House Republicans urge Barr to appoint special counsel to probe alleged Biden revelations

EXCLUSIVE: House Republicans on Monday wrote to Attorney General William Barr, urging him to appoint a special counsel to investigate alleged revelations coming from a laptop purported to have belonged to Joe Biden’s son Hunter -- specifically the elder Biden’s alleged participation in his son’s business dealings.

“These alleged revelations raise serious questions about former Vice President Joe Biden’s reported participation with his son’s business, dealings, specifically whether the former vice president (1) received foreign monies during his tenure in the Obama administration and (2) if former Vice President Biden allowed his son to peddle access to his father with foreign business entities,” the letter, obtained by Fox News, says.

HOUSE REPUBLICANS ASK FBI IF IT HAD HUNTER BIDEN'S ALLEGED LAPTOP DURING TRUMP'S IMPEACHMENT

The letter is signed by 11 Republicans, including Reps. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., Ted Yoho, R-Fla., and Andy Harris, R-Md.

The letter was written after the New York Post published emails last week suggesting that Hunter Biden introduced his father to a top executive at Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings in 2015 -- one year before the then-vice president allegedly pressured the country's government to fire a prosecutor who had launched an investigation into the company.

The Biden campaign has said that Joe Biden never met with that executive and has pushed back on the New York Post reporting.

RATCLIFFE SAYS HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP, EMAILS 'NOT PART OF SOME RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN'

“Investigations by the press, during impeachment, and even by two Republican-led Senate committees whose work was decried as 'not legitimate' and political by a GOP colleague have all reached the same conclusion: that Joe Biden carried out official U.S. policy toward Ukraine and engaged in no wrongdoing,”  Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates said last week. “Trump administration officials have attested to these facts under oath.”

Another email published by the Post, dated May 13, 2017, and obtained by Fox News, includes a discussion of “remuneration packages” for six people in a business deal with a Chinese energy firm. The email appeared to identify Hunter Biden as “Chair / Vice Chair depending on agreement with CEFC,” in an apparent reference to now-bankrupt CEFC China Energy Co.

The email includes a note that states, “Hunter has some office expectations he will elaborate.” A proposed equity split references “20” for “H” and “10 held by H for the big guy?” with no further details. Fox News spoke to one of the people who was copied on the email, who confirmed its authenticity. Sources told Fox News that "the big guy" is a reference to the former vice president.

While Biden has not commented on that email, or his alleged involvement in any deals with the Chinese Energy firm, his campaign said it released the former vice president’s tax documents and returns, which do not reflect any involvement with Chinese investments.

SOURCE ON ALLEGED HUNTER BIDEN EMAIL CHAIN VERIFIES MESSAGE ABOUT CHINESE FIRM

Biden, prior to the emails surfacing, repeatedly has claimed he’s “never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings.”

But the Republican lawmakers said it was “imperative” that there was “a full accounting of former Vice President Biden’s dealings with this son and his son’s business partners, and if the former vice president misused his office for personal gain,”

“If these reports about former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, are true, the former vice president fell far short of his responsibility to uphold his constitutional oath and betrayed the sacred trust of the American people,” the letter says.

“We request that the Department of Justice immediately appoint an independent, unbiased special counsel to investigate the issues that we have raised -- as well as any corresponding legal or ethical issues that might be uncovered from the former vice president’s 47 years in public office," the lawmakers wrote.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Meanwhile, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe on Monday said that Hunter Biden’s laptop “is not part of some Russian disinformation campaign,” amid claims from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and other Democrats suggesting otherwise.

“Let me be clear: the intelligence community doesn’t believe that because there is no intelligence that supports that. And we have shared no intelligence with Adam Schiff, or any member of Congress.”

Fox News’ Brooke Singman, Sam Dorman and Mike Emanuel contributed to this report.