Congress Inches Forward on Biden Corruption Inquiries

Congress is fitfully inching forward with investigations that could result in the impeachment of President Joseph R. Biden.

In the House impeachment inquiry, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has subpoenaed Hunter Biden, presidential brother James Biden, and key business associates. “The House Oversight Committee has followed the money and built a record of evidence revealing how Joe Biden knew, was involved, and benefited from his family’s influence peddling schemes,” Comer said. “Now, the House Oversight Committee is going to bring in members of the Biden family and their associates to question them on this record of evidence.” The committee already has produced a remarkable array of witnesses, testimony, and documents showing that Biden family members raked in over $24 million from foreign nationals and hid the profits in shell companies.

In the Senate, Charles Grassley’s interrogation of Justice Department conduct and the Bidens grinds on. In October, Grassley released a letter with the bombshell claim that the FBI “maintained over 40 confidential human sources” with “criminal information” on the Bidens. Grassley’s letter includes a sweeping request for Justice Department documents related to “Hunter Biden, James Biden, Joe Biden, and the Biden family,” as well as records of actions taken (and not taken) by Justice Department and FBI officials in matters related to the Bidens. He also indicates he plans to interview “25 DOJ and FBI personnel” involved in the Biden cases.

Judicial Watch presses on with its own investigations. In June, we filed a Freedom of Information Act petition for FBI documents tied to a Biden Ukraine corruption probe. And this isn’t our first rodeo. From as far back as 2020, we’ve been uncovering details of Ukraine corruption tied to the Bidens. You can read more about JW’s investigations here.

In his latest moves, Comer appears to be zeroing in on the flow of funds between James Biden and Joseph Biden, including a personal check from James Biden to his brother for $200,000. The White House has denied any impropriety involving the check, but it’s clear that James Biden is emerging as a major target of the House probe.

The biggest paydays for James and Hunter Biden came from China—specifically from the energy conglomerate CEFC China. The total amount, flowing to Biden-connected entities, notes the Comer Committee, is “over $8 million.”

In one gigantic payout, in August 2017, soon after Joe Biden left the vice presidency, CEFC wired $5 million to a new shell company formed by Hunter Biden. The new company would pursue energy and infrastructure deals. Hunter Biden would receive a $500,000 retainer and a $100,000 monthly payment. James Biden would be paid $65,000 per month. Hunter quickly got busy in Washington setting up a new office for himself and his CEFC partners. “Please have keys made available for new office mates,” he emailed building management. “Joe Biden, Jill Biden, Jim Biden, [and CEFC emissary] Gongwen Dong.”

Was part of the plan also to pay Joe Biden? In an email sent to Hunter Biden and others about percentages of profit-sharing from the CEFC deal, a key Biden business associates asks, in what appears to be a reference to a ten percent share for Joe Biden: “10 held by H for the big guy?”

An IRS agent who worked on the Hunter Biden case was pressed about that email in July testimony before Congress. He told the House Oversight Committee that “all I can do is speak to the evidence there” and “that email, ‘ten held by H for the big guy’ and from what I understand that to be is his dad, President Biden.”

With Comer focusing on possible crimes, over in the Senate, Chuck Grassley is pursuing evidence of the cover-up. In his latest letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray, Grassley writes that “years of investigation…indicate there is—and has been—an effort among certain Justice Department and FBI officials to improperly delay and stop full and complete investigative activity into the Biden family.”

Grassley added: “I’ve been made aware that at one point in time the FBI maintained over 40 Confidential Human Sources that provided criminal information related to Joe Biden, James Biden, and Hunter Biden. An essential question that must be answered is this: did the FBI investigate the information or shut it down?”

One key figure on Grassley’s radar is Ukrainian oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky, head of the controversial energy company, Burisma. Zlochevsky is also a focus of the House impeachment inquiry. But while Comer is following the money, Grassley wants to know what the FBI did about stunning allegations from the embattled oligarch.

Hunter Biden joined the board of Burisma in May 2014 at a salary of $1 million per year. By the end of the year, according to a detailed Comer Committee timeline, Zlochevsky was complaining about U.S. “government pressure” and urged Biden to contact his father, the vice president. According to an interview with a Biden business partner released by the committee, Hunter Biden did “call DC” after being pressured by Zlochevsky and his associates.

Earlier this year, Grassley released a bombshell FBI informant report of a 2016 meeting with Zlochevsky. In the report, Zlochevsky claimed he had been coerced into paying a $10 million bribe to Hunter and Joe Biden. It “cost 5 [million] to pay one Biden, and 5 [million] to another Biden,” the FBI informant reported Zlochevsky saying.

Grassley now wants to know if the FBI buried that report and related documents. In his new letter, Grassley notes that in December 2019 the FBI’s Washington field office “closed” a case into “Mykola Zlochevsky, owner of Burisma, which was opened in January 2016 by a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act [FBI] squad.”

How serious is the Grassley probe? “Based on the information provided to my office over a period of years by multiple credible whistleblowers,” the senator writes to Garland and Wray, “there appears to be an effort within the Justice Department and FBI to shut down investigative activity relating to the Biden family. Such decisions point to significant political bias infecting the decision-making of not only the Attorney General and FBI Director, but also line agents and prosecutors. Our Republic cannot survive such a political infection and you have an obligation to this country to clear the air.”

***

Micah Morrison is chief investigative reporter for Judicial Watch. Tips: [email protected]

Investigative Bulletin is published by Judicial Watch. Reprints and media inquiries: [email protected]