by John Solomon and Steven Richards
House Republicans have built a mountain of incontrovertible evidence that Hunter Biden made millions while his father was vice president from business associates with unsavory backgrounds, including a Ukrainian energy firm deemed corrupt by the State Department, a Chinese executive convicted by DOJ of corruption, a Russian oligarch unable to get an American bank account because of red flags, a Romanian oligarch charged with bribery in his country, and two Americans convicted of securities fraud.
And now, an Associated Press/University of Chicago poll shows that two thirds of Americans believe Joe Biden did something illegal or unethical.
But the tangle of complex transactions and foreign names can often complicate the explanations of influence peddling.
The two chairmen leading Joe Biden’s impeachment inquiry are zeroing in on a simple question that could transform their case: With so many red flags surrounding Hunter Biden, did U.S intelligence or the FBI give then-Vice President Joe Biden or his boss, President Barack Obama, briefings about the risks of the Biden family business?
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer told Just the News this week he believes he may soon prove that happened.
“It’s my belief that they did occur,” Comer told the “Just the News, No Noise” television program Wednesday night. “We’re still looking to try to prove my theory. We know from communication that was on the laptop and communication that we’ve received throughout this investigation that Joe Biden was well aware, and was actively approving or disapproving, the messaging, the spin machine between what the Bidens were really doing versus what the mainstream media was reporting.”
“It would be hard to imagine that from what we’ve heard from people in the Obama administration that testified that Hunter was a problem that Joe had a soft spot for his corrupt son that they weren’t receiving definitive briefings and, and FBI briefings and intelligence briefings on all the shady stuff Hunter Biden was doing,” he added.
Such a warning would transform the narrative and raise troubling questions about why Joe Biden would take calls with his son’s clients and join them for dinner at Cafe Milano if he had been warned.
All the while, Biden has repeatedly told an unquestioning media and the public that he never had anything at all to do with his son’s businesses.
In April, Comer and Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Director of National Intelligence Avril Hanes to find out if then-Vice President Biden had received a defense briefing about any of his son’s foreign business dealings with foreign individuals.
“The Committees seek to understand if, because of Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings and his vulnerabilities, Joe Biden was given “defensive” briefings to discuss potential foreign interference either during his time as Vice President or while he was a presidential candidate,” the Chairmen wrote.
Jordan told the “John Solomon Reports” podcast on Thursday that his committee has not received a response from the FBI, but vowed to keep digging.
“Was there a real defensive briefing given to then Vice President Biden about the activity of his of his son and is in his involvement with Burisma being on the board?” Jordan asked. The questions first arose after his committee dug into the defensive briefing process.
“And then when we had Devon Archer under oath during his deposition, and he told us how Hunter Biden got on the phone and called DC after Zlochevsky, the head of Burisma said, ‘Hey, we’re under pressure, can you help?’ And so all this and it fits in with that timeframe, that 2016 timeframe, 2015 timeframe that all this was going on,” Jordan said.
“So that’s what we want to know, we don’t have anything new to say we’re digging into this. Like, like so many of our investigations, we’ll just we’ll just plow into it and see what we discover,” he added.
The FBI told Just the News it had no comment about Jordan’s letter or the status of its response.
Evidence obtained by Just the News from a 2016 investigation of Hunter Biden and his partners by the FBI, SEC and IRS shows the government had identified several red flags about the first son as it explored a suspicious bond deal involving an Indian tribe, in one case flagging Hunter Biden’s role on the board of Burisma along with Devon Archer, his business partner at Rosemont Seneca who was at the center of the securities fraud investigation.
Archer was later charged alongside other co-defendants, including Hunter Biden business partner Jason Galanis, for the tribal bonds scheme. Both were ultimately convicted for their role in the scheme. Archer appealed his conviction, and the conviction was overturned and then reinstated. Archer eventually appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which affirmed the conviction.
