Democrat Twitter erupted in attacks against Donald Trump’s age and mental state after Fox News cut away from his rally rant about water pressure.

President Joe Biden’s campaign, allies and defenders called the moment ‘embarrassing’ for Trump and claimed the former president is ‘senile.’

During a rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Saturday, Trump started to rant about how weak water pressure has become with recent left-leaning environmental regulations. This is a common line he brings up at his rallies about how there are ‘no water in your faucets.’

‘In a terribly embarrassing moment for Trump, Fox News has to cut away from his speech because he isn’t making any coherent sense,’ an account called Biden’s Wins posted to X.

They added: ‘It’s beyond clear Trump is senile. Retweet so all Americans see this.’

Judge Aileen Cannon heard more challenges to special counsel Jack Smith’s authority on Monday – this time asking if there was any limit to the congressional funding that supports his office.

The Trump-appointed judge made the comment at a hearing in her Fort Pierce, Florida courtroom as Trump’s lawyer argued that Smith’s funding is contrary to the rules governing congressional appropriations.

It is one of multiple challenges Trump’s team have challenged to the prosecutor leading the classified documents case against him. (Smith is also heading the January 6 case based in Washington, D.C. that is on hold while the Supreme Court considers Trump’s immunity claims.)

The judge’s comment came at a hearing where Trump lawyer Emil Bove argued that Smith’s funding has been against laws governing funding from the get-go.

Judge Aileen Cannon quizzed prosecutors and Donald Trump’s lawyers about Trump’s effort to force special counsel Jack Smith from the classified documents case

‘Is there any cap to the funding?’ Cannon asked him.

Donald Trump’s search for a running mate is believed to have narrowed to three main contenders.

They are North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, and Florida Senator Marco Rubio.

Burgum has impressed Trump in recent weeks, and Vance is favored by Donald Trump Jr., NBC News reported.

Rubio has emerged as a possibility, advocating for Trump on TV, but the shadow of their bitter fight for the Republican nomination in 2016 lingers.

While she was recovering from the birth of her first child and unable to vote, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna learned of an obscure House procedure that could see Attorney General Merrick Garland arrested.

Frustrated that the DOJ hasn’t acted on the House holding Garland in criminal contempt, she will force a vote on her inherent contempt resolution this week.

White House official Tyler Cherry is downplaying his previously social media posts after his controversial views garnered widespread criticism.

Cherry, who last week was promoted to White House associate communications director, previously called police the evolution of ‘slave patrol’ and called for abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and supported the anti-Israel movement.

‘Past social media posts from when I was younger do not reflect my current views. Period,’ Cherry wrote on X.

He added: ‘I support this Administration’s agenda – and will continue my communications work focused on our climate and environmental policies.’

Several critics on X claims that Cherry is trying to ‘cheap fake’ his previous tweets, which means manipulate or alter them. But the White House staffer did not dispute the authenticity of his past posts, only that his views had evolved.

Pollster Frank Luntz says Thursday is ‘potentially one of the most consequential debates’ since JFK and Richard Nixon.

A self-controlled Mr. Trump or an adult Mr. Biden won’t be remembered, just as Mr. [John] Kerry and Mr. [John] McCain weren’t remembered.

So much is at stake that both candidates need to let loose to make a lasting impression but not in a way that may alienate key groups like suburban women and swing voters.

In the end, it’s not the facts, the policies or even the one-upmanship that Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump offer in the debate that matters. It’s how they make voters feel.

A New York Democrat ridiculed his progressive ‘Squad’ colleague for an ‘unhinged’ and expletive-filled campaign rally, saying the angry tirade was totally inappropriate.

‘Squad’ member Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., was filmed screaming and swearing over the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Political Action Committee (AIPAC), who is backing his primary challenger George Latimer.

‘We are going to show f—ing AIPAC, the power of the motherf—ing South Bronx!’ Bowman yelled Saturday at a rally with fellow progressive ‘Squad’ member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

‘We’re going to show them who the f–k we are!’ Bowman added while jumping and waving his arms on stage.

Reacting to a clip of the f-bomb-filled speech posted on X, Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., shamed the progressive: ‘The level of profanity here is so shocking as to be unbecoming of a Member of Congress. There is nothing in Jamaal Bowman’s unhinged tirade that remotely resembles the decency of the people I know and represent in the South Bronx.’

Joe Biden and First Lady Jill have been using their homes as an ATM, taking out multiple mortgages and refinancing their Delaware properties an astonishing 35 times, a DailyMail.com investigation has revealed.

