https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/10/us/politics/hunter-biden-house-
republicans-report.html
House Republican Report Finds No Evidence of Wrongdoing by President
Biden After months of investigation and many public accusations of
corruption against Mr. Biden and his family, the first report of the
premier House G.O.P. inquiry showed no proof of such misconduct.
By Luke Broadwater
Reporting from Washington
May 10, 2023
After four months of investigation, House Republicans who promised to use
their new majority to unearth evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden
acknowledged on Wednesday that they had yet to uncover incriminating
material about him, despite their frequent insinuations that he and his
family have been involved in criminal conduct and corruption.
At a much-publicized news conference on Capitol Hill to show the
preliminary findings of their premier investigation into Mr. Biden and
his family, leading Republicans released financial documents detailing
how some of the president’s relatives were paid more than $10 million
from foreign sources between 2015 and 2017.
Republicans described the transactions as proof of “influence peddling”
by Mr. Biden’s family, including his son Hunter Biden, and referenced
some previously known, if unflattering, details of the younger Mr.
Biden’s business dealings. Those included an episode in which he accepted
a 2.8-carat diamond from a Chinese businessman. G.O.P. lawmakers also
produced material suggesting that President Biden and his allies had at
times made misleading statements in their efforts to push back
aggressively against accusations of wrongdoing by Hunter Biden.
But on Wednesday, the Republicans conceded that they had yet to find
evidence of a specific corrupt action Mr. Biden took in office in
connection with any of the business deals his son entered into. Instead,
their presentation underscored how little headway top G.O.P. lawmakers
have made in finding clear evidence of questionable transactions they can
tie to Mr. Biden, their chief political rival.
It has not stopped them from accusing the president of serious
misconduct.
“I want to be clear: This committee is investigating President Biden and
his family’s shady business dealings to capitalize on Joe Biden’s public
office that risks our country’s national security,” said Representative
James R. Comer, Republican of Kentucky and the chairman of the Oversight
Committee. He emphasized that the president — not just his son — would be
the target of his investigation, which he said would now “enter a new
phase,” in which he would subpoena specific financial information based
on material learned through bank records.
Federal prosecutors have examined Hunter Biden’s international business
activities as part of a criminal investigation. But the only charges they
are considering, according to people familiar with the case, are
unrelated to his work abroad. They include tax charges related to his
failure to file his tax returns over several years, and a charge of lying
about his drug use on a federal form he filled out to purchase a handgun.
To date, Mr. Comer’s committee has issued four bank subpoenas, obtained
thousands of financial records and spoken with several people he
describes as whistle-blowers. Mr. Comer has also hired James Mandolfo, a
former federal prosecutor who has experience investigating foreign
corruption, to oversee the inquiry.
Here’s what we know so far.
Image
Abbe Lowell looks at his watch while standing atop a set of stairs
outside of a courthouse.
Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for Hunter Biden, said the report revealed nothing
new.Credit...Getty Images
Businesses connected to Hunter Biden received more than $10 million from
foreign companies, some with criminal ties.
The House Oversight Committee report focused on payments made to
companies connected to Hunter Biden from businesses and individuals in
Romania and China. Bank records obtained by the committee show the
receipt of money from a foreign company connected to Gabriel Popoviciu,
who was the subject of a criminal investigation and prosecution for
corruption in Romania.
In 2015, Mr. Popoviciu retained Hunter Biden, who is a lawyer, while his
father was vice president, to help try to fend off charges. That effort
was unsuccessful and, in 2016, Mr. Popoviciu was convicted on charges
related to a land deal in northern Bucharest, the Romanian capital.
The Biden Presidency
Immigration Policies: Surges of migrants have shaped President Biden’s
policies at the border in ways that few of his allies imagined when he
was running for president.
William Burns: The C.I.A. director, a key figure in bolstering the Biden
administration’s support for Ukraine, has amassed influence that goes
well beyond that of most previous spy chiefs.
Neera Tanden: Biden’s staff secretary will serve as the director of the
Domestic Policy Council, replacing Susan Rice in the role.
2024 Presidential Race: The president, who formally announced that he
would seek a second term, has downplayed concerns over his age, saying he
has a “job to finish” in bolstering the economy and reasserting U.S.
leadership abroad.
Mr. Comer has also focused on John R. Walker, an associate of Hunter
Biden who was involved in a joint venture with executives of CEFC China
Energy, a now-bankrupt Chinese conglomerate.
A Shanghai-based company, State Energy HK Limited, that was affiliated
with CEFC China Energy sent millions to Robinson Walker LLC, a company
associated with Mr. Walker, who then made payments to Hunter Biden and
other Biden family members.
