Republicans Must Probe Hunter Biden Laptop If They Win Midterms: Rep. Matt Gaetz

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, on July 29, 2020. Graeme Jennings/Pool via Reuters

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said that Republican lawmakers must focus on investigating the laptop of Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, if the GOP wins control of the House in the November 2022 midterms.

“Joe Biden and Hunter Biden have not lived one day under Republican oversight. If we get control of the House of Representatives, this [laptop] must be a central focus of ours, where we’ve got to get the truth out before the people,” Gaetz said in an interview with EpochTV’s “Crossroads” program on July 22.

Hunter Biden is currently under federal investigation for alleged tax fraud, lobbying crimes, and money laundering. He confirmed in December 2020 that his business deals were being investigated; the probe is being led by Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, a prosecutor appointed by former President Donald Trump. The federal probe dates back to 2018—a year before Joe Biden announced his candidacy for president—multiple media outlets previously reported, citing unnamed sources.

Gaetz’s remarks on July 22 come amid recent reports from Fox News and CNN, citing unnamed sources, saying that the federal investigation into Hunter Biden has reached a “critical stage.”

Meanwhile, a former Department of Justice official told the New York Post on July 21 that he believes a “generous” plea deal for Hunter Biden was in the works.

“From the reporting that I have read, it seems more like a generous guilty plea is on the horizon, not some sort of sweeping indictment,” Jim Trusty, a lawyer and former chief of the DOJ’s Organized Crime Section, told the outlet.

Republicans have previously repeatedly said they would act to renew investigations into Hunter Biden if they flip control of the House of Representatives in the November 2022 midterms.

Laptop Shows President Joe Biden Lied: Gaetz

Gaetz is the House lawmaker who in March this year entered into congressional record “content from, files from, and copies from Hunter Biden’s laptop.”

Gaetz noted that President Joe Biden had previously insisted that he and his son, Hunter, never discussed Hunter’s business dealings. Biden had previously said in 2019: “I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings.”

“I think what’s really instructive here is that Joe Biden originally took the position that he and Hunter never discussed Hunter’s business. And now we know that was a lie,” Gaetz told Crossroads.

“That was a lie based on the voicemails that we’ve recovered from Joe Biden talking about Hunter’s business deals with him,” he continued. “We know that as a result of photographs, where Joe Biden is with people who Hunter Biden is soliciting for money.”

Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, attends an event at the White House in Washington on April 18, 2022. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Hunter Biden’s business dealings have included transactions with individuals and entities in China, Russia, Ukraine, and other countries, including during the time Joe Biden was vice president during the Obama administration.

A leaked voicemail that was left in December 2018 showed that Biden called his son to discuss a news report on Hunter’s dealings with a Chinese oil tycoon who had been charged with financial crimes. The White House on July 5 did not dispute the report about the voicemail.

Separately, dozens of talks between Joe Biden and Hunter Biden about Hunter’s business dealings had taken place between 2008 to 2016, the New York Post reported on July 16, citing a personal calendar on Hunter’s laptop. The meetings took place at either the White House or the vice president’s residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory.

Several senators previously issued a report in September 2020 on Hunter Biden’s business dealings. The report said that Hunter Biden engaged in millions of dollars in “questionable financial transactions” with associates and foreign individuals, including the wife of the former mayor of Moscow and people with ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

‘Here For the Grift, Not the Service’

The New York Post first reported in October 2020 it had received via Rudy Giuliani a copy of a hard drive of a laptop that Hunter Biden had given to a Delaware computer repair shop in April 2019 and never retrieved.

“We are now, as a result of the laptop, able to piece together travel records, text messages, emails, payments from foreign entities directly to Hunter Biden’s discussions, meetings, and associations with his father, who was in a position of great prominence as the vice president of the United States at the time,” Gaetz told Crossroads.

The hard drive from the laptop is said to have records of various business deals, pornographic images, and illegal content. Big tech firms quickly moved to suppress reports about the laptop in the lead-up to the 2020 general election in November.

“If this is what’s on Hunter Biden’s laptop of yesteryear, imagine what’s on the laptop he’s using right now,” Gaetz remarked.

He remarked: “I worry about our country being sold out by a first family that’s here for the grift, not the service. And by the way, not for nothing. But if you look at the policies Joe Biden’s embracing, they’re the very policies that are making America weaker, and China stronger. You wonder if someone paid for that through Hunter.”

President Joe Biden gives two thumbs up from a balcony of the White House as his son Hunter Biden (L) looks on during 4th of July fireworks in Washington, on July 4, 2022. Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images

When Gaetz entered the data of the Hunter Biden laptop into congressional record, he also entered into the committee record data from the repair shop that showed a copy of the receipt the repair shop issued when Hunter Biden’s MacBook Pro computer was dropped off in April 2019, as well as a receipt evidencing the FBI taking possession of the laptop in December 2019.

At the time, on March 29, Gaetz had posed numerous questions to Bryan Vorndran, the assistant director of the FBI’s cyber division, about Hunter Biden’s laptop. Vorndran responded to Gaetz at the House Judiciary Committee hearing that he did not know where the laptop was or whether the laptop could compromise national security. He also said that Hunter’s laptop was not in his “purview.”

Gaetz said he believes Americans will vote to have Republicans take charge of the House to investigate the Bidens’ family business dealings.

Americans deserve an honest government that is “not sold out to foreign interests abroad, or special interests here at home,” he said.

But the congressman noted that many politicians are beholden to political action committees, lobbyists, various donors, and even business deals with family members.

“It’s the reason why so many of the institutions in our country have been weaponized against the people.”

Frank Fang and Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.