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Judge bars prosecutors from using some salacious evidence in Hunter Biden's gun trial

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Judge bars prosecutors from using some salacious evidence in Hunter Biden's gun trial

The judge presiding over Hunter Biden’s federal gun case in Delaware on Friday ruled that prosecutors on Special Counsel David Weiss’ team cannot use some salacious evidence in the first son’s criminal trial next month, including references to his U.S. Navy discharge and the child support case for his out-of-wedlock daughter in Arkansas. 

The court met for its final hearing before jury selection begins on June 3. Fox News has previously reported that prosecutors planned to use portions of his book and laptop, including photos, to convince a jury that the first son is guilty of making false statements on a federal form when he purchased a revolver in 2018, while actively using narcotics. Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Judge Maryellen Noreika on Friday said that Weiss must show Hunter Biden was addicted to drugs — but not necessarily using drugs the day he purchased the gun. 

HUNTER BIDEN IS IN COURT IN DELAWARE. HERE’S WHAT HE DOESN’T WANT THE JURY TO HEAR

Noreika said the government may use part of Hunter Biden’s book where he discusses his addiction to drugs. 

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The prosecution does not plan to bring out the entire infamous laptop containing details of Hunter Biden’s life, but will introduce certain portions. Noreika ruled that Hunter Biden’s team will be able to question aspects of the laptop in front of the jury. The laptop, which leaked in 2020 just before the presidential election, was decried as Russian disinformation by 51 former intelligence officials.

Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, speaks to members of the media outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 13, 2023. (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

In court documents filed Friday morning, Hunter Biden’s defense attorneys asked the court to block certain salacious details of his life from being shown to the jury to avoid “significant risk of unfair prejudice.”

In what is called a “motion in limine,” Hunter Biden asked the court “to exclude reference to the child support proceedings in Arkansas and reference to his discharge from the Navy.” This is in reference to the child he fathered out-of-wedlock with ex-stripper Lunden Roberts, whose daughter is President Biden’s grandchild

Acknowledging that some of the evidence prosecutors wish to bring forward may be relevant to the case, including purported drug purchases, ATM withdrawals and the purchase of the revolver, Hunter Biden’s lawyers said other details like references to money allegedly spent on “adult entertainment, online chat rooms, or escort services are not relevant to the charges.” 

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IRS WHISTLEBLOWER SHAPLEY SAID HE ‘COULD NO LONGER PURSUE’ HUNTER BIDEN SUGAR BROTHER KEVIN MORRIS DUE TO CIA

“Characterizing or referencing unnecessary salacious details — such as how much things cost, whether they are upscale, or citing expenses concerning collateral alleged sexual conduct unrelated to the charges here — are the exact type of prejudicial, inflammatory evidence that has a tendency to make a conviction more likely because it provokes an emotional response in the jury,” the defense argued.

“Accordingly, Mr. Biden respectfully requests that this Court grant his Motion in limine to exclude any reference to an ‘extravagant’ or ‘lavish’ lifestyle during periods of his addiction,” his lawyers wrote. 

Noreika agreed in part, and ruled that the special counsel cannot use the phrase “extravagant lifestyle,” but can include evidence Hunter Biden was spending a lot of money.

Noreika also ruled that the special counsel cannot discuss Hunter Biden’s discharge from the U.S. Navy. He was discharged from the Navy in 2014 after testing positive for cocaine.

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Noreika also said Weiss cannot use Hunter Biden’s comments from the day he initially pleaded guilty as part of a collapsed plea deal.

A courtroom sketch depicts Hunter Biden in a federal courtroom in Wilmington, Delaware, on July 26, 2023. (William J. Hennessy, Jr.)

According to Weiss’s gun indictment, Hunter Biden bought a Colt Cobra revolver on Oct. 12, 2018, and “knowingly made a false and fictitious written statement, intended and likely to deceive that dealer with respect to a fact material to the lawfulness of the sale of the firearm… certifying he was not an unlawful user of, and addicted to, any stimulant, narcotic drug, and any other controlled substance, when in fact, as he knew, that statement was false and fictitious.” 

