President Joe Biden’s son lied multiple times to Congress, Republican lawmakers said on May 22, citing new evidence provided by whistleblowers who investigated Hunter Biden.
“Hunter Biden’s lies under oath, and obstruction of a congressional investigation into his family’s potential corruption, calls into question other pieces of his testimony,” Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said in a statement. “The newly released evidence affirms, once again, the only witnesses who can be trusted to tell the truth in this investigation are the IRS whistleblowers.”
Mr. Biden, 54, sat for a deposition with House members on Feb. 28.
During the deposition, Mr. Biden was questioned about a WhatsApp message he sent on July 30, 2017, to a Chinese businessman, Raymond Zhao, that reads, “I’m sitting here with my father, and we would like to understand why the commitment has not been fulfilled.”
Mr. Biden claimed that “the Zhao that this is sent to is not the Zhao that was connected to CEFC.”
“[He] had no understanding or even remotely knew what the hell I was even ... talking about,” Mr. Biden said.
After Mr. Biden did not receive a response, he followed up with another message that reads, “Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand.”
A third message reads, “I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction.”
Mr. Zhao then responded: “Sure. I need some time to reach him. At what time window can you talk?”
“I will call you on Whatsapp.”
The pair then exchanged 24 messages in the next 60 hours, including several in which Mr. Zhao used Mr. Biden’s name and several in which Mr. Biden discussed the partnership between the Biden family and the CEFC, a Chinese company, moving forward. Additional messages were exchanged in the following months.
“These documents make clear that Hunter Biden was using his father’s name to shake down a Chinese businessman—and it worked. And when confronted by congressional investigators about it, he lied,” Mr. Smith said.
After the messages were exchanged, Mr. Biden and his associates received $5 million from Mr. Zhao’s company.
Mr. Biden also said during the deposition that the firm Rosemont Seneca Bohai and related bank accounts were not under his control or affiliated with him. He also said that he “didn’t even know that there was such a thing” as a corporate secretary for Rosemont.
“Hunter Biden lied when he claimed he was not the corporate secretary of Rosemont Seneca Bohai and that the shell company he established with Devon Archer and its associated bank accounts were not under his control nor affiliated with him,” Mr. Smith said.
Lawmakers also accused Mr. Biden of lying when he said he did not do “any work as it related to visas that they needed,” referring to his work with Burisma.
Mr. Archer, Mr. Biden’s former associate, wrote in the message that a Burisma official should “please send Hunter an email with all Kola’s passport and visa documents and evidence.”
“We’ll take it from there,” he said.
The Ways and Means Committee, which is controlled by Republicans, voted during a closed session on May 22 to release the emails.
Mr. Biden’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Ziegler and Gary Shapley, another IRS whistleblower, also recounted in affidavits that they were preparing to interview California lawyer Kevin Morris as part of their probe but that their superiors suddenly went to the CIA and afterward blocked investigators from questioning Mr. Morris.
The Department of Justice has declined to answer questions about matters raised by the whistleblowers.
Mr. Shapley said he tried arranging a meeting with his superiors to discuss the matter further, but it never happened.
“Since obtaining this briefing was outside of my control, eventually I was forced to accept it would not happen,” Mr. Shapley wrote. “However, it served as yet another example of deviations from normal investigative processes in this matter.”
