The House Oversight Committee has issued a subpoena demanding an FBI file that a whistleblower claims connects President Biden to a “criminal scheme” involving “money for policy decisions” during his tenure as Vice President, suggesting corruption on the part of the former Vice President and a possible political cover-up leading up to the 2020 U.S. Presidential election. According to Republicans, the file pertains to potential misconduct by Joe Biden, as he is suspected of having worked on his behalf, rather than any possible criminal activity by his first son Hunter Biden or another relative that might indirectly implicate the President. The alleged wrongdoing is believed to have taken place in a country other than China, which had been previously implicated. The Oversight Committee’s subpoenaed document is an FD-1023 informant report that was “created or modified in June 2020” – several months before Biden’s election to the Presidency.
The Hunter Biden laptop story that emerged in 2020 provided the public with insight into Hunter Biden’s personal life, revealing that he used illegal substances and filmed homemade sex tapes while allegedly working for Burisma. According to the New York Post, the laptop contained emails and documents that implied Hunter Biden had taken advantage of his father’s role as Vice President to secure business deals in China and Ukraine. Other media outlets have since corroborated parts of the story, including emails suggesting that Hunter Biden introduced his father to a Ukrainian energy executive and pursued a lucrative deal with a Chinese energy company. However, during the election, the FBI allegedly covered up the evidence, social media companies were said to have been pressured to silence any discussion of the findings, and the media reportedly stayed silent for significant portions of the election cycle.
According to The New York Post:
The alleged corruption is believed to involve a country other than China, The Post understands. Two sources say the whistleblower is not the same person as the IRS agent who anonymously came forward last month to allege a coverup in the criminal investigation of the first son. Hunter and first brother James Biden reaped millions of dollars from business relationships in countries where their powerful relative held sway during and after his vice presidency.
Then-VP Biden interacted with his relatives’ foreign associates on multiple occasions — even though he denied as a presidential candidate ever discussing overseas business with his family. Among other foreign ventures, Hunter Biden earned up to $1 million per year to serve on the board of Ukrainian gas firm Burisma from 2014 to 2019, beginning when his father was put in charge of the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy.
Just days after Hunter joined the board, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, at the time a vice presidential aide, told reporters on Air Force Two en route to Kyiv that Joe Biden would push for US support to Ukraine’s natural gas industry, which later that year was awarded $50 million by Congress.
Comer’s investigation of the Biden family’s influence peddling has featured subpoenas for the bank records of their associates, and Oversight Committee staff recently reviewed Suspicious Activity Reports filed by banks to the Treasury Department alerting authorities to potential crimes.
The recently Republican-controlled Congress will persist in their impartial investigation of the subject. The ongoing inquiry by Comer into the Biden family’s purported influence-peddling involves subpoenas for bank records linked to their associates, as well as scrutiny of Suspicious Activity Reports submitted by banks to the Treasury Department warning of possible crimes involving international banks.
With the 2024 U.S. Presidential election approaching, the Republican-led Congress’s independent review of the Biden family’s influence-peddling investigation is timely. Donald Trump is leading in polls and is likely to become the GOP’s candidate to challenge Joe Biden. Unlike the previous election, Trump won’t have to face challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic, media bias blaming him for COVID-19 deaths, the cover-up of the Hunter Biden story, and the Black Lives Matter riots that occurred in the summer of 2020. However, he may have to face new challenges from the left-wing mob, which could complicate his campaign.