The indictment also charges Hunter Biden with possessing that firearm — which was “shipped and transported in interstate commerce” — for nearly a week despite being addicted to narcotics.

With all counts combined, the total maximum prison time for the charges could be up to 25 years. Each count carries a maximum fine of $250,000, and three years of supervised release. 

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Fox News first reported in 2021 that police had responded to an incident in 2018, when a gun owned by Hunter Biden was thrown into a trash can outside a market in Delaware.

HUNTER BIDEN PRETRIAL HEARING ON GUN CHARGES SET FOR FRIDAY IN DELAWARE

A source with knowledge of the Oct. 23, 2018, police report told Fox News that it indicated that Hallie Biden, who is the widow of President Biden’s late son, Beau, and who was in a relationship with Hunter Biden at the time, threw a gun owned by Hunter Biden in a dumpster behind a market near a school.

Hallie Biden may be required to testify during Hunter Biden’s trial. 

Noreika also decided Friday that Hunter Biden’s defense attorneys cannot tell the jury that Delaware state police declined to charge the first son at the time of the gun incident. Federal prosecutors did not bring charges against him on the matter until five years later. 

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Noreika also ruled that the special counsel cannot mention Hunter Biden’s pending federal tax trial in California during the trial in Delaware, which is also part of Weiss’ investigation and scheduled for a September trial.

Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to those charges — specifically, three felonies and six misdemeanors concerning $1.4 million in owed taxes that have since been paid. Weiss alleged a “four-year scheme” when the president’s son did not pay his federal income taxes from January 2017 to October 2020 while also filing false tax reports. 

On Wednesday, Judge Mark Scarsi heard arguments during a pre-trial hearing in California. That criminal trial was scheduled for June 20, but Hunter Biden’s attorneys requested to delay the trial. 

Scarsi sided with Hunter Biden’s attorneys, and moved the tax trial to Sept. 5, when jury selection will begin. 

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Fox News Digital’s Chris Pandolfo and Fox News’ David Spunt contributed to this report. 

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New York

Questions Arise About Jack Schlossberg’s Readiness for Congress

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Questions Arise About Jack Schlossberg’s Readiness for Congress

Good morning. It’s Friday. We’ll look at the Manhattan congressional campaign of Jack Schlossberg, President John F. Kennedy’s grandson. We’ll also get details on an obscure metric that will figure in the new second-home tax in New York City.

Jack Schlossberg is one of nine candidates running for a House seat in Manhattan. When he entered the race, he was known for his social media personality — and for being President John F. Kennedy’s grandson. But rapid staff turnover and Schlossberg’s own erratic actions have gotten attention in the New York political world. With the Democratic primary only six weeks away, I asked my colleague Nicholas Fandos for an assessment.

His campaign sounds like it’s not ready for prime time. Is that a reasonable assessment? This is the first time he’s run for office.

There are few political campaigns that I’ve covered that are not at least a little messy. It comes with the territory. But the degree of the messiness in Schlossberg’s campaign, and the specifics, are unusual.

He has had a surprisingly high rate of staff turnover — at least two campaign managers, two field directors, a handful of advisers and a rotating cast of consultants in the six months since he announced his candidacy.

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On the day of his campaign launch, Schlossberg said he needed to nap and then was unreachable for most of the rest of the day, which left his team scrambling. A couple of weeks after the announcement, he had a run-in with a sitting congressman who felt that Schlossberg had ripped off his social media commentary.

Many candidates run on their records. What does Schlossberg list as accomplishments when he’s asked?

Schlossberg has relatively little professional experience, so when he talks about what qualifies him for the job, he brings up things like receiving law and business degrees at Harvard, scoring near the top on the bar exam and being an E.M.T. in college. He’s also worked as a freelancer for Vogue and as an assistant at the State Department, but both of those gigs lasted only a few months. And he readily points out that he has built a large social media following.

