During a recent press conference at FEMA headquarters in Washington, D.C., President Joe Biden responded light-heartedly when asked about providing his bank statements to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California. Instead of directly addressing the inquiry, Biden shifted the focus of the conversation.
Previously, the president had addressed several questions, some unrelated to Hurricane Idalia’s effects on Florida and its neighboring states. Topics ranged from Overdose Awareness Day and the health of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to a possible partial government shutdown. Biden also touched upon Chinese President Xi Jinping’s expected absence from the upcoming G-20 summit in India.
McCarthy’s interest in Biden’s bank records stems from his aim to uncover if the president benefitted financially from his son, Hunter Biden’s, international business endeavors during his vice-presidential tenure under Obama. McCarthy hinted that launching an impeachment inquiry might be the next course of action, as it could potentially grant Congress the utmost legal power to extract all necessary information.
Several documents have surfaced that hint at potential discrepancies. Hunter Biden’s emails from an unretrieved laptop suggest he shared a significant portion of his earnings with his father. Additionally, the House Oversight Committee has expressed concerns about payments made to multiple members of the Biden family by foreign organizations.
The committee’s ongoing investigation also includes requests to the National Archives and Records Administration for numerous emails linked to pseudonyms associated with Joe Biden during his vice-presidential era. Additionally, the committee aims to review Air Force Two flight details to ascertain if the aircraft was misused for Hunter Biden’s global business trips. The committee’s chair, James Comer of Kentucky, questioned if these trips were meant to bolster the Biden family’s financial standing.
Recent statements by IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler have added another layer to the controversy. They claimed they faced obstacles from the Justice Department when attempting to probe Joe Biden’s potential involvement in his son’s overseas transactions. Shapley unveiled a 2017 message from Hunter Biden that implied his father’s involvement in a transaction with a Chinese business associate. Subsequently, a significant sum was transferred from CEFC China Energy to bank accounts linked to the Bidens.
To further complicate matters, Shapley mentioned that the plea deal for Hunter Biden excluded information hinting at both Bidens receiving large payments in 2016 from Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky. This payment was purportedly in return for Joe Biden’s intervention in an investigation focused on alleged malpractices at Burisma.
