EXCLUSIVE — Newly released emails between Hunter Biden and his business associates with the Obama White House cast more doubt on Joe Biden’s claims that he was unaware of his son’s business dealings, according to a top GOP investigator.
Hunter Biden and his then-business partners were in frequent communication with top aides in the Obama administration while Joe Biden was vice president, according to emails that the National Archives recently released to the conservative group America First Legal. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY), who is leading a sweeping investigation into the Biden family, told the Washington Examiner that the emails further how Joe Biden has repeatedly “lied to the American people when he said he had no knowledge of his son’s business dealings.”
“We know Hunter Biden’s business associates visited the White House numerous times during the Obama-Biden administration, and now-unearthed emails reveal Hunter Biden and his associates sought access to the White House and official government events,” Comer said. “The House Oversight Committee will continue to follow the Bidens’ complex financial transactions to determine the extent of their influence peddling schemes to determine if President Biden is compromised and our national security is threatened.”
Comer’s remarks come after a handful of Republican members of Congress raised concerns over the unearthed emails to the Washington Examiner on Thursday, with Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) alleging that the “Biden family’s corruption” is “far worse than Watergate.” The emails, as well as records on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop that were reviewed by the Washington Examiner, show Hunter Biden’s longtime business partner Eric Schwerin contacted top aides for Joe Biden to see if an associate could attend a 2010 State Department lunch with Chinese government officials.
Other records show Hunter Biden initiated contact on June 3, 2020, with Alan Hoffman, Joe Biden’s then-deputy chief of staff, and asked to “talk about Africa.” Hoffman wrote back shortly after, “Always available for you,” while Hunter Biden also later in the day contacted Anthony Bernal, a then-adviser for Jill Biden, in an email titled “Nairobi ideas.”
In August 2010, Hunter Biden traveled to South Africa as a Secret Service protectee, according to a 2020 report by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Ron Johnson (R-WI) titled “Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns.” The National Archives-released documents pertaining to Africa could further Republican-led investigations into Hunter Biden’s business dealings in the content, lawmakers told the Washington Examiner last week.
“The American people deserve answers, transparency, and accountability,” Comer also told the Washington Examiner.
On Monday, Comer announced that he will proceed in holding Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress in connection to the FBI director not complying with his subpoena for a document allegedly detailing a “bribery scheme involving a foreign national and Joe Biden when he served as vice president.”
The Oversight Committee chairman teamed up with Grassley in early May to demand access to an FBI-generated FD-1023 form that purportedly outlines the scheme. Comer on Monday with House Oversight Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) viewed the form, which is said to have a June 30, 2020, date.
FD-1023 forms are used by bureau agents to document unverified accounts from confidential human sources. A “highly credible” whistleblower who has been used by the FBI for “at least several years” brought the information to the attention of Comer and Grassley, according to multiple reports.
Raskin claimed in a press conference on Monday that the Trump administration investigated the allegation from the whistleblower and determined that there were “no grounds” to escalate it.
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“What we’re talking about here is second-hand hearsay, and they did whatever investigative due diligence was called for in that assessment period, and they found no reason to escalate it from an assessment to a so-called preliminary investigation,” Raskin said.
The White House and a lawyer for Hunter Biden did not reply to requests for comment.
