Do the Republicans have anything on Hunter Biden?: Congressional Republicans are making investigating the president’s son a key part of their message this year – but do they have anything that ties Hunter to wrongdoing by his father? And is there any indication that going after Hunter is a political winner?
The War on Hunter Biden Continues On…
Since the Republicans took over the House of Representatives at the start of the year, they have vowed to investigate President Joe Biden. And most of those investigations have centered around the president’s son, Hunter Biden.
The House Oversight Committee, in particular, has a decdicated website for what it calls the “Biden Family Investigation.”
“Chairman James Comer and Oversight Committee Republicans are investigating the Biden family’s domestic and international business dealings to determine whether these activities compromise U.S. national security and President Biden’s ability to lead with impartiality,” the site says.
“Members of the Biden family have a pattern of peddling access to the highest levels of government to enrich themselves, often to the detriment of U.S. interests. We are committed to following the Biden family and associates’ money trail—consisting of many complex, international transactions worth millions of dollars—and providing answers to the American people.”
In recent weeks, the Oversight Committee has said it uncovered financial details of a business deal in which several relatives of Biden received payments from a Chinese company called State Energy HK Limited. The payments took place in 2017 after Biden left the vice presidency; there is no indication that the president himself received any money in the deal.
Indeed, investigations thus far have not tied the president to any wrongdoing involving his son. The Hill wrote this week that the Hunter Biden investigations are starting to “put GOP under some pressure.”
“It isn’t that the Biden White House isn’t taking the probe seriously, allies maintain. In recent months, the president has built a team of nearly two dozen lawyers along with communications and legislative aides to manage House GOP investigations and other inquiries,” The Hill story said. Biden allies, meanwhile, have pointed to an NBC News poll showing that more than half of Americans believe that the GOP will spend “too much time investigating President Joe Biden and not enough time on other priorities.”
Democrats Come to the Rescue
Democrats in Congress also defended the president.
“I think this was litigated in 2020, and I don’t think this is what’s gonna have traction,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) told The Hill. “I’m far more concerned about what’s gonna happen with the economy and manufacturing and inflation than this.“
Meanwhile, last week Hunter Biden filed a defamation suit against John Paul Mac Isaac, the Delaware computer shop owner who received Hunter Biden’s laptop in 2019 and subsequently supplied its contents to Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani. Mac Isaac had earlier sued Hunter Biden, also for defamation.
“Mac Isaac intended and knew, or clearly should have known, that people to whom he provided the data that he believed to belong to Mr Biden would use it against then-candidate Joseph Biden and to assist then-President Trump,” the filing of the lawsuit said, per The BBC. It went on to describe this action as “offensive and objectionable to Mr Biden, and would be highly offensive and objectionable to any reasonable person.”
Material from the laptop, much of it embarrassing for the younger Hunter Biden, has trickled out over the last two-and-a-half years.
MORE: Is AOC a Sellout?
MORE: Kamala Harris ‘Seems to Be An Albatross’
MORE: Pete Buttigieg: Running for President?
MORE: What Trump Getting Arrested Could Look Like
The New York Post noted that any suit filed by Hunter Biden would be subject to discovery, which could have blowback for the president- even possibly leading to the president having to give a deposition.
“Discovery is very broad. It would include emails, texts with his father, and potentially all the contents of [Hunter’s] computer, even that which hasn’t yet been revealed. So it’s a very risky decision to get involved in litigation when you might have things to hide,” attorney Alan Dershowitz told the Post.
Expertise and Experience:
Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.
