New details on Biden family business deals revealed ahead of impeachment hearing
Former Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker on the first steps to consider a Biden impeachment and the indictment of Sen. Bob Menendez.
The U.S. Department of Justice ordered FBI and IRS investigators involved in the Hunter Biden probe to "remove any reference" to President Biden in a search warrant related to a Foreign Agents Registration Act probe, new documents released by the House Ways & Means Committee reveal.
Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., led a vote Wednesday to release new documents provided by IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler that "corroborate their initial testimony to the Committee and reinforce their credibility and their high esteem among colleagues."
DOJ REVEALS HUNTER BIDEN STILL UNDER FEDERAL INVESTIGATION FOR POTENTIAL FARA VIOLATIONS
"The Biden Administration — including top officials at the Justice Department — lied to the American public and engaged in a cover-up that interfered with federal investigators and protected the Biden family, including President Biden himself," the committee said.
President Biden. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
One document released Wednesday was an August 2020 email sent by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf in which she ordered investigators to remove any reference to "Political Figure 1" from a search warrant. Subsequent documents released Wednesday revealed that President Biden is "Political Figure 1."
"As a priority, someone needs to redraft attachment B," Wolf writes in the email. "I am not sure what this is cut and pasted from but other than the attribution location, and identity stuff at the end, none of it is appropriate and within the scope of this warrant."
Wolf adds: "Please focus on FARA evidence only. There should be nothing about Political Figure 1 in here."
A document released Wednesday and reviewed by Fox News Digital states that "Political Figure 1" is "Former Vice President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr."
"VP BIDEN is currently the Democratic Party Presidential candidate for the United States and served as the 47th officeholder for the position of the Office of the Vice President of the United States (VPOTUS) in the Barack Obama Administration from January 20, 2009 to January 20, 2017," the document states. "He is the father of SUBJECT 1."
"SUBJECT 1" is presumably Hunter Biden, the target of the investigation.
President Biden is seen with his son, Hunter Biden, who's been engaged in several controversial foreign business deals. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
The Justice Department indirectly revealed that Hunter Biden is still under investigation for a potential violation of FARA during his first court appearance in July, in which his "sweetheart" plea deal collapsed.
When asked by federal Judge Maryellen Noreika of the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware whether the government could bring a charge against Hunter Biden related to FARA, the DOJ prosecutor replied, "Yes."
Whistleblowers Shapley and Ziegler have testified that Wolf, throughout the years-long investigation into Hunter Biden, sought to "limit" investigators' questioning related to President Biden, despite objections from FBI and IRS officials.
Meanwhile, the committee said that documents also revealed that the Hunter Biden federal investigation was being "hampered and artificially slowed."
The committee said during a September 2022 interview with the president’s brother, James Biden, that investigators were "not allowed to ask if then-Vice President Biden was involved in Hunter Biden’s deal with CEFC China Energy," or follow "normal investigative leads."
The committee also said a May 2021 report from investigators detailed that they were "not allowed to follow investigative leads on potential campaign finance violations related to a wealthy Hollywood lawyer, Kevin Morris, who was enlisted to help the family, and who paid millions of dollars to help Hunter around the time that Joe Biden becomes president."
"Investigators wrote that ‘there may be campaign finance criminal violations. AUSA Wolf stated on the last prosecution team meeting that she did not want any of the agents to look into the allegation,’" the committee said Wednesday.
Chairman Jason Smith said the new 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."
"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," Smith said.
President Biden and Hunter Biden. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Smith said that the evidence included in the documents 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."
A congressional aide told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that the Biden family and their associates collected more than $24 million in foreign payments between 2014 and 2019.
Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., arrives for the start of the House Ways and Means Committee hearing on releasing former President Donald Trump's tax returns on Dec. 20, 2022.
"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," Smith said. "This evidence makes clear Hunter Biden’s business was selling the Biden ‘brand’ and that access to the White House was his family’s most valuable asset — despite official claims otherwise."
Smith, who is leading the House impeachment inquiry against President Biden alongside House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said his committee will continue to take "appropriate steps" in its investigation, including sharing documents with committee Democrats ahead of their release.
"We have promised to go where the facts lead us, and that is exactly what we will do to get answers for the American people," Smith said.
The documents come out as part of House Republicans' formal impeachment inquiry investigation against President Biden. The House Oversight Committee is set to hold its first public hearing as part of the inquiry on Thursday at 10 a.m. ET.
White House spokesperson Sharon Yang dismissed the new documents Wednesday evening, telling Fox News Digital that House Republicans have "again cried wolf and provided no evidence tying President Biden to wrongdoing."
"Instead of wasting time with media stunts trumpeting half-baked conspiracy theories, House Republicans should realize the clock is ticking – it’s time they stop trying to distract and start focusing on priorities that matter to the American people, like doing their jobs to prevent a government shutdown that would inflict real pain on working families," Yang added.
The Justice Department did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
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