Hunter Biden‘s former associate’s emails with then-Vice President’s staff from 2015 detail a closely coordinated relationship that blurred the line between official government work and the Biden family business and may be evidence of ‘collusion,’ say Republicans.

The GOP is ramping up its investigation into the Biden family’s decades-long ‘influence peddling scheme’ as lawmakers eye opening a potential impeachment inquiry into the sitting president over his connections to his son’s foreign business operations.

They are narrowing in on a series of emails between Eric Schwerin, a close business associate of Hunter’s at his investment firm Rosemont Seneca, and then-VP staffer Kate Bedingfield in December 2015 regarding Hunter’s Ukraine ties.

In an exchange on December 4, 2015 labeled ‘Quotes,’ Schwerin sought the VP’s sign-off on statements he suggested the White House use to respond to media inquiries regarding Hunter’s role in Ukrainian oil company Burisma as Joe ramped up his anti-corruption work in the country.

At the time, Hunter was serving on the board of the company making roughly $83,000 a month despite having no previous experience in the energy industry.

According to the records, Schwerin wrote to Bedingfield’s official ‘@ovp.eop.gov’ account, suggesting language ‘from a spokesperson for Hunter’ distancing Joe from Hunter’s lucrative Burisma role.

She replied: ‘VP signed off on this’ a few hours later, and then sent the statement to the New York Times and other inquiring outlets.

On the exact day of the email exchange, Hunter was actually in Dubai with Burisma executives at a dinner at the Four Seasons.

Hunter allegedly said at that dinner that he would be able to get ‘help from D.C.’ in order to relieve some ‘government pressure’ on the company as they faced corruption probes.

Archer testified before Congress last month that Burisma ‘requested Hunter, you know, help them with some of that pressure,’ and ‘D.C.’ meant his influence based on his connection to his then-VP father. 

‘Well, I mean, he was a lobbyist and an expert and obviously he carried, you know, a very powerful name. So I think it was that’s what they were asking for,’ said Archer about Hunter. 

He then continued on to confirm that immediately after Hunter was asked to help during the Four Seasons meeting, he ‘called his dad.’ 

Although Archer was not ‘privy’ to the call, he was told that ‘we called D.C.’ 

The emails between Schwerin and Bedingfield were first publicized by America First Legal in March as part of an ongoing Freedom of Information Act lawsuit with the National Archives. 

Many of the related emails have been ‘withheld in full’ due to White House executive privilege. 

Now, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer is demanding the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) produce all the emails between Schwerin and Bedingfield in their full, un-redacted state. 

He also asks for documents and communications between the VP’s office and staff with Hunter’s other associates including Devon Archer, Vuk Jeremic, John Robinson ‘Rob’ Walker and Jeffrey Cooper.

‘Joe Biden never built an ‘absolute wall’ between his family’s business dealings and his official government work – his office doors were wide open to Hunter Biden’s associates,’ Chairman Comer told DailyMail.com in a statement. ‘There is evidence of collusion in the efforts to spin media stories about Burisma’s corruption while Vice President Biden was publicly pushing an anti-corruption agenda in Ukraine.’

A spokesperson for NARA said that the agency has received the request from Comer and will respond ‘in accordance with the Presidential Records Act (PRA), NARA’s implementing regulations, and the governing Executive Order.’ 

The White House has maintained that Joe Biden has never been ‘in business’ with his son or aware of his foreign dealings. 

The follow-up request comes a week after Comer wrote to NARA asking the agency to provide records detailing reports that Hunter traveled to at least 15 countries with his dad then-Vice President Joe on Air Force Two.

They accuse then-VP Biden of having ‘abused’ his taxpayer-funded office ‘to enrich his family’ by flying Hunter all over the world to meet with his business associates, according to a letter to the National Archives on Aug. 29 obtained by DailyMail.com.

Hunter tagged along with his powerful father during official vice president trips between 2009 and 2017 to Asia, Europe, Africa, Mexico and Canada spanning at least 15 different countries, according to a recent report by Fox News.

During the trips, Hunter would reportedly meet with his international business associates and potential clients. He also apparently offered short ‘handshake’ meetings providing his partners direct access to his father on several occasions. 

They demanded all Air Force Two flight records and emails sent from the White House to Biden family members during the Obama-Biden administration.

Additionally, new records have revealed that then-Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter’s investment firm Rosemont Seneca exchanged over 1,000 emails during his time as the No. 2 most powerful politician in the world.

