House impeachment probe leaders ask DOJ to charge Hunter, James Biden with lying to Congress

WASHINGTON — Republicans heading up the House impeachment inquiry into President Biden’s alleged corruption asked the Justice Department Wednesday to bring charges against first son Hunter Biden and first brother James Biden for allegedly lying to Congress.

James, 75, and Hunter, 54, repeatedly involved their powerful relative in foreign business relationships, including in countries where he held sway during his eight-year vice presidency — and Republican committee leaders say the lies were meant to derail leads that pointed back to the president.

“Hunter Biden and James Biden made provably false statements to the Oversight Committee and the Judiciary Committee about key aspects of the impeachment inquiry, in what appears to be a conscious effort to hinder the investigation’s focus on President Joe Biden,” the Republicans wrote.

“The nature of these false statements is not lost on the Committees: every instance implicates Joe Biden’s knowledge of and role in his family’s influence peddling.”

James Biden allegedly lied by denying that his brother met in May 2017 with business associate Tony Bobulinski in Los Angeles.

Bobulinski had worked with Hunter and James on a multimillion-dollar venture with Chinese state-linked CEFC China Energy.

“I could have been there just with Tony Bobulinski. I could have been there with Hunter as well. But my brother was never there,” James testified Feb. 21, in what the House leaders called “a clumsy attempt to protect” the president.

Hunter’s own testimony one week later, on Feb. 28, confirmed that Joe Biden met with Bobulinski — with the 2017 talk happening around the time that another family associate, James Gilliar, penciled in a 10% cut for the “big guy” in an notorious email recovered from Hunter’s abandoned laptop.

“11 p.m — we were in the lobby bar with Mr. Bobulinski having coffee … my uncle and myself,” the first son admitted. “My dad went and shook hands with Tony. They talked … and he invited him to the speech at the Milken Conference.”

Bank accounts linked to the future first family received more than $7 million in 2017 and 2018 stemming from the relationship with CEFC, according to documents acquired by congressional investigators — with the funds allegedly beginning to flow shortly after Joe Biden met in early 2017 with CEFC Chairman Ye Jianming, who has since disappeared amid corruption allegations in China.

James would send $40,000 of CEFC funds to brother Joe months later as an alleged loan repayment.

Hunter’s alleged lies include distancing himself from the corporate entity Rosemont Seneca Bohai, which he half-owned with Devon Archer — and which received $3.5 million in February 2014 from Russian billionaire and former Moscow first lady Yelena Baturina, who had initially transferred the funds to a different shared entity.

Records list the first son as corporate secretary of Rosemont Seneca Bohai during that time, but Hunter told investigators that “I didn’t even know that there was such a thing” and that the company “obviously was not a 50/50 handshake” split between himself and Archer.

Baturina joined sitting Vice President Joe Biden during at least one dinner at DC’s Cafe Milano restaurant in 2014 and/or 2015, according to eyewitnesses and records from Hunter’s abandoned laptop.

Hunter admitted in his testimony that Baturina may have been at the meals, which also featured his Kazakhstani and Ukrainian patrons, but what portion of the $3.5 million he may have received remains murky.

His then-associate Archer was working at the time with Baturina on real estate investments, with which Hunter also was briefly involved, according to laptop records.

Another deception was described by House Republicans as an “entirely fictitious account” in which Hunter claimed he mistakenly sent a threatening message to someone other than a China-based CEFC colleague.

That message, sent in July 2017, invoked possible payback from Joe Biden, with Hunter writing he was “sitting here with my father.”

Within 10 days of the missive, the Chinese firm wired $5.1 million to entities associated with Hunter and James.

Photos from Hunter’s laptop show he was at his dad’s Wilmington home that day.

Hunter claimed in his testimony that the message went to a totally different person than intended — an explanation which strained credulity due to the fact he indeed got the money he was demanding. Phone records acquired by IRS investigators proved he texted his CEFC contact.

The first son testified that “I was drunk and probably high” when he wrote the message and that he mistakenly sent it to Henry Zhao, who was associated with his existing Chinese venture BHR Partners, rather than the intended Raymond Zhao of CEFC.

“The next day, I speak to a Raymond Zhao, who has never received the message that Henry Zhao got,” he testified.

Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and tax-focused Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) signed the letter, which was addressed to both Attorney General Merrick Garland and special counsel David Weiss.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said he supported the referral.

“If the Attorney General wishes to demonstrate he is not running a two-tiered system of justice and targeting the President’s political opponents, he will open criminal investigations into James and Hunter Biden under 18 U.S.C. § 1001 (false statements) and 18 U.S.C. § 1621 (perjury), and he will announce it immediately,” Johnson said.

Lying to Congress is a rarely prosecuted infraction, but Weiss can unilaterally bring the cases — even without Garland’s approval — because he was elevated to the rank of special counsel last August.

Weiss was given that broad power after a pair of IRS agents, Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, alleged that Garland had himself deceived Congress about the then-Delaware US attorney’s ability to charge the first son outside of the First State.

Garland, who denied misleading Congress about the tax fraud and gun probe of Hunter, has created awkward optics by repeatedly attending White House events alongside the first son, including a small Jewish heritage celebration in the Rose Garden on May 20 and a state dinner honoring Kenya’s president on May 23.

Follow the latest on Hunter Biden’s federal gun trial:

Hunter’s trial on federal gun charges, a case brought by Weiss, began Monday, and he’s scheduled to stand trial in Los Angeles beginning Sept. 5 for allegedly failing to pay more than $1.4 million in federal taxes between 2016 and 2019 on income received from foreign relationships.

The first son had agreed to a probation-only plea deal last June, but walked away from the bargain over demands for broader immunity for past conduct, including alleged violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which could implicate his father.

Joe Biden has consistently claimed he “never” discussed business with his son or brother and said in December and again in March that he “did not” interact with their partners.

However, evidence — including photos, emails and witness statements — indicate that Joe Biden actually did interact with his son and brother’s associates from two Chinese government-linked business ventures and their patrons from Kazakhstan, Mexico, Russia and Ukraine.

The Justice Department and the White House declined to comment for this story.

Weiss’ office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“This baseless partisan action is a transparent and cynical attempt to distract from and retaliate for Donald Trump’s recent criminal conviction,” James Biden attorney Paul Fishman said. “James Biden testified earlier this year and has always maintained that Joe Biden never had any involvement in his business dealings.”

Hunter Biden’s legal team did not immediately offer a reaction.