Sen. Rand Paul to Send Report on Hunter Biden to DOJ for Possible Criminal Probe

Years of Near-Zero Interest Rates the Latest Bid to Spur Recovery in US, Canada

The Canadian and American central banks are pulling out all the stops to support the economic recovery, with the latest move being their indications that they expect to hold interest rates near zero over the next few years. However, as the COVID-19 pandemic persists, the hoped-for sustained revival in consumer borrowing and spending is anything but certain. In an unprecedented move on Sept. 16, the U.S. Federal Reserve said it doesn’t expect to raise its key interest rate until 2023, providing a very powerful signal that near-zero rates are here to stay for a long time.  A week earlier, the Bank of Canada had said, “The Governing Council will hold the policy interest rate at the effective lower bound [0.25 percent] until economic slack is absorbed so that the 2…

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he plans to send the joint Senate report on Hunter Biden to the Department of Justice so lawyers there can review it for potential criminal activity.

“I think riding on Air Force Two and doing business is illegal, I think that is against the law and probably a felony. I think it’s illegal to take money from a Russian politician’s wife, $3.5 million, was it reported accurately?” Paul said during an appearance on Fox News’s “The Story” on Wednesday.

“I think the only way to determine the actual legality of this is to have it referred to the Department of Justice, so I’m gonna send the report over. I don’t know if the whole committee will vote for it but I’m sending the report tomorrow, to the Department of Justice, and we’re asking for a criminal referral.”

Paul is a member聽of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Oversight Committee.

The committee and the Senate Finance Committee jointly investigated the actions of Hunter Biden, 50, during the time Biden’s father, Joe Biden, was vice president and heading U.S. efforts to reform Ukraine.

Biden is now the Democratic presidential nominee.

The interim report released Wednesday by the committees showed Hunter Biden engaged in “questionable financial transactions”聽with associates and foreign individuals,聽including the wife of the former mayor of Moscow and people with ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

Democratic presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign speech in Manitowoc, Wis., on Sept. 21, 2020. (Mark Makela/Reuters)

Requests for comment sent to a lawyer who represented Hunter Biden during his Arkansas paternity case and the Biden campaign weren’t immediately returned.

Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates described the investigation as subsidizing “a foreign attack against the sovereignty of our elections with taxpayer dollars鈥攁n attack founded on a long-disproven, hardcore right-wing conspiracy theory that hinges on Sen. [Ron] Johnson himself being corrupt and that the senator has now explicitly stated he is attempting to exploit to bail out Donald Trump’s reelection campaign.”

Johnson chairs the Government Oversight Committee.

Johnson has said the investigation into the Bidens and the counter-intelligence probe known as Crossfire Hurricane “would certainly help Donald Trump win reelection and certainly be pretty good, I would say, evidence about not voting for Vice President Biden.”

Paul said on Fox that government lawyers would be the ones deciding whether to pursue charges against Hunter Biden.

“We want to see if there’s a criminal investigation that’s justified. Here’s this evidence. Look at it. You’re the lawyers for the government, you decide if you have enough to prosecute,” he said. “But I think we should refer this for a criminal investigation.”

Focus News: Sen. Rand Paul to Send Report on Hunter Biden to DOJ for Possible Criminal Probe

Facebook Removes Fake Chinese Accounts That Posted on US Election, Spread Beijing Propaganda

Facebook has shut down more than 180 fake accounts, groups, pages, and Instagram accounts that it determined to be run in China, which posted content on the U.S. presidential election and spread Beijing’s talking points on a range of topics, from the South China Sea to Hong Kong protests. The U.S. social media giant announced the takedown in a blog post published on Sept. 22, saying that these accounts were a violation of its rule against “coordinated inauthentic behavior on behalf of a foreign or government entity.” In total, 155 Facebook accounts, 11 pages, nine groups, and six Instagram accounts were shut down. The Instagram app is owned by Facebook. Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of security policy and author of the blog post, explained that while people behind these accounts…