Republicans claim there is mounting evidence that the then-vice president was involved in Hunter’s overseas deals that raked in millions from nations including China, Romania and Ukraine.

The House Oversight Committee Republicans reiterate their ‘concerns’ that foreign nationals ‘sought access and influence by engaging in lucrative business relationships with high-profile political figures’ immediate family members,’ including members of the Biden family. 

DailyMail.com reached out to NARA for a response to the Republican-led letter last week, and a spokesperson said Comer’s ‘request’ has been received. 

‘NARA has received the request from Chairman Comer, and will respond in accordance with the Presidential Records Act (PRA), NARA’s implementing regulations, and the governing Executive Order.’ 

Speaker Kevin McCarthy vowed the house would probe what went wrong with the response to the Maui wildfires that have left 115 and over 1,100 missing. 

‘I’m very concerned about the response,’ the speaker said during an appearance in upstate New York on Wednesday. 

He went on: ‘We still have hundreds of individuals that are missing. I think there’s gonna have to be a congressional investigation in response of what happened. How could we lose that many Americans in today’s age? And the federal response seems very delayed.’ 

The California Republican then knocked the president for originally not offering comment and taking over a week to visit the devastation. 

‘The president’s response – to have no comment? That’s unacceptable. So I’m going to work with committees too to look at investigating what went on so that never happens again as well.’ 

No single cause has yet been determined for the fires, but experts suggest power lines were not shut off despite high winds and may have caught fire when they fell. 

The GOP-led House has launched oversight investigations into nearly everything under Democratic President Biden’s purview – from the Afghanistan withdrawal to the Biden family business dealings to a broad range of federal agencies. 

The number of missing people  in Maui ticked up to 1,110 on Wednesday – two weeks after the deadly inferno ripped through the island. Already the fire is the deadliest since the 19th century as the death toll is expected to rise. 

The tourist town of Lahaina, home to 12,000 people, was all but wiped off the map, with over 3,000 structures burned to the ground and an estimated $5 billion’s worth of damage. 

The FBI is working to release a list of the missing later this week – and is calling on relatives of the missing to send in DNA samples to help identify the charred bodies that have been discovered. 

A new Associated Press report details how the only paved road out of a West Maui neighborhood and onto the highway was blocked off. Those who drove around the barricade were safe. Many of those who were caught up in a pile-up just behind the blockade died in their cars while others tried to run for safety.

Meanwhile, Maui’s top emergency management official resigned last week after finding himself in hot water for failing to sound the island’s alarm system as the blaze closed in.  

Herman Andaya, the administrator of the Maui Emergency Management Agency, had defended his decision not to sound the alarms as he said he feared coastal residents would think the ringing signaled a tsunami and flee inland toward the flames. 

‘The public is trained to seek higher ground in the event that the siren is sounded,’ he said. 

In slow signs of recovery, Maui public schools began the process of reopening and highways have allowed traffic again as of Wednesday. Additional cadaver dogs arrived that day to help teams searching for the remains of the dead. 

But cell service and access to electricity has been spotty at best, and survivors say they’ve struggled to find housing, medical aid and daily necessities. 

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has pledged one-time $700 payments for necessities to nearly households affected by the fires – and over 6,000 have applied so far. 

DailyMail.com revealed on Wednesday that FEMA responders dispatched to Maui have been lodging in luxury at $1,000-a-night hotels a 45 minute drive away from fire-ravaged town of Lahaina. 

FEMA surged up to 1,000 agents to the Hawaiian island to assist with the response, and teams have checked in at three five-star hotels – the Fairmont Kea Lani, Four Seasons, and the Grand Wailea Astoria where past guests include members of Hollywood’s elite. 

And amid growing criticism at the perceived lack of federal support, Biden and First Lady Jill visited Maui on Monday – and were met with mixed reactions. 

The visit was always going to be contentious, and the president’s motorcade was drove past both boos and jeers, with some showing their middle finger and waving Trump 2024 flags.

The president’s speech promised Maui the federal government’s support would be ‘with you as long as it takes.’ 

‘The country grieves with you, stands with you, and we’ll do everything possible to help you recover, rebuild, and respect culture and traditions when the rebuilding takes place.’ 