Hunter Biden had cultivated a business relationship with Ye Jianming, the
founder of CEFC, who has been investigated by the Chinese authorities on
suspicion of economic crimes. In 2017, Mr. Ye gave Hunter Biden a 2.8-
carat diamond as a thank-you for a meeting.
“What would they be bribing me for? My dad wasn’t in office,” Hunter
Biden told The New Yorker in 2019, adding that he gave the diamond to his
associates. “I knew it wasn’t a good idea to take it. I just felt like it
was weird.”
CEFC had hoped to invest in a liquefied natural gas venture in Louisiana,
but that deal ultimately flopped.
Representatives of Hunter Biden characterize his business offerings at
the time as providing legal and consulting services.
The payments came at a time when Hunter Biden’s life and finances were
spiraling amid his drug addiction, and after the death of his brother,
Beau Biden, from brain cancer. Hunter Biden had begun a romantic
relationship with his brother’s widow. His business partner, Mr. Walker,
and his uncle James Biden were pursuing international business work.
Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for Hunter Biden, said in a statement that House
Republicans had revealed nothing new in their report.
“Today’s so-called ‘revelations' are retread, repackaged misstatements of
perfectly proper meetings and business by private citizens.” Mr. Lowell
said.
President Biden has falsely denied his son had ties to Chinese
businesses.
None of the payments detailed in the report went to President Biden
himself, nor has Mr. Comer’s investigation produced any evidence that Mr.
Biden ever took a corrupt action in connection with his son’s business
dealings.
But Mr. Biden has made several false or misleading statements about the
matter.
During the 2020 presidential debate, Mr. Biden claimed that no one in his
family had received money from China.
“My son has not made money in terms of this thing about — what are you
talking about, China,” Mr. Biden said, turning the charge on his
opponent, President Donald J. Trump. “The only guy who made money from
China is this guy. He’s the only one. Nobody else has made money from
China.”
This year, Mr. Biden also claimed that it was “not true” that family
members received more than $1 million from a Chinese firm.
Aides to Mr. Biden said he was speaking colloquially and was pushing back
generally on claims that his administration had been corrupted by Chinese
money.
Image
Hunter Biden greets crowds of people and shakes hands in Ireland.
The House Republicans’ report highlighted some previously known, if
unflattering, details of the Hunter Biden’s business
dealings.Credit...Kenny Holston/The New York Times
Presidents’ families have long made money off the family name.
During his news conference, Mr. Comer acknowledged that Hunter Biden
would have been far from the first relative of a president or vice
president to try to make money off the family name.
He invoked Billy Carter, the brother of former President Jimmy Carter,
who visited Libya and received a $220,000 loan; and Jared Kushner, Mr.
Trump’s son-in-law whose firm has received hundreds of millions from
Persian Gulf nations.
“This has been a pattern for a long time,” Mr. Comer said. “Republicans
and Democrats have both complained about presidents’ families receiving
money.”
However, Mr. Comer has conceded that he has no interest in investigating
Mr. Kushner’s conduct.
Officials allied with Mr. Biden played a role in wrongly discrediting
Hunter Biden’s laptop.
The report from Mr. Comer came as a second Republican-led House committee
is investigating a related issue. The House Judiciary Committee on
Wednesday released a report about a letter from 51 former intelligence
and security officials in 2020 that questioned materials — substantial
portions of which were later verified as authentic — from a laptop Hunter
Biden abandoned at a Delaware repair shop and suggested they might be
part of a Russian disinformation campaign.
The Republicans argue that the letter influenced the public to discount
the materials on the laptop, which contained evidence of Hunter Biden’s
drug use and sex life, which they believed would harm his father’s
electoral chances against Mr. Trump.
The Judiciary Committee report detailed the role played by Antony J.
Blinken, now the secretary of state and then a Biden campaign official,
in spearheading the letter, and said a C.I.A. employee had been involved
in soliciting at least one signature for it.
The intelligence officials maintain their letter stated they had no
evidence of a Russian disinformation campaign, and that they were merely
stating an opinion.
Mark Zaid, a lawyer who represents seven signatories to the letter, said
on Twitter that the report merely proved that “private citizens lawfully
exercised 1st Amendment rights” and added that there was not “even one
falsehood” in the letter.
“I know of no signatory who retracts a single word,” Mr. Zaid wrote.
Luke Broadwater covers Congress. He was the lead reporter on a series of
investigative articles at The Baltimore Sun that won a Pulitzer Prize and
a George Polk Award in 2020. @lukebroadwater
A version of this article appears in print on May 11, 2023, Section A,
Page 18 of the New York edition with the headline: 4-Month G.O.P. Inquiry
Finds No Evidence of Wrongdoing by President. Order Reprints | Today’s
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