House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) subpoenaed and obtained two bank wires revealing that Hunter Biden had received payments from Chinese nationals that were sent to his father, Joe Biden, who was then running for President.
The wire transfers, of upwards of $250,000, were made in July and August 2019 from Beijing, and listed the president’s Wilmington, Delaware, home as the beneficiary address in both cases.
Both wires were sent to Hunter Biden from Jonathan Li, a Chinese national and CEO of the investment fund BHR.
“When Joe Biden was vice president, he spoke on the phone and had coffee with Jonathan Li in Beijing, and later wrote a college letter of recommendation for his children,” Mr. Comer stated.
The New Yorker had in 2019 reported that Mr. Biden introduced Mr. Li to his father in 2013, when the vice president took the trip to China, and that Rosemont Seneca, the company Hunter Biden worked for, had signed a deal with Mr. Li to create BHR.
President Biden has repeatedly denied that he discussed business matters with his son, and declined to comment on the investigation or indictment of Hunter Biden, instead referring reporters to the Department of Justice.
Investigation
The Republican-led House committees have been investigating the Biden family’s financial dealings, hearing testimonies from whistleblowers and subpoenaing financial records.A five-year Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation had failed to bring any charges until two IRS whistleblowers testified before the Ways and Means Committee this summer, claiming the DOJ purposely hindered the investigation. The DOJ then brought two tax misdemeanor charges against Hunter Biden, as well as a pretrial agreement for a diversion for a felony gun charge. After that plea bargain fell apart during Mr. Biden’s arraignment in Delaware, special counsel David Weiss brought three felony gun charges against Mr. Biden. He has not been charged with any tax crimes thus far.
Mr. Weiss, who had led the investigation since 2018, was not appointed special counsel until this summer. The whistleblowers had claimed Mr. Weiss had no authority to prosecute Mr. Biden in certain jurisdictions, a claim Attorney General Merrick Garland has refuted before Congress.
The statement came after the New York Post reported data on a laptop allegedly abandoned by Mr. Biden in a Delaware computer repair shop, which contained more than 129,000 emails including correspondence between Mr. Biden and foreign nationals who paid him large sums of money.
The two IRS whistleblowers who testified before Congress earlier this summer also authenticated text messages that Mr. Biden sent demanding payment from a Chinese national while invoking his father’s name and office.
A third whistleblower has since stepped forward, repeating claims that the DOJ hindered the progress of the investigation and claims that Mr. Weiss lacked authority to bring charges against Mr. Biden.
Mr. Biden’s attorney has stated that his client plans to plead not guilty at the upcoming Oct. 3 arraignment in Delaware.
This may result in the release of additional tax documents related to the panel’s investigation into Mr. Biden’s tax dealings. It could also address a lawsuit Mr. Biden has brought against whistleblowers who testified before the committee for violating Section 6103.