But otherwise Biden did little to endear himself to the traumatized islanders, delivering a rambling speech referencing the death of his wife and baby daughter in 1972, and later telling an anecdote about a 2004 kitchen fire in his Delaware home.

Rory McIlroy reignites Phil Mickelson feud with savage response to accusations of gambling on Ryder Cup: ‘At least he can bet on it this year’

By Daniel Matthews For Dailymail.Com

Published: 20:12 EDT, 10 August 2023 | Updated: 20:27 EDT, 10 August 2023

A Las Vegas woman has revealed that her 75-year-old father’s death had a surprising result — it made her horny.

Shanna Christmas, 41, said she goes for months without sex, feels good about it, and often struggles to get aroused. In her last relationship, she described time under the sheets as ‘stagnant’ at best.

So it came as something of a surprise that when Christmas’s dementia-ridden father died, she experienced a Renaissance in her sexual appetite — telling strangers she had new ‘panties’, asking male colleagues for hugs and spending hours locked in public bathrooms taking photos of her backside.

‘I was horny. Turned on. Thirsty, as the kids would say,’ she admitted. ‘[But] I couldn’t understand it. This was not an appropriate response to someone I loved dying.’

Experts say the death of a loved one may ignite sexual desire in what is known as the ‘liberation effect’, or a sudden feeling of adventure or opportunity following a loss.

The death of Ms Christmas’ father, Charles, did not come as a complete surprise.

He had been suffering from a form of rapid dementia, a rare type of the disease that rapidly escalates over several weeks to months to rob sufferers of their memory, robbing sufferers of their memory and judgment skills.

By the end, he was described as having forgotten how to eat and rarely opening his eyes.

When Ms Christmas, a comedian, received the news that he was nearing the end, she was touring in Los Angeles.

‘I had no family around. My college roommate, who I was staying with at the time, was at work, so I couldn’t even hug another human when I got the call,’ she wrote in the Insider.

‘And I had been single for 10 months, which meant there was no man of my own around, either,’ she said.

Despite receiving the news, she decided to stay in Los Angeles and continued with her shows.

But this was when, while she was dealing with the grief and loss, her sex drive suddenly ramped up.

During one of her shows just two days after his death, she revved up the crowd by yelling: ‘I’ve got new panties! And my dad’s dead!’

At other shows, Christmas would go up to male colleagues to tell them the bad news and then ask for a hug.

She even admitted to spending almost every evening locked in a cubicle in public bathrooms taking pictures of her backside while wearing new panties that ‘exposed a large portion of my undercarriage’.

‘My level of thirst could only be explained by this new feeling of emptiness, I just wanted to connect with someone,’ she said.

‘Well, with a man. A big, strong man.’

‘My ex was 6ft5in and was the best at holding me and making me feel small. It’s what I desperately wanted.’

There has been little research into why people may feel horny after the death of a loved one — although some experts say this is not uncommon. It has even been featured on popular TV shows like ‘Grey’s Anatomy’.

Psychologists have said the phenomenon may be a ‘liberation effect’, or a sense of relief after an expected death.

‘There’s an excitement about the unknown,’ said Dr Patti Britton, a clinical sexologist based in California.

‘I think that excitement is part of what “wakes someone up”.’

Other theories suggest that the sudden burst in sexual desire could be due to a will to avoid grief and cover the void opened by the loss.

Dr Britton added: ‘The grief trajectory is about a loss of closeness — a loss of intimacy. That’s why our libido kicks in: To fill that void.’

Dr Helen Fisher, a biological anthropologist at the Kinsey Institute Indiana, added to VICE: ‘The body becomes quite broken [after a death] and having sex — decent sex — drives the dopamine system.

‘Any stimulation of the genitals drives the dopamine system in the brain, which gives feelings of optimism, energy, focus and motivation.’

In her case, Ms Christmas said that within a few weeks, the impulses to have sex began to subside. She didn’t have sex during her Renaissance period.

She then transitioned to a point where ‘no one’ was attractive and said she could not even get aroused enough to pleasure herself.

‘It’s as if I’ve been slingshotted back into who I was before,’ she said. ‘Alone again. Trying to sort out the feelings of emptiness and isolation.’ 

Russia today threatened Britain with ‘an adequate response from our military’ after the UK agreed to supply Ukraine with Storm Shadow long-range missiles.

The missiles, which cost about £2.2million, will allow Ukraine to hit Russian troops and logistics hubs deep behind the front line in a major blow to Vladimir Putin. 

