McCarthy Says House Investigation of Hunter Biden Will Include U.S. Intel Chiefs
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House minority leader Kevin McCarthy said the chamber’s investigation into Hunter Biden will include a probe of U.S. intelligence agencies and chiefs who likely knew about his foreign business dealings while his father, Joe Biden, was vice president.
McCarthy told the New York Post in comments published Sunday that intel officials “should come in and talk to us.”
“You’d want to ask these individuals what did they know and when,” he said. “People can come in and talk to us and answer the questions. If that’s not the case there are times we will use the subpoena as well.”
He added that House Republicans want to question former intelligence agency officials who signed onto an open letter in October 2020 dismissing the New York Post’s reporting about the contents of the younger Biden’s recovered laptop as Russian disinformation.
“The arrival on the US political scene of emails purportedly belonging to Vice President Biden’s son Hunter, much of it related to his time serving on the Board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation,” said the letter signed by 51 former intelligence agency officials.
“Our experience makes us deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case,” it added. “If we are right, this is Russia trying to influence how Americans vote in this election, and we believe strongly that Americans need to be aware of this.”
McCarthy said House Republicans want to ask the signatories if they would still sign the letter today, as well as who asked them to sign the letter, why they did so and what information they had prior.
“Why did you feel comfortable — especially with your own reputations — that you would sign that letter? Was it someone from the [Biden] campaign who asked, or was it people in the intel community?” McCarthy added. “I think these questions have to be answered. You cannot allow an intel community to utilize their name in an improper way without correcting.”
After initially dismissing the report about the data recovered from Hunter Biden’s laptop left with a Delaware repair shop, the mainstream media have recently gotten on board with the story. The New York Times has authenticated key files from the laptop, as has the Washington Post.
Other outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, have reported that a federal tax probe into the younger Biden is “gaining momentum,” with prosecutors reportedly investigating his sources of foreign income.
One infamous email purportedly detailed a business arrangement between a Chinese company and the Biden family.
Tony Bobulinski, who is listed as a recipient of the email first published by the New York Post, offered further detail last year in a statement to Fox News on the correspondence in October 2020, which references a proposed equity split: “20” for “H” and “10 held by H for the big guy?”
“The reference to ‘the Big Guy’ in the much-publicized May 13, 2017, email is in fact a reference to Joe Biden,” said Bobulinski, who says he was brought on as CEO of Sinohawk Holdings by Hunter Biden and James Gilliar, the sender of the email.
Sinohawk “was a partnership between the Chinese operating through CEFC/Chairman Ye and the Biden family,” he said.
However, House investigators have not made contact with any of the signatories yet. Those who signed onto the letter include former director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who served from 2010 to 2017 when Joe Biden was vice president, as well as former CIA director John Brennan, who served from 2013 to 2017. Leon Panetta, the CIA director from 2009 to 2011 and defense secretary from 2011 to 2013 signed the letter as well.
The report notes that even if an investigation proves that intel chiefs knew about the younger Biden’s illicit activity and did not act or even lied about it, they are not expected to face legal consequences.
