WASHINGTON – President Biden tried to laugh off questions Thursday about whether he would comply with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s request for his bank records ahead of a possible impeachment inquiry into his role in first son Hunter’s foreign business dealings.
“Hee-hee-hee,” the 80-year-old president chuckled as he joked with reporters at FEMA headquarters in Washington after discussing Tropical Storm Idalia’s impact on Florida and nearby states.
“Let’s talk about why I’m here,” Biden deflected.
Biden has answered without complaint several earlier questions unrelated to the storm, including about Drug Overdose Awareness Day, the health of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and the possibility of a partial government shutdown.
After declining to discuss his financial statements, Biden went on to answer another question unrelated to the storm, about the possible presence of Chinese President Xi Jinping at next month’s G20 summit in India.
Biden declined to answer similar questions about his bank records as he left the East Room of the White House Monday following an event focused on civil rights.
President Biden laughed when asked a question about House Speaker Kevin McCarthy requesting his bank records.REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
McCarthy has said that Congress may launch an impeachment inquiry into Biden.AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Sunday that the launch of the impeachment inquiry was a “natural step forward” that “provides Congress with the ultimate legal authority to get all the information they need,” citing alleged obstruction of multiple requests for information.
McCarthy said on August 8 that he wanted Biden to “give us his bank statements” to resolve the question of whether he personally profited from his family’s dealings in the country where he held the reins as vice president.
Hunter Biden wrote in an email taken from his former laptop that he had to give “half” of his income to Joe Biden and the House Oversight Committee in May identified nine members of the Biden family who allegedly received foreign income.
Biden declined to answer the question again when asked later at an event in the East Room of the White House.REUTERS/Leah Millis
The Oversight Committee has requested a variety of records — most recently requesting from National Archives emails containing Joe Biden’s use of the pseudonyms “Robin Ware” and “Robert L. Peters” — of which more than 5,000 reportedly exist.
The panel is also looking for Air Force Two flight manifests showing Hunter’s use of the jet and has issued subpoenas to banks seeking records on foreign transactions, although it is unclear whether any have yet been issued for members of the Biden family rather than their associates.
Joe Biden’s role as vice president repeatedly intersected with Hunter’s foreign affairs.
The then-second son founded the BHR Partners investment fund with the Chinese state-owned entity in 2013 just 12 days after Hunter joined Vice President Biden on Air Force Two for an official visit to Beijing, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The House Oversight Committee is investigating Hunter Biden’s foreign business deals.AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File
Hunter introduced his father to BHR CEO Jonathan Li during a visit to the Chinese capital and Joe Biden later wrote college recommendation letters for Li’s children.
Hunter’s former business partner Devon Archer told the Oversight Committee in a July 31 interview that Joe Biden had coffee with Li during the 2013 trip — rather than just a handshake as previously reported — and that Hunter put his father on speaker phone with Li during subsequent business trip to Beijing.
The then-vice president was put on speakerphone by his son during about 20 business meetings with associates from various countries and dined at least twice in Washington with his son’s associates from Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan, Archer said.
Hunter Biden held a 10% stake in BHR through at least part of his father’s first year in office and the status of his alleged divestment at the end of 2021 remains unclear. Allegedly leaked BHR documents suggest Hunter’s “sugar brother”, Kevin Morris, a wealthy Hollywood lawyer he met at a 2019 fundraiser, may have taken a controlling interest.
Hunter and James Biden later launched a second business venture in China with another government-linked company, CEFC China Energy, which forms part of Beijing’s “Belt and Road” campaign of foreign influence.
Months after leaving office as vice president, Joe Biden allegedly met twice with his son and his brother’s CEFC partner and was referred to as the “big guy” who got a 10% cut in a May 2017 email about CEFC.
Two of Hunter Biden’s former allies in the effort, Tony Bobulinski and James Gilliar, identified the president as a “big guy.”
Bobulinski claimed that he discussed the CEFC deal with Joe Biden and that an October 2017 email from eldest son Hunter Biden’s laptop identified Joe Biden as a participant in a call about CEFC’s attempt to buy US natural gas.
Biden speaks at FEMA headquarters on Aug. 31, 2023.AP Photo/Evan Vucci
The CEFC relationship appears to have started around 2015 when Hunter connected with Vuk Jeremic, the former Serbian foreign minister and president of the United Nations General Assembly who is running for UN secretary general, as his father is the vice president.
IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, who investigated Hunter for three and five years respectively, said in recent congressional testimony that Justice Department officials prevented them from investigating Joe Biden’s role in business dealings, despite direct communications mentioning it.
Shapley provided the panel with a WhatsApp message on July 30, 2017 in which Hunter wrote he was “sitting here with my father” and threatened punishment if the deal was canceled, immediately before the transfer of $5.1 million from CEFC China Energy to a Biden-related account — in addition to more than $1 million transferred earlier this year.
Shapley said that prosecutors in Delaware who brokered a trial-only plea deal rejected last month by a federal judge also failed to inform the IRS team that a paid FBI informant provided information that Mykola Zlochevsky, owner of natural gas company Burisma Holdings, paid Hunter up to $1 million. a year starting in 2014, said in 2016 that he was “forced” to pay $10 million in bribes to Joe and Hunter Biden in exchange for the then-vice president’s help in firing a prosecutor.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
