Washington, D.C. – Investigations of President Joe Biden and his family are beginning in the U.S. House with its new Republican majority, over allegations of influence peddling and illegally having unsecured classified documents that Chinese nationals could access.
“Biden Docs“ is what some call the newest scandal about the Biden family. This controversy is getting much airplay beyond conservative Fox News, on more liberal mainstream news channels and programs. A CBS News investigation broke the story. Once it did, the Justice Department started releasing information to the media. It came out that the Biden family’s unlawful possession of classified documents was first detected on Nov. 2 and promptly reported to Justice officials, who kept the news from the public for two months.
The fifth official find of classified documents in Joe Biden’s possession was on Jan. 21. There were six classified “items,” government news releases revealed. But there was no clarification on whether six items refers to six huge containers, folders, or documents.
A photo shows that the top of an old box found atop a table and with documents in it is blatantly labeled “Important Docs + Photos.” That tips off any snooping people that sensitive materials are there.
‘Bounty’ Hunter?
There is alarm over the combination of Hunter Biden allegedly taking foreign bribes on behalf of his family and and having access to United States secrets — including Ukraine, among countries from which he received payments.
Hunter, now 52, listed the Biden family mansion in Wilmington, Del. as his billing address in 2018 and 2019 when classified documents were there including in that marked box, the New York Post reported. With such access, Hunter thus had the chance to use secret papers to provide inside diplomatic information to countries, and he ended up getting huge sums from foreign business interests.
Further, Hunter reportedly was restoring his father’s vintage Corvette in the garage. If so, he was close to the classified documents which a published photo indicates are loosely kept behind the car. That photo showed the garage door open while Joe Biden driving the car on the driveway.
Biden home security gaps include the apparent lack of visitor logs, and lack of security guards before he became president in early 2021. Hunter Biden reportedly had various guests in the family home for illegal drug binges, as indicated by photos he posted on social media of his using drugs and carousing with women there.
Much national media still defends Joe Biden as innocently having secret documents, and plays down Joe’s role in foreign payments to the Biden family. Many are focusing instead on Mike Pence having documents after his own vice-presidency. That lessens the point that Joe Biden or surrogates took classified material while he was vice-president and right after leaving in early 2017, despite the law that only a president is authorized to declassify and have classified documents.
Still, more news outlets are finally turning on Joe Biden. This happens now that he is stepping up public appearances, in what is seen as his laying a foundation for his running for re-election. The sudden scrutiny of Biden is interpreted as liberal media interests seeing him as far less electable, and preferring someone else as the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee.
“We elected Joe Biden to be better than this,” a recent Time magazine editorial stated. CNN’s State of the Union host Jake Tapper said on Jan. 22 that Biden’s garage “does not look like what a secure location would be.” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) wondered out loud who has had access to these documents, speaking as a guest on Face the Nation on Jan. 22.
A CNN report last week echoed much earlier reports that the Hunter Biden laptop data shows that Joe Biden, when he was vice-president, met with at least 14 of his son Hunter’s powerful business associates from other countries. CNN pointed out how this contradicts Joe Biden’s denials about ever meeting such associates. Photos first shown on Fox News months ago show Joe Biden with Hunter Biden’s foreign business associates.
A very alarming aspect of the documents scandal is whether any of the classified documents verify Biden influence peddling — such as by acknowledging payments to Hunter Biden from Chinese, Ukrainian, and Russian magnates. Republicans on U.S. House committees are trying to obtain these secret documents and also memos on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop that the FBI possessed since late 2019.
Attorney General Merritt Garland announced a special counsel is investigating the Biden documents situation. The FBI reportedly considered monitoring search of documents Biden has, but opted not to. Instead, the Justice Department is letting Biden attorneys without security clearance sift through documents while unmonitored. That opens up the chance for destroying incriminating evidence such as of alleged Biden influence peddling.
Influence Peddling?
Ultimately, the most damaging aspect of the Biden Docs might be what some of the secret documents reveal about the Biden family’s contact with foreign officials and representatives and receiving substantial payoffs from them. Specifically, the alleged influence peddling’s illegal activity includes accepting gifts from foreign interests and the transfer of foreign money to the Biden family, Georgetown University law professor Jonathan Turley told Fox News.
New House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said that a prime concern is over members of the Biden family getting huge payments from China and other foreign interests, and if that is shaping the administration’s pro-China policies.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said on Fox News on Jan. 16 that ”we have a president of the United States who, for all practical purposes, runs a criminal family with his two brothers (Jim and Frank), his son (Hunter). There is no other reasonable behavior that explains it. Except that they were all selling influence — and he knew it, and he personally profited from it.”
Powerful Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) said, “The Biden family’s suspicious business dealings with companies tied to Communist China are a national security threat. The Bidens sold access to foreign adversaries like China to enrich themselves to the detriment of American interests.”
