Follow the nation

• Maryland
• FB
• TV
• IN
• RSS

Get email updates

Sign up for our free daily newsletter, as well as periodic offers of programs that support our journalism. By subscribing to receive emails, you agree to receive promotional offers from time to time for programs that support nationjournalism. You can unsubscribe or change your preferences at any time. You can read our Privacy Policy Here.

Email

Hunter Biden’s lawyers stepped up their legal assault on Trump’s top allies on Friday, filing a countersuit over alleged Biden e-distribution and notifying a federal judge of their intention to drop the claims against Steve Bannon and Rudy Giuliani.

Court documents include a lawsuit against John Paul McIsaac, a computer repair shop owner, who said Hunter Biden abandoned a water-damaged laptop at his Wilmington, Delaware store about 18 months before the 2020 election. Biden’s lawyers allege an invasion of privacy and claim that Mac Isaac helped copy and distribute Hunter Biden’s data for political and commercial purposes.

In the lawsuit, Biden seeks the return of any copy of his data, compensation and punitive damages for Mac Isaac’s “intentional, senseless and reckless behavior”, as well as reimbursement of attorneys’ fees.

The counterclaim and responses to Mac Isaac’s original lawsuit cite public statements by Mac Isaac, Bannon, Giuliani, and others regarding their involvement in Hunter Biden’s electronic data. The new lawsuit alleges that Delaware law prevents Mac Isaac from accessing or copying data, distinguishing between discarded “hardware” and data on or embedded in a device.

Biden’s lawyers are also seeking the deposition of Guo Wengui, an associate of Bannon who was allegedly involved in the distribution of Hunter Biden’s electronic data. Guo was arrested on Wednesday by federal authorities in New York on charges of what prosecutors said was a $1 billion fraud scheme. He pleaded not guilty.

Representatives for Mac Isaac, Giuliani, Bannon and Guo did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Hunter Biden’s legal team last month sent letters to 14 people, including Giuliani and Bannon, asking them to keep potential evidence for future lawsuits related to alleged identity theft. Letters were also sent to the Department of Justice’s Homeland Security Division and the Delaware Attorney General’s Office requesting investigations of “individuals who have substantial grounds for believing that they have violated various federal laws in accessing, copying, manipulating and/or distributing a personal computer” – on Biden. data.”

A spokesman for Hunter Biden’s legal team did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday’s court documents, but previously told NBC News that the president’s son “has been the subject of media investigations and scrutiny over the past few years, and has spoken out about his intentions.” story in a detailed memoir – he has nothing to hide. People who have not yet been held accountable for their wrongdoing are the recipients of these letters.”

Hunter Biden and the Biden family’s finances are being investigated by Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the new chairman of the GOP-led House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.

Hunter Biden’s finances, specifically his tax payments to the IRS, have been under investigation by Delaware federal prosecutors since 2018.

Welcome to Pollapalooza, our weekly survey roundup.

When the Silicon Valley bank collapsed last week, it caused the stock market will start a five-day fall. V shares for regional banks, in particulardeclined significantly, even as federal regulators worked on mitigation. Investors were clearly spooked by the failure of SVB and Signature Bank, a New York-based institution that also collapsed over the weekend. But Americans didn’t have much confidence in banks and other financial institutions for a while, and most believe more regulation is needed.

Gallup asked Americans about their confidence in various institutions, including banks, even before the 1980s. While most Americans once said they had “very” or “fairly” trust in banks, that has changed dramatically since the 2008 financial crisis. In 2007, 41 percent of Americans expressed significant confidence in banks; by 2009, only 22 percent. Although this level rose again to 38 percent in 2020, it has since fallen again and has never reached the consistently high levels of the mid-90s and early 2000s.

Similar trends have been recorded in other surveys: a 2012 article published in Public opinion quarterly found that declines in banking confidence were more related to major banking scandals than to economic events and indicators such as recessions or inflation. According to Pew poll last yearfew Americans across the political spectrum believe that banks and other financial institutions “have a positive impact on the way things are going in the country these days.”

And a slightly different but complementary question from Gallup shows that not only do Americans distrust banks, they tend to have an unfavorable attitude towards them: 2022 survey, just 36 percent of Americans said they were very or somewhat positive about the banking industry, up from 40 percent a year earlier. Compare that to the 60 percent of Americans who are positive about the restaurant industry, or the 57 percent who are positive about the farming industry.

