Moving the Goal Posts on the Hunter Biden Investigation

The speed at which the White House and press corps are moving the goal posts for what counts as shameful Biden family business is remarkable, though it doesn’t change the facts. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer’s release of evidence of family payments to Joe Biden are a problem for the White House, no matter the spin.

Mr. Comer has produced images of two checks made out to Joe Biden, both drawn from an account held by his brother James and sister-in-law Sara. Both entangle Joe in his family’s sordid financial dealings and undercut his claims that he knew nothing. It’s a far cry from Candidate Biden’s claim in 2019 that there was an “absolute wall” between himself and the Biden family business. The committee’s account is as follows: The first check to Joe was written on Sept. 3, 2017, although the money trail begins earlier with his son Hunter. In the first half of 2017, Hunter and business associates negotiated a joint company with CEFC, a Shanghai-based energy company linked to the Chinese government. One email from a Hunter associate that discussed equity stakes suggested 10% of the joint venture be held by Hunter for “the big guy.”.....

As House Republicans have dug in, Team Biden’s explanations have shifted. First, Joe had “never spoken” to Hunter about business. Then, the president was “not in business” with his son. Now, as per ranking Oversight Democrat Jamie Raskin, Joe “did not profit from his family members’ business ventures.” The goal posts are now on another field altogether. Yet the evidence—ranging from proof that Joe was on Hunter’s business calls to these latest checks—is that Joe knew about the family cash-in on his name and lent both his presence and his money to that cause.

jonathanturley.com

snip

House investigators discovered that, in 2018, the president’s brother, James, received two loans totaling $600,000 from Americore Health, which they described as “a financially distressed and failing rural hospital operator.” According to the company’s bankruptcy proceedings, it made the loans “based upon representations that his last name, ‘Biden,’ could ‘open doors’” to new overseas investors. On the day he received the second loan transfer, James Biden sent a check for the same amount — $200,000 — to Joe Biden as a “loan reimbursement.”

Recently, the House Oversight Committee revealed that just after Joe Biden announced his 2020 presidential candidacy, Hunter Biden received a $250,000 loan from a Chinese businessman using the address of his father’s Delaware home. The generous transfer of funds was from Xiangsheng “Jonathan” Li, a Chinese businessman connected to the investment fund Bohai Harvest RST. (President Biden reportedly later wrote a college-admission recommendation for Li’s daughter).

What happened next was vintage Biden family: A Hollywood lawyer, who had just met Hunter at a political gathering, reportedly suddenly took over the repayment of that loan, with no explanation, and later reportedly paid for some of Hunter’s tax bills and living expenses as well.

So, it appears that $250,000 went to Hunter, but the loan obligation was shifted to a Democratic political donor.

There is also a reference to another loan agreement with a Chinese company for $5.1 million. Notably, the loan was, again, “interest-free.” The source was CEFC China Energy headed by Ye Jianming. Text messages reportedly indicated plans for Joe Biden to meet with Jianming, who reportedly had close ties to the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

In addition to these loans, money seemed to move between myriad accounts connected to various Biden family members, according to House Oversight Committee findings. And we know from reports of some of Hunter Biden’s text messages that he complained about using money he acquired to pay for repairs to his father’s Delaware home.

None of this, however, appears to pique much of the media’s curiosity. Because the word “loan” was written on some of these documents, it is once again accepted by many at face value. In discussing a “loan” connected to one Hunter-connected company, Rosemont Seneca Bohai, IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley called this a classic tax-evasion move.

Shapley said that “when the money came back to him, he booked it as a loan. You then go on to testify that it should’ve been taxable as soon as it became income from Burisma to Hunter and whatever he did with it after that was really just a scheme to evade taxes for that year. You add that Rosemont Seneca Bohai did not book this as a loan, itself, so Biden is treating it differently than they did.”

Despite the Bidens’ denials about money, it seems to be everywhere and nowhere — metastasizing and spreading throughout the dozens of accounts, banks and family members identified by House investigators. Yet many in the media and most Democratic members of Congress appear to be firmly committed to assuring that all of this remains “a wonderful life” for Joe Biden and his family.

Jonathan Turley, an attorney, constitutional law scholar and legal analyst, is the Shapiro Chair for Public Interest Law at The George Washington University Law School.

Speculation mounts over ID of newest Biden family
member who got cut of $3M wire (from the chicoms)
NY Post ^ | 3/14/23 | Victor Nava
Posted on 3/14/2023, 7:18:26 PM by Libloather

It’s Washington’s newest guessing game: Who is the unnamed Biden family member who got proceeds from a $3 million wire to Hunter Biden associate John “Rob” Walker weeks after Joe Biden left the vice presidency in 2017?

Oversight Committee Chair James Comer first revealed Monday that bank records obtained via subpoena implicate a “new Biden family member” in the panel’s probe of the first son’s alleged influence-peddling scheme.

Comer is expected to reveal the person’s name at some point, but has not yet announced specific plans to do so, leaving the door open to speculation about who else could have been on the receiving end.

The Kentucky Republican told Fox News that the records obtained from Bank of America show that in March 2017, Walker received a $3 million wire transfer from two individuals with ties to the Chinese Communist Party, which he then divvied up to multiple Biden family members.

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...

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