Despite reaching out to Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe through a special crisis line, the Chinese official declined the call, leaving Austin's efforts unanswered.
The US House of Representatives is expected to pass a resolution blaming China for a "brazen violation of United States sovereignty" and accusing it of trying to "deceive the international community through false claims about its intelligence collection campaigns."
Half of Americans say they are worse off financially than they were a year ago, the highest level of reported decline since the financial crisis, a Gallup poll released Wednesday showed.
In a new 14-page letter to the Justice Department, signed by prominent Washington attorney Abbe Lowell, Hunter's lawyers have asked for an investigation into close allies of former President Donald Trump, former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, Trump's longtime lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and others who had access to the laptop's data.