There is no standard set of qualifications to be a member of Congress, but most people who run have worked their way up through local government or careers in business or the law. Sclossberg has not followed any of those paths.

What was that social media dust-up about?

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Social media seems to be one of Schlossberg’s biggest strengths, but it’s also potentially a vulnerability. He has built a large audience with revealing, funny and sometimes outright bizarre posts that are captivating to some and alienating to others.

I found that in at least one case in this campaign, he essentially mimicked a video from Representative Seth Moulton, a Democrat from Massachusetts, commenting on President Trump’s policy on Venezuela. He made his own video, saying almost the same thing Moulton had said. He rewrote the words, but it was still very close.

Moulton’s team was so taken aback that they reached out to Schlossberg, asking, What gives? They were told that he had indeed copied Moulton’s post because he had liked it so much. This may be common social media practice, but it’s traditionally been a no-no in politics.

What about fund-raising? Has he raised more than his opponents?

He’s doing well on fund-raising. He’s not at the front of the pack, but he has raised $2.3 million from donors.

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Some of that has come from small donations across the country, and others from large checks from friends of his famous family. He has his own substantial wealth but has said that he does not intend to spend any of it on the race.

Is he the front-runner right now?

There has not been good polling. The internal polls that we have seen show that he’s a slight favorite in a crowded field that includes two state assemblymen, Micah Lasher and Alex Bores. Lasher is a protégé of Representative Jerrold Nadler, who’s vacating the seat they’re all running for.

Two of the other candidates are George Conway, a former Republican who has become one of President Trump’s biggest critics, and Nina Schwalbe, a global health expert.

Schlossberg did not talk to you when you were reporting the story you wrote. What did his aides tell you about Schlossberg’s management of his campaign and the turnover of his staff?

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Schlossberg’s campaign did not dispute most of the details in my story. They downplayed the significance of the staff turnover, saying no one should be surprised that a first-time candidate, especially one as intense as he is, would cycle through staff members in a high-pressure campaign.

In addressing his occasional absences from the campaign, they pointed out that the campaign had coincided with the death of his sister Tatiana Schlossberg, from cancer.


Weather

Sunny skies with a high around 67 degrees. Tonight will be mostly clear with a low near 54.

ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING

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In effect until May 22 (Shavuot).

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I’m standing behind a mylar curtain, building the character. I part the curtain, stand in a fixed position, and allow the audience to feed me with shouts of joy and respect and admiration and whatever else they’re thinking. Let the people have what they came for. Apotheosis.” — André De Shields, who plays the godlike Old Deuteronomy in “Cats: The Jellicle Ball,” on how he gets into character.


What’s the “market value” of your co-op or condo?

Those two words are in quotation marks for a reason. In New York City, the “market value” of an apartment may not be what it sells for, because “market value” is a bureaucratic metric that often underestimates an apartment’s actual worth.

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“Market value” will figure in the new tax surcharge on part-time residents of the city. As proposed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, the second-home tax plan would initially target co-ops and condos that have a “market value” of at least $1 million. They would be taxed an extra 4 percent to 6.5 percent in addition to their existing property taxes.

How many apartments would be affected is unclear. The governor’s office says that an apartment with a “market value” of $1 million would sell for about $5 million. But the disparity is often more pronounced: One Midtown Manhattan penthouse with a “market value” of about $4.2 million sold for more than $135 million last year.

The surcharge has been the talk of the New York political world since Hochul announced it last month. It wouldn’t bring in as much revenue as some of its boosters had wanted, but Mayor Zohran Mamdani cast it as an example of how government was making good on his promise to tax the rich.

The “market value” metric would govern second-home surcharge payments for only the first two years of the new tax. After that, the city and the state would rely on a different measurement to determine which properties are above the threshold. That new metric would be added to a tax system that many taxpayers already find impenetrable.

“I know we just sent people around the moon and back, so you’d think anything is possible,” said Jason Haber, a real estate broker and a co-founder of the American Real Estate Association. “But because of how the city tax system is set up, this is crazy complicated in the first place. And they tried to rush it though, I think without fully appreciating its complexity.”

