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If there is a major country that can rival Ukraine for corruption it would be Pakistan.
Pakistani court suspends former PM Khan’s graft conviction and jail sentence
A Pakistani court on Tuesday suspended the corruption conviction and three-year
prison sentence of former prime minister Imran Khan, his lawyer said.
Issued on: 29/08/2023 - 11:00; 1 min
the Supreme Court in Islamabad. © Aamir Qureshi, AFP
By: FRANCE 24
The Islamabad High Court also granted bail for Khan, but it’s not immediately clear if he will be released since he also faces several other charges.
Khan's lawyer Shoaib Shaheen said the court issued a brief verbal order and a written ruling will be issued later.
The ruling comes weeks after Khan was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison by another court that found him guilty of concealing assets after selling state gifts he received while in office.
Khan was imprisoned on August 5 after being sentenced to three years in jail for unlawfully selling state gifts during his tenure as prime minister from 2018 to 2022.
As a result of the conviction, Pakistan's Election Commission also barred Khan from contesting elections for five years.
The cricketer-turned-politician was ousted from power through a no-confidence vote in parliament last year.
The ruling came a day after a court in the western province of Balochistan quashed a sedition case against Khan.
The case was registered in the southwestern city of Quetta in March, the capital of the province, based on an allegation that one of Khan's speeches was seditious.
Balochistan High Court said on Monday that prosecutors had failed to obtain the required consent from the federal or provincial government to lodge sedition charges.
The charges are "without lawful authority and are of no legal effect", the court ruled, throwing out the case.
Khan lost power after falling out with Pakistan's influential military, and his attempts to rally popular support have stirred political turmoil in a country already struggling with one of its worst economic crises.
A general election was expected in November, though it is likely to be delayed until at least early next year.
Aside from the graft and sedition cases, Khan is also facing charges ranging from terrorism and encouraging assaults on state institutions – after his supporters attacked military and government installations in May – as well as abetment to murder following the slaying of a Supreme Court lawyer in June.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
Hunter Biden’s firm, Joe’s VP office exchanged more than 1,000 emails: records
By Victor Nava, NYPost
August 30, 2023 10:47pm UpdatedB
House Oversight panel demands files on Hunter Biden’s use of Air Force Two: ‘Must be accountability’
Hunter Biden’s Rosemont Seneca Partners investment firm traded more than 1,000 emails with Joe Biden’s office during his time as vice president — and hundreds remain hidden because of executive privilege asserted by the White House, documents released by the National Archives show.
The 861 emails that reference Rosemont Seneca were sent or received by the Office of the Vice President between January 2011 and December 2013, according to America First Legal, which obtained the messages from the National Archives and Records Administration and released them on Wednesday.
The White House refused to allow the release of 200 emails referencing Hunter Biden’s firm, citing executive privilege.
“Release would disclose confidential advice between the President and his advisors, or between such advisors,” NARA informed America First Legal in response to its records request.
Hunter Biden and his business associates frequently used their direct line of communications with the Office of the Vice President to leverage access to the Obama White House, the trove of emails show.
White House guest lists, seating assignments, and biographies of guests for various official events, including the 2012 United Kingdom State Dinner, the 2013 Turkey State Luncheon and the 2014 France State Dinner, were shared with Rosemont Seneca employees.
One email contains an invitation forwarded to the White House for then-Vice President Joe Biden to attend an event at the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations, and another invites then-second lady Jill Biden to participate in a World Food Program campaign.
Invitations from the White House for several events that Hunter Biden presumably attended or had requested tickets for guests for are also shown in NARA’s document dump.
In one frantic December 2013 email, lobbyist Doug Davenport begs Hunter Biden’s former business partner Eric Schwerin for tickets, on short notice, to the White House Christmas tour, indicating that Rosemont Seneca’s level of access to the Executive Mansion was well-known.
“Hey guys……I am in a bad spot,” Davenport’s email begins. “I have a guy from Apple who is dying to take his 4 colleagues on a REGULAR WH Tour…see the tree, etc…..this Friday.”
“I know it is WAY short notice, but I would owe you my life if you could tell me any way possible to get my hands on some public tour tix for this Friday? Or am I just way out of line???” he adds.
Schwerin then directs a Rosemont Seneca employee to “check with our friends over there” and informs Davenport that the only way the request would be possible would be to get them to “the front of the line.”
Hunter Biden’s former business partner Eric Schwerin was frequently in contact with the vice president’s office, the emails show. Twitter
Rosemont Seneca then contacts Joe Biden’s office and is able to secure Davenport’s last-minute request as a “Big favor for Hunter,” the email shows.
“These records provide even more evidence that no daylight existed between Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings and the Office of the Vice President during the Obama Administration,” Gene Hamilton, America First Legal vice president and general counsel, said in a statement.
“The evidence accumulating against the Biden family’s malfeasance is staggering. We will continue to put the pieces of this puzzle together and expose the truth to the American people,” he added.
America First Legal, a group founded by Stephen Miller, a former senior adviser to President Donald Trump, received the documents from the National Archives in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for records from Joe Biden’s time as vice president.
Is America's #1 crime family in the White House?
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