Britain had received assurances from the Ukrainian government that these missiles would be used only within Ukrainian sovereign territory and not inside Russia, multiple senior Western officials said.

Ukraine has been asking for months for long-range missiles, but support provided by Britain and other allies such as the United States has previously been limited to shorter range weapons.

But UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace today confirmed that Britain is sending the Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine, a decision that prompted a furious response from the Kremlin.

‘The donation of these weapons systems gives Ukraine the best chance to defend themselves against Russia’s continued brutality especially with the deliberate targeting of Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, which is against international law,’ Wallace told the House of Commons. ‘Ukraine has a right to be able to defend itself.’

Wallace said the missiles would be used to push back Russian forces in ‘Ukrainian sovereign territory’, while adding that the UK’s support for Ukraine is ‘responsible, calibrated, coordinated and agile’.

‘We simply will not stand back while Russia kills civilians,’ Wallace said.

Wallace did not say how many cruise missiles were being sent to Ukraine, but said they are ‘now going into or are in the country itself’.  

Earlier, a Western official had told CNN about the decision to supply Ukraine with the missiles, saying: ‘The UK has previously said that it will supply Ukraine with long-range weapons, this will now include a number of Storm Shadow missiles.

‘The British government has been clear that this is only in response to Russia’s deliberate targeting of civilian national infrastructure and is a proportionate response.’ 

The Kremlin said the reports would require ‘an adequate response from our military’.

The Storm Shadow is an air-launched long-range missile, designed for attacks against high value targets such as hardened bunkers and key infrastructure.

The missiles, jointly developed by the UK and France, has a firing range of more than 155 miles (250km) which means Kyiv would be able to strike deep into Russian-held territory in eastern Ukraine where the fiercest battles are ongoing.

The missile is ‘a real game changer from a range perspective,’ a senior US military official said. At the moment, Ukraine’s current maximum range on US-provided weapons is around 49 miles.

The UK’s decision to supply the missiles comes as Wallace and the foreign minister James Cleverly have been in the United States for talks on supporting Ukraine in recent weeks.

Britain and other Western countries have scaled up their military aid for Ukraine this year, with Britain saying in January it would send 14 of its main Challenger 2 battle tanks to Ukraine, a pledge that was followed by other nations including the United States and Germany.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told the Munich Security Conference in February that Britain would be the first country to provide Ukraine with longer range weapons.

The United States said in February it would provide the Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB), which has a range of about 151 km.

Asked on Tuesday about supplying long range missiles, Cleverly declined to detail specific plans but he said it was important to keep looking at ways to ‘enhance and speed up the support we give to Ukraine’.

The war in Ukraine is at a turning point, with Kyiv expected to unleash its new counteroffensive after six months of keeping its forces on the defensive, while Russia mounted a huge winter offensive that failed to capture significant territory.

Moscow’s main target for months has been the small eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, which it has come close to capturing but not quite taken in what would be its sole prize after months of the bloodiest ground combat in Europe since World War Two.

Kyiv says it has pushed Russian forces back over the past two days near Bakhmut in small-scale local assaults, but a counteroffensive involving tens of thousands of troops and hundreds of new Western tanks has yet to begin.  

‘We still need a bit more time,’ President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday.

Ukrainian forces had already received enough equipment from Western allies for their campaign, but were waiting for the full complement to arrive to reduce casualties, Zelensky said.

‘With [what we have] we can go forward and be successful,’ he said. ‘But we’d lose a lot of people. I think that’s unacceptable. So we need to wait. We still need a bit more time.’

Ukrainian forces have been training a new contingent of forces and stockpiling Western-supplied munitions and hardware that analysts say will be key to reclaiming territory captured by Russia.

The timing of Kyiv’s effort to claw back ground in the eastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions, as well as the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, remains a question.

Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said late last month that Kyiv’s preparations were ‘coming to an end’ and his forces were ready ‘in a global sense’.

But he also said that Abrams tanks promised by the US would not be able to take part in the offensive because they would not arrive in Ukraine until the end of this year.

The head of Russia’s Wagner private military company Yevgeny Prigozhin meanwhile accused Zelensky of being ‘dishonest’ in his BBC interview saying that Ukraine’s counter-offensive ‘is in full swing’. 

A senior Ukrainian military official said earlier this week that Russian forces had dropped back from some areas near Bakhmut after limited counter-attacks by Kyiv’s forces around the eastern city. 