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METROPOLITAN diary

Dear Diary:

It was a Saturday, and I was on Fifth Avenue and 14th Street. Two young women were walking and talking behind me.

“Is there anything you need at the market?” one said.

“The will to live,” the other replied.

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I couldn’t help myself.

“I don’t think they sell that there,” I said.

We all laughed and kept going.

— Nancy Lane

Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Tell us your New York story here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.

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Boston, MA

JetBlue to pull out of N.H.’s largest airport amid capacity crisis, officials announce – The Boston Globe

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JetBlue to pull out of N.H.’s largest airport amid capacity crisis, officials announce – The Boston Globe


JetBlue will terminate all service to Manchester-Boston Regional Airport in New Hampshire this summer, with the airline’s final flight scheduled for July 8, airport officials said Thursday.

Airport officials said on social media that they were “very disappointed” that the airline will be pulling its service. Manchester-Boston is the largest airport in New Hampshire and sixth largest in New England.

“MHT has worked diligently to promote JetBlue service at MHT, providing air service incentives, a substantial marketing budget, and conducting various promotional activities to create awareness,” officials wrote. “Unfortunately, those efforts were not enough to overcome their ongoing business challenges, which have only been exacerbated by the recent spike in jet fuel prices.”

While JetBlue has long been one of the largest carriers at Logan International Aiport in Boston, some of its routes to Manchester, roughly 50 miles north, have seen lower passenger numbers.

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Aviation publication SimpleFlying reported that the airline’s least popular route last year were flights to Manchester from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, seating just 47 passengers on average.

JetBlue told the airport its decision came as they “make a tough call as to how to best support national connectivity in a time of capacity crisis,” officials said.

The announcement comes just weeks after JetBlue unveiled major route expansion plans in South Florida to fill gate spaces vacated by budget-friendly Spirit Airlines, which ceased its operations in May. A bid from JetBlue to buy Spirit Airlines was blocked in 2024 by the Biden Administration over anti-trust concerns.

JetBlue could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday.


Bryan Hecht can be reached at bryan.hecht@globe.com. Follow him on Instagram @bhechtjournalism.

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Pittsburg, PA

Here are all the free movies you can watch outside this summer in Pittsburgh

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Here are all the free movies you can watch outside this summer in Pittsburgh


Yet another sign of summer in Pittsburgh is here: the lineup for Dollar Bank Cinema in the Park. Grab a blanket and/or set of lawn chairs — and don’t forget snacks. All screenings are free but subject to weather, and all begin at dusk — usually between 8:50 and 9:15 p.m.

Arsenal Park

40th Street at Davison Street, Lawrenceville
Fridays

  • June 12 – Cars (G)
  • June 26 – Wicked for Good (PG)
  • July 17 – The Bad Guys 2 (PG)
  • July 31 – A Minecraft Movie (PG)
  • August 14 – Lilo & Stitch (PG)

Banksville Park

1461 Crane Ave., Banksville
Mondays

  • June 15 – The Wiz (1978) (PG)
  • July 13 – The Bad Guys 2 (PG)

Brookline Memorial Park

Oakridge Street, Brookline
Thursdays

  • June 18 – The Wiz (PG)
  • June 26 – The Spongebob Movie: Search for Squarepants (PG)
  • July 9 – Miracle (PG)
  • August 6 – Hoppers (PG)

​​Flagstaff Hill in Schenley Park

Oakland
Wednesdays

*Due to special construction taking place at Flagstaff Hill, the final two “Wednesday Movies” in July (July 22nd and 29th) will occur at Schenley Plaza

  • June 10 – Hamnet (PG-13)
  • June 17 – Creed (PG-13)
  • June 24 – F1: The Movie (PG-13)
  • July 1 – Hamilton (PG-13)
  • July 8 – Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning (PG-13)
  • July 15 – The Naked Gun (2025) (PG-13)