The president has lived in two houses in his home state since 1975, when he bought his first property in Wilmington that he later sold in the late 1990s.

But records obtained by DailyMail.com show the couple have had a habit of negotiating a new mortgage or credit deal on both homes every 17 months.

Over the decades the Bidens have borrowed a total of $6million on both properties – and there’s still an outstanding $541,000 mortgage on their current three-bed, 4.5-bath Wilmington mansion nearly three decades after they bought it.

The constant refinancing raises the question of why the Bidens, who have a reported net worth of $10million, needed a constant flow of extra cash.

The ground rules for this debate, the first of two scheduled meetings, are unusual.

It bypasses the traditional structure determined by the Commission on Presidential Debates and instead is relying on a set of mutually agreed rules and conditions.

Biden and Trump will debate at a CNN studio in Atlanta with no audience.

There will be no opening statements.

Each candidate’s microphone will be muted, except when it’s his turn to speak.

No props or pre-written notes will be allowed on stage.

The candidates will be given only a pen, a pad of paper and a bottle of water.

Kristi Noem, once a favorite to be Donald Trump’s running mate, reveals she has not received vetting paperwork.

the South Dakota governor said: ‘I haven’t received any paperwork. I’ve had conversations with the president, and I know that he is the only one who will be making the decisions on who will be his vice president.’

Those who have reportedly received such paperwork include North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, Senator Marco Rubio, Senator Tim Scott, and Senator JD Vance.

Noem received a barrage of criticism recently when she revealed in her memoir that she shot her family’s 14-month old hunting dog.

Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, confirms Donald Trump did suggest a migrant fighting league, but the former president was joking.

It was a joke. I saw everyone going crazy online. But yeah he did say it.

Trump, speaking this weekend at the gathering of the Faith & Freedom Coalition, described migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border as ‘tough’.

Trump said he told his friend White: ‘Why don’t you set up a migrant league and have your regular league of fighters. And then you have the champion of your league, these are the greatest fighters in the world, fighting the champion of the migrants.

‘I think the migrant guy might win, that’s how tough they are. He (White) didn’t like that idea too much.’

The Supreme Court agreed to hear a case regarding health care for transgender kids under the age of 18.

There are about 20 states nationwide who have passed laws that limit ‘gender-affirming’ treatments or surgeries on minors.

Republican-led state Tennessee’s law specifically blocks kids from getting sex surgery or hormone therapy.

Oral arguments in the case is expected during the court’s next term, which begins in the fall.

The Kremlin accused the U.S. of ‘killing Russian children’ after a Ukrainian attack on occupied Crimea with long-range ATACMS missiles supplied by Washington.

Moscow issued a formal warning to the U.S. ambassador, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov issued a biting public comment calling the strike ‘barbaric.’

‘You should ask my colleagues in Europe, and above all in Washington, the press secretaries, why their governments are killing Russian children. Just ask them this question,’ Peskov told reporters.

The attack in Sevastopol killed at least four people, including two children. Russia blamed the U.S. and said 150 were injured. Video shows people fleeing from falling shrapnel after Russian air defense intercepted the missiles. Russia seized Crimea in 2014, and Ukraine has launched a series of drone attacks at Russian naval assets and the Black Sea port since Russia’s 2022 invasion. The ATACMs, long sought by Kiev, provide a longer range than missiles previously supplied by the U.S.

In a new district and despite being swamped in controversy, Rep. Lauren Boebert is still poised to sail to victory in a crowded primary on Tuesday.

The fiery Colorado Republican switched from the 3rd to the 4th congressional district to run in former Rep. Ken Buck’s more reliably Republican seat in the upcoming election.

Still, she will face off against state Reps. Mike Lynch and Richard Holtorf, conservative activist and talk radio host Deborah Flora, Logan County Commissioner and former state Senate President Pro Tempore Jerry Sonnenberg and banking executive Peter Yu.

Recent polls show she has a comfortable lead against her rivals, but a large number of voters are still undecided and could make the race a far closer contest.

The Colorado residents who haven’t made their choice – and may pay more attention to the controversies surrounding her – could be crucial to her survival in Congress.

Here’s a look back at some of Boebert’s biggest scandals she heads into her vital primary:

From Emily Goodin, Senior U.S. Political Reporter

Donald Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt fired back at CNN for cutting her off mid-interview.

Host Kaisie Hunt abruptly took her off the air for constantly attacking colleagues and Thursday’s debate moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.

