‘Extraordinary circumstances’: Special counsel appointed in Hunter Biden probe
The US Department of Justice has given expanded powers to the investigation of Hunter Biden and his business dealings, which threaten to ensnare President Joe Biden into the probe.
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The US Justice Department escalated its investigation into the son of President Joe Biden with the appointment of a special counsel.
Attorney-General Merrick Garland announced that “extraordinary circumstances” in the Hunter Biden probe required the federal prosecutor overseeing the case be given expanded powers.
He notified the US Congress of the appointment of Delaware prosecutor David Weiss as the special counsel investigating the business dealings of the Biden scion. The move contradicts claims from defence lawyers that the investigation was over.
“Upon considering his request, as well as the extraordinary circumstances relating to this matter, I have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint him as special counsel,” Garland said.
Weiss, who began investigating Biden in 2019, this week told Garland that he reached the stage his work needed special powers to continue beyond the original scope in the US state of Delaware.
It comes after a plea agreement was thrown out by US District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika due to several provisions that would have prevented Biden from being charged with other crimes.
House Judiciary Chairman Rep Jim Jordan blasted Weiss’ appointment as a “new way to whitewash the Biden family’s corruption”
“Weiss has already signed off on a sweetheart plea deal that was so awful and unfair that a federal judge rejected it,” he said. “We will continue to pursue facts brought to light by brave whistleblowers as well as Weiss’s inconsistent statements to Congress.”
Biden has come under investigation in Congress over business deals he did in China, Ukraine and elsewhere during and after his father’s 2009-2017 term as vice president.
A former business associate told Congress recently that Hunter had gotten his father involved in telephone calls with his foreign partners several times. The president’s Republican opponents allege Joe Biden used his political position to help his son -- a claim Bidend denies.
While Garland said the appointment of Weiss reaffirms that he “has the authority he needs”, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said it was part of a continued “cover-up”.
“This move by Attorney-General Garland is part of the Justice Department’s efforts to attempt a Biden family cover-up in light of the House Oversight Committee’s mounting evidence of President Joe Biden’s role in his family’s schemes selling ‘the brand’ for millions of dollars to foreign nationals,” he said.
“The Biden Justice Department is trying to stonewall congressional oversight as we have presented evidence to the American people about the Biden family’s corruption.”
HUNTER BIDEN’S $30 MILLION HAUL
Joe Biden’s family and their allies brought in at least A$30 million from foreign sources, including first son Hunter Biden’s business associates in Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine — some of whom dined with the US President, the US House Oversight Committee revealed on Wednesday local time.
Committee chairman James Comer made public a third memo about the Biden family’s foreign business dealings, producing bank records purporting to show that Hunter Biden and his business associates received millions in payments from Russian and Kazakhstani oligarchs when his father was Barack Obama’s vice president.
Hunter Biden appeared to deliver Russian, Kazakhstani and Ukrainian businesspeople access to his father, noting that each of the post-Soviet associates allegedly attended at least one of two dinners at Washington’s Café Milano with the Bidens.
“During Joe Biden’s vice presidency, Hunter Biden sold him as ‘the brand’ to reap millions from oligarchs in Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine. It appears no real services were provided other than access to the Biden network, including Joe Biden himself,” Mr Comer said in a statement, according to a report in the New York Post.
“And Hunter Biden seems to have delivered. This is made clear by meals at [Washington eatery] Café Milano where then-Vice President Joe Biden dined with oligarchs from around the world who had sent money to his son,” he said.
“It’s clear Joe Biden knew about his son’s business dealings and allowed himself to be ‘the brand’ sold to enrich the Biden family while he was Vice President of the United States.”
The 19-page memo, which provides screenshots of redacted bank records, says millions in payments came from Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings, as well as Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina and Kazakhstani oligarch Kenes Rakishev, and that then-Vice President Biden attended dinners with Baturina, Rakishev and a representative from Burisma.
“Then-Vice President Biden met — in person, for significant periods of time — with those individuals or their representatives,” the memo states.
“Then-Vice President Biden joined approximately 20 phone calls on speakerphone with Hunter Biden’s foreign business associates and attended dinners with foreign oligarchs who paid huge sums of money to Hunter Biden. Joe Biden, ‘the brand,’ was the only product the Bidens sold.”
The “Third Bank Records Memorandum” follows two previous memos tying Biden family members to payments linked to entities in China and Romania. The committee says the foreign payments to the Biden family now total over A$30 million.
The third bank memo, the result of subpoenas of several banks not belonging to members of the Biden family, specifically discusses three of the many firms founded by Hunter Biden: Rosemont Seneca Partners, LLC; Rosemont Seneca Thornton, LLC; and Rosemont Seneca Bohai, LLC.
According to Fox News, the committee provided screenshots of bank records they say demonstrate that Baturina, the widow of former Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, wired $3.5 million to Rosemont Seneca Thornton on Feb. 14, 2014.
Then, a total of $2,752,711 was transferred to Rosemont Seneca Bohai, which Hunter Biden co-owned with Archer, according to Archer’s statements to Congress last week.
During his congressional interview last week, Hunter Biden’s former business partner Devon Archer said former Kazakhstan Prime Minister Karim Massimov and Kazakh oligarch Kenes Rakishev and “possibly” Luzhkov were also in attendance.
Earlier this year, Mr Massimov was sentenced to 18 years behind bars for his reported role in an attempted coup.
Mr Comer said the committee would continue to seek witness testimony to determine whether Mr Biden knowingly allowed his son to sell his “brand” abroad.
A spokesman for the minority staff on the committee called the third memo “empty” and said it doesn’t implicate Mr Biden in any wrongdoing.
“James Comer has said over and over that this is an investigation of Joe Biden,” the spokesman said.
“Yet, none of the bank records he has released show any payments to Joe Biden. None of the SARs he reviewed alleged, or even suggested, any potential misconduct by President Biden, nor did they show President Biden’s involvement in Hunter Biden’s financial or business relationships.”
With AFP
Originally published as ‘Extraordinary circumstances’: Special counsel appointed in Hunter Biden probe
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