On Feb. 28, lawmakers sitting on the House Judiciary and Oversight committees were treated to what could be described as a display of hubris when Hunter Biden sat for a closed-door deposition regarding his former business activities and his father’s involvement in them. It wasn’t that Joe Biden’s son insisted there was no evidence connecting his father to his deals with foreign companies – though he certainly made that claim. The fact that he asserted the evidence proved the very opposite of what it appears to prove is the astounding part.
What is already clear is that Joe Biden was involved in the business affairs of both Hunter Biden and James Biden, whether he knew it or not. Records of text messages, emails, photographs, phone calls, and witness testimony have shown this to be true. In this context, the word “involved” means he, Joe Biden, had contact with Hunter’s business partners and with at least a few of his foreign business associates, clients, or potential clients.
What Republicans do not yet have is absolute proof that President Biden financially benefited from these deals. However, the documented money trails unearthed by GOP investigators suggest it is highly unlikely that Joe Biden did not see a cent of that money. Further cementing the allegations that the current commander-in-chief did, in fact, gain financially are the records of payments made to him by both his brother and his son. In each case, these payments were recorded as reimbursements for loans, though proof that these loans from Joe Biden to family members were real has not yet been provided to GOP investigators.
Hunter Biden Claims One Plus One Equals Zero
A transcript of the Hunter Biden deposition is not yet publicly available, and so there is no telling what questions were put to him by committee members – or how he answered them. Only the junior Biden’s opening statement is known.
“I am here today to provide the committees with the one uncontestable fact that should end the false premise of this inquiry: I did not involve my father in my business,” Biden told lawmakers:
“You read this fact in the many letters that have been sent to you over the last year as part of your so-called impeachment investigation. You heard this fact when I said it weeks ago, standing outside of this building. You heard this fact from a parade of other witnesses – former colleagues and business partners of mine, including my uncle – who have testified before you in similar proceedings. And now, today, you hear this fact directly from me.”
Hunter Biden (Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
Seemingly, Hunter Biden believes that asserting a thing automatically makes that thing true and not open to question. A psychoanalyst would probably have a lot to say about such a mindset. But the reality is that some of Hunter’s business partners have indeed testified that Joe Biden was “the brand” Hunter was selling – and that Joe Biden participated in phone calls and even some face-to-face meetings with certain individuals with whom Hunter was doing business or hoped to.
Biden’s proclamation at the hearing was something akin to a meteorologist saying ten consecutive days of torrential rain proves we are in the middle of a severe drought. He even doubled down on this denial: “Rather than follow the facts as they have been laid out before you in bank records, financial statements, correspondence, and other witness testimony,” he said, “you continue your frantic search to prove the lies you, and those you rely on, keep peddling.”
Regardless of anything else, there’s the infamous WhatsApp text message from Hunter Biden to Henry Zhao, then an executive with the now-defunct Chinese Communist Party-linked CEFC:
“I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled … 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.”
According to reports from the closed-door briefing, Hunter declared that he had been either drunk or high when sending that message and that his father had not been present. House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer (R-KY), speaking to reporters after the six-hour deposition, said that the session had “proved several bits of our evidence” and that “we will have a public hearing next.”
“I think a public hearing will hopefully clear up some discrepancies between some of the statements being made by some of the associates and that we heard today,” Comer concluded.
Everyone deserves a fair hearing, though, so what proof did Hunter Biden provide that the Republican-led impeachment investigation of his father is, as he put it, a “sham”? The answer to that question is none at all. Rather, he claimed, “Republicans have taken my communications out of context, relied on documents that have been altered, and cherry-picked snippets of financial or other records to misrepresent what really happened.”
Pending a look at the full transcript of this deposition – which one of the committees will hopefully soon release to the public – it seems as though Hunter Biden’s entire defense of his dad boils down to this: I’m telling you he did nothing wrong and that in itself constitutes solid proof that he did nothing wrong. For a Biden, these days, that appears to be proof enough.