Perhaps that’s why it’s not surprising that many US banks feel they should be more regulated. A survey from Lake Research Partners/Chesapeake Beach Consulting Last October, he asked Americans about banking regulation and specific policies, garnering widespread support across the political spectrum. Sixty-six percent of Americans, including 77 percent of Democrats and 57 percent of Republicans, said they need to increase regulation of “financial companies such as Wall Street banks, mortgage lenders, payday lenders, collectors and credit card companies.” More than half of Americans said that the influence of big banks in Washington is too great. And most Americans supported a range of policy proposals made by Congress and regulators, including limiting the size and frequency of bank overdrafts and credit card fees, lowering interest rates on high-cost loans, and closing loopholes for fintech companies.

But despite the distrust of financial institutions and the desire for more regulation, Americans were not too shocked by the closure of the SVB, although the reaction from them was mixed. IN poll “Morning consultation” this week, 60 percent of voters said they supported the Biden administration’s creation of an emergency fund to cover deposits in closed banks, while 62 percent said they viewed the action as a bailout. More Reuters/Ipsos poll over the same period found that 84 percent of Americans say taxpayers shouldn’t pay to fix problems caused by irresponsible bank management, which — in that Morning Consult survey — voter bias (38 percent) cited as a major reason for SVB’s failure. Meanwhile, a YouGov poll this week showed only 6 percent of Americans consider the money they currently invest in US banks to be “very unreliable”, while 70 percent said it was very or somewhat safe. Besides, 64 percent of Americans said they backed the Silicon Valley bank bailout to protect customer deposits.

However, the majority of Americans – 54 percent – said it is very or somewhat likely that the collapse of the SVB would trigger a broader financial crisis in the US, perhaps another indication of how little American confidence in banks has been since 2008.

Other Polling Bits

• While President Biden’s approval rating continues to fall, voters are mostly supportive policies in his budget proposalin accordance with a recent survey from Morning Consult. A majority of registered voters approved almost all of the policies in Biden’s proposal, such as capping insulin at $35 a month and imposing a minimum tax of 25 percent on the richest 0.01 percent of Americans. Even a majority of Republicans approved of many of the measures: 73% of Republican voters supported a cap of insulin, and 53% supported $15 billion in free school meals.
• As the war in Ukraine continues, American attitudes towards Russia have fallen to a 34-year low. according to a Gallup poll. Only 9 percent of Americans view Russia positively, up from 15 percent a year ago and a high of 66 percent in 1991 and 2002. fell sharply around the time Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and has continued to fall since Russia invaded Ukraine last year.
• More than 30 states are considering or have already enacted a ban on the popular TikTok video app, but Americans are ambivalent about whether a national ban is a good idea. new survey from Quinnipiac University. When asked if they would support a national ban on “foreign technology like TikTok,” a proportion of Americans (49 percent) said they would, while 42 percent said they would oppose it. Republicans were more likely than independents or Democrats to support a ban, while Americans aged 18 to 34 were the least likely to support a ban, with 63% saying they would oppose it.
• March madness is in full swing, and despite poll by the Center for Public Opinion at the University of Massachusetts Lowell With the discovery that only 16 percent of Americans identify themselves as college basketball fans, interest in the tournament is growing. recent survey by Morning Consult. 35% of Americans said they plan to watch the men’s tournament this year, up from 29% last year. A higher proportion of Americans also plan to fill the bracket this year (23 percent) than last year (15 percent).
• In honor of the start of Taylor Swift’s last tour, both YouGov another morning consultation Recently asked fans to rate their albums. In a YouGov poll, Swift’s “Lover” came in first place, with 14% of fans citing it as their top pick, and “1989” topped a Morning Consult fan poll. results were fans seeing the color red, but they had to shake it off because, frankly, it’s very difficult to choose which album will suit you from this mastermind’s hit-filled discography, as any fan knows all too well.

Biden endorsement

According to FiveThirtyEight’s presidential approval tracker, 43.7% of Americans approve of Biden’s performance as president, while 51.5% disapprove (-7.8 net approval rating). At the same time last week, 43.6% approved and 51.4% disapproved (net approval rating of -7.8 points). A month ago, Biden had a 43.1% approval rating and a 51.8% disapproval rating, for a net approval rating of -8.8.