Biden says ‘no’ when asked if he lied about being involved in Hunter’s business deals
President Joe Biden abruptly dismissed questions on Monday about whether he ever lied about his involvement in his son’s business affairs.
He faced new questions this past week after an IRS whistleblower revealed details of a WhatsApp message from Hunter Biden.
In it, Biden’s son tells a Chinese employee that he was with his father when he demanded that he make good on a deal.
But the president has always maintained that he had no knowledge of his son’s overseas affairs, and on Wednesday he was asked if he had lied about it.
“No,” he told a reporter as he left a White House event via high-speed Internet infrastructure.
President Joe Biden abruptly dismissed questions on Monday about whether he had ever lied about his involvement in his son’s business affairs as he left a White House event
Last week, a lawyer for the president’s son suggested his well-documented addiction meant that any words of messages spoken or sent during that period were unrelated to anyone in his family.
At the same time, a statement from the White House counsel’s office sparked speculation that officials were toning down their position from one in which the president did not discuss Hunter’s business dealings.
“As we’ve said many times before, the president didn’t do business with his son,” said White House spokesman Ian Sams.
Hunter Biden’s business affairs are back in the spotlight after two twists and turns last week.
It first emerged that the 53-year-old is likely to avoid jail after reaching a plea deal that ended a five-year federal investigation into his tax affairs and gun possession.
Republicans responded by releasing transcripts of two IRS whistleblowers who complained that the Justice Department was undermining investigators’ efforts to impose tougher sentences, even though their claims contradict the Trump-appointed district attorney who brought the case.
Either way, Republicans intend to make public officials pay.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says they will launch an impeachment inquiry against Attorney General Merrick Garland by July 6.
Whistleblower Gary Shapley pointed to a WhatsApp message sent by Hunter to Chinese Communist Party official Henry Zhao on July 30, 2017, in which he threatened to follow his “orders” and said his father was with him. Shapley claims he raised concerns about the WhatsApp message to DOJ prosecutors, who dismissed his concerns.
McCarthy said on Fox & Friends Monday that U.S. attorney David Weiss — who led the Hunter investigation and last week charged the president’s son with violating federal tax and gun laws after a five-year investigation — must appear before the House Judicial Committee.
In addition, the speaker said an impeachment inquiry into Garland will begin on July 6 if the IRS whistleblower claims to have checked out.
The president’s son was staying at the guest house of Biden’s Delaware home when he wrote a letter to Communist Party official Henry Zhao on July 30, 2017, threatening him to follow his “orders”
“On July 6, because of the allegations from the IRS, because of the whistleblower and the DOJ – Garland – what he says and what David Weiss says in private are two different things,” the speaker said.
“And if it comes true what the IRS whistleblower says, we’re going to launch an impeachment inquiry against the Attorney General,” McCarthy promised on Fox & Friends Monday.
He said, “What’s interesting is that the IRS whistleblower has no political background, took a lot of notes, can tell you the date, can tell you who’s at the meeting.”
McCarthy said the discrepancies between what U.S. Attorney Weiss has said and what Attorney General Merrick Garland has said is the most important issue.
According to the whistleblower, “U.S. Attorney Weiss stated that he subsequently requested special counsel from Main DOJ at that time and was denied that authority.”
However, Garland publicly defended himself on Friday, saying Weiss was given “full authority to make all decisions on his own.”
“I don’t know how it would be possible for anyone to stop him from pursuing a prosecution,” Garland told reporters.
“Some have chosen to attack the integrity of the Justice Department by claiming that we do not treat cases equally. This constitutes an attack on an institution that is essential to American democracy,” Garland continued.
The speaker had alluded that the House could move forward with articles of impeachment in a tweet over the weekend.
“We have to get to the facts, and that includes reconciling these clear differences. U.S. attorney David Weiss must provide answers to the House Judiciary Committee,” McCarthy said Sunday.
“If the whistleblowers’ allegations are true, this will be an important part of a larger impeachment inquiry into Merrick Garland’s arming of DOJ,” he continued.
Senator Ted Cruz said on his “Verdict” podcast last week that the Hunter WhatsApp text proves Biden’s business ties to China.
McCarthy says he is “happy” that Cruz has caught up with the work the House has done to expose the Biden family’s ties to foreign payments.
“Every day we bring people in,” McCarthy said of his Republicans’ work.
“That’s why you now have the bank statements. This is why you know the 1023. This is why you know WhatsApp. We continue to do our information very differently than anyone else,” McCarthy said, referring to internal FBI form FD-1023 discovered by the House Oversight Committee, which reportedly stated that Joe and Hunter Biden were each awarded $5 million of a Ukrainian foreigner in exchange for policy decisions.
“Now we have found out that the president lied to us because he said they never covered anything in China,” the speaker added. ‘Now the [IRS] whistleblower says he was in talks with the Chinese company as vice president.”
According to the whistleblower, Hunter sent a threatening message on WhatsApp to a Chinese Communist Party official, hinting that his father would see to it that he would be punished if he failed to comply with the unspecified demand.
Hunter Biden is seen with his father, President Joe Biden
Mark Lytle, an attorney for IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley, told Fox News on Friday that attempts to try to confirm where Hunter and Joe Biden were when Hunter claimed his father was sitting next to him in July 2017 were rebuffed by prosecutors.
Hunter Biden attorney Chris Clark invoked his clients’ “terrible addiction” at a time when a whistleblower says his client threatened a Chinese businessman while saying his powerful father was “sitting next to me”
The allegations undermine consistent claims by the Biden family and administration that Joe was not involved in his son’s foreign business dealings, although the veracity of Hunter Biden’s claims could not be established.
Hunter’s lawyers have maintained that the WhatsApp was the chatter of a troubled man in the middle of a drug addiction: The White House has reiterated that Joe Biden had no knowledge of his son’s business affairs.
On Friday, a lawyer for Shapley claimed his efforts to get to the bottom of the WhatsApp story had been rebuffed by prosecutors.
“The officers wanted to follow up on this and the prosecutors told them not to because, well, maybe Hunter Biden was huffing or something,” said Mark Lytle, Shapley’s attorney.
On Thursday, the House Ways and Means Committee released testimony from two IRS whistleblowers — including Shapley — who said the Justice Department, FBI and IRS were interfering in the investigation of the tax evasion case against Hunter Biden.
Jason Smith, a Missouri Republican who chairs the committee, claimed the testimony “outlines government misconduct and abuse at the IRS and FBI in the investigation of Hunter Biden.”
“Whistleblowers describe how Biden’s Justice Department intervened and went too far in a campaign to protect Joe Biden’s son by delaying, disclosing and denying an ongoing investigation into Hunter Biden’s alleged tax crimes.”
The commission said on Thursday: ‘The allegations point to a steady campaign of: unequal treatment of tax law enforcement; Justice Department interference in the form of delays, disclosures, and denials in the investigation of tax crimes that may have been committed by the president’s son; and finally retaliation against IRS employees who announced the misconduct.”