President Biden believes his son Hunter did nothing illegal while involved in controversial and highly lucrative deals in Ukraine and China and is allowing the Justice Department to conduct its investigation unimpeded, the US chief of staff said Sunday. White House.
“Of course the president trusts that his son did not break the law. But more importantly, as I said, it’s a matter for the Justice Department to decide, through the legal process,” Ron Klain said on ABC News’ “This Week.”
“It’s something that no one in the White House is involved with.”
But ABC’s George Stephanopoulos pressed Klain over a report in the Washington Post last week that said a Chinese energy conglomerate paid Hunter Biden and the president’s brother, James, $4.8 million over a 14-month period.
Stephanopoulos asked Klain if the White House is sure ethical lines weren’t crossed.
“The president is confident that his family did the right thing,” Klain responded. “But again, I want to be very clear, these are actions by Hunter and his brother. They are private matters.
“They don’t involve the president. And they’re certainly something that no one in the White House is involved with.”
The Washington Post has finally confirmed the New York Post report from over a year ago that Hunter Biden left a laptop at a Delaware computer repair shop in April 2019 that contained a hard drive and a large amount of emails. detailing the young Biden’s foreign dealings. deals The New York Times also recently confirmed the New York Post report.
The documents on the laptop formed the basis for a series of revelations that the New York Post published in October 2020 about Hunter Biden’s interests in China and Ukraine, where he was paid up to $50,000 a month to serve on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company. , despite having no qualifications while his father was vice president.
After the New York Post published the first of its stories on Hunter Biden, 51 former US intelligence officials warned that the information on the hard drive could be Russian misinformation intended to influence the election. of 2020.
But the Washington Post story says financial documents were found on the laptop that matched records and other documents obtained in an investigation by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.).
The Washington Post and The Times also confirmed that federal investigations into Hunter Biden’s tax fraud allegations and foreign relations are continuing.
In an interview Sunday, Johnson accused the mainstream media of hiding Hunter Biden’s dealings to protect his father ahead of the presidential election.
“They covered it up,” Johnson said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
“And as a result, they chose Joe Biden. Now they are covering it up. But no, this is worrying. No, we have actual bank records verifying that what we reported in September 2020 is true. The laptop is obviously a treasure trove of additional corroborating evidence as well,” the senator said.
He also said that the emails on the laptop about the “big guy” meeting with Burisma executives clearly refer to the president.
There is a “contemporary email that has been verified that the ‘big guy’ was Joe Biden. There is plenty of evidence that Joe Biden met [with the execs], because there are pictures of him meeting with Hunter Biden’s business associates. He repeatedly lied to the American public that he said he never, ever discussed Hunter Biden’s foreign business deals with Hunter,” Johnson said of the president.
Last week, a group of Republicans on the House Oversight Committee sent letters to the White House and the National Archives and Records Administration demanding documentation of communications between Hunter Biden and the Obama White House when his father was vice president. , as well as during the first year of the Biden administration.
