House Republicans referred Hunter and James Biden to the Department of Justice on Wednesday for criminal prosecution over allegations they lied to Congress during closed-door interviews about their business dealings.
Reps. James Comer (R-KY), Jim Jordan (R-OH), and Jason Smith (R-MO), the House chairmen leading an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, detailed in a letter what they described as “overwhelming evidence” of felony false statement and perjury violations.
The letter, addressed to Attorney General Merrick Garland and special counsel David Weiss, included a 60-page brief about the lies the chairmen allege the president’s son and brother told during their meetings with Congress in February.
“Hunter Biden and James Biden made provably false statements to the Oversight Committee and the Judiciary Committee about key aspects of the impeachment inquiry, in what appears to be a conscious effort to hinder the investigation’s focus on President Joe Biden,” the chairmen wrote.
They said Hunter Biden perjured himself in his deposition when he was grilled by lawmakers about a WhatsApp message the first son wrote to the executive of a Chinese energy conglomerate in 2017. In the message, Hunter Biden wielded his father’s political influence to pressure the apparent recipient, Raymond Zhao, to pay him.
“I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled,” Hunter Biden wrote in the message. “And Z if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang or the Chairman 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.”
Hunter Biden told the committee he was deeply “embarrassed” by the message and was “drunk and probably high” when he sent it. He said he sent it to Henry Zhao, a businessman unaffiliated with the Chinese company, and that Raymond Zhao never received it.
The House Ways and Means Committee recently released evidence that revealed three months of additional messages between Hunter Biden and the Zhao who received the WhatsApp message. The messages included correspondence about CEFC, which the chairmen said “completely refutes” Hunter Biden’s claims in his deposition.
“He fabricated the story out of whole cloth,” the chairmen wrote.
While the Ways and Means Committee asserted the message was from Raymond Zhao, the committee at one point released a graphic of the message with an “HZ” above it and showed Hunter Biden that version, a person familiar with the deposition said.
The chairmen also alleged that Hunter Biden perjured himself when he said he did not hold a corporate secretary position with an entity called Rosemont Seneca Bohai.
Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell, who has been in court in Delaware every day this week with the first son leading his defense in a federal gun trial, disputed the notion that his client lied in a statement provided to the Washington Examiner.
“This is nothing more than a desperate attempt by Republicans to twist Hunter’s testimony so they can distract from their failed impeachment inquiry and interfere with his trial,” Lowell said.
The chairmen recommended James Biden be prosecuted for false statements as well. He interviewed with Congress in a voluntary format, which meant he did not take an oath at the start of it the way that Hunter Biden did.
The Republican lawmakers said James Biden lied when he said he was not present for a meeting that featured Joe Biden and former Biden associate Tony Bobulinski at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in California in 2017.
“This baseless partisan action is a transparent and cynical attempt to distract from and retaliate for Donald Trump’s recent criminal conviction,” said Paul Fishman, an attorney for James Biden. “James Biden testified earlier this year and has always maintained that Joe Biden never had any involvement in his business dealings.”
The referrals come as the House Oversight Committee, which has been leading the impeachment inquiry, nears the conclusion of its investigation into whether Joe Biden used his political power to help his family members profit in overseas business ventures.
After more than a year of investigative activity, including conducting numerous witness interviews and acquiring hundreds of thousands of documents, the Republican conference has not shown signs that it will hold a vote to impeach the president over the committee’s findings. However, the Republicans still found that Joe Biden’s family members raked in millions of dollars from their work with foreign entities, including Ukraine and China, at times by touting their name.
A committee spokesperson said in a recent statement that the panel would outline its findings “in a report with recommendations and criminal referrals soon.”
A committee spokesperson said Wednesday that the referrals of Hunter and James Biden do not represent the end of the inquiry and that there is “more to come.” The time frame for the final impeachment report’s release is unclear.
The DOJ is not obligated to address criminal referrals from Congress. Still, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service states that such referrals “should not be treated as a wholly symbolic act,” given they can, at times, show lawmakers uncovered evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
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Oversight Committee ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) blasted the referrals as an underwhelming move that followed an “agonizingly protracted and completely fruitless investigation.”
The referrals are a “last-ditch effort to distract from the exoneration of President Biden by offering ‘gotcha’ accusations against the President’s son and brother based on their efforts to recollect years-old financial transactions, text messages, and conversations,” he said.
