How Biden’s denial of Hunter wrongdoing influences DOJ investigation and belies evidence
Jerry Dunleavy
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President Joe Biden weighed in on an active Justice Department investigation by contending that his son Hunter did “nothing wrong” even as congressional Republicans lay out new details about the younger Biden’s shady overseas business dealings.
Republicans have long contended Hunter Biden’s lucrative business dealings in Ukraine and China indicate he may have committed crimes related to foreign lobbying or money laundering, although multiple recent reports have indicated U.S. Attorney David Weiss, a Trump-appointed holdover and the Delaware prosecutor overseeing the case, may have narrowed his focus to Hunter Biden potentially committing tax fraud and lying on a federal gun form when purchasing a revolver.
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President Joe Biden was interviewed by MSNBC last week, and he was asked how Hunter Biden being investigated and potentially charged by his own DOJ would affect his presidency.
“First of all, my son has done nothing wrong,” Biden declared. “I trust him. I have faith in him. And it impacts my presidency by making me feel proud of him.”
Andy McCarthy, a contributing editor at National Review and a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, told the Washington Examiner that Biden’s remarks “were a crass and corrupt effort to influence the Justice Department’s moribund investigation of Hunter Biden’s apparent crimes — which are just a subset of the broader Biden family influence-peddling scheme in which the president himself is the central figure.”
McCarthy called it “stunning” that Democrats “who spent years blasting Trump for counterproductive public comments about criminal investigations are silent now.” Even then-Attorney General William Barr criticized Trump for weighing in on DOJ cases in February 2020, contending that the president’s tweets about Roger Stone made it “impossible to do my job.”
McCarthy called it “even more stunning” that Attorney General Merrick Garland “stubbornly persists in refusing to appoint a special counsel, even as it becomes ever clearer that the Biden Justice Department cannot credibly investigate the Biden family’s cashing in on President Biden’s political influence.”
Rep. George Santos (R-NY) was indicted by the DOJ on Wednesday for 13 criminal counts. Joe Biden declined to weigh in on that case as he had on his son’s case, telling reporters that “if I comment at all on Santos, you’re all going to say I’m getting the Justice Department to do things.”
Rep. James Comer (R-KY), the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, released new financial records from his investigation into “the Biden family’s influence peddling and business schemes” on Wednesday by highlighting bank records related to Hunter Biden-linked business deals in Romania and China.
This also comes as the GOP-led House Judiciary and Intelligence committees have unearthed a host of new details about the infamous October 2020 Hunter Biden laptop letter, including the fact that Mike Morell was “triggered” to organize the letter by now-Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discredit the New York Post’s reporting on the abandoned laptop.
Biden urged the Justice Department in October 2021 to prosecute anyone who defied subpoenas from the Democratic-led select committee on the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
The Justice Department distanced the agency from the president at the time. The DOJ indicted trade adviser Peter Navarro and Trump ally Steve Bannon for this. Navarro’s trial has yet to happen, but Bannon was convicted.
This week, FBI Director Christopher Wray defied a subpoena from Comer, who has told the bureau to hand over an alleged confidential human source claim which purportedly lays out a “criminal scheme” related to potential pay-to-play between then Vice President Joe Biden and an unnamed foreign national.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) had sent an October letter to Wray and others that the FBI is in possession of “significant, impactful, and voluminous evidence” of “potential criminal conduct” by Hunter Biden related to his overseas business dealings with China and Ukraine.
The whistleblower allegations released late last year related to Hunter Biden as well as James Biden, the president’s brother, regarding the duo’s dealings with the Chinese government-linked energy conglomerate CEFC China Energy. They also related to the younger Biden’s work for Ukrainian gas giant Burisma Holdings.
Blinken has also repeatedly defied a subpoena from Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who has ordered the State Department to hand over a dissent cable from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul which warned in July 2021 about the impending Taliban takeover.
Joe Biden previously claimed during an October 2020 debate with then-President Donald Trump that Hunter Biden had not done anything wrong in Ukraine and had not made any money from Chinese business deals.
“Nothing was unethical,” Joe Biden said, arguing at length he had done no wrong during his son’s lucrative time on the board of Ukrainian energy giant Burisma, before adding, “My son has not made money in terms of this thing about — what are you talking about — China. I have not had it. The only guy that made money from China is this guy. He’s the only one. Nobody else has made money from China.”
The Biden White House stood by that claim.
“We absolutely stand by the president’s comment,” then-White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield said in March 2022.
Then-Biden White House chief of staff Ron Klain also weighed in to dismiss any illegality.
“Of course the president is confident that his son didn’t break the law,” Klain said in April 2022.
Klain was asked if Biden is confident that his family didn’t cross any ethical lines when receiving millions of dollars from Chinese businessmen.
“The president is confident that his family did the right thing,” Klain replied. “But again, I just want to be really clear — these are actions by Hunter and his [Joe Biden’s] brother. They’re private matters. They don’t involve the president.”
Hunter Biden said in early December 2020 that he was “confident” he handled his affairs “legally and appropriately.” The Biden-Harris transition team said at the time that the president-elect was “deeply proud of his son.”
Hunter Biden and his associated businesses are also believed to have received $5 million in payments from CEFC in 2017 and 2018, including since-convicted CEFC Deputy Patrick Ho agreeing to pay Hunter Biden a $1 million retainer. Hunter referred to Ho as “the f***ing spy chief of China” in a May 11, 2018, voice recording.
Comer released a 36-page memo on Wednesday, noting his committee had subpoenaed four banks and received thousands of records. The report argues the bank records show that “the Biden family, their business associates, and their companies received over $10 million” from companies belonging to foreign nationals, with Republicans identifying payments to Biden family members from foreign companies while Joe Biden served as vice president and after Joe Biden left public office in early 2017.
Comer said that “the Romanian transactions show evidence of influence peddling and a correlation between Biden family and their business associates’ work and then Vice President Biden’s responsibilities while in office.”
The Kentucky Republican added that his committee “is also providing additional information about the Biden family’s troubling receipt of payments from China, particularly the individual Ye Jianming and his company, CEFC, to show what was from 2015 to 2018 a growing interest by people closely tied to the CCP in cultivating a relationship with the Biden family.”
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The new GOP memo did not detail any foreign payments going directly to Joe Biden. The Washington Examiner reported last year that Hunter Biden spent over $30,000 on escorts, many of whom were linked to “.ru” Russian email addresses and worked with an “exclusive model agency” called UberGFE during a 3 1/2 month period between November 2018 and March 2019. He managed to do so thanks in part to Joe Biden committing to wiring him a total of $100,000 to help pay his bills from December 2018 through January 2019.
On Ukraine, Grassley said last year that he had been provided potential evidence of criminality tied to Hunter Biden’s work for Burisma, which reportedly paid Hunter Biden $50,000 a month to serve on its board for a period when his father was vice president.