Grandview Park

Bailey Avenue, Mt. Washington
Saturdays

  • June 13 – Cars (G)
  • June 20 – The Wiz (1978) (G)
  • June 27 – Wicked: For Good (PG)
  • July 11 – The Spongebob Movie: Search for Squarepants (PG)
  • July 18 –  The Bad Guys 2 (PG)
  • July 25 – Miracle (PG)

Highland Park

Reservoir Drive, Highland Park
Mondays

  • June 22 – Wicked: For Good (PG)
  • July 20 – Miracle (PG)
  • August 10 – Lilo & Stitch (2025) (PG)

Liberty Green Park

Larimer Avenue, East Liberty

Wednesday

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  • August 12 – Lilo & Stitch (2025) (PG)

McBride Park

McBride Street, Lincoln Place

Mondays

  • June 29 – Hamilton (PG-13)
  • July 27 – A Minecraft Movie (PG)

Ormsby Park

S. 22nd Street, South Side

Tuesdays

  • June 16 – The Wiz (G)
  • June 30 – Hamilton (PG-13)
  • July 14 – The Bad Guys 2 (PG)
  • July 28 – A Minecraft Movie (PG)
  • June 13 – Hamnet (PG-13)
  • June 20 – Creed (PG-13)
  • June 27 – F1: The Movie (PG-13)
  • July 11 – Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning (PG-13)
  • July 18 – The Naked Gun (PG-13)
  • July 25 – The Phoenician Scheme (PG-13)

Schenley Plaza

4100 Forbes Ave., Oakland
Sundays

  • July 22 – The Phoenician Scheme (PG-13)
  • July 26* – Film Pittsburgh Presents: ReelAbilities Summer Shorts
  • July 29 – Badlands (1973) (PG)

Troy Hill Citizens Park

  • August 3 – Hoppers (PG)

West End Elliott Overlook

Rue Grande Vue Street, Elliott. (Next to Elmer Pavilion)
Mondays

  • June 8 – Cars (G)
  • July 6 – The Spongebob Movie: Search for Squarepants (PG)

Note: Inclement weather may cause cancellations. For cancellation updates follow follow CitiParks Office of Special Events (@pgheventsoffice) on X, Facebook or Instagram.

The Great Lawn at Arts Landing. Photo courtesy of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.

Even more free outdoor movies:

  • June 28, 9 pm – The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants (2025)
  • July 26, 8:45 pm – Willow (1988)
  • Aug. 30, 8:15 pm – The Lion King (1994)
  • Sept. 27, 7:30 pm – Batman (1989)
  • May 17 – Shrek
  • May 24 – How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
  • May 31 – Inside Out
  • June 7 – High School Musical 2
  • June 14 – Toy Story (1 & 2)
  • June 21 – Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
  • June 28 – The Incredibles
  • July 5 – Mamma Mia!
  • July 12 – 13 Going on 30
  • July 19 – Perks of Being a Wallflower
  • July 26 – Moana
  • Aug. 2 – The Parent Trap
  • Aug. 9 – Finding Nemo
  • Aug. 16 – Barbie
  • Aug. 23 – Monsters, Inc.
  • Aug. 30 – Twilight
  • June 11 – Elio
  • June 18 – A Minecraft Movie
  • June 25 – Zootopia 2
  • July 9 – The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants
  • July 16 – Lilo and Stitch
  • July 23 – The Bad Guys 2
  • July 30 – Goat
  • Aug. 6 – The Super Mario Galaxy Movie
  • Aug. 13 – Hoppers

Bonus: Open Air Cinema

This one isn’t free, but it is outdoors. New this year, The Stacks at 3 Crossings will be home to Pittsburgh’s Open Air Cinema. The ticketed experience includes options for classic theater, lounge or tabletop seating. They’ll also have a menu of street food-inspired bites and specialty drinks, popcorn and more. The season kicks off with “Creed” on May 23 and “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” on May 24. Tickets start at $11 per person for classic seating.





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