In a statement to DailyMail.com, Leavitt said:

CNN cutting off my microphone for bringing up a debate moderator’s history of anti-Trump lies just proves our point that President Trump will not be treated fairly in Thursday’s debate. Yet President Trump is still willing to go into this 3-1 fight to bring his winning message to the American people, and he will win.

Dr. Anthony Fauci is still getting a taxpayer-funded security detail and SUV, despite retiring from his $480,000-a-year government job 18 months ago.

Now a top Republican has accused the former White House COVID advisor of trying to get ‘sympathy’ by claiming extremists want to kill him and he is the target of death threats.

During the publicity tour to promote his new book, 83-year-old Fauci recently said he is scared ‘deep down, that there’s a possibility that somebody’s gonna kill me.’

But that is just a strategy to ‘develop empathy and sympathy’ and paint ‘Republicans as creating this danger,’ Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview.

Fauci, who has an estimated $11 million net worth, is constantly surrounded by US Marshals whether he is at home or going to TV studios to film interviews.

Over the weekend he was spotted arriving back at his home in the Washington D.C. area in workout gear after getting out of a black government SUV.

President Joe Biden used the second anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling in the Dobbs case to blast rival Donald Trump.

‘Two years ago today, Donald Trump’s Supreme Court majority ripped away the fundamental freedom for women to access the health care they need and deserve,’ he said of the case the overturned abortion rights in America.

‘Donald Trump is the sole person responsible for this nightmare,’ he added.

Democrats are using the abortion issue to rally their base to the polls and to woo women voters – a group that helped elect Biden to the White House in 2020. Reproductive rights proved a successful issue for the party in the 2022 midterm election where Democrats performed better than expected.

But Biden won’t be marking the day with a big public event. He’ll leave that to other principals in his administration.

The president is spending the day at Camp David preparing for Thursday night’s debate. But first lady Jill Biden is in Pennsylvania, Vice President Kamala Harris heads to Arizona and second gentleman Doug Emhoff is in Michigan where they are all expected to address reproductive rights.

The former president revealed he has picked who will run as vice president on the Republican ticket in November, but that the individual he decided on doesn’t even know yet.

Reporters asked Trump ahead of his rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Saturday whether he had settled on a running mate with just over four months until the election.

‘In my mind, yeah,’ Trump replied.

When asked if he had yet informed the individual they are his choice for VP, Trump said: ‘No, nobody knows.’

While 38 percent of Hispanic voters in these swing states trust Biden to handle immigration, 41 percent of the same voting bloc trust Trump more.

Much has been made about why Hispanics, who many times are first, second or third generation American citizens, are upset with how the immigration system has become more lax in recent years.

Interviews with Hispanic and Latino voters reveal they feel disenfranchised by Democrats who are trying to make it easier for migrants to gain access into the country and be released without legal status.

The Biden campaign is planning 1,600 events and running a slew of new TV and digital ads ahead of Thursday’s presidential debate.

Biden’s allies are calling the showdown with Donald Trump ‘one of the first moments … where a larger slice of the American electorate” will tune in to the campaign,’ according to the memo obtained by NBC News.

The 2024 team will also turn to Gen Z influencers and social media content creators, who will be invited into the post-debate spin room.

The events begin on Monday to mark the second anniversary of Roe v. Wade being overturned.

Welcome to DailyMail.com’s U.S. politics blog, with three days until the first presidential debate between President Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

Biden is holed up in Camp David preparing for the showdown while Trump stayed on the campaign trail over the weekend.

Trump’s lawyers are back in a Florida federal court in the classified documents case to argue the appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith was illegal.

Meanwhile, the Biden campaign has laid out its strategy for the week leading up to him taking the stage with his 2024 rival.

CNN host Kasie Hunt abruptly ended an interview with Donald Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday morning after she repeatedly bashed Hunt’s colleague Jake Tapper.

With three days to go until the first presidential debate, Hunt asked Leavitt how the Republican was preparing for his showdown with President Joe Biden.

Leavitt accused Biden of ‘hiding away’ while Trump was preparing to ‘go into a hostile environment on this very network with debate moderators who have made their opinions about him very well known over the past eight years.’

She said Tapper and debate co-moderator Dana Bash are ‘biased’, prompting Hunt to jump in and insist they were ‘professional’.

Leavitt went on: ‘Well, first of all, it takes someone five minutes to Google Jake Tapper, Donald Trump to see that Jake Tapper…’

Hunt cut her off and ended the interview.’