REPUBLICANS SEEKING HUNTER BIDEN'S TRAVEL RECORDS FROM SECRET SERVICE
BY LUIS MIGUEL
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
Two Republican senators announced a new phase of the probe into possible corruption by Hunter Biden a mere hour after President Trump was acquitted of the two articles of impeachment.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (Iowa) and Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (Wis.) on Wednesday sent a letter to U.S. Secret Service Director James Murray in which they requested the travel records of Hunter Biden, the son of presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden.
In the letter, Grassley and Johnson said they are seeking “records of Hunter Biden’s travel while he was under U.S. Secret Service protection as they continue to investigate potential conflicts of interest to boost his business ventures in Ukraine and China.”
President Trump was impeached in December of last year for allegedly using military aid to Ukraine as leverage to pressure the country into investigating the Bidens’ business activities there.
While serving as vice president, Joe Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in loan guarantees to Ukraine if they did not fire the prosecutor who was investigating the natural gas company Burisma, where Hunter was working as a board member earning over $50,000 a month—despite his lack of relevant experience.
Biden boasted of the incident at a Council on Foreign Relations event:
I said, ‘You’re not getting the billion.’ I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money.’ Well, son of a b***h, he got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time.
Grassley and Johnson asked Murray to inform them of whether Hunter Biden used taxpayer-funded travel to conduct private business and to provide them with “a list of all dates and locations of travel, international and domestic, for Hunter Biden while he received a protective detail. In your response, please note whether his travel was on Air Force One or Two, or other government aircraft, as applicable and whether additional family members were present for each trip.”
The senators continued:
We write to request information about whether Hunter Biden used government-sponsored travel to help conduct private business, to include his work for Rosemont Seneca and related entities in China and Ukraine. In December of 2013, one month after Rosemont Senenca’s joint venture with Bohai Capital to form BHR, Hunter Biden reportedly flew aboard Air Force Two with then-Vice President Biden to China. While in China, he helped arrange for Jonathan Li, CEO of Bohai Capital, to “shake hands” with Vice President Biden. Afterward, Hunter Biden met with Li for reportedly a “social meeting.” After the China trip, BHR’s business license was approved. Then, in 2015, BHR joined with the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) to acquire Henniges, which was the “biggest Chinese investment into US automotive manufacturing assets to date.”
During last year’s House impeachment proceedings, a State Department employee testified that he had flagged the potential conflict of interest involving Hunter Biden’s business dealings, but was told not to bother the vice president’s office.
Although Hunter Biden’s activities in Ukraine were central to President Trump’s impeachment trial, Hunter was ultimately not brought in to testify. Democrats opposed calling the younger Biden as a witness. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said he would not be a “relevant” witness.
Ukrainian parliamentarian Andrey Derkach, with whom Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani has met, has claimed to have evidence showing that Joe Biden himself received $900,000 in lobbying fees from Burisma and that the money was funneled through the private equity firm Rosemont Seneca Partners, co-founded by Hunter Biden and Christopher Heinz, the stepson of former Secretary of State John Kerry.
The former vice president’s son has also been accused by a Florida-based private investigation firm of being involved in a $156 million counterfeiting scheme. The allegation arose during a child support case involving Hunter Biden and his relation to a child born to Lunden Roberts, a former stripper. A DNA test established with “scientific certainty” that Hunter Biden is the child’s father. The 50-year-old ultimately agreed to pay the child support.
On Wednesday, President Trump was acquitted 52-48 in the Senate of the abuse of power charge against him and 53-47 on the obstruction of Congress charge.
At the National Prayer Breakfast Thursday morning, the president celebrated by holding up newspapers with large “Acquitted” headlines as he stood mere feet away from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who had ripped up a copy of his State of the Union speech right after he finished delivering it on Tuesday night.
