Hunter Biden referenced selling access to President Joe Biden as “the keys” to “my family’s only asset,” according to messages from Hunter Biden’s iCloud backup released by the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday.
After voting to approve more disclosures on Wednesday from IRS whistleblowers, the committee released information that confirmed Devon Archer’s testimony that Hunter Biden traveled the world selling access to the Biden “brand,” meaning Joe Biden. Hunter Biden referred to access to Joe Biden as “the keys” to “my family’s only asset.”
The Biden business raked in millions of dollars through shell companies from countries such as China, Romania, and Ukraine, which the Justice Department tried to cover up, according to the committee.
“That Biden protection effort was strongest whenever investigative steps might have led to or implicated actions taken by Joe Biden,” the committee said. “During the investigation into his son, officials instructed investigators seeking a search warrant to erase any mention of a ‘Political Figure 1,’ who documents reveal to be Joe Biden.”
Documents obtained by the committee confirm associates of the Biden business had direct access to the White House and then-Vice President Joe Biden’s advisers. According to the committee, Biden associates were told not to “mention Joe being involved.” White House logs show many Biden business associates visited the White House multiple times.
In addition, after the IRS launched its investigation into the Biden family, Hunter Biden apparently “expected all of this ‘stuff’ to go away when his dad becomes President,” according to an email between Hunter Biden and a CNN producer the committee obtained:
The committee also released information from a May 2021 report generated by IRS investigators that noted Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Kevin Morris, could have committed wrongdoing. “There may be campaign finance criminal violations” based on interviews and a review of the evidence,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf allegedly stated. But a DOJ official told the investigators to ignore the allegation, noting she was not “personally interested,” IRS whistleblower handwritten notes show:
“These documents show a clearer connection between Joe Biden, his public office, and Hunter Biden’s global influence peddling scheme that resulted in over $20 million in payments to the Biden family,”House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-MO) said in a statement. “In addition to then Vice-President Joe Biden attending lunches and speaking on the phone with his son’s business associates, the details released today paint a fuller picture of how Joe Biden’s vice- presidential office was instrumental to the Biden Family’s business schemes”:
The evidence shows a pattern of Hunter Biden creating for-profit entities to shield at least $20 million from foreign sources from taxes and hide the trail of payments that led to members of the Biden family. The growing body of evidence further calls into question the Justice Department’s attempted sweetheart plea deal for Hunter Biden, and the reasons for appointing the architect of that plea deal as the special counsel for Hunter Biden’s case, in light of officials’ efforts to protect President Biden and his son.
The allegations are the second batch of IRS whistleblower revelations released by the Ways and Means Committee. In June, it released information that reportedly caused now-Special Counsel David Weiss to enter into a sweetheart plea deal with Hunter Biden. According to the New York Times, the DOJ planned to let Hunter Biden off the hook without charges until the whistleblowers came forward.
Among the first allegations, the IRS whistleblowers alleged that Wolf refused to allow investigators to ask about Joe Biden being “the big guy,” that the DOJ twice prevented Weiss from bringing stronger charges against Hunter Biden, that Merrick Garland refused to name a special counsel in the tax investigation, and that the IRS recommended charges against Hunter Biden that were not approved by Garland. IRS agent whistleblowers also told Congress that Hunter Biden failed to pay $125,000 in taxes from income received from Burisma Holdings — all while Joe Biden supercharged the IRS to catch tax cheats upon assuming office.
IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel confirmed in July the rights of agency whistleblowers to make protected disclosures to Congress. “As employees, you are the first line of defense to call out issues that raise concerns, and I want it to be clear that we will always encourage a ‘see something, say something’ philosophy,” he wrote.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