Comer chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. He is about to conduct hearings on Biden family scandals. Comer said, “The Bidens flourished and became millionaires, by simply offering access to the family. Among the dozens of shell companies that the Bidens set up, there were millions of dollars in wire transfers, flights on Air Force Two (for the vice-president) to conduct personal business, and meetings with heads of state — all while Joe Biden was aware of what was happening.”
Comer emphasized that his probing goes far beyond Hunter Biden. “This is an investigation of Joe Biden, the president of the United States. And why he lied to the American people about his knowledge and participation in his family’s international business schemes.”
‘Rent’ to the ‘Big Guy’
A federal investigation based in the Bidens’ home state of Delaware is into Hunter Biden’s potential violations of tax, foreign lobbying and money laundering laws through his foreign business dealings. Hunter Biden is depicted as his family’s “bag man,” the frontman for collecting and distributing payments. Hunter claimed in a leaked document that he was paying nearly $50,000 per month in rent, while living at the family home. Rep. Comer said that Joe Biden’s tax returns did not report that rent income.
Some observers estimate that $50,000 is ten times the valid rental rate for the Biden home. They say that these exorbitant rental payments look more like Hunter Biden passing on foreign payoffs to his father. Joe Biden is implicated as the “Big Guy” in some Hunter Biden memos including complaints about giving a cut to his father in business deals. Joe was confirmed as the “Big Guy” by Hunter’s former business partner Tony Bobulinski to Fox News in 2020 before the last election. That revelation was ignored by the mainstream media.
Painting Suspicious Picture
The means of making foreign payoffs to the Bidens vary. Hunter Biden took up painting. He reportedly put his works up for sale for a whopping $500,000 each. Critics wonder who would pay such a hefty sum, and whether they are actually buying influence with the Bidens. Disclosure of who these buyers are and who they represent would paint a clearer picture. At least five prints of Hunter Biden paintings sold for $75,000 each at the Georges Berges Gallery in New York City. Images of his exhibits there on the gallery’s website, the New York Post reported.
Green from Red China
The most glaring foreign payment to the Bidens is reportedly $5 million in Chinese money, as a “forgivable loan” that does not have to be repaid. Banks in the United States flagged as suspicious activity more than 150 transactions involving Hunter Biden or his uncle Jim Biden, according to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. Sean Hannity first revealed this on his Fox show on Nov. 17, and reiterated it last week.
The Washington Post reported that bank records reveal that Hunter Biden also received $3.8 million in consulting fees to aid Chinese business interests, and there is a signed copy proving he was on a $1 million legal retainer.
Penn Biden Center
China fits in squarely with the emerging Biden Docs scandal and revelations about the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, D.C. At least ten classified documents were found in a locked closet in Joe Biden’s office in that think tank, CNN noted.
Rep. Comer is seeking records to try to confirm allegations that Chinese money was the bulk of recent donations to the University of Pennsylvania. A total of $67 million went to Penn, with most ($47.7 million) arriving after the Penn Biden Center opened five years ago on Feb. 8, 2018. A Penn spokesperson claims the university did not receive Chinese donations directly. But that leaves open third-party funneling of money.
Further, Hunter Biden reportedly shared another office in D.C. with his Chinese business, who also had keys and access to papers stored there.
Other Foreign Payments
Hunter Biden allegedly got money from both Ukraine and Russia, which are now at war. Russian billionaire Elena Baturina reportedly wired $3.5 million to a Rosemont Seca Thornton LLC bank account in 2014 to pay Hunter Biden, to help her secure $100 million in U.S. real estate deals, according to a Senate GOP report. His lawyer denied the money went to Hunter and that he co-founded Thornton.
Ukrainian oil and gas exploration holding company Burisma in 2014 reportedly put onto its board Hunter Biden and Devon Archer, who were business partners in Rosemont-Seneca-Bohai, LLC (RSB). This is according to RSB records revealed in a criminal probe of RSB in New York in 2018. Joe Biden was still vice-president in 2014-16, and in charge of U.S. policy regarding Ukraine.
Hunter Biden’s monthly payment amount and its duration are listed by RSB as $83,333 per month for two years. In return, in early 2016 Burisma’s consulting firm Blue Star Strategies “used Hunter Biden’s name in a request for a State Department meeting and then mentioned him again during the meeting,” the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) states. Federal law requires registering as lobbyists for foreign clients, if representing their interests.
A Kazakhstan banker wired $142,300 to RSB in 2014 for Hunter to buy a Fisker sports car, the WSJ reported. This was done on the very day that then-V.P. Joe Biden spoke with Ukrainian legislators in Kyiv about sanctioning Russia for invading Crimea.