Hunter Biden is one inconvenient presidential son. Whether it’s his business dealings, a cursed laptop, drug addiction, or exploits with women, he makes news for the wrong reasons.
His father has defended him for being one of the “smartest guys” he knows.
But now the younger Biden is in another mess, this time for his entrepreneurship record with Chinese companies.
This alleged shady relationship has followed him around like a dark cloud.
Democrats want his political opponents and the media to move on from Hunter’s laptop. They believe that there are more important national problems to address than re-litigating alleged influence peddling by Hunter.
The Left-Centered Media Is Even Covering the Scandal
But even the most liberal publications such as USA Today and CNN are posing questions for Hunter and echoing and enhancing a Republican investigation into his Chinese business activities. House GOP members have zeroed in on it with a microscope.
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee is looking at payments made to Hunter and other family members from Chinese companies. The committee chair, Kentucky’s James Comer, believes that the Biden cabal has received $1.3 million that flowed through a family business associate named Rob Walker and eventually most of that total went into the bank accounts of Hunter, James Biden (the president’s brother), and Hallie Biden (the late Beau Biden’s wife).
Comer is suspicious of the amount of money and is not sure how the Biden’s did the work to warrant such a high level of payment.
The congressman has focused on bank records from 2015 to 2017. This is when the elder Biden was vice president and into the first year after he left office. On March 1, 2017, State Energy HK Limited, a Chinese energy company, wired $3 million to a company associated with Rob Walker. Then Walker disbursed funds to James Biden and Hunter, plus $25,000 to Hallie Biden, who was then serving as a school counselor.
Biden Administration Says Nothing to See Here
The White House has dismissed the payments as an example of Republicans refusing to solve real public policy problems and attacking the Biden family with flimsy evidence.
“Instead of bizarrely attacking the president’s family, perhaps House Republicans should focus on working with the president to deliver results for American families on important priorities like lowering costs and strengthening health care,” presidential spokesman Ian Sams said months back.
Comer is undeterred. “Hunter Biden has taken in millions and millions of dollars from our adversaries, mainly in China, and I think we need to determine, what was that money for?”
You Haven’t Seen the End of the Hunter Biden Investigation
The committee chair plans to seize even more bank records for the panel to examine. Republicans believe that the Chinese companies had sway and influence over the Bidens, including the president.
In fairness to the Bidens, the money sent to them could have been in exchange for legitimate business activity such as initial seed funds for getting the firm off the ground along with public relations and marketing services.
So far there is little evidence that President Biden was using his office and name for improper money transfers or that he was a part of what Hunter was doing. But the high amount of funding that was moved to Biden bank accounts is suspicious and raises questions about what it was used for, especially for Hallie considering she was not seemingly acting in a business role.
The White House is in “explain” mode which usually means it is defensive and knows that this is a political and legal problem for the president.
“Hunter received his portion of good faith seed funds which he shared with his uncle, James Biden, and Hallie Biden with whom he was involved with at the time, and sharing expenses,” the White House spokesperson said back in March, calling the whole investigation a “right-wing conspiracy.”
Despite protestations from the White House, the House Republicans have found enough evidence to warrant further investigation. Jurors understand bank records and know how to follow money in politics because there is a clear source and a recipient.
Hunter Biden and his crew may not be able to dig themselves out from the reek of this scandal as it develops. Republicans will be hot on this trail and the Biden administration will have to play defense at every turn.
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.
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