Recently, a federal judge ordered Archer to be resentenced after he was originally ordered to prison for one year and a day. Archer had argued that a sentencing guidelines calculation error warranted a second look from the judge because of “ineffective assistance of counsel.”
In an internal briefing marked “confidential,” Morgan Stanley compliance officials identified Hunter Biden as an “unrelated 3rd party,” but noted his affiliation with Burisma Holdings and Rosemont Seneca as well as past scrutiny in a “hedge fund lawsuit involving fraud.”
“Hunter is also on the Board of Ukranian [sic] gas firm Burisma Holdings Ltd (an entity not involved with the Wakpamni bonds),” the briefing reads.
The briefing is undated, but a separate internal compliance presentation from Morgan Stanley dated May 8, 2015 again highlighted Biden’s connections with Burisma Holdings as well as his close business relationship with Archer. That presentation also raised questions about Biden’s “less than clean” record.
“No clear illegal activity is being accused, but authors of this presentation determined activity was suspicious enough to warrant escalation of review by appropriate internal Compliance representatives,” the internal presentation said, referring to the suspicious tribal bonds scheme.
Later that summer, Morgan Stanley communicated about an escalation in the probe and cited Hunter Biden’s relationship with Archer again. This time, the officials mentioned that Archer had previously come under scrutiny over a real estate transaction with Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina.
Baturina is the second wealthiest female of Russian origin, with a net worth estimated by Forbes as $1.3 billion. The Guardian reported that U.S. Ambassador to Russia under Presidents Bush and Obama John Beyrle, made allegations that she and her husband, the late Moscow veteran mayor Yuri Luzhkov, had links to major criminal groups.
“Additionally, Archer, through RSB accounts and others in his household, has engaged in suspect behavior related to the purchase and attempted sale of shares of Wakpamni Indian Tribe bond, which are currently valued at $0 by the MS Fixed Income desk. Archer has previously been brought to the attention of Bank AML following a real estate transaction with Russian oligarch Elena Baturina and because of his close relationships with Hunter Biden, the son of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and the son of current U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry,” the financial crimes official wrote colleagues.
Hunter Biden was closely involved in the deal with Baturina, who dined with his father at the upscale Georgetown restaurant, Cafe Milano, only weeks after she deposited $3.5 million into a bank account tied to Hunter Biden’s businesses and also committed to invest in a New York City real estate project with him.
“Any news on this?” Hunter Biden emailed his partner Devon Archer on April 13, 2014, seeking an update on the real estate deal in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City, Just the News previously reported.
Archer wrote back to the future presidential son that she was committed to the project: “Seller is flaking. Asked for 90 days. We made a $41mm offer. Yelena confirmed green light to fund deposit,” he replied.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also communicated with Hunter Biden’s lawyers as the probe unfolded. Hunter Biden’s lawyers asked for discretion to protect his politically famous father, Chairmen Jordan and Comer revealed in a letter Tuesday.
The agency subpoenaed the future first son for all documents related to his involvement with Rosemont Seneca Bohai LLC, an entity he formed with Archer and that purchased $15 million of the bonds at the center of the fraudulent scheme. Biden’s lawyers responded to the subpoena by producing over 1,700 documents responsive to the request. But, his lawyers were also adamant that his involvement be kept confidential.
“The confidential nature of this investigation is very important to our client and it would be unfair, not just to our client, but also to his father, the Vice President of the United States, if his involvement in an SEC investigation and parallel criminal probe were to become the subject of any media attention,” Biden’s lawyers wrote to the SEC, according to a congressional letter published Tuesday.
“Mr. Biden’s response gratuitously invoked his father’s position as the Vice President in what could be interpreted as an effort to discourage further SEC scrutiny. And on May 11, 2016, the SEC published a press release – announcing the charging of seven individuals – with no mention or charging of Hunter Biden,” the Chairmen wrote in their letter.
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John Solomon is an award-winning investigative journalist, author and digital media entrepreneur who serves as Chief Executive Officer and Editor in Chief of Just the News. Steven Richards is a reporter for Just the News.
