White House Spokesperson Explains Why Hunter Biden’s Checks From China Were Sent to Father’s House

From left to right: U.S. President Joe Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, Hunter Biden, and Ashley Biden attend an event at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Penn., on May 15, 2023. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations Ian Sams explained why Hunter Biden was using his father’s Wilmington, Delaware, home address where payments from Chinese investment fund CEO Jonathan Li were wired.

“Imagine them arguing that, if someone stayed at their parents’ house during the pandemic, listed it as their permanent address for work, and got a paycheck, the parents somehow also worked for the employer,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Mr. Sams is a special assistant to the president and senior adviser to the White House counsel’s office. “It’s bananas. Yet this is what extreme House Republicans have sunken to.”

In a separate post, he said claims that the president received money from China was a “flat-out lie.”

The claim came as a response to a statement made by House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.). The committee has been investigating the financial dealings of the Biden family.

On Tuesday, the committee chairman revealed that the payments were sent to Joe Biden’s home when he was running for president. He had subpoenaed and obtained two bank wires in July and August of 2019, sent from Mr. Li to Mr. Biden. Upwards of $250,000 were paid to Mr. Biden by Mr. Li.

Mr. Comer issued a statement accusing President Biden of lying to the American public when he said that his family never received money from China.

“Bank records don’t lie but President Joe Biden does,” Mr. Comer stated on X.

Mr. Sams’s statement suggests the checks were sent to Mr. Biden, who was residing at the Delaware address. However, court documents filed (pdf) by Mr. Biden’s legal team for a now-defunct plea bargain show he was living in California in 2019.

The filed memo states Mr. Biden served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company and a Chinese private equity fund from 2017 to 2019, which paid him millions in compensation. It notes that Mr. Biden moved to Los Angeles in 2018 as his drug addiction worsened, and continued to earn and spend large sums of money made through his consultancy work. It states that he got sober in May 2019, and “remained in California” that summer, spending much of his time painting and developing his memoir.

Mr. Sams responded to those arguments in a separate post, claiming it was a well-known fact that Mr. Biden used his father’s address during this time.

“Hunter listing his parents’ as his only permanent address during this period of turmoil in his life has long been known,” he wrote, responding to a reporter’s post showing the court filing.

Joe Biden Involvement?

While running for president, Joe Biden refuted claims that he or his son made money from China.

“My son has not made money in terms of, this thing about, what are you talking about, China,” he said in a debate against Donald Trump.

The president has also refuted claims this year, as investigations into his son were made public, that he knew anything about his son’s business.

The New Yorker reported in 2019 that Mr. Biden introduced Mr. Li to his father when the vice president took a trip to China in 2013. Mr. Li had formed the Chinese investment fund BHR after signing a deal with Rosemont Seneca, the consulting firm Mr. Biden worked for.

The New York Post had also found that soon after Vice President Biden left his post, he had written college recommendation letters for Mr. Li’s son and daughter.

Emails obtained by Fox News revealed that Mr. Li had reached out to Mr. Biden and his business partners at Rosemont Seneca asking for advice and help for his son, who was applying to Brown University, Cornell, and NYU.

Indictment

Mr. Biden has been indicted on three felony gun charges and will have to make an appearance in Delaware for his arraignment on Oct. 3.

The charges brought by special counsel David Weiss do not touch on any tax crimes.

Mr. Weiss has been leading the investigation into Mr. Biden since 2018, and Mr. Biden revealed in 2020, after his father was elected into office, that the investigation had to do with his “tax affairs.”

Charges failed to materialize after five years of investigation, until this summer when two IRS whistleblowers approached the House Ways and Means Committee alleging the Department of Justice purposely hindered the investigation.

The DOJ charged Mr. Biden with two tax misdemeanors and a plea deal to divert a felony gun charge, which Republicans denounced as a slap on the wrist for failing to pay taxes on millions in income.

However, during Mr. Biden’s first arraignment, the plea bargain fell apart after the judge questioned both parties about the terms and asked for additional information at a later hearing. Mr. Weiss retracted the bargain, which the government says was never formally entered into, and pulled the case.

He later charged Mr. Biden with possessing a firearm while abusing drugs and lying on his application about it.

Abbe David Lowell, Mr. Biden’s attorney, says the statute preventing drug users from owning guns is unconstitutional and has already been deemed as such in other cases, and that “on the facts” he has a successful defense.