What Did Hunter Biden and His Family Get So Much Money For? An investigation conducted by a Republican-led House of Representatives panel has reportedly shown it has more details on President Joe Biden’s business practices and those of his family – with a big focus on Hunter Biden.
The chairman of the House Oversight Committee and his staff has been combing through financial records administered by the Department of the Treasury and various banks. Congressman James Comer said April 17 that Treasury Suspicious Activity Reports have been uncovered that are connected to a total of nine Biden family members who may have improperly received payments from a Chinese energy firm.
Investigation Has Found Records Showing Significant Dollar Amounts
“The Biden family enterprise is centered on Joe Biden’s political career and connections, and it has generated an exorbitant amount of money for the Biden family. We’ve identified six additional members of Joe Biden’s family who may have benefited from the Biden family’s businesses that we are investigating, bringing the total number of those involved or benefiting to nine,” Comer said in a committee statement.
Mr. President, What Do You Know About the Investigation?
On April 18, Biden attended a Rose Garden event and a reporter from the New York Post asked if the president was aware of the committee’s findings about his nine family members connected to the Suspicious Activity Reports.
The president was walking close to the journalist who asked three questions about the investigation and its new findings. Biden took off his sunglasses and hurriedly made his way toward the White House ignoring the queries. The Post reporter tried one more time to engage Biden while he conducted a photo op with supporters.
Hunter Biden and the Suspicious Money Trail
Previously Comer had trumpeted initial findings of Suspicious Activity Reports that showed three members of the Biden family (Hunter Biden, his uncle, and his sister-in-law) who received partial proceeds from a $3 million of a payment from overseas company CEFC China Energy. The president has denied knowledge of Hunter’s overseas business interests and activity. His three relatives received over a million dollars in disbursements from wire transfers from a business associate named Rob Walker in 2017.
Nothing to See Here
Hunter’s legal team has acknowledged the payment but has claimed it was legal “seed money” for setting up a business concern in the United States. White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said the payments investigation is based on “lies and inaccuracies.” Biden has said that reports of the wire transfers were “not true.”
It is unclear what the payments to the Bidens were for. It is unlikely they are for seed money for a new business. If that were the case, there would be a large paper trail of documents. This paperwork would include corporate business registration and tax forms, licensing, stock issuance records, and other types of files. The oversight committee is likely trying to find evidence of this paperwork that would substantiate the seed money claim.
Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace, who is a member of the committee, said in an Instagram video reviewed by the UK Daily Mail on April 17 that the “amount of money that is allegedly trading hands in the suspicious activity reports is ‘astronomical’ and that the number of Biden family members involved is ‘wild.’”
Democrats on the committee maintain that the investigation is a phony fishing expedition that has led to no evidence of substantial illegal activity by the Biden family and does not implicate the president at all. Biden has said repeatedly that he has no knowledge of his son Hunter’s overseas business activity. Democrats have also said that the Suspicious Activity Reports are often simply tips to law enforcement and are not proof that any illegal actions have taken place.
It will be interesting to see whether Comer will release the additional names of the Biden family who he says are involved. It seems the more the Republicans dig, the more they find, and the White House will continue to deny that there is a genuine case against the Biden family. “Where there is smoke there is fire,” the Republicans would say, while the Democrats claim there is no “smoke” at all.
Author Expertise and Experience:
Serving as 19FortyFive’s Defense and National Security Editor, Dr. Brent M. Eastwood is the author of Humans, Machines, and Data: Future Trends in Warfare. He is an Emerging Threats expert and former U.S. Army Infantry officer. You can follow him on Twitter @BMEastwood. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science and Foreign Policy/ International Relations.