Prigozhin, whose forces are on the front line of the battle for Bakhmut, admitted that some Ukrainian units were successfully breaking through in some areas.

‘The Ukrainian army’s plan is in action… All the units which have been trained, which have received weapons, tanks and everything they need are already fully engaged,’ he said.

Prigozhin is involved in a long-running dispute with Russian military chiefs over ammunition supplies for his fighters and he has threatened to pull them out of Bakhmut.

The mercenary force chief appeared to brand Putin a ‘complete a**hole’ and mock him as a ‘happy grandfather’ in a scathing video yesterday. 

Prigozhin trashed his troops’ lack of ammunition and threatened to strangle those who are preventing shells from reaching the frontline.

‘They’re collecting [artillery shells] in warehouses – why, no one knows.

‘Instead of spending a shell to kill the enemy and save the lives of our soldiers, they let our soldiers die – and the ‘happy grandfather’ thinks this is good for him.

‘If he turns out to be right, then God bless everybody… but how will we win the war, if, by chance – and I’m just speculating – it turns out that this grandfather is a complete a**hole?

Prigozhin concluded: ‘The shells give freedom. And if they don’t give freedom with the shells… if they keep holding onto them then first we need to shove it up their a*** and then throw them in jail.’

Though the Wagner chief did not refer to Putin by name, he has never shied away from criticising other senior Russian defence figures – and Putin is often referred to as ‘grandfather’ or even ‘the bunker grandfather’ in opposition circles, suggesting his rant was almost certainly aimed at the President.

Meanwhile, in anticipation of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, Russia has resumed air strikes on Ukraine over the past two weeks after a lull of nearly two months. Moscow says Ukraine has used drones to strike occupied areas and Russian territory near the border. 

Russian politicians and commentators in turn warned the Storm Shadow missiles could be used to launch attacks on targets in Russia, and lead to an escalation of the war in Ukraine. 

War hawk Colonel Igor Korotchenko, editor-in-chief of Russia’s National Defence magazine and a leading military TV propagandist, suggested the Ukrainian government would break his promises to Britain by targeting Russian cities. 

‘Do not have any illusions – the West is ready to supply Ukraine with everything except nuclear weapons, and Kiev will not keep its promises and will use these missiles to strike Russian cities,’ Mr Korotchenko said. 

Vadim Kozyulin, of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Diplomatic Academy, said Britain’s decision to supply Ukraine with the weaponry marked a ‘new round of escalation on the part of the Western countries.’

He said it is no surprise that the UK had led the supply of the Storm Shadow missiles, as he claimed Britain has ‘historically’ been ‘one of the most Russophobic countries, which always tries to be one step ahead of other ‘partners’ in activities against Moscow.’

Mr Kozyulin argued that while Kiev has vowed not to attack targets outside Ukraine’s territorial borders, the missiles may be used to hit Crimea, which was annexed by the Russian Federation in March 2014. 

‘Crimea and the new regions of the Russian Federation are recognised by Western countries as lands of Ukraine,’ he said. ‘Therefore, I think the [Ukrainian army] will attack these very regions.’ 

‘Ukraine is indeed being prepared for a counter-attack and strikes on Crimea, and we need to take this seriously,’ Mr Kozyulin added. 

Commentators in Russia were split as the extent the missiles pose a threat, as they noted Russia’s air defences had previously successfully intercepted Storm Shadow missiles in Syria. 

Dr Konstantin Sivkov, deputy president of Russian Academy of Rocket and Artillery Sciences, said: ‘Storm Shadow poses a serious threat to our army and the country, as this missile can go around the air defence zone and the actions of long-range radar aircraft.’

Diplomacy expert Mr Kozyulin said it ‘is not very clear yet’ the extent to which Ukraine will be able to ‘successfully’ use the Storm Shadow missiles. 

Military expert Yury Knutov said Russia’s will ‘adapt’ to ‘neutralise completely the actions of these strike weapons.’ He also claimed the Storm Shadow missiles are ‘nothing new’ as he described them as ‘an analogue of the Tomahawk cruise missiles, but with a much shorter range’ 

Dmitry Belik, an MP for occupied Sevastopol, said Storm Shadow would not be a ‘miracle weapon’ for Ukraine, as he claimed Russia is ‘strengthening its shield and, of course, is preparing a longer-range response capability.’